SUMMARY

Prefaces

Introduction

1. Can You Identify a Wine Just by Tasting?
1.1. What About Expert Tasters?
1.2. Learn to Taste and Double Your Pleasure
1.2.1. Observations of a Friendly Tasting Group
1.2.2. Discover and Improve Your Skills as a Wine Taster

2. What Are the Differences between Drinking and Tasting?
2.1. Tasting = Culture and Pleasure
2.2. Tasting = Paying Attention
2.3. Tasting = Method
2.4. Tasting = Understanding Sensory Physiology
2.5. Finding the Right Words
2.6. From the "Calorific" to the "Symbolic"

3. Types of Wine Tasting
3.1. Wine Tasting: An Opportunity to Discover Sensory Analysis
3.2. Tasting in the Field
3.3. Tasting for Evaluation Purposes
3.4. Certification Tasting
3.5. Wine Competitions
3.6. Tastings by Scientific Experts
3.7. Hedonic Tasting
3.8. But Where Is the Romance in All This?

4. Begin by Observing

5. Details About the "Sensory Image"
5.1. The Physiology of Taste According to Brillat-Savarin
5.2. Gustatory Images
5.3. There Is No Standard Observer for Taste
5.4. A Highly Complex, Individual "Image"
5.5. Genetic Determinism or Taste Apprenticeship
5.6. Childhood: The Starting Point for Individual Differences
5.7. Reduction of Information
5.8. Practical Effects of Science on Taste
5.9. Brain and Cerebral Cortex
5.10. Medical Imaging Techniques
5.11. Neural Connections
5.12. To Learn More About the Senses and the Brain

6. Building Your Own Taste "Images"
6.1. The Papilla: The Site for Taste Perception
6.2. The "Water Torture" Game
6.2.1. Preparation
6.2.2. Playing the "Water Torture" Game
6.2.3. Gathering the Results
6.2.4. Some Basic Premises for the Test
6.3. Results
6.3.1. Low Concentrations (Bottles 2, 3 and 4)
6.3.2. High Concentrations (Bottles 5, 6 and 7)
6.3.3. Acid/Bitter and Salty/Bitter Confusion
6.4. Other Exercises
6.5. Some Provisional Conclusions…
6.6. Example of Perception Thresholds for 10 Tasters
6.7. Taste Impairment: It Can Happen!
6.7.1. Loss of Taste = Ageusia
6.7.2. Abnormal Perception of Taste = Dysgeusia
6.7.3. Loss of Smell = Anosmia
6.7.4. Diagnosis and Treatment
6.8. More About the Papillae
6.9. More About the Trigeminal Nerve
6.10. More About the "Geography" of the Papillae

7. Sweetness (or Unctuousness)
7.1. Perception
7.2. Vocabulary of Sweetness
7.3. More About the Sugary Taste
7.3.1. Research
7.3.2. Several Tastes Exist
7.4. Substances Contributing to the Sweetness and Body of Wines
7.4.1. Table of Correspondence: Must Density/Probable Alcohol Content
7.5. Sugar and Temperature

8. Acidity
8.1. Perception
8.2. How Does It Work?
8.3. Acids in Wine
8.4. Vocabulary of Acidity
8.5. More About the Acidity of Musts and Wines
8.5.1. Variations in the Acidity of Musts and Wines
8.5.2. Acidity Correction
8.6. Acidity and Temperature

9. Vocabulary of Sweet/Sour Interactions
9.1. "Battleship for the Taste Buds!": Blending Sweet and Sour Tastes
9.2. Vocabulary for the Sweet/Sour Blend

10. Bitterness
10.1. Perception
10.2. Bitter/Sour Confusion
10.3. Vocabulary of Bitter Tastes
10.4. Bitterness and Temperatur

11. Saltiness
11.1. Perception
11.2. Vocabulary of Saltiness
11.3. Saltiness and Temperature

12. Tactile Impressions
12.1. Perception
12.2. Tactile Vocabulary
12.3. Temperature Pressure
12.4. The Feel of Everyday Life

13. Hot and Cold
13.1. Sensations of Hot and Cold
13.2. The "Hotness" of Alcohol

14. The Sensory "Everyman" and Your Skills as a Wine Taster

15. Wine Tasting Techniques
15.1. Good Wine Usage
15.1.1. The Tasting Glass
15.1.2. Filling the Glass
15.1.3. Holding the Glass
15.1.4. Swirling the Wine in the Glass
15.2. To Smoke or Not to Smoke?
15.3. Avoid Anise-Flavoured Drinks Before Tasting Wine
15.4. Sip the Wine
15.5. Breathing In
15.6. "Kneading" the Wine
15.7. Spitting the Wine
15.8. Chewing after You Spit
15.9. Should You Rinse with Water after Each Sip?
15.10. Got a Good Palate?

16. Understanding White Wine
16.1. General Composition of Grapes
16.2. Detailed Composition of Grapes
16.3. Shocks, Injuries and Packing Down
16.4. White Winemaking
16.4.1. Pressing
16.4.2. Juice Settling
16.4.3. Fermentation and Yeast Addition
16.4.4. Example of Commercial Yeasts
16.5. Sugar Addition or Chaptalisation
16.6. The Evolution of Grape Components during Fermentation
16.7. Is Chaptalised Wine Really Wine?
16.8. Yeast Lees

17. White Wine Vocabulary
17.1. The "Two Dimensions" of White Wine
17.2. Vocabulary
17.3. Vintage Effect
17.4. Chaptalisation Effect
17.5. Let's Get on with the Tasting! Calibrate Your Taste Buds!
17.6. Other Tests with White Wines
17.7. Selecting Wines for Purchase
17.8. Taste Characteristics of French White Wines

18. The "Image" of White Wine Colour and Appearance
18.1. Colour Perception
18.2. The Colour of White Musts and Young White Wines
18.3. Colour Evolution
18.4. Clarity
18.4.1. More Demanding Standard for White Wines
18.4.2. Observation and Vocabulary
18.5. Brightness
18.6. Shocking! Sugar Crystals in White Wine!?

19. Living in a World of Smell
19.1. "Memories at the Tip of Your Nose" or the Marcel Proust Syndrome
19.2. Physio-sociology of Odours: Perfumes
19.2.1. A Huge Market for a Magical Product
19.2.2. Perfume Families
19.3. Physio-sociology of Odours: Food Flavourings
19.3.1. Definition of Food Flavourings
19.3.2. Production of Food Flavourings
19.3.3. Composition of Food Flavourings
19.3.4. Legislation & Labelling - How to Read Labels
19.4. Physio-sociology of Odours: Wine Aromas
19.4.1. Varietal Aromas
19.4.2. Pre-fermentation Aromas
19.4.3. Fermentation Aromas
19.4.4. Post-fermentation Aromas
19.5. Advances towards Olfactology

20. Olfaction
20.1. Individual Perception of Odours
20.2. The Olfactory Process
20.3. Olfaction and Retro-olfaction
20.4. Pheromones
20.5. Complexity of Wine Aromas and Flavours
20.6. How Does It Work?: Anatomical, Biochemical and Electrical Aspects of Smell
20.6.1. Anatomy
20.6.2. Biochemistry and Electricity
20.6.3. Pleasure from the Hypothalamus
20.7. Improving Your Smelling Technique
20.7.1. Developing Quality and Intensity
20.7.2. Alcohol Content and Temperature
20.7.3. Smelling the Wine
20.7.4. Transmissions
20.7.5. Practising Odour Detection
20.7.6. The Wine Aroma Wheel and Its Use
20.7.7. Odour Saturation
20.7.8. Tasting Sheet: Smell
20.8. Olfactorium - Wines
20.8.1. Olfactorium: Presentation
20.8.2. It's Your Turn to Play! (Olfactorium Users' Guide)
20.8.3. Olfactorium: How to Order
20.9. Adding Flavours to Wine?

21. Tasting Dry White Wines
21.1. Origin of White Wine Aromas
21.2. Predicting the Evolution of a Wine
21.3. Representing the Evolution of White Wine Aromas
21.4. Reference Points and Aids for Smelling White Wines
21.5. Summary Description of the "Good" Aromas of Dry White Wines
21.6. The Mystery of the Sauvignon Blanc Aroma
21.7. If You Have an Olfactorium

22. Intense Aroma Persistency
22.1. Definition
22.2. Exercises for IAP Measurement
22.2.1. Comparing the IAP for Several Wines
22.2.2. Comparing IAP Measurements from Different Tasters
22.2.3. Amplitude of IAP within a Given Appellation
22.3. Contrast Effect
22.4. IAP = Quality Fingerprint for a Wine
22.5. IAP and Wine Classification
22.6. Vineyard Origin of IAP
22.7. Magnitude of IAP
22.8. Difference in IAP = Difference in Quality
22.9. IAP and Tasting Pleasure
22.10. Universal Character of IAP
22.11. IAP and Your Money
22.12. Value for Money
22.13. Example of Value for Money
22.14. "Benchmark" IAP Values for Some French Wines (Whites and Reds)
22.15. Discussions at www.educvin.com

23. Harmony of White Wines
23.1. Quality
23.2. Wine Harmony in 3D

24. Pairing White Wines with Food
24.1. Objectivity & Subjectivity
24.2. Experiments to Conduct at Home or in a Restaurant
24.2.1. White Wine and Fish
24.2.2. Another White Wine with the Same Fish
24.2.3. White Wine and Another Fish
24.2.4. Other Food/Wine Modifications
24.2.5. White Wine with Cheese?
24.3. The French Cheese Tree
24.4. Testing White Wines with Cheese
24.5. Personal Food/Wine Guide
24.6. An Attempt at Classification
24.6.1. Passive Pairings
24.6.2. Active Pairings

25. A Tasting Sheet for White Wines
25.1. Tasting the White Wines in Your Cellar
25.1.1. Buying Wine for Laying Down
25.1.2. The Bottles in Your Cellar
25.1.3. Rhythm of Consumption

26. Tasting Sweet White Wines
26.1. Making Sweet Wines
26.2. Botrytis Cinerea
26.3. Sweet Wines: Winemaking
26.4. Tasting Vocabulary for Sweet Wines
26.5. Residual Sugar Content in Wines
26.6. Degrees Œschle - Degrees Brix
26.7. Sweet Wine Categories: Sensory Aspects
26.8. Describing Sweet Wines
26.9. Pairing Sweet Wines with Food
26.10. The Sweet Elixir of Tokay: A World-Famous Hungarian Delight Since the 17th Century

27. Tasting Sparkling Wines
27.1. The Steps
27.2. Aromas and Flavours of Sparkling Wines
27.3. Aroma Components
27.4. If You Have an Olfactorium

28. Tasting Rosé Wines
28.1. Origin of Rosé Wine Aromas
28.2. Characteristic Aromas of Rosé Wines
28.3. If You Have an Olfactorium

29. Tasting Red Wines
29.1. Origin of Red Wine Aromas
29.2. Detecting Red Wine Aromas
29.3. Staying Alert to Aromas
29.4. Reference Points and Aids for Smelling Red Wines
29.5. Life Cycle for a Red Wine
29.6. Short Description of Red Wine Aromas
29.7. Predicting a Wine's Maturity Curve
29.8. You'll Find Everything in Wine!
29.9. Varietal and Blended Wines
29.10. Show Off a Little!
29.11. Types of Red Wine Drinkers
29.12. If You Have an Olfactorium
29.13. Olfactorium: How to Order

30. Off-Odours in White, Rosé and Red Wines
30.1. Sulphur Dioxide
30.2. "Reduced" Odours
30.3. Poor Ageing
30.4. Odd Odours and Flavours in Wine
30.5. Electronic Noses and Aroma Sensors
30.6. Abnormal Odours and Flavours: They're Out There!

31. Vinegar: A Biblical Beverage!
31.1. Pairing Wine with Vinegar?

32. Alcoholic Fermentation
32.1. The Genome of the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
32.2. Using Enzymes in Winemaking

33. Malolactic Fermentation
33.1. Wine Composition
33.2. Current Debates on Genetic Engineering
33.3. Temperature Control during Malolactic Fermentation

34. Winemaking Terminology
34.1. White Winemaking
34.2. Red Winemaking
34.3. Rosé Winemaking
34.4. For All Wines

35. Differences between Red and White Wines
35.1. Question: What is THE Difference between a White Wine and a Red Wine?
35.2. Differences in Colour
35.3. Origin of Tannins
35.4. Perceiving Tannins: Astringency
35.5. Blind Man's Buff: Is It Red or White?
35.6. Exercise to Measure Differences in Astringency
35.7. Vocabulary of Astringency
35.8. Relationship between Astringency and Grape Variety
35.9. Variability in Astringency for Wines of a Given Variety
35.10. Astringency Potential of Grape Varieties
35.11. Changes in Tannins during Wine Ageing
35.12. Tannin Evolution and Ageing Potential
35.13. Influence of Vintage Reputation on Ageing Potential
35.14. When Should You Drink a Red Wine?

36. The "Three Dimensions" of Red Wine
36.1. How Body and Acidity Interact with Tannins
36.2. Tasting Red Wines
36.3. Red Wine Vocabulary
36.4. Precision in Tasting
36.5. Ageing and Maturity of Wines
36.6. Evaluating the Ageing Potential of Red Wines
36.7. What Makes for a "Good" Red Wine?
36.8. Needs Some Time? Ready to Drink?
36.9. Sensory Characteristics of French Red Wines
36.10. Other Red Wines of the World

37. Intense Aroma Persistency (IAP) of Red Wines
37.1. Comparing the IAP of Several Wines with the Contrast Effect
37.2. IAP and Red Wine Prices

38. General Table of IAP Values for Some French Wine Appellations
38.1. "Benchmark" IAP Values
38.2. Discussions at www.educvin.com

39. Red Wine Colour
39.1. Colour of Red Musts and Young Red Wines
39.2. Where Does Colour Come From?
39.3. Variations in Colour
39.4. Colour Evolution
39.5. The Inevitable Phases of Colour
39.6. How Long Does Colour Evolution Last?
39.7. Clarity
39.8. Brightness
39.9. Observing Red Wine Appearance
39.10. Sugar Crystals in Red Wine?!
39.11. Deposits at the Bottom of the Bottle

40. A Tasting Sheet for Red Wines
40.1. Tasting the Red Wines in Your Cellar
40.1.1. Buying Wine for Laying Down
40.1.2. The Bottles in Your Cellar
40.1.3. Rhythm of Consumption

41. Aerate, Decant, Lay Down or Drink Up?
41.1. Wine Characteristics and Wine Ageing
41.2. Same Vintage, Same Appellation, Different Producers
41.3. Same Appellation, Same Producer, Different Vintages
41.4. Aeration
41.5. Decanting
41.6. Lay Down or Drink Up?

42. Vintage Charts
42.1. Example of Quality Differences within Vintages
42.2. Every Vintage Is the "Vintage of the Century"!
42.3. Hierarchy of Wine Categories
42.4. The "Millennium Cellar" Goes for $14.4 Million
42.5. 1999: Vintage of the Century?

43. Oak Ageing of Wine
43.1. Oak Ageing: A Requirement in Some Appellations
43.2. Oak Barrels: A Throw-Back to the Days of Traditional Craftsmanship
43.3. Oak over Chestnut
43.4. Are Some Oak Forests Better than Others?
43.5. Barrelmaking
43.6. Oak Origin and Aroma Compounds
43.7. Barrel Sizes
43.7.1. Harking Back to the Middle Ages
43.7.2. Bordeaux-Style Barrels: Size
43.8. Oak Barrels: Empirically Selected and Used
43.9. Tannin Stabilisation
43.10. Barrel Age
43.11. Aroma Compounds
43.12. Barrel Ageing Techniques in Bordeaux and Burgundy
43.13. Barrel Ageing of Fine Whites
43.14. Discovering Wood Tannins
43.15. Good Oak Ageing: A Long-Term Endeavour
43.16. Why Not Oak Chips?
43.17. Winemaking in the "Vanilla Era"!
43.18. Generally Uninformative Labelling!
43.19. Barrels Only "Work" for Great Wines
43.20. How Much Does Oak Ageing Cost?
43.21. What Happens in an Oak Upright?
43.22. Caution! Even Vinegar is Barrel-Aged!
43.23. News from 1999/2000

44. Pairing Red Wines with Food
44.1. Food/Wine Exercise
44.2. Red Wines and Cheese?
44.3. Exercises
44.4. Well-Aged Red Wines and Cheese!
44.5. Testing Reds and Whites with Cheese
44.6. Sensory Freedom!
44.7. What Wines for Your Home-Cooked Meals?
44.7.1. A Few "Classic" Pairing

45. Rosé Wine Vocabulary
45.1. A Common Falsehood
45.2. Rosé Wines: A Tradition Dating Back Several Millennia
45.3. Rosé Winemaking
45.3.1. Direct Pressing
45.3.2. Saignée or Bleeding
45.4. Differences between White and Rosé Wines
45.5. Tasting Vocabulary

46. The Appellation System and Wine Pricing
46.1. The Reasoning behind the French Appellation System
46.2. Mercuriales and the Price Hierarchy
46.2.1. Prices and the Law of Supply and Demand
46.3. The Price for a Bottle of Wine
46.4. Prices for Older Wines

47. The Wine Glass and "Legs"
47.1. Tasting and Drinking Glasses
47.2. "The Wine's Got Good Legs!"
47.3. The Facts
47.4. Technical Data
47.5. The Real Story Behind the "Legs"

48. Wine Storage and Cellaring Temperatures
48.1. Basic Biochemical Principles
48.2. Some Observations & Suggestions
48.2.1. Buying at the Winery
48.2.2. Buying Wine from a Supermarket
48.3. Suggestions
48.4. An Important Point

49. Serving Temperatures for Wine
49.1. A Few Observations
49.2. Shattering the "Myths" about Serving Temperatures
49.3. How Wine Warms Up in the Bottle
49.4. Applying the IAP Concept to Wine Service

50. Alcohol
50.1. Alcohol
50.2. Alcohol and Muscular Energy?
50.3. The Immediate Consequences of Drinking Alcohol
50.3.1. Alcohol in the Bloodstream
50.3.2. Blood Alcohol Content
50.3.3. Intoxication
50.3.4. Psychophysiological Effects
50.3.5. Alcohol Metabolism in the Liver
50.4. France's Evin Act
50.5. Quantity of Alcohol Ingested during Professional Tastings or Wine Judging

51. Alcohol as a Legal "Hard" Drug
51.1. A Very Disturbing Report
51.2. A New Scale of Danger
51.3. Drug-Related Risk Factors
51.4. Two European Reports Create an "Alcohol Barometer"
51.5. Multiple Substance Abuse
51.6. Performance-Enhancing Drugs
51.7. Two Million Alcohol Abusers in France: The Consequences
51.8. Public Health or Special Interests
51.9. Vitamin Abuse?
51.10. A More Radical Approach to Alcohol Abuse?
51.11. Alert! A Possible Reclassification of Alcohol as a "Hard" Drug
51.12. Red Alert!
51.13. The Big One

52. Here's Two Glasses to Your Health!
52.1. Some Medical Findings
52.2. Effects of Alcohol
52.3. Phenolic Antioxidants: Wine's Secret Weapons?
52.4. A "Common-Sense" Diet
52.5. What's Happening in the United States?
52.6. What's the Right "Dose" of Alcohol?
52.7. Dos and Don'ts

53. The Dangers of Alcohol
53.1. Drinking and Driving
53.1.1. After Two Drinks...?
53.1.2. Take Stock before Driving
53.1.3. Effects of Alcohol
53.2. The "Designated Driver" Concept
53.3. Pregnancy and Drinking
53.3.1. Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
53.3.2. How Much Is Too Much?
53.3.3. Prevention

54. Some Key Figures for the French Wine Industry
54.1. Propagation of Grapevine Cuttings
54.2. French Grape Growing in 1997
54.3. Production Costs
54.4. Changes in Wine Industry Structure from 1965 to 1997
54.5. Négociants or Wholesale Wine Merchants
54.6. Wine Distribution in France
54.7. Where Do French Wines Go?

55. Appellations of Origin
55.1. "Elite Vineyards" in History
55.1.1. "Transparent" Viticulture
55.1.2. Elite Vineyards
55.2. Commercial Viticulture
55.3. Growth of the Appellations d’Origine
55.4. Outside Europe
55.5. Better? Not as Good? No! Different and Interesting!
55.6. An Unsustainable Traditional Position
55.7. Inspection of Production Conditions
55.8. Conditions for AOC Certification Tastings
55.9. Reforming the System
55.10. French "Quality Seals"
55.10.1. Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée
55.10.2. Label Rouge
55.10.3. AB
55.10.4. Atout Certifié
55.11. Three European Quality Seals
55.11.1. Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)
55.11.2. Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)
55.11.3. Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG)

56. Grapevine Basics
56.1. Grapevine Cycle and Vineyard Practices
56.2. How Long Can a Grapevine Produce Good Wines?
56.3. Has This Wine Been Cloned?
56.3.1. A Few Basic Facts
56.3.2. Selection and Propagation
56.3.3. Clones
56.3.4. Planting
56.3.5. Yes, This Wine Is Cloned!
56.3.6. The Unquestionable Benefits of Cloning
56.3.7. Clones Mean Quality
56.3.8. State-of-the-Art Genetic Engineering for the Grapevine
56.3.9. The Genetic Background of Some Grape Varieties
56.4. Must Density and Potential Alcohol
56.5. AOC Vineyard Prices
56.6. The Real Estate Boom of the 1990s!

57. Terroir
57.1. Definition
57.2. The Grapevine and the Soil
57.3. Soil Composition
57.4. Topography
57.5. Soil Filterability and Water Retention
57.6. Terroir in Biological Terms
57.7. The Expression of Terroir Involves Several Different Factors
57.7.1. Terroir Is Not the Sole Domain of High-Priced Wines
57.7.2. A Bordeaux Expert's Opinion
57.8. Discovering the Characteristics of a Terroir
57.9. The Universality of Terroir

58. Blending Masks Terroir
58.1. No Two Tanks of Wine Are Alike
58.2. Blending at the Winery
58.2.1. Single-Varietal White Wines (WW)
58.2.2. Single-Varietal Red Wines (RW)
58.2.3. Multi-Varietal White Wines
58.2.4. Multi-Varietal Red Wines
58.2.5. Great Médoc Wines
58.3. Blending at Co-op Wineries
58.4. Blending by a Négociant
58.5. The Advantages of Blending
58.6. Blending "Kills" Terroir
58.7. Blending Fraud
58.8. Champagne = The Perfect Blending Model
58.8.1. Three Champagne Varieties
58.8.2. Selective Pressing
58.8.3. Ageing Potential of the Three Varieties
58.8.4. Ageing Potential as a Function of Vineyard Origin
58.8.5. Ageing Potential as a Function of Press Fraction
58.8.6. Blending at Small Wineries
58.8.7. Blending the Main Wine at a Major Champagne House
58.8.8. The Talent of Champagne Blenders
58.8.9. High-End Champagne Cuvées
58.8.10. Champagne Vintages

59. Grand Cru?
59.1. The Miraculous Discovery of Grand Cru Vineyards
59.2. Are There Grand Cru Vineyards Outside France?
59.3. Saint-Emilion: Grand Cru Usurped!
59.4. "True" Grand Cru Vineyards
59.5. What Explains This Difference?
59.5.1. Soil?
59.5.2. Minerals in the Soil?
59.5.3. The Root System?
59.5.4. Where's the Proof?
59.6. So?
59.7. The Basics of Grapevine Physiology
59.7.1. Grapevine Cycle and Vineyard Practices
59.8. Graphical Representation of Root and Leaf Activity in Grand Cru Vineyards
59.9. Graphical Representation of Root and Leaf Activity in Flatland Vineyards
59.10. A Rather Peculiar Grand Cru: Clos de Vougeot!
59.11. Grand Cru Vineyards in Champagne
59.11.1. Uniform Yields
59.12. A Vin de Pays That Is Also a Grand Cru: Daumas Gassac
59.13. Grand Cru = Appellation
59.14. Grand Cru = Administrative Ranking
59.15. An Exercise to Conduct with a Grand Cru Wine

60. Wine Quality Report
60.1. The Ambiguities of "Quality"
60.2. "Fault-Free" Wines?
60.3. The Wine Quality Tree
60.4. Caution!
60.5. Do Wine Prices Truly Reflect These Quality Levels?
60.6. Medal-Winning Wines?
60.6.1. Who Competes?
60.6.2. Several Categories of Wine Competitions
60.6.3. Gold Is Certain, Silver Less So...and What About Bronze?
60.6.4. Some Precautions About the Credibility of Medals
60.7. Conclusions
60.8. Wine Quality Cannot Be Improved by Simple Proclamation!

61. Hush-Hush: Some Taboo Subjects
61.1. Harvesting Machines
61.2. AOC Surface Areas and Yields
61.3. Yields
61.4. Attempts by the INAO to Prevent Abuses
61.5. Chaptalisation
61.5.1. A Practice in Limited Use Since Ancient Times
61.5.2. Widespread Use
61.5.3. The European Commission Unleashes a Firestorm
61.5.4. AOC Wine Producers
61.5.5. North/South Yields
61.5.6. The Situation Since 1994
61.6. The European "Wine Lake"
61.6.1. Elsewhere in the World
61.6.2. World Production
61.7. Sulphur Dioxide (SO2)
61.8. Wine Labelling
61.8.1. Bottles and Labels
61.8.2. Regulatory Obligations and Margin for Expression
61.8.3. Back Labels
61.8.4. But What Does the Label Tell You About What's Actually Inside the Bottle?
61.8.5. Collecting Wine Labels
61.8.6. New European Labelling Laws

62. Corks and New Wine Stoppers
62.1. Cork: The Ultimate in Natural Technology
62.2. Cork Oak
62.3. Botanical Basics
62.4. Cork Stripping
62.5. Cork Harvesting by the Stripper
62.6. Cork Stopper Production
62.6.1. Cork Sheets
62.6.2. Cork Shaping and Manufacture
62.6.3. Cork Categories (Industry Standards)
62.6.4. Cork Prices
62.6.5. Cork Storage at the Bottling Facility
62.6.6. Corking
62.7. Cork Tightness
62.7.1. Cork Elasticity and Tightness
62.7.2. First Barrier
62.7.3. Second Barrier
62.8. Corkiness
62.8.1. Natural Odour of Cork
62.8.2. Off-Odours from the Cork
62.8.3. Off-Odours Absorbed by the Cork and Transferred to the Wine
62.8.4. Cork Worm
62.9. Champagne Corks
62.10. The Role of Cork Stoppers in Wine Ageing
62.10.1. Natural Cork Stoppers Are Permeable to Air
62.10.2. Other Gaseous Exchanges
62.11. New Synthetic Stoppers
62.12. What's Better for the Environment: Cork Stopper or Twist-off Caps?
62.13. As Corkiness Increases, Synthetic Stopper Sales Rise
62.14. Recorking Old Wines
62.15. What About Sparkling Wines?

63. The Grapevine in Geologic Time
63.1. Precambrian Era (4 Billion Years Ago)
63.2. Palaeozoic Era (300 Million Years Ago)
63.3. Mesozoic Era (150 Million Years Ago)
63.4. Tertiary Period (60 Million Years Ago)
63.5. Quaternary Period (3 Million Years Ago)
63.5.1. Quaternary Ice Ages
63.5.2. 40,000 to 30,000 Years Ago

64. The Grapevine in Early History
64.1. 10,000 BC
64.2. From 400 BC to 50 AD
64.3. 400 AD
64.4. 500 AD
64.5. 700 AD
64.6. 750 AD
64.7. 814 AD
64.8. Ninth and Tenth Centuries

65. The Grapevine in the Last 1,000 Years
Tenth through Twelfth Centuries
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
1750 to 1790 - Creation of the Médoc
1789 - Paris Has Its Own Terroir
1800
1850 - Planting of Vineyards in the Languedoc
65.1. Phylloxera Crisis
1866 - Publication of Pasteur's work on alcohol fermentation
Around 1870 - Phylloxera Attack
1880 to 1910 - Eureka!
65.2. The Death of Some Wine Regions
65.3. The Grape Growing "Revolution"
65.4. From 1910 Onwards
65.5. High-Tech By-Products
65.6. Recent Market Evolution - 1950 to 1980
1975 to 2000: A Revolution in Oenology
1980 to 1998 - The South of France or the "New California"
2000 - The European Union

66. World Classification of Wines
66.1. Quality-Based Ranking
66.2. World Wine Volumes

67. Wines of the World and Your Wine-Tasting Skills
67.1. A Highly Competitive Environment
67.2. Five Leaders: Similar Levels of Competitiveness but Different Levels of Aggressiveness
67.3. Two Challengers with Great Potential
67.4. Five Less Aggressive Outsiders
67.5. 1999 Wine Spectator Top Ten
67.6. A Prestigious Banquet with the Wine World's "Crème de la Crème"

Conclusion