Common myths and misconceptions about wine: what's true?

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Probably no other drink has such a glorious and ancient history as wine. Many great poets have praised both the taste of wine and the state it leads to.

Apparently, the modern winemaking industry traces its origins to wild grapes that grew in the Stone Age in the mountainous regions of Western Asia. It was there, in the mountains of Northern Iran, that archaeologists discovered solidified remains of the world's oldest wine. Scientists found yellowish remnants of the drink at the bottom of a clay vessel that had lain for 7,000 years among the ruins of a house (Stone Age dwelling).

Since those ancient times, wine has triumphantly spread across the world: Sumer, Ancient Greece (the Greek word akraditzomai — “to have breakfast” literally means “to drink wine”), Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, — everywhere wine was unrivaled among drinks. Historians note that neither in the Old nor in the New Testament is there almost any mention of water as an everyday drink, but wine is mentioned many times. And the Apostle Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy advises drinking wine for health: “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.” By the way, Christianity has a positive attitude towards wine consumption, especially since Jesus turned water into wine.

There are many myths about wine, the most common of which we will examine in this article.

 

Non-wine wines

It would be naive to think that counterfeit wines are sold only here. Imitations of well-known brands and wine surrogates made even without the participation of grapes can be found in almost every country. To avoid buying something unrelated to natural wine, you need to carefully study the label: wine name, producer, grape variety, aging, etc.

Only a drink obtained from grapes without the addition of substances (alcohol, beet sugar, etc.) used in the production of other categories of wines can be called natural grape wine.

If there are doubts about table wine, you can test it at home. Pour it into a small bottle, cover the neck with your finger, then invert it and submerge it in a glass of water, and remove your finger. If the bottle's contents begin to mix with the water and trickle down to the bottom of the glass, such “wine” is better not to drink but to pour down the sink.

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Is it true that the older the wine, the better?

The most famous and influential philosopher-scientist of the medieval Islamic world Avicenna said:

“Old wine belongs to the category of medicines, not food.”

The belief that wine, the older, the better, characteristic of ancient times, is also widespread today. However, this is not the case. Like any other living organism, it goes through the stages of birth, youth, maturity (the peak of all the wine's qualities), aging, and dying. In different wines, these stages come at different times; one may fade already three years after birth, another may still be young at twenty. Much depends on both the wine production technology and the year the grapes were harvested.

Thus, there are wines that mature very quickly, reach their peak, and just as quickly begin to fade, not even reaching ten years of age. And these wines are the majority. Moreover, wines traded under the same name have different maturation periods, that is, reaching the peak of their bloom, and this period changes depending on the harvest year. Much depends on the weather conditions in which first flowering, then fruit set, their ripening, and finally harvest occur. God forbid, if it rains during the harvest or shortly before it — everything will be spoiled, the ripened berries will swell with water, and the wine will be watery and weak.

Many of our wine producers resort to quality leveling through blending wines from different harvest years. On the one hand, this allows for a product of quite acceptable quality, but on the other, the wine becomes impersonal. In this case, the harvest year is not indicated on the labels, and the consumer not only does not know how long such wine can be stored, but also how old it really is. However, in successful years, a certain part of the harvest goes into the production of so-called collectible wines. These wines are made from select raw materials in the best years, the year of harvest is necessarily indicated on the bottles, and therefore they can be stored and served according to the recommendations for that specific wine variety.

Winemakers have terms “good” year and “bad” year.

• In so-called “good years,” the grape harvest ripens in the best conditions. Wine from such grapes lasts significantly longer and matures more slowly.
• Wine from the harvest of a “bad” year matures faster.

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Are Georgian wines really Georgian?

Georgian wines have an ancient history. Historians note that the local inhabitants — the Colchians — started producing them 5,000 years ago. It is not surprising that they have long been recognized worldwide not only as a tasty alcoholic stimulating drink but also as a real medicine containing beneficial enzymes, vitamins, bactericidal catechins, and anthocyanins.

In the 20th century, such Georgian wines as “Khvanchkara,” “Kindzmarauli,” “Akhasheni,” “Mukuzani” were especially popular. It would seem that today these names can be found in almost any store or stall selling alcohol. However, in most cases, the contents of these brightly labeled bottles have nothing to do with the famed Georgian wines.

It should be noted that the times of particularly crude fakes of Georgian wines have passed. Now counterfeiters act somewhat more sophisticated. They bring wine from Georgia and bottle it with quality labels. It would seem, what's the harm: the wine is still Georgian?

The thing is, Georgian natural red wines are very sensitive to transportation, and therefore, if they are bottled not at the place of production, their quality is much lower than locally bottled wines, even if all other technological conditions were met.

But among the abundance of fakes, there are genuine Georgian wines produced by companies that value their reputation and fully adhere to the production technology. These wines can be distinguished by two parameters:

1. by price — real Georgian wines simply cannot be cheap;
2. by the label — it should be neatly glued and of decent printing quality. Pay attention to how the bottling date is printed: if it is printed typographically, then most likely you have a fake, as this indicates that the producer on their home factory does not have special marking equipment and for convenience and cost-effectiveness printed labels with the same date for all batches of “wine.”

 

Sherry

Sherry can be called those wines that are produced in the Spanish province of Andalusia by a special technology. The main city of the peculiar “sherry triangle” is Jerez de la Frontera.

Interestingly, the age of sherry is never exactly known. And here’s why. In wine cellars, huge barrels are stacked in several layers. This is the geometry of the “solera” — the method of making sherry.

“Solera” is the name of the bottom row of barrels. All subsequent rows are called “criaderas,” counted from bottom to top: first, second, third... There can be up to fourteen of them. In each “criadera,” the wine is of a certain but different aging period from the barrels of another tier. It turns out that in the “solera” — the oldest wine, in the upper — “criadera” — the youngest.

So why is it impossible to determine the age of sherry? Because when the wine is decanted for bottling, only part of it is drained, then it is topped up in the “solera” from the barrels of the first “criadera.” Accordingly, the barrels of the first “criadera” are topped up with wine from the barrels of the second, and so on. Therefore, there is no vintage year on sherry labels.

By the way, those who think that sherry is one specific type of wine are mistaken. Sherry is a whole family of wines of various types. In general, sherry (or sherry) is a fortified sweet wine made from white grapes. The most popular of them: “Fino” (Fino) — dry light sherry, “Oloroso” (Oloroso), “Palo Cortado” (Palo Cortado), “Pedro Ximenez” (Pedro Ximenes).

Pedro Ximenez (or PX) — the sweetest type of sherry, is part of the world-famous Spanish fortified wines. It is aged in a solera for very long periods (up to 30 years or more). It has a dark, almost black color, extremely thick consistency, strong aroma.

Conditionally, all types of sherry can be divided into two large groups: sherries of the Fino type and sherries of the Oloroso type. The main difference between these two types of wine lies in the duration of the wine's stay under the film of a special type of sherry yeast (so-called flor). Fino and its varieties stay under the flor film for at least three years. Oloroso wines either do not form a layer of sherry yeast on the surface at all or spend a relatively short time under it.

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Madeira

There is a lot of Madeira sold in our stores, but almost all of it is not genuine. Madeira can only be considered a fine natural dessert wine made from selected grapes of the Portuguese island of Madeira. The technology of making genuine Madeira (there were three types of Madeira — dry, red and liqueur-like, orange) is so complex that after its production ceased in the mid-19th century and then tried to revive, it turned out that its production was unprofitable. Nowadays, farmers living on the island of Madeira produce wine themselves and, imitating the technology of making genuine Madeira, bury bottles of wine in warm manure. It must be said that even such Madeira is popular with tourists.

The birth of the drink

According to legend, barrels of wine were on the decks and holds of one of the Portuguese ships during a voyage to India. The ship got stuck in equatorial latitudes due to calm, and the unsold wine had to be taken back to Europe, so it was subjected to high air temperatures and rocking for a long time. By the end of the journey, it had significantly changed its initial taste and aroma, acquiring bouquet notes of roasted nuts and caramel, making it popular worldwide. According to another version, not excluding the first, the rocky moist volcanic soil of the island of Madeira did not allow building dry cool cellars, which is why barrels were stored in attics, and this still happens.

Interesting fact!

Nowadays, Madeira is aged in heated warehouses, but earlier to speed up the aging process, it was sent on a journey to tropical countries (to India, to the island of Java, etc.). The longer the Madeira traveled, receiving the name “Vinho de roda,” the more valuable it was.

Madeira has long been counterfeited in many countries. In pre-revolutionary Russia, “masters” from the town of Kashin became famous for making “Madeira” from potato alcohol mixed with berry juice. Labels purchased in Spain were glued to the bottles, and this “Madeira” was sold throughout Russia.

The most successful wines of the Madeira type include those produced and in small quantities continue to be produced in Crimea according to traditional “Madeira” technology.

Modern winemakers have learned to reproduce the process that occurs in the formation of Madeira, which is called “maderization.” When the strength reaches approximately 8%, dry wine is fortified with 96% grape alcohol up to 18-22% by volume and poured into American oak barrels. The classic aging process is called “canteiro” and is applied to only about 10% of the product due to its relative high cost. The barrels are placed in specially designed rooms, often located under the roof, where the sun's heat warms them. Initially, the wine's temperature can reach 45-50 °C. After a certain period (from several months to several years), the wine is transferred to barrels on the lower floors, where the temperature is lower. Then the process is repeated, lowering it even further. The full aging period is practically unlimited and can last for decades. An expert periodically evaluates the wine's quality, depending on which further actions are taken. Madeira with an aging of 10, 15, or 20 years is a blend of components whose average age is that many years. More successful samples are given the status of “vintage,” and they are released under the names “colheita” or “single harvest”; their aging period is from 5 to 18 years. The most successful wines are “vintage” (vintage), their minimum aging period in the barrel is 20 years.

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Port wines

“Kavkaz,” “Agdam,” and similar wines are not real port wines. Port wine is wine made from grapes grown in the Douro River valley near the Portuguese city of Porto (hence the name “port wine”). In this area, the soil is special, and the climate is unique, so every fertile plot of land is “worth its weight in gold.”

Note that port wine began to be counterfeited as early as the 18th century by the Portuguese themselves. They added sugar and elderberries to poor wine for color and taste (this is how “Kavkaz,” “777,” “Agdam” were made) and sold it to the English as port wine. The English did not like such “port wines,” and they complained to the Portuguese prime minister. As a result, a series of laws were passed in Portugal to protect the quality of port wine, and a wine institute was specially opened in Porto, which controls literally everything: from the number of vineyards and grape varieties to the labels. And if you want to buy a bottle of genuine Portuguese port wine at the nearest supermarket, be sure to check if it has the wine institute's mark. If not, the port wine is fake.

It so happened that nowadays many wines made using the classic “port wine” technology by aging fortified wine in oak barrels are called port wines.

In counterfeits, regular alcohol is added to grape juice in the required concentration and this mixture is aged in metal tanks with oak chips (in the best case) or sold immediately (in the worst case). Sometimes wine is rushed to be sold as soon as possible, and the aging period is reduced (for example, instead of the required three years, it is aged in oak barrels for 2.5 years). Such port wines can be identified by taste: they have a so-called alcoholic tone (the wine has a disharmonious taste of pure alcohol). Such wine is better not to drink immediately, but to cork it and put it in a warm place for several months. Most likely, the alcoholic tone will disappear, and the taste of the wine will improve significantly.

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Vermouths

The word “vermouth” comes from the German “wormwood,” and therefore many believe that an obligatory component of this wine-based aperitif is wormwood extract. In fact, this is not the case. There are many vermouths without the wormwood ingredient at all.

The mandatory component of any vermouth is white wine. Even in red vermouths, the wine is white, and the color is achieved by adding caramel, although there are examples where red wines are used.

In classic vermouth, the main component is alpine wormwood — the share of wormwood essence in various vermouths reaches 50% of all flavorings. Next are: yarrow — 18–20%, mint — 9–11%, cinnamon — about 10%, cardamom — 7–8%, black elderberry — 5–6%, nutmeg — 3–5%. There can be several dozen additives in total.

In addition to wormwood, the characteristic bitterness of vermouth can be given by cinchona bark, oakwood, tansy, and horehound. Elder flowers combined with coriander seeds and lemon peel can develop a strong muscat tone in the drink. Immortelle, rosemary, juniper berry, and St. John's wort add resinous shades to vermouth. Melissa, catnip, and lemon wormwood give the bouquet a citrus note. And to soften the contrast of such contradictory components, chamomile, cloves, and iris root infusions are added to vermouth in small quantities. Winemakers believe that these ingredients can gently combine the entire complex of vermouth aromas. To fix the bouquet, combinations of vanilla, cardamom, and calamus extracts are used.

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Cahors

This red wine got its name from the French city of Cahors in the Lot department. Excellent dry natural red wines from Malbec, Mozac, and other grape varieties have been produced in this area for a long time. It was from here that Cahors was imported to Russia in the 19th century at the request of the church.

As is known, wine is necessary for certain church rituals. In the Russian Orthodox Church, initially, dry red wine brought by clergymen from Greece was used for these purposes. For a while, wines were imported from France. But gradually, the traditional Russian passion for sweet and strong drinks prevailed, and church wine began to be produced in Russia, turning it into a thick, strong, and sweet red wine.

The technology by which Russian Cahors is produced today was developed over a hundred years ago. This wine is made from red grape varieties with heating the mash, which contributes to the more complete transition of coloring substances into the must, giving Cahors its pleasant color: dark red or dark ruby with a violet tint.

Unfortunately, not all wines that reach store shelves are Cahors. For example, in a test conducted by experts from the consumer magazine “Spros,” four out of twelve samples did not correspond to their name.

It is practically impossible to determine a counterfeit by the appearance of the bottle. This can only be done by tasting the wine. The taste and aroma of Cahors are characterized by notes of blackcurrant, dried fruits, chocolate, while counterfeits just have a sweet taste and an empty aroma. The color of real Cahors is dense dark ruby with a violet tint, whereas counterfeits are red.

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Sparkling wines

Wines similar to champagne are produced all over the world. The labels on the bottles in which these wines are bottled read: sparkling or effervescent wine and, as a rule, the words: “Traditional Method.” These wines are as eagerly counterfeited as champagnes. On the fakes of sparkling wines, there is always the word “Cocktail,” “Getrank,” “Alcohol.”

For wine to become sparkling, it is aged in a tank for a month. Of course, it is not much like champagne, but it usually has a good taste and behaves nobly in a glass — it hisses and foams for three hours, and small bubbles slowly rise from the bottom.

By the way, there are a lot of misconceptions about champagne, so we have highlighted all the myths about champagne in a separate article ☞.

Sometimes wines called “sparkling” are sold as sparkling wines. The names are similar, but the quality is sharply different. Sparkling is a wine charged with carbon dioxide. Winemakers otherwise call such fizz a counterfeit. You can recognize this wine by the label — it must indicate that this drink is a sparkling (effervescent) wine. If you find the words: “Gasat,” “Gasificat” or “Carbonated Wine” on the label, remember that this “carbonated fizz” should be drunk quickly before it goes flat.

Another imitator (and the roughest) of sparkling wine can be recognized by the German inscription on the label “Alcoholhaltiges Getrank.” The contents of such a drink are the simplest: water, alcohol, sugar, citric acid. The label depicts some fruit (most often a peach or strawberry). But do not think that this “wine” is made on the basis of fruits. It's much simpler: primitive flavorings are added to a primitive mixture. How all this affects our body can only be guessed. There is no need to talk about taste. Tasters note that when this drink releases all the bubbles, it tastes like sweet triple cologne.

Another imitation of sparkling wines is a carbonated cocktail. But unlike alcoholic beverages, cocktails usually add at least some wine to the mixture of water, sugar, and citric acid.

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Tokay wine

Genuine Tokay wine is produced only in Hungary from grapes grown in the foothills of Tokay. All Ukrainian, Moldovan, Polish, or Bulgarian Tokay wines are fakes since it is almost impossible to replicate the bouquet of the Hungarian original. And the matter lies in the peculiarities of the climate of the area where the grapes used to make “Tokay” grow. In general, the high quality of Tokay wines is ensured by a whole complex of conditions: soil, climate, autochthonous grape varieties, methods of production, and storage of wines.

The secret of Tokay wine lies in the berries called “aszú”: due to the peculiarities of the climate in the foothills of Tokay, overripe grape berries do not rot and do not get wet but turn into juicy raisins with noble mold.

To obtain classic “Tokay,” the wine is aged in barrels for at least two years. It was this vintage wine that was supplied from Hungary to the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, now in Russia, you can find ordinary Tokay (i.e., ordinary dry wine made from the current year's harvest). This is not a fake, but also not classic “Tokay,” as such wine is produced without the main highlight — aszú berries.

According to the classification adopted by us, Tokay wines are considered dessert wines. However, this is purely a domestic, restaurant designation. There is no such concept in the international classification. These wines are called liqueur wines worldwide.

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Sangria

A drink called “Sangria” was very fashionable in our regions for a while. Weak, sweet, pleasant in color, and most importantly, cheap — what else does an undemanding buyer need, thinking that they are buying decent Spanish wine?

In reality, Sangria is not wine but a wine drink, i.e., a mixture of wine with fruit juices. This combination is called a “cooler” (some confuse this word with “cobbler,” which refers to non-alcoholic drinks made by mixing ice, fruit juices, and syrups, fresh and canned fruits).

Real Spanish Sangria is a medium-alcohol drink based on wine (often red) with pieces of fruit, berries, sugar, sparkling water, and sometimes a small amount of brandy and dry liqueur, sometimes spices. Sangria is one of the popular drinks of Spanish cuisine. It is usually served in bars, restaurants, chiringuito, and at festivals all over Spain.

There is no strict recipe for mixing all these ingredients, making this drink convenient for counterfeiting. Therefore, if you like “Sangria,” it is better to buy it in branded stores.

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Diluted wine

In Ancient Greece, those who drank undiluted wine were called “alcoholics,” and in Ancient Rome, such unconscious citizens were called barbarians. Nowadays, in countries that traditionally produce the best wines (France, Spain, Portugal), it is also customary to drink wine diluted with water. And many of us try to drink wine diluted, but not always do it correctly. The nuances of diluting wine with water are described by the greatest expert on Russian cuisine, William Pokhlebkin:

“It is necessary to use only distilled or boiled water. The rule must be observed: there should always be less wine than water. If there is more wine than water, such a mixture will always be tasteless, no matter how good the wine is. The best proportions: two-thirds water and one-third wine or three-quarters water and one-quarter wine.

Another most important rule: first, pour wine into the vessel, then pour water over it. Attempting to do otherwise will make the mixture immediately tasteless. It is also advisable to dilute red wines only with boiling water, and white grape wines with ice-cold boiled water or cool them in the refrigerator after dilution. Cold unboiled tap water cannot be used: it means simply spoiling the product.”

Pokhlebkin also notes that not all wines should be diluted, but only dry, semi-dry, and dessert wines. It is not recommended to dilute fortified and semi-sweet wines with water — such mixtures will be tasteless and indigestible.