Ritual Wine Making In Australia

Introduction

Wine has historically existed for thousands of years, intertwined in Western culture, agriculture, and civilisation; the process of fermenting fruits, particularly grapes, to produces an alcoholic beverage was of importance to the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman Civilisation (History of Wine, 2015). Many religions practice the consumption of ritual wine to commemorate their gods as the altered consciousness wine provides has been considered religious since wine production began in 7000BC. Wine making began in Australia with the arrival of European settlers, the First Fleet, in 1788 (Wine History, 2015). The vines however did not survive in the harsh Australian environment; nevertheless the Wine Industry of Australia began to thrive in the 1840s as a large variety of disease resistant vines were introduced years prior. The prominent Wine growing regions of Australia are currently Western Australia, South Australia, and Victoria due to their optimal environmental factors for the growth of grape vines. Although wine is commonly produced through the fermentation of grapes many other highly sugar concentrated fruits such as strawberries, oranges, or

Dextrose is an alternative to D-Glucose and refers to the pure, crystalline, monosaccharide obtained after a total hydrolysis of starch, whereas glucose refers to the sugar found in the human body (Dextrose Chemistry, 2015). Found in two forms dextrose can be known as a monohydrate, which is one molecule of crystal water, in comparison to anhydrous dextrose which contains no water (which was used in this experiment) (Dextrose Chemistry, 2015). Dextrose and Fructose are isomers of one another, as each have the same general formula of C6H12O6, and relatively similar molecular structure (as can be seen in Figure 3) (Glucose, 2015; Wine Making Webinar,