Andrey Ushakov
Director of the Marketing Management Department of the L-Wine wine project.
Wine is like art. There is a lot of subjective stuff in it, and the last argument for or against will always be “like/dislike.” But there are also objective parameters for assessing the quality of a noble drink. If you are confused by the smell of wine or an unusual taste, then it is quite possible that you have come across a defective sample. There are several life hacks that can help you recognize flaws in wine from the first sip. We tell you how to diagnose a bottle and insure yourself against purchasing a spoiled drink in the future, even if you are new to the wine world.
"Cork disease"
Symptoms: The wine has an unpleasant, pungent odor, reminiscent of wet cardboard or dog hair. If you smell “dog” or “damp cellar”, these are not the rich nuances of the original complex wine. Don't you think the wine is sick?
What to do
Pour the wine down the sink - alas, it cannot be saved. Between 1% and 7% of all cork-corked wine in the world is contaminated with “Cork taint” responsible compounds. Determination of haloanisoles and halophenols in cork matrix: A review of specific “cork” bacteria. If you don’t want to participate in the lottery, buy wine with a screw cap, there is simply nowhere for such bacteria to come from.
Correct distillation technology
The golden rule of moonshine brewing is dividing the drink into fractions. They are called "head", "body" and "tails". Proper separation of moonshine is the key to successful production.
The first fraction makes up 10% of the output product. This is where fusel oils and other impurities are concentrated, which give the product unpleasant odors.
The third fraction does not have such a powerful disgusting aroma, but is not suitable for consumption. “Tails” must be separated when the strength of the output product drops below 45.
After separating the unwanted alcohol, the middle part will remain. It is this proportion of alcohol that is used for further production of drinks. But it still has almost imperceptible scent notes.
To completely remove the aroma, the distillation process should be repeated one more time. After repeated distillation, the unwanted aromas will disappear and the moonshine will be ready for use.
Reduction, or “hydrogen sulfide bouquet”
Symptoms: The wine smells like boiled cabbage, garlic or a rotten egg.
What to do
This case is not at all hopeless. This smell appears if the wine lacks oxygen and the yeast begins to release thiols - organic sulfur compounds. You can improve the smell with the help of aeration - saturating the wine with oxygen.
Pour the wine into a decanter (a process called decanting) and let the drink “breathe” until the smell dissipates. Not ready to wait a few hours? Stir the wine with a silver spoon or drop a clean copper coin into the decanter to precipitate the sulfur compounds.
Medications
Taking certain medications can have a clear effect on a person's body odor. This is characterized by disruption of the functioning of internal organs. The appearance of acetone-like sweat odor is often a consequence of the use of the following groups of medications:
- antidepressants;
- medicines against bacteria;
- medicines against tuberculosis;
- anticancer chemotherapy;
- non-steroidal antiphlogistic agents;
- antifungal medications.
These groups of drugs are characterized by high hepatotoxicity. This causes decreased liver function and accumulation of harmful substances, ketone bodies and nitrogenous compounds in the bloodstream. For this reason, a person smells of acetone.
Wine made from unripe grapes
Symptoms: The wine smells of cat urine, grass and green capsicum.
What to do
The patient is more dead than alive. Unfortunately, if the wine is made from low-quality raw materials, “medicine” is powerless. This usually happens if, for example, weather conditions did not allow the grapes to ripen and gain all the necessary qualities, but the winemaker still decided to put them into production.
Well-known manufacturers who value their name do not allow themselves to do this. So choose wines from trusted brands to avoid this defect.
Non-standard nose
In addition to bright fruity aromas, in the bouquet of wine you can find extraordinary aromas , which sometimes sound like real flaws. But it is the “non-berry” aromas that become the highlight of truly good wines.
“A common myth about the problems of wine is ignorance of the evolution of a specific appellation or a specific product, a specific year,” says Anatoly Korneev. “They are bringing back the great Burgundy, which has the scent of sage infusion, because people think that as a wine ages, it should retain its fruity aroma.”
The smell of cat urine , a slight hint of what the French playfully dubbed pipi de chat, characterizes the first nose of Sauvignon Blanc wines. The smell of leather saddle is inherent in many red Languedoc wines, Syrah, growing in warm climates, ripe Carignan and slightly unripe Mourvèdre.
The gasoline aroma is characteristic of old, high-quality German Rieslings, and the smell of freshly killed rabbit, blood , and fresh meat is characteristic of many bright Italian varieties (Sangiovese, Piedirosso). The aroma of fresh banana , which otherwise signals increased levels of essential compounds, is a distinctive feature of South African Pinotages.
But wines can actually become sick, and most often the cause of these diseases are microbes.
Wild yeast creeps into the vat - it makes the wine smell like a banana
Wine turns to vinegar
Symptoms: The wine smells like vinegar or acetone or nail polish remover.
What to do
Only Jesus could turn water into wine, but no one could turn vinegar into wine. The maximum you can hope for with such a bottle is to use the wine for culinary purposes.
We are used to hearing that wine only gets better with age, but this is only true for noble, complex wines with great storage potential. Simple, inexpensive wines “for every day” should be drunk, as they say, here and now: white wines are best consumed in the first two years, red wines should not be stored for longer than 3–5 years. So, if you see a 2011 Sauvignon Blanc in a regular chain store for 800 rubles, then leave it on the shelf.
Let's look
For what? Color is a quick way to judge the shape of a wine. If a restaurant brings you Caesar with lettuce leaves that have fallen into depression, you will refuse without trying. It’s the same with wine: sometimes you can immediately understand by the color that something is wrong with the wine.
How? Pour the wine into a transparent glass, take it by the stem and tilt it almost horizontally over a clean sheet of paper or a white napkin - look at it all from above. If there is not enough light, a flashlight on your phone will help out.
What should not happen:
- The wine cannot be reddish or brown - this means it is no longer in good condition. The reasons for this can be different, from improper storage to advanced age. If you didn’t go to a wine tasting of the 90s, but brought a bottle of the last vintage from the supermarket, close it and feel free to bring it back.
What could be:
- Slight cloudiness - filtering wines is now becoming unfashionable. It is believed that cloudy, unfiltered wine retains more flavor. Haze is especially common in biodynamic and natural wines.
- Orange shades in all wines over 5 years old. This is also normal for sherries and (surprise!) orange wines: Georgian ones from qvevri and vin jaune (“yellow wines”) from the French region of Jura.
- A light transparent precipitate in the form of crystals is salts of tartaric acid, and this is not a defect. But, in order not to confuse buyers, winemakers often play it safe and get rid of such sediment in advance. To do this, the wine is cooled and further filtered.
Lyrics
If the wine passes this test, you can relax and speculate what color it is. If nothing comes to mind, the Internet will help - there are many tables with tips. Although no one is stopping us from showing independence and, instead of all sorts of marsalas and sakura, remembering the shades of doctor’s sausage or grandfather’s cherry “nine”.
"Sunstroke"
Symptoms: The wine smells like dust and cardboard.
What to do
A slight but noticeable smell of dust, which clogs the natural aromas of wine, appears if it has been stored for a long time in bright light or even in the sun. It's up to you to decide whether to drink this wine or not (we wouldn't).
When choosing wine in a regular store, always pay attention to storage conditions. If the bottles are directly under the lamps or the room is too hot, then it is better to look for another place for wine shopping.
Let's try
For what? This is like final confirmation that the wine is normal. We filter out the main defects when we check the color and smell, so a damaged bottle should not reach this stage. In addition, we taste not so much: bitter, salty, sweet and sour. All these berries, cats and so on are all in the aroma. The taste should be pleasant, but there are no strict requirements for it. But it’s better to talk about what is normal in the taste and what should be alarming.
How? Put a little more wine in your mouth than usual. After this, gently move it around, as if you had decided to rinse your mouth after brushing your teeth. The wine should be everywhere: on the gums, on the entire surface of the tongue, etc. After this, swallow the wine and pay attention to how long you feel its taste.
What should not happen:
- Bitterness. If the wine is very bitter, this is another sign of oxidation or premature aging, just like the brick in color and the nutty-apple smell.
- Wine vinegar. If the wine is too warm, it may well turn into vinegar. This will be felt in the aroma, but if there is any doubt, the taste will confirm it. This happens if the wine was stored incorrectly in the store or at home and you decided to put it on the radiator. Acetic bacteria destroy alcohol, so there will be no effect from such wine either.
What could be:
- A few bubbles. You pour wine into a glass, and there are bubbles on the walls of the glass, and your mouth feels strangely tingling. The reason is that sometimes there is some sugar left in wine that has already been bottled, and it ferments while it is traveling to us. This is not always a defect - sometimes such a move even helps make the wine taste fresher, but this more often applies to whites.
Lyrics
For professionals, the taste of wine is not as important as the aroma, so they describe it very sparingly. Assess the level of acidity, tannins (tartness) and sugar. A wine is considered good if none of these parameters overwhelm you. That is, if the wine is sour or tart to the point of discomfort, this is not good, but this is not a defect.
Advice
When tasting wine, retronasal tasting will help you get more from the taste and aromas. This is the clever name for the “gurgling” of wine. You need to take a little more wine into your mouth than usual and breathe air through it. This is what we do when we accidentally take a sip of hot tea and try to cool it down. Feel free to make loud noises - it's normal and looks very professional.
Oxidase cass, or browning of wine
Symptoms: the wine takes on a brownish tint and a faint smell of Madeira, hazelnuts and rotten apples. Red wine takes on a dry, bitter taste, while white wine vaguely resembles apple cider.
What to do
This defect occurs at the production stage and, unfortunately, is not corrected in any way. In the skin of rotten or moldy grapes, oxidative enzymes - oxidases - are actively produced. If a large amount of rotten grapes gets into production, then when the finished wine comes into contact with oxygen, an oxidation process occurs and the drink changes its properties.
We remove possible unpleasant odors before distillation and distill high-quality moonshine
When producing homemade alcoholic beverages, it is important to follow key rules at the initial stage.
So, how to make odorless moonshine:
- Use clean raw materials to prepare mash. It should not contain foreign odors or impurities. The ingredients must be fresh and of high quality. Violation of this point results in the appearance of an aroma of hydrogen sulfide.
- Use clean dishes that do not contain foreign odors.
- Take freshly prepared mash without traces of mold and fat.
- Observe the fermentation process. It is important to prevent disruption. To help determine readiness, it is better to use a water seal. When the bubbling process has stopped, it’s time to cook the mash.
- Don't overdo it with yeast. After converting sugars into alcohol, they are of no benefit; on the contrary, they contribute to the appearance of an unnecessary aroma that needs to be knocked down
- Lighten the mash with bentonite before brewing.
Second distillation
Repeated running is the most effective remedy, according to many moonshine practitioners. Moreover, if you have a good apparatus, this task is not at all difficult (since you have already carried out the first distillation yourself, you will probably successfully cope with the second stage). You just need to follow some rules prior to the process. The main thing: you should dilute the mixture for re-distillation to 20-30% strength. Then the separation of harmful impurities will occur better. And although this entire process is quite lengthy in terms of time, it allows the production of the most purified alcohol possible.
So, how to get rid of the smell of moonshine? The simplest procedure is as follows: we distill the liquid in the apparatus as for the first time (and some also do a third time to be sure, but, in our opinion, the best is the enemy of the good).
