Why did people in the past heat the wine before drinking?

When I was a child, I saw that all the old people around me had to drink warm white wine, especially yellow wine. I even use the kettle for boiling water at home to boil water directly on the fire stove at home.

Nowadays, it is common for people to drink rice wine to warm up, but fewer and fewer people drink white wine to warm up. Pots that used to love drinking are rare now!

Drinking with warm wine has been recorded in many literary works. The most well-known ones are "Warm wine kills Hua Xiong" and "Cooking wine is a hero". There is also a saying similar to "Leftovers cold wine" to describe bad hospitality, which shows that people are used to drinking with warm wine and cooking wine as a necessity.

Why did people in the past heat the wine before drinking?

First, why did people in the past drink wine to keep warm?

1. Before the invention of distiller, the alcohol content of brewed wine was generally not high, that is, most ancient people drank yellow rice wine and rice wine. The brewed wine will inevitably contain fusel alcohol and some impurities. When the temperature of wine rises to about 60 degrees, these impurities will evaporate. At this time, drinking warm wine will not be first-class and the taste will be better. This is the main reason why people are used to drinking warm wine.

(2) After the invention of distiller, the alcohol content began to increase, and then liquor began to appear. Because the technology of brewing liquor at that time was not as advanced as it is now, the impurities in liquor can be removed by filtration and blending, so these liquors inevitably contain fusel alcohol and impurities, which is why many small rural wineries have bad taste because of lack of technology, and they are particularly easy to go to the top. In the past, people could remove some impurities in wine by blanching it before drinking, which would make the wine more delicious. This is also the reason why old people used to like warm wine when drinking.

Second, why do people drink very little warm wine now?

1. The brewing technology of wine has been improved: the brewing technology is much more advanced than before, and the filtration level of wine is also very high. In addition, wine, as a food, is also an important prosecution object of the national quality inspection department. Wine brewed with advanced brewing technology and filtration technology will naturally minimize fusel harmful to health.

② The way of making wine has also changed: In the past, wine was made through a series of processes, such as koji-making, fermentation, distillation and wine collection, and then the new wine brewed needed to be sold in Chenfang. At present, many brewing methods are industrial production methods of direct blending. This wine itself is made by mixing purified edible alcohol with water, essence and saccharin. There is no natural fermentation process, there is naturally no fusel alcohol and impurities in it, so it is unnecessary to drink it warm. Even the liquor brewed by pure grain now needs to be perfumed and base liquor added, so it can be said that the liquor produced by regular wineries is unlikely to have excessive fusel alcohol and formaldehyde, so it can be drunk without warm wine.

Third, the benefits of warm wine and how to warm wine

Generally speaking, white wine and yellow wine are better to drink after being warmed than cold wine. Because besides alcohol, wine also contains a small amount of harmful substances such as methanol and formaldehyde. After mixing alcohol solution with water solution, the boiling point of these substances is lower than 60. When wine is heated to 60, these harmful substances will evaporate. In the past, warm flagons were always open, which is why people who like to drink bulk liquor now might as well heat them before drinking. Warm wine can also volatilize some alcohol in wine, making the taste of wine softer.

2. When warming wine, you can put it in a hip flask, and then soak it in hot water above 90℃, so it will be particularly comfortable to drink after scalding for a while. Yellow rice wine can be cooked with rock sugar, jujube and medlar, and it will have a different flavor.

In the past, people heated and drank wine through long-term practice. Even now, drinking warm wine is out of date.