Wine knowledge SMS

What are these grooves for?

In short, during the long-term storage of storable wine, there will be some sediments, commonly known as wine dregs, which are actually tartar crystals. Due to various physical and chemical changes, some polyphenols will condense and precipitate. This ditch is a shelter for these sediments. In this way, when serving food, there will be no sudden phenomenon that the sediment rises and affects the senses. Some white wines and light red wines have shallow or even flat depressions at the bottom.

Does it not go bad after expiration?

Speaking of what the so-called shelf life is, foreign wines rarely mark this thing, because after the wine is made, it will not be long before it is completely dry. Besides, wine is alive. From birth to health to death, we have to walk again. Generally speaking, the coolest time is the best drinking period. After this period, people are getting old and the wine is going downhill. During this time, it is gradual, not sudden. Until the wine entered the recession, there was no smell, the structure was scattered, the hierarchy was gone, and the aroma was weak. This wine is almost finished. To say the least, this shelf life is only an estimate. As long as there is storage potential and environment, as long as the bottle is not opened, he can change slowly and carefully in this time range.

What's in the wine?

As the saying goes: delicious grapes don't make wine. The grapes we saw in the fruit stalls were all used for raw food, but they could not be used for wine making, because these grapes were big, with high water content and fiber content, but low sugar content. If you use these grapes to make wine, you can't make good wine. Generally speaking, wine grapes are small in grain but rich in essence. If wine is made of grapes, won't it be very strong? In fact, there is very little fiber in wine grapes, which is usually removed during brewing. In China, there are also some varieties of raw materials, such as rose fragrance and longan, which can only be used as low-grade wine, not as good as real wine grape varieties. From wine grapes to wine, a series of chemical reactions will take place, and the nutrition and composition of wine are much richer than grapes. The main components of grapes are water (this kind of water comes from the inside of grapes, not artificially added, so we call it "water of life"), alcohol, tannin, acid, aromatic substances, color, a small amount of sugar and so on.

What is tannin?

Tannin is the astringency of wine in the mouth. It is the skeleton and natural preservative of wine, and it is also a treasure to eliminate the scourge of "active oxygen" in our body. Tannin is very important for wine aging. It comes from grape skins, grape stems and oak barrels, so it is divided into good tannins on mature skins and poor tannins on grape stems. Good tannins are very delicate. The tannins are poor and rough. The tannin of red wine is higher than that of white wine, because red wine is fermented with skin.

Why is wine sour?

Almost all wines are sour, which is an important part of wine. There are also good and bad acids: good acids make people feel pleasant; And that sharp acid is bad, like an immature apple, very raw and sharp. Acidity is also an important part of balancing wine. Generally speaking, white wine has higher acidity than red wine. Wine contains eight kinds of amino acids that our human body needs every day, so it is a nutritious drink.

How did the color come from?

The color of wine should be natural. As we know, wine can be divided into white wine and red wine according to color. White wine is usually pale white and yellowish, which deepens with aging, but it is called white wine relative to red wine. The color of red wine is naturally shed from the grape skin during fermentation, not artificially added pigment.

How did the fragrance come from?

We usually smell various aromas from wine, which mainly come from grape varieties and the soil where they are planted. Aroma is generally divided into three types, the first is fruity, such as pepper, mulberry, cherry, lemon, various floral scents and so on. Second, the aroma produced in the brewing process, such as vanilla, tobacco, coffee, chocolate and other smells emitted by oak barrels; The third kind generally refers to the aroma of a little old wine, such as licorice, mushrooms, biscuits, animal fragrance and so on.

How did alcohol come from?

Alcohol should basically be obtained from the fermentation of sugar in grapes. If grapes need to be fermented with sugar, generally speaking, grapes are not very good and the year is not very good. The present dry red and white wine actually means that the sugar content in the wine is very small after the grapes are fermented-the sugar content is generally less than or equal to 4g/L, and the "dry" here refers to sugar.

Misunderstanding of wine consumption

The popularity of wine in China is mainly due to the high price, the lack of knowledge and drinking habits of consumers, the misleading of some enterprises and the heavy tax on wine. The misunderstanding of wine can be summarized as follows:

First, treat wine as red wine, whether you like it or not, and drink red wine with sweet soda. In fact, white wine is suitable for people who just started drinking wine, especially with a rich table of Chinese food, and it is unlikely to go wrong, while red wine is difficult to match sweet and spicy seafood dishes. Liquor contains eight essential amino acids. Comfortable acid in wine can decompose protein, which greatly increases people's appetite, and the more they eat, the more fragrant they are.

Second, I believe that the older the wine, the better. As a result, fake vintage wines made in China are everywhere in the market now, and they sell well. It is true that they were cheated and slaughtered to support others. Most wines in the world are required to be drunk within two to three years, and very few wines of real quality can be aged for ten years.

Third, which brand is big and loud, drink this wine, and only drink this brand and not other brands. In fact, this kind of wine is all common wine produced industrially, and some of them are of poor quality. Moreover, drinking only one kind of food is like eating only a piece of fish-flavored shredded pork. Eating every day will make you tired, and your nutrition will be more unbalanced. How can you know the comparison without drinking other wines, and how can you know the pros and cons of your favorite brands? Giving up other wines for a brand is tantamount to giving up the right to enjoy other mellow wines.

Fourth, treat wine as brandy and whisky. Often seen in bars and nightclubs, people put the cork on the unfinished wine, put it back in the bar and put a label on it, saying it would be ten or eight days late this time. Some people still drink it three times, and the wine has long been oxidized and deteriorated. The alcohol content of wine is generally 8%~ 14%, while the alcohol content of spirits is 40 degrees. Brandy with high alcohol content will not be oxidized. But once the cork of the bottle is opened, the air will start to react with the wine. Although the wine will not be completely oxidized in a few days, the decline of wine quality will be very obvious; If you can't finish it at once, put it back in the cork as soon as possible to refrigerate the wine; White wine can be preserved for about two days, and red wine can be preserved for a little more than one or two days, but the perfect wine quality will not reappear.

And 5, treat that oxidized wine as an aged wine fragrance. This is also influenced by our yellow rice wine. Yellow rice wine generally has an oxidizing taste, and wine with an oxidizing taste is generally considered to be bad.

Sixth, use red wine as medicine. As soon as I heard that alcohol can prevent cardiovascular diseases and smokers can reduce the harm of nicotine to human body, I began to drink a small glass of wine every day for ten and a half months, no matter whether it is good or not. Chinese medicine tastes terrible anyway.

Seven, foreign wine as garbage, may be contaminated by cow blood powder. This is a ridiculous thing. In fact, at the beginning, none of this wine entered China.

Eight, I always feel that the longer the wine is kept at home, the better. This is a misunderstanding. The most exasperating thing is that the labels of some domestic wines mislead consumers that the quality can be guaranteed for ten years, and some bad wineries deliberately say that they can be kept at home for eight to ten years. Most of us don't actually have an ideal storage temperature at home, that is, 10℃~ 15℃. When the temperature is high, the wine will ripen too quickly, the wine will be rough and elegant, and it will soon become old. If the room temperature reaches 29℃ after one month, it will be out of control. Every time the temperature rises 10℃, the aging of wine will double, and the annual temperature change shall not exceed 5℃. If the temperature rises rapidly within six hours, the wine will quickly age and eventually deteriorate, which will also lead to the expansion and contraction of the cork when heated, and the cork will lose its sealing effect, leading to oxidation. The climate in Shanghai has been stored at home for a year, and sometimes the air conditioner is turned on and sometimes it is not turned on in summer. As a result, a bottle of French second-class super winery began to decline after one year, and it would be broken if it was not drunk. In Cheng Guangdong, the climate would grow faster.

9. Store the wine upright in the home display cabinet. If it is in a dry climate like Beijing, no matter how good the wine is, it will deteriorate within one month, because the cork will dry up if the wine liquid does not contact the cork, and the air will cause oxidation after entering the wine. It is best to lay it flat and let the cork wet to avoid oxidation in the air.

How to open a bottle

How to open a bottle, from hearing the sound to being completely silent, from keeping the cork intact to deliberately leaving some broken wood in the wine (the French say that if there is a cork in your glass, you will meet love this year), whether to open it quickly or slowly, wine is usually opened with a spiral wine knife.

All auger drills go into the cork, but a ring should be left, because all auger drills will drop cork fragments into the wine. After drilling into the cork, put the metal fulcrum on the bottle mouth, hold the bottle shoulder in one hand and the screwdriver handle in the other, and lift it, and the cork will be lifted. If it is a long cork, you can drill into a ring halfway and lift it. After getting up, wipe the bottle mouth with a tablecloth, pour out about 30 ml of wine, and try it to determine whether the wine is normal. If you are in a restaurant, you should try it on the guests first, and you need to put the pulled cork on a small plate and hand it to the guests. If it is old wine, you need to change the bottle in advance, otherwise the wine residue will pour into the cup, which will affect the enjoyment.

For sparkling wine, it is generally called sparkling wine, and champagne also belongs to this category, but "champagne" is the place name of France, and sparkling wine in other countries cannot be called "champagne". But when opening sparkling wine, you must pay attention to the method of opening the bottle, otherwise it is really a bit dangerous, because at the room temperature of 18~20℃, this wine has about 3~6 atmospheres, so be careful not to open it to people. Sparkling wine is usually opened on festive occasions, and now it will more and more obviously replace our firecrackers. It is natural to hear a bang when opening sparkling wine, otherwise how can you have a happy mood! Generally speaking, to open sparkling wine, first open the rubber cap, then hold the cork with a towel or napkin, lean the bottle on the table, untie the wire, tilt the bottle at a 45-degree angle, and rotate the bottle body, and the cork will move up. Eventually it will open with a bang. Never shake the bottle up and down when celebrating in the movie, so the carbon dioxide in the bottle will become active and the wine will rush out of the bottle, wasting expensive sparkling wine.

What are the benefits of drinking wine?

1, increase appetite

The bright colors and clear and transparent posture of wine make people feel relaxed and happy; Pour it into the cup, and the aroma of fruit and wine is fragrant; When tasting, the tannins in the wine are slightly astringent, which promotes appetite. All these make the human body in a comfortable and pleasant state, which is beneficial to physical and mental health.

Step 2 nourish

Wine contains sugar, amino acids, vitamins and minerals, and is an essential nutrient for human body. Drinking a proper amount of wine often has the effects of enriching blood, preventing aging and prolonging life.

3. Help digestion

Protein is the best table drink. Wine can stimulate gastric acid to secrete gastric juice, and every 60- 100g of wine can increase gastric juice secretion 120ml. Tannin in wine can increase the contraction of smooth muscle fibers in intestinal muscle system and regulate the function of colon. Has certain curative effect on colitis. Sweet white wine contains sorbitol, which helps digestion and prevents constipation.

Step 4 lose weight

Every liter of dry wine contains 525 calories, which is only equivalent to115 of the daily calories needed by human body. After drinking wine, it can be directly absorbed and digested by the human body, and all the calories are digested within four hours, and the weight will not increase. Therefore, people who often drink wine can not only supplement the water and various nutrients needed by the human body, but also help to lose weight.

5, diuresis

Some liquors contain high contents of potassium tartrate, potassium sulfate and potassium oxide, which has diuretic effect, can prevent edema and maintain acid-base balance in the body.

6, sterilization and cancer prevention

Wine contains antibacterial substances, so it has the function of sterilization and cancer prevention. (For reference only)