Notes on a very short lecture on wine

I've read a book on wine before, but it's one of those subjects that you can read a hundred pages on but none of it sticks because it's about memorization. Like classes in history. Unless you can memorize the dates and names of significant parties involved, the information doesn't do a lot of practical good. Like, I know Malbec is a red varietal and Riesling a white, but do I know that classic profiles of each wine? No. Could I tell which to pair for a dish? No. They're all so different. Even within a specific varietal, each producer, hell, each bottle is likely different. I think I will leave that up to the sommeliers since I don't have a small inheritence with which to purchase an adequate reserve to amass enough knowledge to be of much use.

Here's the notes:

The equation for fermentation is:

yeast + sugar = ethanol + CO2 + heat = higher alcohols

Steps for making a white wine:
1. Press juice (removing skins)
2. Primary fermentation
3. Second fermentation - Introduce bacteria to convert malic acid to lactic acid

Once finished, wine is biologically and chemically stable.

Sulfites are preservatives. - I looked up why there is a controversy over sulfites in wine and here's what I came up with: sulfites are a naturally occurring preservative found on grapes. Like all things on the planet, some people have allergies to them (most prevalent symptom: headaches). Some wineries add extra sulfites which can cause extra discomfort to sufferers. For more information, see this wine page.