Understand the knowledge of wine culture ~!

1 brandy

Brandy is a kind of spirit, which is distilled from wine or fruit after fermentation, but it must be aged in wooden barrels for a long time. Brandy is produced all over the world, and the wine made in France is the best, so French brandy is also the best, among which cognac is particularly famous in the world.

All brandy is brandy, but all brandy is not brandy. Cognac is distilled from wine produced in Charente, France, and is restricted and guaranteed by law. Brandy distilled from wines produced in other places cannot be called cognac legally.

Brandy is a drinkable wine, distilled from wine or fermented fruit juice, which is delicious only after aging in wooden barrels. For example: cognac, Armagnac, Spanish brandy, American brandy. KIRSCH is written as KIRSCHWASSER, CALVADOS or APPLE JACK (calvados), SLIVOVITZ (Plum Brandy), and other fruit brandies.

whisky

Many countries and regions in the world have wineries that produce whisky. But the most famous and representative whiskies are Scotch Whiskey, Irish Whiskey, American Whiskey and Canadian Whiskey. Whiskey is made from barley, rye, corn and other grains through fermentation, distillation and fermentation in old barrels. * scotch whisky, originally from Scotland, is made of malt after drying and peat baking, and has a unique flavor. Its brewing goes through six procedures, namely, soaking barley to germinate, drying, crushing malt, adding water to saccharify, adding yeast to ferment, distilling twice, aging and mixing. It must be stored for at least 8 years, and 15 ~ 20 years is the best quality finished wine. After more than 20 years, the quality will decline, and the color will be brown, yellow and reddish, clear and bright, with a strong smell of smoke. * American whiskey: made from corn and other grains, it originated in the southern United States. Corn and wheat are used as brewing raw materials, which are fermented, distilled and brewed in oak barrels with internal carbonization for 4-8 years. When bottling, add a certain amount of distilled water to dilute. American whisky is not as strong as scotch whisky, but it has a unique oak flavor. * Irish whiskey: distinctive and soft, as if burning in the mouth. Originated in Ireland, it is brewed from wheat, barley, rye and other malt. After three times of distillation. Then it is aged in a barrel, which usually takes 8- 15 years. Mix and dilute with water when bottling. Because the raw materials have not been smoked and baked with peat, they have no burnt taste, and the taste is soft and long, which is suitable for making mixed wine and other drinks. * Canadian whisky: mainly made of rye, corn and barley, it was distilled twice and stored in wooden barrels for 4 years, 6 years, 7 years and 65,438+00 years. Blending should be carried out before sale. Canadian whisky smells fresh and tastes light and comfortable. Many North Americans like this wine.

3 Jin Jiu

Gin, also known as gin, was first produced in the Netherlands and became famous in the world after mass production in Britain. It is the largest kind of spirits in the world. Dutch gin is made from barley malt and rye. After fermentation, the grain wine was obtained by distillation for three times, and then the juniper spice was added and distilled. Finally, the distilled liquor is stored in a glass jar until it is mature, and when it is packaged, it is diluted to about 40 degrees, and the color of Dutch gin is transparent and clear. Outstanding aroma, unique style, suitable for single drink, not suitable for cocktail base wine. The production process of English gin is simpler than that of Dutch gin. It is distilled from edible alcohol, juniper and other spices-dry gin is colorless and transparent, with a strange smell and a mellow and refreshing taste. It can be drunk alone or mixed with other wines to make cocktail base wine. Therefore, some people call gin the heart of cocktails. According to taste style, gin can be divided into spicy gin, old Tom gin and fruity gin.

4 rum

Rum, also known as sugar liquor, is a by-product of sugar industry. It is made of sucrose, first made into molasses, then fermented, distilled and stored in oak barrels for more than 3 years. According to different raw materials and different brewing methods, rum can be divided into: rum, rum, light rum, rum, Luzhou-flavor rum ... containing 42% ~ 50% alcohol, amber, brown and colorless. According to the flavor characteristics, rum can be divided into Luzhou-flavor and light-flavor * Luzhou-flavor: sugarcane sugar is clarified first, then inoculated with bacteria and yeast that can produce butyric acid, fermented for more than 65,438+00 days, and then distilled in batch tanks to obtain about 86% colorless original rum, which is blended into golden yellow or light brown finished wine after being stored in wooden barrels for many years. * Light fragrance type: only yeast is added to sugarcane sugar, and the fermentation cycle is short. Tower continuous distillation produces 95% of the original wine, which is stored and blended into light yellow to golden yellow finished wine, represented by Cuban rum.

Five glasses of vodka

Vodka comes from the word "water" in Russian and is a representative white wine in Russia. At first, wheat, rye and barley were used as raw materials to produce high-quality alcohol through crushing, cooking, saccharification, fermentation and distillation, and then further processing. Some are brewed with potatoes as the main raw material. The technological process of vodka production is as follows: high-quality alcohol is diluted with water to make an alcohol-water mixture, first filtered, treated with activated carbon, second filtered, finally adjusted to the specified alcohol concentration, and then bottled for sale. Generally, aging is not required. /kloc-After the 0/8th century, potatoes and corn were used as raw materials. After more than 8 hours of slow filtration, the original vodka liquor was adsorbed by activated carbon. Vodka is colorless, tasteless and neutral, so it can be sold without storage. Because vodka is colorless and transparent, like gin, it can be mixed with other wines to make various mixed drinks and cocktails. Before World War II, only Russia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and other Baltic countries produced vodka. After the war, the production of vodka developed rapidly and spread all over the world. At present, in addition to the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, the United States and many European countries produce and consume more. Besides pure vodka, there is also vodka flavored with aromatic plants. The famous varieties are Bolskaya (Polskaya), Gorilka (Gorilka), Starka (Stacca), Moskovskaya (Moscow Kaya), Wyborowa (Victoria Pohlova), Finland (Finland), Smirnoff (Minov) and Samovar (Shamova) of the United States. When making vodka, the requirements for alcohol and water are very high. It is the key to ensure the quality of finished products to use soft water that meets the requirements and high-quality alcohol that meets the food quality standards. Because of the good quality of water and alcohol, the impurity content of vodka is very small and the alcohol content is generally below 40% after careful filtration and deodorization by activated carbon (usually birch charcoal) in the production process. And the taste is simple and clean, without any odor, unique. It is often used as a base wine to prepare various cocktails. Now it has become a worldwide wine. Compared with China traditional liquor, vodka has the characteristics of low alcohol concentration, low impurity content, simple technology and high degree of mechanization. It conforms to the development direction of low-grade beverage wine. China Qingdao, Tianjin, Shanghai, Harbin and other places have a small amount of production. For example, the pearl water wine produced in Harbin is a kind of vodka. Vodka is no longer a specialty of the Soviet Union. Many countries, such as Poland, Germany, the United States, Britain and Japan, produce vodka of similar quality to that produced by the Soviet Union.

6 tekila

Tequila)-produced in Mexico, its raw material is a precious plant called agave (aloe). In fact, it belongs to cactus, which is a succulent plant that is afraid of cold. Only after 10 years of cultivation can it be brewed. The production method of tequila is also different from other distilled spirits. After 65,438+00 years of cultivation, the root of agave will form a large pineapple-shaped stem block. Cut off all the leaves, and put the stem block containing sweet juice into a special saccharifying pot to cook for about 12 hours. After the saccharification process is completed, the juice is injected into the fermentation tank, and yeast and part of the last fermented juice are added. Sometimes, in order to supplement sugar, you have to add the right amount of sugar. After fermentation, the fermented juice is distilled twice in a distiller, except that a part of the fermented juice is used as the component of the next fermentation. After 1 distillation, a liquid with an alcohol content of about 25% will be obtained. In the second distillation, after removing the first distillation and the last distillation, the directly drinkable wine with an alcohol content of about 55% will be obtained. Although distilled twice, the alcohol content of liquor is still relatively low, so there are many raw materials and ingredients in the fermentation process, which makes the flavor of tequila play incisively and vividly. Like vodka, tequila is filtered by activated carbon to remove the invoice quality after the distillation process is completed. At this point, the definition of tequila is clear. The alcohol content of tequila is mostly between 35% and 55%. We can usually see colorless tequila instead of aged tequila. Golden tequila has a short aging time, and it is called old tequila when it is aged in wooden barrels for 1- 15 years.