How to distinguish fake wine from real. How to identify real wine: rules and tips

wine detective from San Francisco, Maureen Downey is one of the few experts in the world who investigates counterfeiting of rare and collectible wines. Esquire found out who sells expensive fakes and how to recognize them without opening the bottle.

“In 2000, I accidentally ran into a prominent fraudster named Hardy Rodenstock. It was at the very beginning of my work in the company. Morrell & Company engaged in the sale of old and rare wines. Prior to that, I graduated from Boston University and professional sommelier courses and worked in several New York restaurants. Hardy Rodenstock, posing as a German collector and dealer, was one of my first clients. He wrote that he wanted to buy several bottles of rare wine from our company, but first he had to get detailed information about them.

Rodenstock began to find out what the bottles look like, what stamps they have on the bottom, what is printed in the lower left corner of the label, and a bunch of other non-obvious details. He then asked me to take pictures of some bottles and send them to him. It's good that my boss Peter Morrell caught me doing this and asked for the name of the client I'm working so hard for. Hearing the name Rodenstock, he immediately exclaimed: “Yes, everyone says about him that he fakes wine!”. Now I understand that a swindler, who for many years earned millions selling counterfeit wine, wanted to use my services so as not to accidentally buy his own fake. After that incident, I became interested in who forges wine and why.

The global market for counterfeit collectible wines is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars and is arranged in the manner of a successful auction house. Actually, real auctions also help scammers turn big deals by placing their fakes in their catalogs. For example, the owner Acker Merrall & Condit personally helped another famous swindler Rudy Kurniavan to make provenance for his cheap wine. He even enlisted his friends to lend Kurniawan several million to produce forgeries. Back in 2002, I suspected that something was wrong with this collection of “rare” wines, and in 2005 I already publicly declared that Kurniavan was a criminal, but no one believed me. He was arrested only in 2012, and until then, the rich from New York and Los Angeles imagined themselves to be connoisseurs of wine and rolled sumptuous dinners with the sourness that Rudy mixed in his own kitchen.

Most often, according to the observations of Maureen Downey, scammers counterfeit wines from France. And the first three and do account for one region - Burgundy.

Fake wine is very difficult to detect - for the most complete analysis, you need to open the bottle, and not every owner will agree to this. For the last 15 years, I have been doing just that, determining the authenticity of wine by external signs. If a collector has purchased a batch and suspects a fake, he calls me and I go to his cellar with a professional photographer. To begin with, we photograph every detail on the bottles that raise questions, and after that I carefully study the pictures. During major investigations, I made it a rule not to photograph more than 30 bottles a day, so as not to blur my eyes.

First of all, I look at the glass. I don’t know how to explain it, but over time you begin to feel what thickness, transparency and color this or that bottle should be. It happens that it is enough to take a bottle in hand to immediately distinguish a low-quality fake. If you are dealing with wine that cost $5,000 and is bottled in thin glass like some Chilean merlot, you understand that the scammers were simply lazy.

Having finished with the glass, I move on to the metal capsule that seals the neck and the label. Fraudsters often make a mistake by forgetting the obvious: all elements wine bottle age at the same time. If the capsule looks like it was in the war, and the label is new, I vividly imagine a woman with the face of a model and the body of a 70-year-old housewife - you immediately feel the catch. Then I look at the cork and check whether it corresponds to the size, quality, age required for this or that type of wine, whether it has all the necessary markings. Once I found a bottle of 1961, on the cork of which the last digit was barely noticeably corrected: the shadow of a four appeared around the unit. The difference is 3 years, but the price is different at times.

The most interesting part of my research is the label. Most wine producers use a certain type of paper for a certain period of time. Therefore, you need to make sure that the paper right color, the desired thickness and weight, that the necessary watermarks are applied. And, of course, you need to trace how this paper oxidized over time. Forgers use different techniques to artificially age the label: impregnate it with tea, coffee, mud or tobacco, cover it with tree resin, even bake it in an oven. But paper quality isn't everything. Equally important is the quality of the print. I have a huge database of labels from different eras and regions; I know what typefaces and even inks winemakers use. Often fakes can be recognized just at this stage - on artfully aged paper, when magnified, cheap printing suddenly appears, and the font of 1945 blurs with pixels.

China is considered the leader in the number of fakes: according to WINE SEARCHER, from 5% to 70% of imported fins in the Chinese market are fakes. Producers of valuable wines have come up with only one effective way anti-counterfeiting: they advise breaking empty bottles right after the tasting.

Sometimes, however, the font does not reach - a banal grammatical error gives out a fake. In my practice, there was a case when deceivers wrote Chateaux instead of Chateau. This, of course, is a completely stupid blunder, more often they come across on ignorance of some facts. For example, when there is an AOC badge on the bottle - and the wine was allegedly produced 100 years before the system that controls the regional origin of wine in France even appeared. Many of my clients probably would not notice the difference between a genuine collection wine and a fake if they did not contact me. They cannot be blamed for being illegible. Yes, I'm sure anyone can learn to tell a $10 wine from a $5,000 wine if they want to. But in recent years, due to fakes flooding the market, some rare varieties just disappeared from sale. No one knows what they should taste like because no one has ever tasted them. In addition, it is important to remember that wine is a living matter, and its taste changes throughout life. Two bottles, bottled from the same barrel, but stored in different conditions, after 70 years can dramatically differ in taste. There are only a few people in the world who have tasted the same rare wines many times and can really recognize their origin right off the bat. All the rest who boast of such an ability are either poseurs or swindlers.

Among my clients are not only hereditary billionaires with huge cellars. There are also very poor people: real estate agents, university professors, students who are fond of wine and are just starting to collect it. Many of them are willing to pay $5,000 per bottle or even more. And this is normal, because such a price is not a marketing legend, but a necessity. For example, the Romanet-Conti vineyards are located on a very small area that cannot be physically expanded. They can produce a strictly defined amount of wine, and the number of people who want to buy it will grow every year - the price will grow along with them.

In my free time, I help the FBI. After I found evidence in the Rudy Kurniawan case, they contact me regularly. Sometimes this work seems cool and exciting to me - the counterfeiting of wine is handled by the same department that investigates art crimes. But at times it can be terribly hard: the accomplices of the same Rudy pursued me for several years, and once they even tried to attack me during the tasting. I would like to say that I deal with ridiculous harmless petty scammers, but the wine mafia, unfortunately, in their methods differs little from the ordinary mafia. And it is impossible to calculate the real scale of the black market, because not only rare and old wines are faked, even pink wine for 30 bucks, which is produced by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, is successfully copied around the world - simply because it is in huge demand.

Almost every day we hear statements about the benefits of wine. We are sure that you have often met with such judgments as: wine prolongs youth, positively affects circulatory system, namely on the heart, normalizes metabolism, and also removes toxins from the body. We are confident that all these positive properties present only in real wines. Therefore, being able to distinguish fake wine from the original is essential for your health.

A bit of theory: fake wine is just evaporated grape must diluted with water. As a rule, such wine contains a lot of flavors. It does not need special care, and from this we can conclude that this product can't be expensive.

There are two criteria to distinguish the original wine from the fake one:

Appearance
Bottle content

Let's take a closer look at the first criterion.

Label. The first thing you need to pay attention to the label. The print quality should be high (without any fuzziness), because this business card wine, something that the buyer immediately pays attention to. It should contain information about the country of origin, the composition of the wine, as well as the date of production. The label should not have any streaks from the glue, everything should be done carefully.

Seal. Remember that on original wines, the date is printed separately, and not together with all the information.

Container form. In some cases, the shape of the container will help you in choosing the wine. Not all wines are produced in similar containers. Most manufacturers try to protect their product from mass cloning. And so they often use asymmetry or completely change the shape of the container. In order to find out the features of the appearance of a particular wine, you will need to visit the official website of the manufacturer.

Having dealt with appearance our container, let's move on to its contents.

Content

Sediment. Before opening the bottle, shine a light on it and quickly turn it upside down. If you notice a large number of precipitation, then this should alert you. in expensive and quality wines sediment is allowed (after active shaking, it quickly sinks to the bottom), but it obviously should not cover the entire bottom of the bottle.

Cork. After uncorking the bottle, the cork should not smell bad and fall apart (crumble). If you observe this, then, as a rule, this is not a sign proper storage or spoiled wine.

Foam. All that is needed is to pour some wine into a glass. If you notice that the foam has collected in the middle of the glass and quickly disappeared, then everything is fine - you managed to choose a good wine. But if the foam collects on the edges of the glass, then you should think about the quality of the alcohol.

Glycerin test. Add a couple of drops of glycerin to wine. If the glycerin sinks to the bottom without changing color, the wine is natural. And if it has acquired a reddish or yellow color, then in your hands is nothing more than a fake.

Soda test. When you add a pinch of soda to natural wine, nothing will happen.

Just try. And the last way. If you notice the taste of alcohol, then in front of you is nothing but a fake.

Lifehack: it is advisable not to buy cheap wine in different "fancy" containers. The principle is this: the more beautiful and original the container, the more expensive it is. We conclude that most the manufacturer spent the budget on the production of containers, and not on its contents. It may not be fake, but talk about products High Quality not worth it.

According to Robert Parker, one of the world's most influential wine critics and the developer of the 100-point quality rating system, wines with a score of 50 to 59 are considered unacceptable. Just hardly fake drinks reach even this lower limit. Below are some tips to help you recognize fake wine and stay healthy…

Types of fake wine

Powder: grape must evaporated to dryness, diluted with water and alcohol with the addition of flavorings. Artificial: surprisingly believable combination of water, yeast, sugar, citric acid, alcohol, flavors and preservatives, which has nothing to do with grapes.

Gallized: low-quality wort with the addition of water and sugar to the required density. Petiotized: wine drink based on pulp (pressed grapes). Sheelized: low-quality wine with the addition of glycerin to improve palatability. Chaptalized: sour wort, "softened" with alkaline additives.

With preservatives: wine made according to the "accelerated" technology, with salicylic acid in its composition to prevent souring. Mixture: a blend of low-quality and good wine to give the drink a more acceptable smell and taste. Tinted: a mixture of wines with the addition of dyes (not always natural) to achieve the desired color. Substitution: low-quality wine with the substitution of labels, corks, excises. Camouflage: pouring low-quality wine into part of a batch of a well-known brand.

What to look out for

In the shop:

Obviously, but still to clarify: wines in boxes are of poor quality. Normal wine is never stored in this form. The sugar content in wine should be as follows: in dry wines - up to 4 g / l; in semi-dry - up to 18 g / l; in semi-sweet - up to 45 g / l, in sweet - at least 45 g / l. If there is more sugar and the label does not say that the wine is fortified, then it was added artificially. If the wine contains salicylic acid, which means that the wine is made in violation of technology. But the scary ingredient E220 (sulfur dioxide) will be present in any wine, as it is a natural by-product of fermentation.

The date of manufacture must be stamped separately from the main information on the label. All fonts must be clear, without typos, blurs, printing defects. The inscription on the label must match the inscription on the cork. oak barrels) wine powder does not exist. As well as artificial dry. This is because it is cheaper and easier to make a sweet concentrate, roughly similar to the taste of wine. If you are a connoisseur of a certain brand of wine, then you should be alerted by the change original bottle(asymmetrical, branded) to regular.

At home:

By adding a pinch of ordinary baking soda natural wine will change its color due to the reaction with grape starch. Synthetic will remain the same. When a few drops of glycerin are added to natural wine, it will sink to the bottom and not change its color. If the glycerin changes color to yellow or red, then you have powdered wine. When shaking the bottle in good drink foam will gather in the center and subside quickly enough. In a low-quality product, the foam will collect at the edges and will slowly settle. Drop some wine on ordinary piece chalk. If the stain brightens after drying, the wine is natural. If the stain has changed color, it contains dyes.

Your "chemical" experiments will be a spectacle for the guests who brought the wine. But, believe me, it's better to laugh healthy at the eccentricity of a friend than to curse the ill-fated cookie, which has poisoned everyone.

Planning to buy legendary and old wines? Maureen Downey, the world's leading expert in detecting and exposing counterfeit wines, shared with Wine Enthusiast six simple advice that will help you avoid becoming another victim of scammers. During her work, Maureen learned all the tricks of the creators of counterfeit wines - fake artificially aged labels, printing on a home printer, corrected vintages on corks and imitation of old sediment.

Don't worry, you don't need a laboratory and a set of complicated tools to evaluate a bottle. In most cases, all you need is a magnifying glass, blue light, and a little knowledge. The number of fake wines is only increasing every year, and you should not think that we are talking only about forging the most expensive samples.

Over the years of her work, Maureen Downey has helped bring to clean water some of the most famous and ingenious scammers in the wine world - Hardy Rodenstock and Rudy Kurniawan (sentenced to 10 years in prison). She worked closely with the FBI on the case of the impudent pretender and producer of counterfeit wines Kurniawan, advising them on wine topics and ways to distinguish a fake from the original, thanks to her efforts, she was able to prove the moral and financial damage that his former clients suffered due to the fraudulent actions of Kurniawan. Her company, Chai Consulting (founded in 2005), is working with law enforcement to identify counterfeit wines that somehow find their way into wine lovers' cellars.

In addition, Downey conducts training workshops for wine enthusiasts who want to learn how to recognize even the most elaborate fake wines. And while many people think that for such actions you will need to involve a professional laboratory and conduct a forensic examination, Downey reassures - "With a few simple tools and a small amount of information, the average person can recognize 90% of the existing counterfeit wines."

Buy wine in trusted places / from trusted people

You must be as sure as possible about the reliability of the person (wine trading company / wine exchange / auction) from whom you are going to buy wine. Downey advises against buying wine from unlicensed intermediaries, and even if the buyer is dealing with a "reputable" company, it is worth carefully studying all the details. Above all, use common sense. If the terms of the purchase look too attractive to be true, then most likely you may find yourself in front of a dubious wine.

Always check the paper the label is made from

Blue light can be helpful in assessing the authenticity of an old wine label. Coating agents, such as silicone, which are used to make paper bright and shiny, begin to glow when exposed to an ultraviolet lamp. However, these chemical substances were not used in the wine industry until the 1950s, so "if you have a bottle of wine produced before 1957 in your hands, and at the same time the label under the influence of ultraviolet glows like you were in a disco ... consider it a stop signal," says Downey.

Pay attention to print quality

The printing technique used to create the label may give away a fake. This is Downey's favorite item during the authenticity assessment. noble wines, here's what she says:

“Historically, many fine wine labels have been produced using printing plates (plates). With a magnifying glass, you can easily see the traces of printing using a printing press, there should be an outline on the label.”

Very often, counterfeit wine producers use home inkjet printers to print labels. Downey advises taking a good look at the label: "If you see any pixelation or color blemishes on the label, then you have inkjet print marks. This shouldn't be on the original label."

In addition, when working with an inkjet printer, special paper is used, this helps the ink to adhere well to the surface. Without special paper the ink will begin to wear off the label when the scammer or scammer tries to artificially age the paper. That won't happen with printing ink, Downey said.

Conduct a thorough assessment of the label for aging

From oven-baked labels to labels soaked in nasty concoctions, Downey says the number of techniques to artificially age a label is truly limitless. However, some key knowledge and attention to detail will help you spot a fake. Maureen Downey makes an important comment about the aging of wine labels:

"The paper oxidizes evenly, the label cannot be yellow in one corner and be normal in the other corner. Signs of aging of the label should be visible throughout the space of the paper."

Also check the uniformity of aging of all labels that are present on the bottle. Downey saw bottles that clearly showed that the counterfeiter was separately trying to age the front label, the back label, and the vintage label found on some wines. "Put similar labels together and you'll realize they're not part of the original bottle."

Downey draws attention to another important factor in label aging: "Artificial aging of a label begins at the moment when it is not yet glued to the bottle. But the nature of the appearance of aging elements on a flat surface is fundamentally different from the aging of a label on a cylindrical surface." Splashes and streaks on a bottle can say a lot about a wine.

Examine the condition of the plug and the information indicated on it

A cork that has been in contact with wine for decades inevitably becomes soaked in wine. Due to the fact that bottles are usually stored in a horizontal position, the wine penetrates the structure of the cork, tending to the top of the capsule. Downey also pays attention to the capsule, it can betray a deception.

"Sometimes they carefully remove the cork with a special Ah-So corkscrew (gypsy corkscrew), scrape off the real vintage and put the desired vintage in its place." According to Downey, most often they just need to change one digit.

"I had a '61 case that Rudy Curniavan forged. When you look at the cork very closely, you can tell that it was originally a 1964 vintage. He chose the number 4 and started scraping it down to end up with a 1961 vintage."

Check the bottle for sediment

Sediment inevitably appears in older red wines, so if there is no visible presence of sediment in the bottle, this should be alarming. Old wine bottles that have been properly stored horizontally for many years "should show visual evidence of proper storage," Downey said. Even if the bottle is slightly agitated, sediment should still be visually present, it may be scattered particles.

What does the situation mean when there is sediment, but it is completely motionless? This may mean that the fakers heated and baked the sediment to mimic its formation and accumulation in the bottle after years spent in the cellar in the same position.

Apart from blue light and magnifiers, the most important tool a person can have is prudence. According to Downey, when people consider each of the described factors separately, it seems to them that everything is completely logical. But when you put all the pieces of the puzzle together, then only then do you begin to see the real picture of what is happening.

Finally, it is worth noting that sometimes the creators of fake wines were given factual errors. They could indicate on the bottle the year in which this or that winery did not release wine to the market at all, did not respect the proportions when placing the winery's logo, confused the names individual vineyards, added inscriptions that did not exist on real wines, etc. Remember to check photos of authentic bottles produced on the farm to avoid problems.

Winestyle guarantees the authenticity of the wines purchased from us!

All rights to published photos belong to their authors. Photos are published for informational purposes.
Prepared and translated by Ilya Kuznetsov.
Based on an article by Shana Clarke/Wine Enthusiast.

Correspondent of "Bagnet" found out where and how much you can try the best wines and cognacs of the Kherson region and how to distinguish a good drink from powder fake

noble drink

One of the most famous wineries in the Kherson region is the Tavria plant in Nova Kakhovka. This city is located on the same 48th parallel as the French city of Cognac in the province of Charente. A similar climate, fertile lands create excellent conditions for growing grapes.

The company's technologists emphasize that they use only natural raw materials. They have 1300 hectares of vineyards at their disposal. Cognacs are aged in oak barrels, which serve for at least 40 years. “We use wood from 80-year-old oaks from Krasnodar. Oak absorbs alcohol and saturates the drink with tannins,” explains technologist Lyudmila Tereshchenko. After the aging period, the cognac "rests" in the bottle for 10 days, then it goes on bottling.

For many who visited the factory, it was a discovery that Tavria produces not only cognacs, but also dry, semi-dry wines. This is where the tasting begins. The specialists of the plant offer to evaluate "Cabernet" and "Bouquet of Tavria", made from the Aligote grape variety with the addition of Cabernet for coloring.

The cost of tasting depends on the group and quality of drinks. Economy option for 20 participants will cost 100 UAH. from a person. At the same time, they offer 3 varieties of wine and 6 types of cognac. Tasting elite drinks costs 205 UAH. per person for a group of 10 people.

Sun in a glass

The story of another famous winery in the Kherson region is reminiscent of a detective story.

The young, unmarried prince Peter Trubetskoy won the lands of the Kherson province in a bet. Arriving with friends to explore new possessions, he decided that here suitable conditions for raising horses. He builds stables, breeds trotters. People learn about the enterprise, stallions are bought abroad. Then Trubetskoy marries the daughter of Count Lev Golitsyn, who by that time was a famous winemaker. It was he who suggested that the king refuse the services of French specialists and produce wines on his own. Golitsyn at this time begins to build a sparkling wine factory near Sudak, but there is not enough raw material, since the grapes of the sunny peninsula were ideal for dessert and liqueur wines, but not for dry ones, which are necessary for champagne.

Having stopped by his son-in-law, Golitsyn understands that the Kherson lands create excellent conditions for growing table grapes. Every 15 degrees of the southern slope is equivalent to moving 100 km to the south. And the slope of the local lands is 38 degrees. Plus - rocky chestnut soils and the proximity of a reservoir. But Trubetskoy refuses to listen to the opinion of his eminent father-in-law.

An adventurer by nature, Golitsyn, without the knowledge of Trubetskoy, planted Riesling grapes on his lands and in 1900, at a competition in Paris, among his Crimean wines presents table Riesling wine. The wine receives the Grand Prix. The count's machinations are discovered, but, as you know, the winners are not judged, and he is forgiven for this lie. To celebrate, Trubetskoy closes the stud farm, and develops a powerful wine production in the former stables.

After the October Revolution, the plant continues to work as a state farm plant named after. Lenin. The wines produced here "Oksamit of Ukraine", "Pearly Stepu", "The Sun in a Glass" are gaining popularity both in the USSR and abroad.

“Times changed, owners, but the climate and soil remained, which gave excellent grapes. There is no other such place in Ukraine. The best dry wines can be obtained here,” says Olga Kirsanova, chief winemaker of the Trubetskoy Plant OJSC. This modern name enterprises. Now it is being actively restored: new equipment is being purchased, production capacities are being increased. While Trubetskoy wines can only be purchased at the factory, they are manually bottled into plastic or glass container. We are planning to launch an automatic cold bottling line.

Collection wines are stored in the old stone cellars of the factory. You can’t speak loudly and stay here for a long time “Wine is a living organism, it needs rest. Don't touch anything with your hands. Spraying on bottles is his passport,” the winemaker warns.

When the temperature changes, the wine changes its properties. Therefore, Golitsyn tasted wines right in the cellar. “There was an oak table, an armchair. He quietly uncorked his exclusive samples and treated only honored guests,” added Kirsanova.

Among the valuable exhibits of the collection are 9 bottles from the time of Trubetskoy. They were discovered by chance during the construction of another cellar. So that the workers do not steal valuable product, each bottle found was exchanged for a box of any wine.

most vintage bottle with the coat of arms of the Trubetskoy farm for more than 120 years. No one dares to open it, but experts believe that there is still a living product there, although it lives less than strong dessert ones.

The tasting takes place in the old building of the plant, built in the time of Trubetskoy. Dry wine tasting (Sauvignon, Aligote, Rieslin, Cabernet) ends dessert wine"The sun in a glass" with more than ten years of exposure.

The cost of a tour of the plant - 30 UAH. per person, with tasting - 50 UAH. The tasting includes six varieties of wine.

The winery is located near the village of Veseloye, Berislavsky district.

How to Recognize the Signs of "Powdered" Wine

Excessive cheapness of wine is the first sign of a fake, says Olga Kirsanova, chief winemaker of the Trubetskoy Plant OJSC. “If a bottle costs 12-15 UAH, this should alert. After all, a kilogram of grapes costs 3-4 hryvnias, and long-term processing is necessary - these are huge costs. And no one will sell wine at a loss,” the specialist explained.

In addition to the price, they should be alarming too much rich taste, color and aroma. Too bright colors and strong aromas are evidence that the drink is made with chemical additives, the expert warns. “You try the wine, and there is such a strong apricot smell, the brightest Orange color. So there was no chemistry. Everything that is too much - speaks of a fake.

Thick wines should leave traces on the walls of the glass, the so-called "ladies' legs". “It means there are glycerins in the drink. They will never be in artificial wines,” says the technologist.

Dry wines are not profitable and difficult to counterfeit. But dessert and fortified ones are easier because they contain sugar, which helps to hide the chemical taste.

Quality Formula

It is possible to determine whether the manufacturer is cunning, declaring that he uses only natural raw materials, using simple arithmetic. It is enough to compare two numbers: the amount of wine produced and the area of ​​land on which grapes are grown.

“A ton of grapes produces up to 680-690 liters of dry wine minus precipitation. At the same time, the normal yield of technical varieties is 60, maximum - 75 centners per hectare. Of course, you can collect 120 and even 200 centners, especially for table varieties. But the wine from such grapes will be "flat". The berry should take the maximum from the soil,” added Olga Kirsanova.

It is difficult for today's manufacturer to resist the temptation to use artificial additives. Their application is provided by technology, and all chemical components passed certification in Ukraine. The technologist of one winery spoke about how this happens in practice, on condition of anonymity.

“Comes a representative of the company. Opens the case with various additives. He asks: “What do you need? What wine? Here is Saperavi, 3 drops per 200 liters are enough. Here is the Cabernet. So, what color do you want, dark red, light? Please choose any. Next, the wine must have a body. Here are extracts from all the most valuable things that are in grapes. All products are natural and certified. And how can plants survive? Taxes are pressing, and the owners need a profit. And some of my colleagues complain: we have one problem - the old plumbing. Therefore, it is important to know the manufacturer, and it is useless to read the label.

According to the technologist, Crimean winemakers are trying to keep the quality bar, because historically winemaking began to develop precisely from the Crimean peninsula.

Taste memory

To protect yourself from counterfeiting, you need to know true taste natural wine to develop a culture of wine consumption. Memory taste buds much longer than ordinary memory, says winemaker Olga Kirsanova. “After tasting real wine, you won’t drink powdered wine,” she says. For example, at Sauvignon light currant tones are heard in the aroma, the taste, like all white wines, is highly acidic. Aligote has a floral scent and soft taste. Riesling- light floral tones of meadow flowers, light smoke and apiary aroma. This is a more strict, masculine wine. He needs 2-2.5 years to mature. At Cabernet you can catch the aroma of overripe cherries, prunes, light cream. It's called morocco tone."

Drinking culture

Dry table wines are drunk with or after meals. hearty lunch. “All cultured nations consume table wines at dinner time, daily. Rest alcoholic drinks only try, in very small quantities. A person must know his body and everything about wines, then they will be beneficial,” the specialist emphasized.

White wines are recommended to be served with white meat and fish, red - for meat, barbecue, fatty meals because red wines improve digestion. Dry white wine quenches thirst well. To do this, it is advised to dilute it with water.

People with hyperacidity stomach wine should be consumed carefully. White wines have higher acidity than red wines. When mixed, you can get pink, which is suitable for people with high stomach acidity.

Dry wines have a strong bactericidal effect. During cholera epidemics, regions where the culture of drinking wine was developed were not affected by the disease. “If you find yourself in an area with contaminated water, add one-third of the wine to it, it will be safe,” advises Kirsanova.

Cabernet - the king of dry wines

Among the many varieties of red wines, the Cabernet variety is especially useful. It contains the entire periodic table, many hematopoietic trace elements. "Cabernet is medicinal product. It improves potency, promotes the restoration of walls blood vessels. 50-200 g per day, depending on age and weight, completely protects a person from cardiovascular disease. No other wine contains such an element as rubidium. It adsorbs radionuclides and removes them from the body,” the specialist emphasized.

How to properly store wine

Keep dry wine need in closed bottle, V cool place. Under such conditions, it can retain its qualities for up to six months. Dry wine contains acids, so when the temperature drops, a precipitate may form, but it is harmless.

Open dry wine is desirable to drink immediately. Being a living product, chemical and biological reactions begin to take place in it. It is not surprising if in the morning a sediment appears in an unfinished bottle of wine, and the drink has changed its taste and smell. If, however, with the wine that is on outdoors, nothing happens - this is another sign of a fake. “Tea will grow moldy in the air, and chemical wine can stand for a year and not ferment. It’s good if there is tartaric acid, and not something worse, ”says the winemaker.

Svetlana Tsibulskaya