Blogger explains, with simple words, useful things about wines and debunks several myths

There are many myths and misconceptions about the wine world. For example, is there powdered wine? Is there any chance that a counterfeit wine will be sold in a good winery or supermarket? What kind should be stored and which one makes no sense to store? It’s hard to find clear answers on the Internet.

O awesome.club spoke with blogger and wine guide Valeria to dispel (or, on the contrary, confirm) the most common myths. We learned a lot of interesting things about the production of this drink. And don’t worry, we’ll share it all with you!

“It happened spontaneously a long time ago, in 2007. I worked at a large beverage company and consequently started writing about it.

When I started, if memory serves, there were no more than 15 bloggers writing about wines or spirits on a regular basis. So, every year more and more new faces appeared, and in recent years the idea of ​​\u200b\u200b”writing about wine” has become a trend, especially after the rise of Instagram. Anyway, now there are a lot of young people writing about this drink, focusing on different formats and topics and that’s great.

— Learning to perceive certain nuances in wine is quite easy, except in the cases of people who have rare diseases. The only thing that strongly distinguishes this learning process from others is that it is impossible to develop without regular and conscious practice.

To learn, there are basically two options. Reputable wine schools that offer degrees are often fast, expensive, and efficient. Cheaper, more time consuming and demanding discipline are the tastings and master classes🇧🇷 Both strategies work well.

— The different nuances of wine are divided into 3 groups.

Primaries: depend on the variety, the age of the vine, the maturity of the grape and the climatic conditions. Secondary: appear as a result of fermentation or some other technological processes. Tertiary: develop in the maturation and aging process of the wine. They depend on the wood, the age of the barrel, the duration of maturation, the oxidation processes, the aging of the sediments, the yeast, etc.

I want to emphasize that it is forbidden to add flavors to wine artificially. But beyond that, why do it when you can get a wide variety of scents naturally?

When we taste wine, our brain detects the flavors it already knows. For example, the aromatic compounds present in lychee are also in lily of the valley. Therefore, one person will smell the first and another the second. And this is normal!

– Different things. Those who are more aware understand the value of this channel of communication with the consumer, especially in the conditions we live in, where almost all forms of advertising for alcoholic beverages are prohibited.

— I organize a route through the wineries according to the interests of my group and the season. During the trip, I talk about wines, teach how to taste, select drinks for the cellars of some of my clients, explain details of the storage of each label and much more. And I’m the sober driver, so the whole group can relax and try whatever wine they want.

Like a doctor making a diagnosis, I listen carefully to my interlocutors. I find out what they like, where they’ve traveled before, what kind of wines and dishes they prefer, what style of people they like to meet, if they prefer to chat over wine in a private winemaker’s gazebo, if they want to eat in a roadside canteen or if they are more inclined to haute cuisine, with well-trained waiters and a wine spa, for example.

— The most curious myth about wine is the one that says it can be transported and even sold in powder form. I think this legend has to do with two things. First: the less knowledgeable consumer is frightened by the expression “dry wine”, which sometimes appears on the label. Many think it has to do with some kind of powder that is diluted with something.

In fact, the term “dry” has to do with the sugar content in the wine. In addition, producing beverages from powder is not profitable, since the production of wine from natural grapes is easier and cheaper.

And now, the second question. When we go to the coast or to the inland towns, we often come across wine stalls in which we see barrels selling alcoholic beverages without bottling: cognac, homemade wine and other things of that kind. Even without taking into account the fact that the sale of these drinks without bottling is prohibited, the taste — and I have already tried it, as a curiosity — is similar to that of alcohol mixed with dyes and aromas.

My advice: never buy non-bottled wine! The alcohol industry is tightly controlled by the authorities and the manufacturers themselves control the quality. A production license is very expensive and easy to lose.

The second popular and false myth, which, incidentally, is closely related to “wine powder”, is that the supposed transformation of wine into powder can be verified at home with the help of a container and water. This misconception has spawned hundreds of videos on YouTube by pseudo-experts, but they don’t make any sense. In fact, this experiment only shows the difference in the density of liquids.

In summary, the density of sweet wine is greater than that of water and that of dry wine is less than that of water. Therefore, any semi-sweet wine will pass the “dust test” and dry wine will not.

— Buying a counterfeit alcoholic drink in a supermarket is practically impossible. The system for controlling the circulation of alcoholic products is very strict. For the more cautious, I can suggest a simple method: download an application that scans the special tax stamp, which makes it possible to check the authenticity of a specific bottle directly in the store.

— Indigenous varieties are almost entirely the result of natural crossing in a certain wine-producing region, and they also have a long history. When grapes have been grown for centuries in a specific area, local producers learn to make the best wine from them.

Consequently, wines from this grape are considered native (autochthonous). Producers are very proud of these wines and always put the varieties on the label so that they are easily recognizable.

“That’s a really tough question. In most cases, a demi-sec (semi-sweet) table wine is made by adding concentrated sweet must to a dry wine. This technology is used to produce low-cost semi-sweet drinks, so the basic dry wine used is of poor quality, as the sugar wort will hide all the defects.

Thus, cheap demi-sec wine is a product for an undemanding consumer. Those who already have some knowledge and have a sharper and more developed palate have already migrated to the consumption of dry wines or started directly with them. In these wines, sugar does not mask the defects, and it is perfectly possible to appreciate the variety of nuances and varietal characteristics of the drink.

— This is an individual question, and there is no universal answer to it with specific numbers or dates. There are only general features. If we compare young and old wines, young dry whites are best consumed within 1 to 2 years of bottling; dry red wines, on the other hand, must be taken within about 3 years. Barrel-aged white and red wines have greater storage potential.

If we compare red and white wines of the same category, the storage capacity of red wines is higher. If we compare dry wines and natural sweets, sweets have a greater storage capacity because sugar is a natural preservative. Fortified wines also last a long time because alcohol is a natural preservative. I advise you to look for the account of the manufacturer or a winemaker on a social network and ask the question. All reputable wineries will answer it. If they don’t respond, the lack of response, in itself, is already a kind of information about whether that wine is worth keeping…

— I don’t think it’s valid to associate alcohol with any kind of health benefit. My opinion, in fact, is the same as that of many experts: it all depends on the amount of alcohol consumed and the individual characteristics of the organism. Some people cannot drink these drinks because of their genetic traits, and they shouldn’t!

— Tip number 1. Download the app Vivino and focus on the opinions of other consumers. Keep in mind that experts consider this only partially relevant, because there are wines that are considered “blergh” (an expression of disgust) among the most experienced connoisseurs, but which are appreciated by neophytes.

Tip number 2. Buy wine at wine bars where specialists work in the field and ask for their advice. One downside: sometimes you can turn to an “expert” who would have been better off not asking anything. But this too is a kind of experience.

Tip number 3. You can follow the social networks and channels of different wine experts and bloggers and make the purchase based on their comments. That’s what, for example, my subscribers do. They take screenshots, add the posts to their favorites or simply…