User:Sebastianque

My name is Sebastian Quercia I am a first generation Italian-American. My mother is from Sicily and my father is from Naples. Sicily is the largest of the Islands located in the MeditarrianSea which is known for architecture, cuisine, art and languages. Naples is located between two Volcanic areas and known for art, culture, and Gastronomy. My last name, Quercia, means oak tree. Querciaoriginates from the Latin word Quercus. There are about 300 varieties of Oak trees. In Sweden and the most common types are 'common oak tree', QuercusRobur and mountain oak tree, QuercusPetraea. The oak wood is hard and resistant to putrefaction. It is used in furniture, floors, boats, barrels for storage of fluids etc. The oak species, trees or bushes have got rough bark, partite leaves and male and female flowers on the same individual. The fruits, the acorns, are nuts which are growing in a "bowl". A common use of oak wood is to make barrels for storage of wine, cider, cognac, whisky, and other drinks. In old wine manufacturing large open oak vats were used for fermenting the wine most, and oak wood was also used for construction of old wine manufacturing machines. The best wine barrels are considered to be those from Tronçais and Limousin in France, and from the USA, but for cost reasons also oak barrels from the Baltic countries, Balkans, Portugal etc. are used. To give extra taste to the wine the barrels are roasted on the inside over an open fire. A special type of oak tree, QuercusSuber, is used for production of cork, for sealing of bottles, floors, insulation materials etc. The cork oak trees are mainly growing in Portugal and Spain. A cork oak tree is 20 - 25 years old when it is harvested the first time. The bark is peeled off from the trunk. Then the bark is harvested each 9th year until the tree is approx 200 years old. You cannot detect if a wine is good or bad just from smelling the cork. Independent of if the cork smells good or bad, the wine can be good or bad!