1-866-407-BEER

Notes from “The Complete Guide to Home Winemaking” by Brian Leverett

Why make wines? With cheap drinks available for purchase, why spend time and effort brewing your own when you can go down to the supermarket and buy them at an affordable price?   This is true, you can, but even the cheapest are unlikely to compete costwise with the homemade product. And what about the quality? The most expensive wines are superior to our homemade efforts, but this is not necessarily true at the bottom end or even the middle of the market. Amongst the sweet reds quality is expensive. Good wines are superb, but their price remains out of reach for most of us except for special occasions. Perhaps the only limitation on the quality of homemade wines lies in our understanding of the subject. Modern homemade wines are far superior to those of the past and one day we may be able to surpass the very best of the bought wines.

Great wines, whether homemade or bought, are works of art and should be appreciated as such.

Main Features of Wine:

Alcohol (ethyl alcohol – ethanol). Alcohol is detected by a burning sensation at the back of the mouth, with high alcohol wines it is possible to such the air from across the top of the wine and detects its presence at the back of the throat. The intensity of burning is a rough guide to the alcohol level. (body is also VERY important).

Sweetness. A wine which displays the characteristic of excess sugar is described as sweet, one with no discernable sweetness as dry. Naturally, there are many areas in between.

Astringency. This is the bite which a wine contains, it is the robustness that lifts it from a juice. Astringency is due to the presence of tannin, acid and alcohol. Each makes its own contribution and all three must be present in the correct amounts for a wine to enliven the mouth. Where any one of the factors is present in excess the wine is harsh

            Tannin – gives the wine zest – it is detected on the gums and around the cheeks.

The amount of tannin is critical, insufficient and the wine is bland, life-less; too much and the wine is far to astringent, verging on the undrinkable. Tannins are found in leaves, on the skins of fruit, and in the seeds and pips. It is the quantity of tannin more than any other single characteristic which distinguishes between the teastes of red, rose and whie commercial grape wines. Tannin has a very important secondary role – that of clearing a wine. It combines to form a complex with protein materials in the liquid, the large molecules formed gradually fall out of solution clearing the liquid in the process. It is not mere coincidence that wines made from good well balanced recipes clear without problems

Acidity. Acid gives the wine a sharp, sour taste. As well as it contribution to the character of the drink, it has important roles to perform in the actual winemaking process. Without sufficient acid the wine acquires a medicinal taste because the yeast is less efficient during fermentation and side reactions result in undesirable byproducts.   Acid is an important component of esters, whose formation are essential to the maturation and mellowing of the wine and whose presence reduce the dangers of bacterial infection. The presence of acid not only protects the wine itself from spoilage but ensures that food poisoning bacteria, which cannot live in high acid concentrations, are unlikely to be present.

            Types of Acid: Tartaric, Malic (from apples) and Citric.