Wine material - what is it? A comprehensive answer to this difficult question will be given in the presented article. We will also tell you about how wine material is produced, and also prepare it for making wine and other alcoholic drinks.
general information
Drinking wine during dinner, few people guess what this drink is made of. Wine material acts as its main raw material. What it is? Grape wine material is called a wine product, which has a volume fraction of ethyl alcohol in the range of 9-20%.
Wine Production
Absolutely all wine materials are produced by incomplete or full alcoholic fermentation of crushed or whole berries of dried or fresh grapes. Also, this raw material is made from grape must. Rectified ethyl alcohol, rectified grape spirit, wine distillate, sugar-containing substances, natural flavoring and flavoring components are often added to it. They do this to give raw materials organoleptic properties. It should be noted that such additives are allowed in winemaking.
As you can see, table or dessert wine is not made from powder. To do this, use a special wine material. What is it, we told above. However, it should be noted that the possibility of adding sugar, rectified and flavorings is not very pleasing to those who appreciate its rich natural taste and aroma in such drinks.
What is it used for?
At large wineries, they produce low-alcohol drinks and make wine from wine materials. What is this raw material? Before using it for the manufacture of products, wine materials go through a number of technological processes.
For the preparation of wine materials they use pasting, egalization, cold and heat treatment, blending and filtering.
Egalization
During this process, a homogeneous batch of wine materials is obtained by mixing raw materials from the same grape variety. It should be noted that most middle-class wines are also made from grapes taken from various vineyards.
Blending
The blending of wine materials is the process of mixing two or more components (for example, wort, juice, brandy alcohol, fermented alcohol, fruit or wine distillate, rectified ethyl alcohol obtained from food raw materials, rectified fruit or grape alcohol, flavoring and aromatic substances, sugar-containing components, as well as other types of raw materials that are allowed in winemaking).
Does the use of such additives include GOST? Table wine materials in which the mentioned substances are used are used only for the manufacture of wine drinks. As you know, they have a less pronounced and rich taste than classic wine. However, such drinks are much cheaper.
Cold working
Why is wine material treated with cold? What is it and why is this process necessary? The cooling of wine materials is carried out in order to achieve stability to reversible colloidal and crystalline opacities.
However, according to experts, when separating tartrate crystals during cold processing, wine can lose some of its taste characteristics.
Pasting
This is one of the most effective methods of clarifying wine to crystal clarity. During this processing, various substances (inorganic or organic nature) are added to the wine product to stabilize it.
Heat treatment
Processing wine with heat (at a temperature of 60-65 ° C) is carried out to accelerate its maturation (most often used for port wine), as well as to increase stability during long-term storage.
In the manufacture of certain types of wines (for example, cahors, madeira, malaga, etc.), exposure to heat or high-temperature processing are integral technological methods in the formation of specific organoleptic properties of raw materials.
However, it should be noted that such an impact adversely affects the quality of manufactured products. This is due to the fact that after heat treatment, the wine completely loses its natural aromas and taste characteristics (if any were in the raw materials). Typically, such a drink has a dead taste, which is often masked by the addition of rectified and sugars.
Filtration
To give the wines crystal clarity and brilliance, they are separated from the sediment. They do this by filtration, using different types of filters (plate, cloth and alluvial), as well as different filter materials (kieselguhr, pulp).
Such processing of wine material also negatively affects the manufactured products. After all, good wines generally try not to filter. They are only passed through coarse filters that can only retain insoluble particles.
Wine material for the production of champagne
Champagne wine material is used for the production of the same sparkling drink. Such raw materials are produced only from the best grape varieties (for this region).
Grapes for champagne should be carefully selected and meet the following requirements:
- the mass concentration of acids (titratable) should be in the range of 8-11 g / dm3;
- mass concentration of sugar - 17-20%.
The production of wine materials for champagne from crumpled, substandard and rotten grapes is not allowed. The collected and sorted raw materials are immediately delivered for processing (within 4 hours).
Wort is separated from grapes by pressing whole bunches. The main condition for the preparation of high-quality champagne is the protection of wine materials from oxidation.
What is cognac wine material made of?
The degree of maturity of the grape, its variety and processing methods are of great importance for obtaining a quality drink. Areas that supply such raw materials must be specialized.
Varieties with a pronounced aroma are not used for the manufacture of cognac. As for hybrids, they are processed using special technology in order to avoid the appearance of unpleasant tones. Red grapes are processed according to the white method. This is necessary in order to make a slightly colored must.
The grapes are harvested by sugar content. For each cognac region it is set separately. Grapes that are processed must be healthy. As a rule, it is processed according to the same rules as for table white wines.
Wine materials for cognac should be stored only in large metal and reinforced concrete containers that have protective coatings. Wine materials are ridge, vicious, squeezed, diseased, as well as raw materials obtained by the red method, are not used for distillation of cognac alcohol.
Control over the preparation of wine materials for cognac is carried out in the same way as in the preparation of ordinary table wine materials.
To summarize
As you can see, wine materials are used not only for making table and dessert wines, but also for other alcoholic drinks. For the production of such raw materials, large wineries use only high-quality grapes, machine-made or hand-made. To get a good drink with a pleasant bouquet of aroma, dyes, sugar and other substances that are designed to mask spoiled raw materials are never added to the wine material.