Vinécole is the new wine experience of the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the south of France - offering wine courses and tastings throughout the year. Located at the impressive Domaine Gayda near Limoux, Vinécole is a wine school for all. Run by Master of Wine Matthew Stubbs, Vinécole offers wine courses and wine tastings both for people looking for a brief introduction to wine, as well as those studying for professional qualifications. Vinécole offers the following wine events and education: VIEW MORE FILMS AT THE VINECOLE YOUTUBE CHANNEL > A beautiful and professional venue Imagine wine tasting with stunning views of Languedoc's vineyards and the Pyrénées mountains in the south of France. Imagine learning about wine at a working wine domaine. Imagine lounging by our pool with fellow-wine tasters or classmates - debating the merits of organic winemaking... You won't find a more beautiful, professional and relaxed venue to learn about wine. Vinécole at the Domaine de Gayda offers a gourmet restaurant with terrasse, outdoor barbecue area overlooking the vines, four luxury gites (should you need accommodation), and newly-built, state-of-the-art teaching and seminar facilities.

Click on our navigation bar above to find out more about our wine , and in the Languedoc region of the south of France, as well as ways in which your business can organise wine-themed at Vinécole.Wine should be stored at the correct temperature to ensure a wine’s flavour and balance remains. You don’t want a wine to age prematurely or be ruined by its storage conditions so it is very important to know what the optimal wine storage temperatures and conditions are for your bottles of wine. Wines are most often damaged by extreme fluctuations in temperature. This can be prevented with Wineware’s ‘Wine Storage Temperature Guide’ which provides useful information on how best to store your bottles of wine. Looking to store wine in your own home, restaurant or bar? Our handy wine storage guides can help! There are three main ways to store your bottles of wine safely and securely: Wineware has provided this information to be used as a general guide to help you store your wine;

remember this is not the case for all wines and should only be used as a rough guide. The perfect temperature does depend on a variety of factors, including: how much fruit, alcohol and tannin the wine contains. As a general rule of thumb wine should be stored around 11-14˚c (52-57°F). Wine storage temperatures should never go over 24˚c as otherwise wines begin to oxidise and this negatively affects the wine.cost of a glass of wine in nice A wine storage temperature should always be kept as constant as possible as fluctuations can cause severe damage to the wine. good wine to drink with dinnerA wine needs a constant temperature all year round to mature correctly.where to buy cheap wine bags

Wineware has provided the tables below to help you know the optimum storage temperature for your wine (click here to download PDF). Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Burgundy, Barbaresco, Barbera, Barolo, Brunello, Recioto, Malbec Shiraz, Zinfandel, Grand Cru Bordeaux, Ribera del Duero, Carmenerebest wine knowledge books Vintage Port, Banyuls, Madeiralist of popular dry wines Young Spanish and Portuguese Wineswine t shirts funny Chinon, Sherry, Tawny Portgood wine gift christmas Pinot Noir, Merlot, Rioja, Bordeaux (Young)wine available in india with price Alsace Riesling, Italian Whites, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pouilly Fume, Pouilly Fuissé, Gruner Veltlinerwine gift box pinterest

Chenin Blanc, Bordeaux Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc Full-bodied Chardonnay and Graves Non-vintage Champagne and Sparkling Wine Sweet Vouvray, Tavel, White Zinfandel, Barsac, Icewine, Tokaji, Sauternes, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, Sake Vintage Champagne, Muscats, Riesling (New World) and Sparkling Wine It is important to remember to store wine for the appropriate amount of time. “All wines improve over time.” This is not true for all wines and generally inexpensive wines will not improve. As a general rule of thumb, red wines can be stored for between 2-10 years depending on the sugar, acid and tannin content. Many fine red wines can be aged for up to 100 years! White wines on the other hand are generally only stored for to 2-3 years. However some chardonnays can be stored/aged for over 20 years. If you require any further information or advice on how to store your wine bottles (or other size bottles) please do not hesitate to contact us or view our handy wine storeage guides.

Wineware also has a ‘Perfect Drinking Temperature for Wine Guide’ to help you get the best out of you wine serving it at the optimum temperature.If you have the faintest idea to what I am referring when I ask "do you know the Bishop of Norwich?" then, like me, you must be a fan of port wines. We may no longer be the main consumers of port, that'll be the French, but Britain's part in the history of this now most underrated of drinks is a long and illustrious one. Even if for many it is one of the most confusing categories of wine and one that is incorrectly relegated to an annual glass at Christmas. Port owes much of the thanks for its existence to the conflicts between the British and the French at the beginning of the 18th century. The might of the Royal Navy was used to blockade the French ports. This strangled the French economy but, more importantly, stopped the export of the French wines to dining tables across the channel. In response, the British turned to their European allies, the Portuguese, and began buying large quantities of wine produced in the Douro valley, fortifying it with local brandy to raise the alcohol content so it would not spoil as it was shipped in barrels to be bottled back in England.

This increase in alcohol also stopped fermentation dead in its tracks, leaving a greater amount of residual sugar and giving us the sweet wine that we are familiar with now and that was so in tune with British tastes then. Even then, wine had been produced in the Duoro valley for centuries. There are records of viticulture back to the time of the later Roman period and it ranks as the third oldest wine DOC in the world after Chianti and Hungarian Tokaji. The searing temperatures in the region meant that although the wine was made in the Douro, it had to be taken downriver to the cooler coastal climate of Portugal's second city, Oporto, to be stored before shipping, and consequently became known as port. Vast port warehouses soon began to spring up in the suburb of Vila Nova de Gaia across the river from the city. Many remain and carry familiar British names like Sanderman, Dows, Cockburn, Taylors and Croft, painted on their roofs in bright white lettering. All port had to be stored this way until 1986, when modern technology and a change in the strict DOC regulations allowed vineyards in the Douro to store their wines closer to home.

Quinta Do Noval, near the small town of Pinhão, was the first producer to do this and I was invited to visit and find out more about the production process as well as the incredibly complex system of classification, which appears to leave as many of the producers baffled as it does customers. Set amongst 150 hectares of beautiful terraced vineyards and overlooking the winding Douro river, Quinta Do Noval is stunning. Sales manager Rute Monteiro explained the Port production process over a tall glass of crisp, dry white port lengthened with tonic water while we dipped into large bowls of salted almonds plucked from the trees which dot the estate. There are over 70 grapes permissible in the making of port, but only around 20 used with any great regularity and around eight here at Quinta Do Noval. These include Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Cao and Tinta Roriz. It is not an easy process as, although the system of terraced vineyards serves to retain heat in the soil during colder evenings, it also means that mechanisation is all but impossible and much of the back-breaking work has to be done manually - during the six-week grape harvest, which normally begins in the first two weeks of September, they're crushed in the traditional way - under the feet of the local workers who supplement the regular staff.

Not the prettiest of thoughts, but Rute reassured me. "It makes sure the grape seeds do not get crushed," she said. "They could make the final wine bitter." Once the grapes are harvested, crushed, strained of debris and have been allowed to ferment, neutral grape spirit is added to the juices to raise the alcohol levels to the DOC specified 19-22% and to stop the fermentation process. The majority of this spirit comes from the Cognac region of France and the La Mancha area of neighbouring Spain. The wines are then transferred to oak barrels for the ageing process and it is at this point that the differences between how the different types of port wine are made become apparent. Although there are seemingly endless varieties of port, they can be separated into one of three categories. Made from grapes such as Malvaisa Fina, Códega, Donzelinho Branco and Gouveioand, and aged briefly before bottling. Although there are aged white ports, the majority are meant to be drunk young and range from crisp dry wines, perfect to serve with tonic, ice and lemon or as a chilled accompaniment to seafood, to sweeter versions, which are excellent with desserts.

Ruby is the most widely produced style of port and is aged in large barrels known as Tonel (if they are laid down) or Balseiro (if they are upright). The large barrels prevent the wine from becoming oxidised so they retain the rich, dark red colour which is so often associated with port. They can be separated further into: Ruby: aged for no more than three years in barrels or stainless steel vats and meant to be drunk young. They can be quite tannic and give strong notes of fruits, which make them perfect with berry based desserts. Late Bottled Vintage: – a relative newcomer, LBV's were created in the 1950s as a reaction to an economic crisis which meant that port producers were left with unsold vintage wines. They allowed the wine to stay in wood for a longer period of four to six years before bottling and produced a wine with lots of character, but lighter than traditional vintages. Like vintage ports, LBVs are made from grapes grown in a single year and can be quite fruity with hints of plum, blackberries and vanilla on the nose, but are lighter in style than traditional vintage ports.

Look for "traditional" LBV's which are unfiltered, and my own preference is to serve these wines with soft cheeses. Vintage: Made from the very best grapes of a single year, the declaration of a vintage is a sign of an outstanding harvest. The wines are kept for just two years in wood and then bottled unfiltered. Great vintages can be kept for years, even decades. They form a sediment when they are stored and the bottles should be kept laying down. The bottle should be turned upright one day before drinking, decanted two hours before serving and drunk within two days of being opened. They are best drunk at 17C and work wonderfully when served with dark chocolate or with good stilton. However, I think they are at their best on their own, allowing appreciation of the full complexity of the flavour. These are the port wines that the Portuguese most like to drink themselves and differ from ruby ports in that they are aged in smaller barrels. These allow the wine to oxidise giving it a "tawny" colour, their spicy, almost leathery smell, and a distinctive taste reminiscent of dried fruits and nuts.

The wines carry age statements which does not mean that all the grapes in the bottle come from the harvests of ten, 20, or even 40 years before, but reflects the average age of the grapes used which may be older or younger. This is heavily regulated by the DOC and all port wines must be submitted for evaluation before they are labelled. They are ready to be drunk the moment they are released. As the wines have been oxidised already, once opened, they can be kept for much longer than ruby ports and are sold with stoppers rather than simple corks. Some 40-year-old tawnys will keep for up to a year. The inherent sweetness and distinctive tastes and smells of tawny ports make them ideal to finish off a rich meal, which is one of the reasons they have become so associated with Christmas. Finally, and to confuse matters, you may see mention of tawny ports called Colheitas. These are made from the grapes of a single outstanding year and will carry that year on their label. A tasting such as that which I was lucky enough to enjoy at Quinta Do Noval will confirm just how varied and complex a drink port can be.