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Recently, my wife and I decided to cook dinner and sit like a family with a glass of wine. We went to the store, I began to pick up a decent bottle for our royal table. The wife began to be indignant, saying why I spend money on bottled wine, when you can save money and take ordinary wine in a tetra pack.
Who doesn’t want to save money?! But wine in bags is very often made from powder. A dubious pleasure for both the taste buds and the stomach. One joy: the price is a delight for the wallet.
The story was shared by blog subscriber Vitaliy.
How and from what wine is made at the factory
I recommend taking only high-quality factory wine in bottles, because grapes are used for its production. Since the wort is made from natural ingredients, the taste is lively, natural. In a word, real!
Wine production is a complex and lengthy technological process. It consists of several stages:
- Harvesting.
- Obtaining natural must from grapes.
- Fermentation.
- Excerpt.
Initially, the grapes are fermented into young wine. Then it is aged, which allows you to make the taste and aroma more intense.
The longer the exposure, the tastier the drink in the bottle. I prefer bottled factory wine with good aging. If you buy alcohol, then it is really high-quality and vintage.
I consider wine from German wineries to be one of the most worthy.
What is powdered wine, is the production of such wine legal?
Powdered wine is similar to the real name only. In fact, it is just a drink created from chemical constituents.
Unlike real wine, its artificial counterpart is made from a dry powdery substance. When diluted with water, it turns into the so-called wine. The cost of a natural must substitute is minimal, and therefore the market price of the original product (wine in bags or tetra-packs) is more than affordable for consumers. Especially compared to bottled factory alcohol.
At the end of 2018, the State Duma adopted a bill banning the production and circulation of powdered wine. That is, in fact, wine made from artificial must is illegal in Russia.
Despite the ban on the circulation of powdered wine, it can still be found in any nearest liquor store. I went to one such local bar and saw a wide range of wines of very dubious production.
And what kind of dry wine must they sell, is it possible to make such wine from them
Increasingly, on the pages of online stores, I began to meet ads for the sale of ready-made wine must in powder consistency. Since I have a weakness for making homemade liquor, I wondered what kind of animal this was.
As I managed to find out, dry wine must is practically the same product from which powdered wine is made in factories. For home use only. The method of obtaining wine is similar – the powder is diluted with water, sugar is added if desired, aged for 2-3 weeks and you can drink it.
Such dry wine must is inexpensive (on average 1200-1500 rubles), one package is enough to create 40 liters of wine. Easy, fast, cheap… And tasteless!
This is what powdered wine must looks like, which I bought for the production of red wine.
For the sake of interest, I acquired this dubious composition. The quality is terrible, it is impossible to drink. It is not the aftertaste of a pleasant bouquet of high-quality wine that remains in the mouth, but the taste of chemistry. And this is quite expected, since the composition of dry wine must, in addition to the usual catechins, anthocyanins and tannins, includes:
- maltodextrin,
- alcohol,
- flavor identical to natural (yep!),
- sugar,
- red wine extract (as much as 2,9%),
- antioxidant ascorbic acid,
- dye E163,
- food coloring “beetroot powder”,
- acidity regulator E330.
Dry wine must is a tool for the lazy, because, in fact, you just need to dilute it with water. But from such an ingredient you will not be able to make a decent wine. I recommend not to poison your body, but to make homemade wine from natural products.
I will share the recipe with you.
A simple recipe for homemade wine from natural products instead of chemical powder
In fact, making good wine is easy. All you need is fresh grapes, sugar, glass bottles or cylinders, a large enamel container and ordinary medical gloves.
To prepare 6 liters of wine I buy:
- 10 kilograms of grapes (about 1000 rubles);
- 3 kilograms of sugar (150 rubles).
I sort through the grapes, dispose of all the bad, spoiled berries. I pour it into a large enamel bowl. I crush the grapes with my hands to make a porridge-like mixture.
Grapes need to be crushed as intensively as possible to get such a slurry.
I cover the dishes with gauze, put them away for 6 days in a dark, cool place. Several times a day I carefully mix the wort with a wooden spatula. Then I squeeze it and filter it, separating it from the pulp.
Grape juice is poured into glass bottles or cylinders, covered with sugar to the top. I put on medical gloves on the neck of the container, in which I first make small incisions in the area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe fingers.
No special equipment is needed to make homemade wine. It is enough to have a glass bottle and medical gloves on hand.
I clean for a month on a cool balcony, once a week I filter the contents of the cylinders. At the end of the aging period, I pour it into beautiful bottles and taste it.
To obtain excellent wine, it is enough to withstand it for a month. If you want the most intense and dry drink, just leave the grape must on the balcony for a longer period. If you like fortified wine, then at the end you can add sugar or medical alcohol. The last option is an amateur, of course.
The longer you insist the wine, the richer and brighter the drink will turn out.
I have a very negative attitude towards powdered wine. I see no reason to spend even a small amount of money on low-quality alcohol when it is elementary to prepare it yourself from natural ingredients. Please share your feedback – have you managed to taste good wine from powder and how do you feel about such chemistry in general?
Dear readers, remember that alcohol abuse harms your body. Take care of yourself!