Fortified wine is a wine to which a distilled spirit, usually brandy, has been added. In the course of some centuries, winemakers have developed many different styles of fortified wine, including port, sherry, madeira, Marsala, Commandaria wine, and the aromatised wine vermouth.
Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and winemaking is known as oenology. A winemaker may also be called a vintner. The growing of grapes is viticulture and there are many varieties of grapes.
Rkatsiteli is a kind of grape used to produce white wine.
Carbonic maceration is a winemaking technique, often associated with the French wine region of Beaujolais, in which whole grapes are fermented in a carbon dioxide rich environment before crushing. Conventional alcoholic fermentation involves crushing the grapes to free the juice and pulp from the skin with yeast serving to convert sugar into ethanol. Carbonic maceration ferments most of the juice while it is still inside the grape, although grapes at the bottom of the vessel are crushed by gravity and undergo conventional fermentation. The resulting wine is fruity with very low tannins. It is ready to drink quickly but lacks the structure for long-term aging. In extreme cases such as Beaujolais nouveau, the period between picking and bottling can be less than six weeks.
Red wine is a type of wine made from dark-colored grape varieties. The actual color of the wine can range from intense violet, typical of young wines, through to brick red for mature wines and brown for older red wines. The juice from most purple grapes is greenish-white, the red color coming from anthocyan pigments present in the skin of the grape; exceptions are the relatively uncommon teinturier varieties, which produce a red-colored juice. Much of the red-wine production process therefore involves extraction of color and flavor components from the grape skin. Red wine is a delicacy around the world.
Goychay District is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the centre of the country and belongs to the Aran Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Agdash, Qabala, Ismayilli, Kurdamir, and Ujar. Its capital and largest city is Goychay. As of 2020, the district had a population of 121,700. It is famous for its pomegranate growing industry, and for its pomegranate festival.
Qabala District is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the north of the country and belongs to the Shaki-Zagatala Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Oghuz, Shaki, Agdash, Goychay, Ismayilli, Quba, Qusar, and the Russian Republic of Dagestan. Its capital and largest city is Qabala. As of 2020, the district had a population of 107,800.
Shamkir District is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the north-west of the country and belongs to the Ganja-Qazakh Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Gadabay, Tovuz, Samukh, Goygol, and Dashkasan. Its capital and largest city is Shamkir. As of 2020, the district had a population of 219,500.
Qabala is a city and the administrative centre of the Qabala District of Azerbaijan. The municipality consists of the city of Gabala and the village of Küsnat. Before the city was known as Kutkashen, but after the Republic of Azerbaijan's independence the town was renamed in honour of the much older city of Gabala, the former capital of Caucasian Albania, the archaeological site of which is about 20 km southwest.
Gabala FK is an Azerbaijani association football club representing Qabala in the Azerbaijan Premier League since 2006. Gabala has been the runner up in the Premier League three times and has won the national cup once, in 2019.
Aleatico is a red Italian wine grape variety. It is notable for being the primary grape in the cult wine Aleatico di Portoferraio made in Elba. In Chile is known as Red Moscatel. The grape has also been cultivated at Mudgee in New South Wales and California.
The Isabella grape is a cultivar derived from the grape species Vitis labrusca or 'fox grape,' which is used for table, juice and wine production.
This glossary of winemaking terms lists some of terms and definitions involved in making wine, fruit wine, and mead.
The Garachay is a river in Qabala raion of Azerbaijan. It flows through the western end of an ancient city of Qabala. In the suburbs of Qabala, it joins other small rivers Hamzali, Mirazabeyli and Gojalan. It flows into the Turyan near the village Savalan.
Azerbaijani wine is produced in several regions throughout Azerbaijan. Prior to 20th century communist rule, Azerbaijan had a thriving wine industry that dated back to the second millennium BC. Azerbaijan's long history of wine production was rediscovered at archaeological digs of settlements in Kültəpə, Qarabağlar and Galajig where archaeologists discovered stone fermentation and storage vessels that included residue and grape seeds dating back to the second millennium BC. The Ancient Greeks were well aware of wine production in the area by at least the 7th century BC according to Herodotus. Later Strabo would comment in the 1st century BC about an Azerbaijani wine known as Albania. Arabic historians and geographers—most notably Abu'l-Fida, Al-Masudi, Ibn Hawqal and Al-Muqaddasi - described the extensive viticulture around Ganja and Barda that was taking place even after Islamic conquest of the area.
Vinagro Limited Liability Company (LLC) is an alcoholic beverage producer in Azerbaijan established in March 2006. The company owns 537 hectares of vineyards growing various sorts of local and European grapes. Red varieties such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Prima, Saperavi, Hamburg Muscardin, Madrasa, Shirvanshahi and white varieties such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc, Rkatsiteli, Ugni blanc, Grenache blanc, Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, Bayan Shirey, Sultana are grown in vineyards located in Goygol and Samukh raions.
Madrasa is a pink-skinned red grape variety cultivated in the southern Caucasus at least since the nineteenth century, in particular in Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as several Central Asia countries. Most plantings of Madrasa are found near the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Agh Shani is a light yellow-skinned white table grape that have also been exported and are grown in various regions of Azerbaijan and in Derbend, Astrakhan and Volgograd, Russia.
Jabbar Savalan is an Azerbaijani blogger and political activist. On 4 May 2011, he was sentenced to two and half years in prison on charges of dealing drugs. The Azerbaijani government defended the ruling, but the European parliament and several human rights groups such as Amnesty International alleged the charges were fabricated and part of a pattern of framing government dissidents to silence them. He received a presidential pardon on 26 December 2011.
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