Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of grapes and grape juice. Wine-like beverages can also be produced by the fermentation of other fruits and flowers (fruit or country wines), barley (barley wine), rice (sake), honey (mead), and even herbs (Chinese wine). However, in such cases a qualifier is often legally required (e.g., "elderberry wine"). The English word wine and its equivalents in other languages are protected by law in many jurisdictions.

Etymology
The word wine comes from the Old English win, which derives from the Proto-Germanic *winam which was an early borrowing from the Latin vinum, (which can mean either the "wine" or the "vine"), from Aeolic Greek F?????, (vinos ).

Early history
Wine residue has been identified by Patrick McGovern's team at the University Museum, Pennsylvania, in ancient pottery jars. Records include jars from the Pottery Neolithic (5400-5000 BC) site of Hajji Firuz Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of present-day Iran and from Late Uruk (3500-3100 BC) occupation at the site of Uruk, in Mesopotamia[2]. The identifications are based on the identification of tartaric acid and tartrate salts using a form of infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). These identifications are regarded with caution by some biochemists because of the risk of false positives, particularly where complex mixtures of organic materials, and degradation products, may be present. The identifications have not yet been replicated in other laboratories.

Wine is usually made from one or more varieties of the European species, Vitis vinifera. When one of these varieties, such as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, or Merlot, for example, is used as the predominant grape (usually defined by law as a minimum of 75 or 85%) the result is a varietal, as opposed to a blended wine. Blended wines are in no way inferior to varietal wines; indeed, some of the world's most valued and expensive wines from the Bordeaux, Rioja or Tuscany regions, are a blend of several grape varieties of the same vintage.

Wine can also be made from other species or from hybrids, created by the genetic crossing of two species. Vitis labrusca, Vitis aestivalis, Vitis muscadinia, Vitis rupestris, Vitis rotundifolia and Vitis riparia are native North American grapes, usually grown for eating in fruit form or made into grape juice, jam, or jelly, but sometimes made into wine, eg. Concord wine (Vitis labrusca species). Although generally prohibited by law in traditional wine regions, hybrids are planted in substantial numbers in cool-climate viticultural areas.

Hybrids are not to be confused with the practice of grafting. Most of the world's vineyards are planted with European vinifera vines that have been grafted onto North American species rootstock. This is common practice because North American grape species are resistant to phylloxera. Grafting is done in every wine-producing country of the World except for Chile, which has yet to be exposed to the bug.

The variety of grape(s), aspect (direction of slope), elevation, and topography of the vineyard, type and chemistry of soil, the climate and seasonal conditions under which grapes are grown, the local yeast cultures altogether form the concept of "terroir." The range of possibilities lead to great variety among wine products, which is extended by the fermentation, finishing, and aging processes. Many small producers use growing and production methods that preserve or accentuate the aroma and taste influences of their unique terroir.

However, flavor differences are not necessarily a desirable quality for large producers of table wine or more affordable wines, where consistency is more important for mass-market wine brands. Their producers will try to minimize differences in sources of grapes, hide any hint of often-unremarkable "terroirs", or climatically under-performing harvest years, by:

blending harvests of various years and vineyards;
pasteurizing the grape juice in order to kill indigenous yeasts (to be replaced with "choice" cultivated yeasts); and
using flavor additives.

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A cocktail is a style of mixed drink. Originally a mixture of distilled spirits, sugar, water, and bitters, the word has gradually come to mean almost any mixed drink containing alcohol.

A cocktail today usually contains one or more types of liquor and one or more mixers, such as bitters, fruit juice, fruit, soda, ice, sugar, honey, milk, cream, or herbs.
 
Flaming cocktails.The earliest known printed use of the word “cocktail” was in The Farmer’s Cabinet, April 28, 1803:“Drank a glass of cocktail — excellent for the head . . . Call’d at the Doct’s. found Burnham — he looked very wise — drank another glass of cocktail.”

The earliest definition of "cocktail" was in the May 13, 1806, edition of the Balance and Columbian Repository, a publication in Hudson, New York, in which an answer was provided to the questi