For beginners, they may not be familiar with the basics of wine. In this article, we have compiled some basic knowledge for beginners to consider and learn.
Can any grapes be used to make wine?
The ordinary grapes on the fruit stand are used for raw food and cannot be used for wine making because they are large, have high water wine content, are fibrous and have low sugar content. On the contrary, winemaking grapes only need small grains, thick skins and many seeds.
2、What are the main components of wine?
Water (from the grapes themselves, not artificially added, called the water of life), alcohol, tannins, acids, aromatic substances, coloring, and small amounts of sugar.
3、What is wine?
Wine is a beverage wine made from 100% fresh grapes or grape juice through fermentation and aging.
4、What are tannins?
When a wine enters the mouth, it has a more astringent feeling, which is the taste of tannin. It is the backbone of wine, the natural preservative of wine, and a precious product that eliminates the harmful effects of “active oxygen” in the human body. It is also essential for the aging of wine. It comes from the skins and stems of the grapes and oak barrels.
Younger red wines have heavier tannins, and the bitter tannins are divided into ripe skin tannins, seed tannins, and astringent tannins from the stems of the grapes. Good tannins are very fine, while poor tannins are coarse. Red wine has higher tannins than white wine because red wine is fermented with skins.
5、Why are wines acidic?
Almost all wines contain acid, which is a very important component of wine. Acid can be good or bad. A good acid tastes good, while a sharp acid is a bad acid. For example, if you eat an apple before it is ripe, the acid is very raw and sharp, which is a bad acid. Acid is also an important component of a balanced wine. Generally speaking, white wines are more acidic than red wines.
6. Where does the color come from?
The color of a wine should be natural. We can distinguish white wines from red wines by their color. The color of white wine is usually pale white and yellowish, which deepens with age. Red wines are usually purple and cherry red in color, and aged wines are ruby red. The color is the natural shedding of components from the grape skins into the wine during the fermentation process, rather than artificially added pigments.
7. Where does the perfume come from?
We can smell the various aromas in wine, which come mainly from the grape varieties and the soil in which they are grown. Perfumes are usually classified. The first category is fruit aromas such as mulberry, cherry, lemon and various floral notes. The first are the aromas that come from the winemaking process, such as vanilla, smoke, coffee, and the smell of oaky chocolate. The third category generally refers to some old wine aromas, such as licorice, mushrooms, biscuits, animal spices, etc.
8、How does alcohol come from?
Alcohol is obtained by fermenting the sugar in the grapes. The so-called “dry” wines, such as dry red wines and dry white wines, actually mean that there is almost no sugar in the wine after the grapes are fermented. The word “dry” here generally refers to sugar, and we call them red and white wines. The sugar content in wine is less than or equal to 4 grams per liter. If the grapes do not have enough sugar and sugar needs to be added during the fermentation process, then the grapes are not very good.
9. What is the difference between dry white wine, dry red wine and pink wine?
According to the characteristics of the wine, it can be classified into dry, semi-dry, semi-sweet and sweet according to the sugar content. Based on the color of the wine, it can be divided into white, red and pink wines.
Dry” means that there is almost no sugar in the wine.
Dry wines contain less than or equal to 4 grams of sugar per liter.
Semi-dry wines have a sugar content of 4-12g/L.
Semi-sweet wines have a sugar content of 12-45 g/L.
Sweet wines contain more than 45 g/L of sugar.
The color of wine comes from the skins of black or purple grapes, the main component of which is red pigment.
White wines are made from white or black grapes, which are peeled and fermented, and do not contain red pigments.
Red wines are made from red grapes with skins that are fermented and the color of the skins is incorporated into the wine.
Like red wines, peach wines are made from red grapes, but the contact time between the skins and the juice is shorter than in dry red wines. The exact time depends on the grape variety and the process. After the color requirements are met and the skin is filtered, the wine juice will be light red with a small amount of tannins.
10. What is a winery wine? What is a factory wine?
The concept of Chateau or Chateau comes from the French word Chateau, which originally meant “château, castle”. A “chateau” must be able to produce estate wines (the entire process from planting to bottling is done on the same property) with a castle in the garden. In the wine industry, only a French garden can be called a “chateau”.
11. What is a wine?
The vintage on a wine label is the year the grapes were harvested, as opposed to the date of production, which is the time of bottling. This wine is called wine. In Europe, the vintage is a very important piece of information about the quality of a wine, it can prove the age of the wine and can also represent the level of quality of the harvest year.
In France, wine must be made from all the grapes in the year. In the United States, a minimum of 95% is required, with a minimum of 80% by law.
