Wine makes a great complement for meals served during special occasions. It helps to strengthen the flavors in food as well as create a lively environment where people can chat and make merry. For most people planning a get together during a special occasion, selecting the wine to serve is harder than deciding which meal to serve. However, there aren’t any fixed rules in wine selection. The only thing to remember is that the wine and food flavor should simply complement each other. None should override the others flavor. Most people will generally select wines according to the type of meats if any, which will be served during meal time. Red wines go best with red meat and white wine with chicken and fish.

That said there are a few things you might want to consider when selecting the wine to serve during special occasions. They include the following.

The first thing to consider when selecting wine to serve is possible flavor interactions. Since wine will be served alongside food, consider what will be overall flavor felt after pairing several spoons of a meal and a sip of wine. As mentioned earlier, one flavor shouldn’t override the other. The wines flavor should complement or even strengthen the food flavor. For example, if you are serving a sweet wine paired with an even sweeter meal will complement the food, taste sweeter or, make the food taste even sweeter.

Second in your consideration is the nature of the meals to be served. Meals consisting red meat tend to be heavier and are best served with the fuller and heavier red wines. Lighter meals do well with the drier white wines. This is perhaps the reason why most people simply pair red meat with red wine and vise versa.

Your third consideration is the stage at which to introduce the wine. For most people, special occasions call for different types of wine. Each wine is served as a specific point during the meals. If this is your case, timing is important. Here’s a simple tip. Serve crisp wines before meals. These tend to be drier and, promote salivation and increased appetite. During meals, serve either red or white wine depending on the type of meal served. If you are serving dessert, sweet wines will work best.

Fourth in your consideration is the age of the wine. Many people believe that aged wine is best. But this isn’t the case when it comes to pairing your wine with food. White, fruity and crisp wines are best served when they are young. The reason for this is that they tend to lose their flavor as they age. Red wines on the other hand are best when they mature.

You should also consider the different flavors available beyond red and white. This will give you an idea about which wine can be best paired with the meal you want to serve. These flavors include crisp, dry, fruity and sweet. Crisp wines are acidic and go well with meals with acidic flavors. Dry wines have little sugar in them while sweet wines have a lot of sugar in them. Fruity wines have a fruity smell in them.

Winemaking at home is allowed in the US and some parts of the world. However, the wine shouldn’t be sold and there is a specific allowed limit per year. Making your own wine has its advantages including having cheap wine in the house in case you have surprise visitors and, you can create your special recipe. Winemaking shouldn’t be hard if you have the right tools and know how. However, it can be potentially dangerous if you don’t have all that’s necessary. The following is a short guide in the home brewing process.

Wine making equipment

• Glass or plastic container. If plastic go for 1 or 2 recyclable plastic
• Rubber stopper into which you will drill a hole to attach to the airlock.
• Airlock- can be commercial airlock, balloon or pvc pipe attached to vinyl bag
• Funnel
• Bottles
• Stirrer
• Sanitizer
• Siphon

Ingredients

Many people believe that wine is made from grapes only. Although the world’s best wines are made from wine, you can make wine from almost any type of fruit provided it contains juice. You can decide to blend fruits for juice or, buy juice from the local store. A rule here is that the amount of wine you want to make is directly proportional to the amount of juice you use.

Sugar is the next ingredient. Yeast needs sugar to become active. You can use any type of sugar including brown sugar and corn sugar. You can also use honey but this takes longer to ferment.

Yeast is another important ingredient. It’s the active ingredient in the wine making process. There are different types of yeast available. Wine and champagne yeast is the best for your project.

A selection of chemicals including yeast nutrient, potassium or sodium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate.

Sanitizing

This step involves getting rid of any bacteria and microbes that make the wine making equipment home. The reason why this step is so important is that such microbes might interfere with the fermentation process spoiling the wine. The potassium metabisulfite mixed with water will act as a great sanitizer.

Mixing the ingredients

For 10 gallons of wine, you will need

• 10 gallons of your preferred juice
• 4 pounds of sugar
• 1 packet of yeast
• 2 tablespoons yeast nutrient
• 200ml solution of 2.5% potassium or sodium metabisulfite

Procedure

1. Pour in the 10 gallons juice into a container and add the 4 pounds sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
2. Add the potassium metabisulfite and yeast nutrient and stir to mix.
3. Stir to remove any dissolved gasses in the solution
4. Pour half the solution into the fermenting container and add yeast before adding the remaining half of the solution.
5. Cork the fermenter with the rubber stopper and attach the airlock.
6. Place the wine in a cool place. 65⁰F to 75⁰F is recommended. Keep checking the wine and ensure the airlock is tight and let the wine stand for at least four weeks. It’s usually ready once it clears up.
7. Once the wine has cleared its time for bottling. Sanitize the siphon and bottles.
8. Remove the airlock and replace it with the siphon tubing. Insert it such that it doesn’t touch the bottom of the container where yeast has settled.
9. Place the container on a high surface.
10. Suck on the tubing allowing the wine to flow into the bottles. Cap the bottles and label them if necessary.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test is a sort of psychoanalytic assessment questionnaire that is designed to quantify a person’s preferences with regards to his or her perception of the world as a whole and the decisions he make because of it. Studies have shown that people really are governed by such classifications and abide by set rules of convention, even if they had no prior notice that they belong to either one of the groups in the first place.

The way we experience the world outside may be described into four distinct ways. We experience the world through Sensations, Intuitions, Feelings, and through Thinking. According to scientific literatures, every one of us is guided by one dominant feature among the four. There are also subtypes which identifies more clearly, the functioning of a particular person based on his preference on how he views things.

The population of the world may be subdivided into sixteen personality types namely: ISTJ, ISFJ, INFJ, INTJ, ISTP, ISFP, INFP, INTP, ESTP, ESFP, ENFP, ENTP, ESTJ, ESFJ, ENFJ, ENTJ, wherein the individual letters of each type means: Extraversion (E), Introversion (I), Sensing (S), Intuition (I), Thinking (T), Feeling (F), Judging (J), and Perception (P). These four letter type dynamics further delves into a person’s inclinations and partiality with regards to how things really work.

The importance of identifying what types of personalities are therein a person has many uses. One of them is fining their seemingly proper fit to various aspects of society. One personality may be more conducive to work than another, one personality may be more submissive to orders, one may be more open to suggestions, or more aggressive to commands or to any given stimulus, whatever they may be. These things are very important to know on the onset to be able to foresee if the person on hand is apt for whatever the task at hand is.

Another implication of personality types is its perceived role in human relationships. For example, INFJ relationships may be more on the quiet side and more to themselves than ENFJ relationships which are typically outspoken and are wont to profess their love to anyone, any chance they get. It also delves on what results may be acquired or expected if a relationship pairing is on opposite sides of the spectrum and the consequences that may ensue in the union of the two.

As for me, I already took the test and found myself to be an ESFJ (Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling, Judging) type of person. I don’t know if it is really good for me or something but it was only used to describe what I am made of, my personality that is, and it is up to anyone’s interpretation what that could really mean. ESFJ’s are described to be always focused outwardly and deal with things in their own way, and based on their own value system. ESFJ’s are a people’s person and they love to know more about other people. They are also known to go out of their way and try very hard to bring out the best of whomever they are with. Wow, mostly good stuff huh.

Somehow I think I really am that way but unfortunately I have no way of knowing exactly. Of course I am biased with regards to myself and see myself as only good, so it is eventually up to other people to describe me on what I really am with regards to what kind of personality I have. Good thing there is that test which kind of makes things a bit easier for us. So what type of personality do you have?