True connoisseurs of wine are often also daring researchers: the search for new tastes and aromas brings them not only to wine boutiques or wine departments of supermarkets, but also to small shops, to markets and even to private producers of the drink. We have already written about how. However, unfortunately, while searching, there is still a risk of buying an unnatural powdered wine - a surrogate made of water and vodka or alcohol with sugar, flavors and citric acid, or in general a mixture of alcohol, water and a powdered drink like Yuppie. If you bought a wine whose naturalness raises doubts, then you can test the drink in one of several ways, which we will tell you about today.

Trust your taste and smell

Too much sourness or sugary sweetness should alert you. The chemical smell and taste, as well as the aroma of a plum, apple or other product, overpowering all other smells in the bouquet, are almost 100% signs of a fake.

Sediment is good

A bottle of wine, especially old wine, often contains the so-called "tartar" - a sediment in the form of small crystals at the bottom. Sometimes there is a sediment in wine that looks like gray flakes. In the first case, the sediment indicates the high quality of the drink. In the second case, it is waste yeast and can spoil the taste, so the wine should be poured into another container as soon as possible in order to get rid of them. In any case, the sediment indicates the naturalness of the drink.

Important: there is no inverse relationship - fine wine, young or old, may have no sediment at all.

Testing with soda, glycerin, water

The easiest way to check the quality of wine is to pour 10-20 grams of the drink into a glass and add a pinch of ordinary soda there. Fruit starch in real wine will react with baking soda, which will cause the color of the drink to change - it can get shades of gray, blue or greenish tones. Synthetic "wine" will not change the color.

Glycerin is also easy to use - just drop it into the tested drink. The drops should settle to the bottom without changing color. If the glycerin turns yellow or red, then the wine is unnatural.

Testing with water is a little more laborious, but water is usually always at hand. So, you need to pour the wine into a small bottle with a narrow neck - so that you can easily pinch it with your finger. Then dip the bottle closed with your finger into a large mug, saucepan, or other deep container of water. We remove the finger in the water and turn the bottle over. If the resulting drink does not mix with water, it is natural. If mixed, it is correspondingly unnatural, or at least contains dyes, flavors or other additives.

"Lady's legs"

If you turn and tilt a glass with natural wine in different directions, drips usually remain on its walls, the so-called "wine legs" or "ladies' legs". They can be thicker if the wine is relatively young and very thin in older wine. Generally, the more they stick to the side of the glass, the better the wine. Powdered drink does not leave "ladies' legs" on the glass.

Help from winged testers

A peculiar, but, according to those who tried it, an effective way. True, it can only be used in the warm season. So, a small amount of the drink just needs to be left in a glass, on a saucer or in another wide container. In a couple of hours, or even earlier, fruit flies - small fruit flies that can often be seen next to fermented fruits - will fly to natural wine. Powdered wine does not attract fruit flies.

"Made from dry wine material"

Such an inscription often misleads wine lovers. Indeed, it can be assumed that wine is made from powder. In fact, it means that the wine is made of wine material, not intended for the creation of sweet wines, “fermented to dryness,” as the winemakers say. Evaporating grapes to the state of a powder, and then making "wine" out of this powder is too laborious and unprofitable for dishonest people. Although the so-called "wine drinks" are really made from natural grape powder, but this is usually warned about by the inscription on the label, besides, the share of these drinks on the market is small.

In conclusion, I would like to say that unnatural powdered wine is, fortunately, a rarity. More often you can be disappointed by buying simply tasteless or low-quality, but completely natural wine. It is also unpleasant, but at least without the risk of being poisoned by the "twist". Buy wines in trusted places; give preference to dry wines, as they are the hardest to counterfeit; do not be tempted by a drink with a suspiciously low price, an unnatural color or in an untidy bottle - this way you minimize the risk of buying a fake. We wish you only pleasant discoveries in your search for interesting wines!

Often in stores, instead of real grape wine, they offer poor quality powdered drinks. They are made from evaporated grape must, adding flavors, flavor enhancers and other ingredients. It is difficult to call the liquid obtained in this way a useful and really tasty drink.

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How to identify powdered wine in a store

You can distinguish real wine from counterfeit before purchasing it. First of all, you should look at the price of the drink. The lower it is, the more chances that you have powdered wine in front of you. The fact is that growing grapes is expensive, not to mention processing, storing and transporting the drink. Of course, producers will not sell their products at a loss, so high-quality, good wines are expensive.

Unfortunately, even purchasing a drink at a high price does not guarantee that you have protected yourself from counterfeiting. Some sellers deliberately raise the price to convince the buyer of the impeccable quality of the product.

Powdered wines are almost always sold in cardboard boxes. Natural, quality drinks are stored in glass bottles. The cheaper the container, the higher the chance that it contains a low-grade drink.

Particular attention should be paid to the shade of the liquid. Natural wines tend to have a pleasant soft color. Powder, on the contrary, are often too bright, unnatural. However, only cheap and completely low-quality fakes can be distinguished on this basis.

Consider one more important point: when buying fortified and dessert wines, it is easy to come across a fake, so you need to pay special attention to their choice. Dry wines, on the other hand, are more difficult to counterfeit because they contain less sugar, which means that it is too difficult to interrupt the characteristic chemical flavor.

The difference between powdered wine and natural

If you've already bought wine, try to determine if it's natural or powdered by taste and aroma. In artificial drinks, the smell is often too harsh, too pronounced. This is especially easy to see for those who have already tasted quality natural drinks.

I love wine. Probably I know little about it, but I prefer wine to stronger drinks. No dry, I don't like it, if only for a change. But dessert wines are the best.

When purchasing inexpensive Russian-made wine, buyers are often interested in whether it is "powder". Let's figure out where the legend about "powdered wine" came from and how much it corresponds to the truth.

Usually "powder" is considered to be a cheap wine produced by a Russian producer little-known to the general public. It is understood that in its production, instead of fermentation of grape must, a certain "wine powder" is used, which is diluted with water with the addition of alcohol. Opinions differ regarding the composition of this powder: according to optimists, "wine powder" is produced by evaporation of grape juice and is generally a natural product. Pessimists believe that it is made by mixing sugar, citric acid, food colors and all sorts of flavors.

How true is this legend and what is it based on?

First, after the collapse of the USSR, most of the wine-growing regions - Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia - ended up outside the borders of Russia. Although in recent years, domestic viticulture and winemaking has been developing very actively, which is facilitated by measures of state support, still wine produced in Russia from grapes grown here covers only about 30% of market needs. Bottled imports account for about the same or slightly less - but imported wines are much more expensive and not affordable for all consumers.

The remaining market share is occupied by Russian-made wines (and according to the law, the bottling line is considered the place of production of an alcoholic beverage), which are made from imported wine materials purchased in different countries and imported into the country in bulk tanks - in the slang of winemakers, these wine materials are called bulk.

The term "wine material" means dry wine intended for further further processing. In the simplest case, it is simply bottled and put on sale, but it can be blended, i.e. mix different varieties to get a more interesting bouquet, mature in oak barrels or champagnize - almost all inexpensive sparkling wines produced in Russia are made from bulk.

Most of these wines are produced in little-known wineries located near large cities - during the Soviet industrialization, they were placed closer to consumers and skilled labor, and raw materials could be imported from any region.

Most of these wines are of quite acceptable quality, although complaints about them are still not uncommon. The fact is that bulk, as a rule, is purchased on the spot market, where it will turn up cheaper, one batch from Spain - another from Chile or Moldova. Therefore, there are frequent cases when, when trying to buy a wine he likes, a customer is faced with a drink that is completely different in taste - albeit bottled in exactly the same bottle. On the counter-label, on the reverse side, you can read the inscription in small print: "Made from dry wine material."

A person who is far from familiarizing himself with the intricacies of wine-making technologies immediately comes up with a certain concentrate powder - although at the same time, reading the inscription "dry wine" on the label, he does not at all expect that there will be some "powder" under the cork. This is one of the reasons for the emergence of the legend of "powdered wine".

There is another. In the 90s, in the markets of coastal resort villages in the Crimea, on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, in the southern regions of Ukraine, semi-underground trade in cheap "house wine" in plastic egg bottles was very widespread. Sometimes it really was a simple home-made "dry land", but very often enterprising traders simply took a dry concentrate popular at that time like "Invite" or "Yuppi" and diluted it with water with the addition of vodka.

The resulting liquid was in no way wine - in modern terms, it was a typical surrogate - but it was moderately sweet, moderately sour and contained alcohol. Among inexperienced vacationers who were primarily interested in the alcohol content, and not the taste and aroma, these surrogates, due to their cheapness, sold out with a bang. And the entire local district knew that "Baba Manya drives wine from powder."

Actually, these two very real reasons, bizarrely combined in the mass consciousness, and gave rise to the myth of "powder wine". And to what extent is it possible and realistic to produce wine - real wine, and not a substitute - from any "dry concentrates"? After all, concentrated juices delivered from exotic countries are used for the production of juices and nectars? ..

First, the cost of one liter of imported wine material is about $ 0.6-0.8, or about 40-50 rubles for our money, but in some cases (low quality, excess harvest, etc.) below. There is no economic sense for manufacturers to bother with "evaporation" and subsequent "recovery". The costs of "production" of such wine are reduced in the simplest case to bottling and labeling, and are more than offset even in the lowest-budget segment.

Defective wine material, which has obvious flaws in taste and aroma and is unsuitable for direct bottling, can be purchased even cheaper. To correct the taste, sweeteners (usually plain sugar), acidity regulators (citric acid) and other ingredients are added to it. Often, the content of the original wine material in such a drink is only 50% by volume.

The law does not allow the resulting product to be called wine, and it is labeled as a "wine drink" - on the shelves of chain stores, such swill can be found in paper bags at a price of about 100 rubles per liter, if not cheaper. It is completely safe for health, but there is no need to talk about any taste. Such products also find their consumers among the hunters for cheap degrees.

At the same time, the level of state control over the alcohol industry in Russia today is extremely high, and none of the legal producers will risk an expensive license for a penny profit. Than to chew with "powders", it is much easier to absolutely legally drive a cheap shmurdyak by writing "wine drink" on the label.

There is one more thing - a technological one. In the process of making wine, in the course of yeast fermentation, not only the natural grape sugar contained in the wort is converted into alcohol, but also many other chemical processes. As a result, natural wine - good or bad - doesn't taste like grape juice at all. And it is impossible to prepare "wine" by adding water and alcohol to a concentrate of grape juice - no matter whether it is dry or pasty. You can easily verify this for yourself: take a packet of grape juice, add a little vodka there and try it. You will get vodka with grape juice, and the resulting "cocktail" will be completely different from wine.

And remember, I showed you

The so-called "" among the people is the evaporated grape must, then diluted with water, alcohol and flavorings. That is, in fact, it is an artificial mixture, but with natural roots, which tastes almost indistinguishable from natural wine. Sometimes even experts are not able to determine where is artificial, those from evaporated dry wort, and where is natural wine. Of course, it is more difficult and more expensive to produce real (natural) wine than to add water, yeast and alcohol to the concentrate. If then there is little acid in the taste - add! a little sugar - add a little more, and so on. Wrong taste, let's add a flavoring that will be more aromatic than real wine. In this way, you can create a taste that will appeal to the majority of the population (for example, Isabella). With this, of course, all vitamins and substances necessary for health are lost.

If such a drink cannot seriously harm, then it will not bring any benefit. You can't call it wine. Many synonyms are used in the literature: "powder wine", "unnatural wine", "unconventional wine", "artificial wine". Bottles with such a drink should be labeled "special wine". But it is either typed in too small print (so that the consumer does not notice!) Or is completely absent.

An unconventional technology for making "powdered wine" was approved by GOST R51157-98. According to which it was allowed to add flavors, extracts, dyes, sugar, sweeteners, concentrates and alcohol. Of course, there were reasons for the introduction of this GOST. First, they thought about substandard grapes with low sugar content. It could no longer be used to make natural wine, but with the help of new technology, it became possible to introduce this third-rate grape into circulation.

But in practice, everything led to the fact that it was possible to use concentrated wort for making wine. Indeed, this technology has many conveniences:

For many wineries in central Russia (which do not have their own vineyards) there is no longer a need to buy, transport and store wine materials;

The prepared wine mixture had a significantly lower cost compared to natural wine;

It was possible to get a "wine" that does not grow cloudy, does not become covered with a film, does not get sick, like natural wines.

All these factors led to the situation when, by 2003, out of 5 liters of wine drunk per capita in Russia, only one and a half of them were natural wine. Of course, completely unknown, new producers appeared on the market, who were very far from real winemaking. But the new technology made it possible to produce "wines" anywhere and in any way. And the prices were lower, and the taste was more pleasant, and the storage conditions did not need to be observed. As a result, many Kuban factories producing natural wine were forced to withdraw some brands from production. This happened with almost all famous Russian ports: "Caucasus", "Portweight - 72", "Anapa". Many wineries have reduced their production due to the appearance of cheaper and more tradeable "powdered wines". At the same time, our domestic giants of "powder production" flourished.

But this situation could not last long. And in 2003 (from October 1, 2003) the law on the production of non-traditional wines was canceled. By itself, this fact did not fundamentally change the situation: our giants are still working at full capacity and stupefying the head of the consumer with advertising and low prices. They cannot close overnight!

Moreover, artificial wines are unlikely to disappear altogether. Many customers fell in love with these drinks and do not want (horror!) To switch to natural wine. They don't listen to any reasoning, and they keep buying "powder". This is also facilitated by aggressive advertising on the part of large producers of unnatural wine. After all, they do not say that they produce synthetics, but call their products "high-quality Kuban wine".

Wineries of the Krasnodar Territory receive from abroad the finished wine material, made from natural grape must in Argentina, Chile, Spain, Portugal, less often - from other countries. The use of imported wine material is dictated by a number of reasons - firstly, the above-mentioned exporting countries have a high level of agriculture, as a result of which the cost of grapes (and, as a consequence, of its processed products) is low. Secondly, in our country in the last decades of the last century, vineyards were enthusiastically and furiously cut down, trying to overcome drunkenness. And the vine, as you know, gives the first harvest many years after the new planting. It will take at least another 15-2 years before domestic viticulture reaches the level of the 60-70s. Currently, viticulture is reviving, but, unfortunately, not as fast as we would like. Therefore, while our winemakers are forced to load the existing production facilities with imported wine materials.

The imported wine material undergoes additional processing at the factories of the Krasnodar Territory, stabilization from turbidity of various nature and filtration, after which it is sent to the production of blended wines (more often) or directly to bottling (less often).

Concentrated juice from Argentina and Chile (where it is produced by evaporating natural grape juice under vacuum to reduce the boiling point and as a result of thermal changes in the composition of the product) also goes to Russian wineries and is used in the technological process. It is used in the technology of special (strong) wines as one of the components of a blend, which is the norm.

But, nevertheless, there are a number of producers who receive grape concentrate in order to dilute it with water (which is prohibited by modern legislation) and send it for fermentation. There are few such manufacturers, but they exist. Let's not poke a finger and call them by name in order to avoid litigation. But there are such manufacturers, including in the Krasnodar Territory. Professional winemakers, if I may say so, “wines” are contemptuously called “sticky”.

As before, the share of synthetic wines in the total volume of Kuban factories is about 30-40 %%. Moreover, this number includes the most popular and beloved by the people. But in fairness, it should be noted that many "powder" wineries simultaneously produce natural wines, albeit in limited quantities.

How to distinguish natural from artificial wine?

1. Buy only bottled wines. Because this is the surest way to avoid counterfeiting.

2. When purchasing wine, carefully read the label. Try to see the phrase "natural wine". If it is not there, then this is a sure sign that you have synthetics (powdered wine) in front of you. Many honest producers indicate on the label that this is a "special wine". This phrase means that the wine is not natural, but made from concentrate.

3. Don't buy semi-sweet and other semi-wines. Dry wine (i.e. natural) cannot be made from concentrate.

4. Try to buy wine that has the vintage year. It can be aged (up to 1.5 years) or vintage (up to 3 years) wine. Powdered wines cannot be aged or vintage.

5. If you bought wine and could not identify it by any external signs, then taste it well. Powdered wines are very poor in taste and have no aftertaste. As a rule, these are very sweet drinks. The color may vary, but most of them are not light. Smells from a freshly opened bottle can be very tempting. But there is no need to delude ourselves: an ordinary wine for 2-3 euros cannot have any special smells, it must smell like wine :) Synthetics producers do not skimp on flavorings, and very often an ordinary consumer "bites" on such a simple bait.

But in case you still cannot refuse from your favorite powdered wine, drink it to your health! Just do not forget that there are also natural wines, which are sung by poets and for which wars have been started. And synthetics will always remain a pitiful likeness of that divine drink, whose name is WINE.

This is not easy to do. Artificial drink - evaporated grape must, diluted with water with the addition of alcohol, yeast and all kinds of flavors. The diluted concentrate in the bottle does not "get sick", is not covered with a film, and, in fact, does not require special storage conditions. Its production is a fairly inexpensive process.

A fake can be distinguished by the following characteristics: powdered wine is never aged or vintage. There are no dry artificial wines either. Almost always, a drink made from a concentrate is too sweet, with an obtrusive aroma, but does not leave an aftertaste.

After rotation of the glass with intoxicated nectar, “paths” of liquid will remain on the walls of the vessel. The French call them “legs of wine”. It is believed that the longer the legs last, the better the quality of the wine. They also talk about age: the thinner the traces, the more years the drink is.

Powdered wine

Powdered wines are wines that are made from dried grape must (concentrate). This is the simplest and most affordable technology that allows you to produce a drink that is almost indistinguishable from natural wine. The main difference from natural wine is the complete absence of nutrients (they simply do not exist in the powder and cannot be) and, of course, the cost. However, there are a few nuances worth noting.

Powdered wine will not harm, but is much cheaper than natural wine, which makes it quite affordable. Secondly, you can make wine from powder anywhere, even if you don't have your own vineyards. It is enough to buy powder for wine, add yeast, alcohol and flavoring additives, subject to the technology and labeling of such wine (the label must indicate "Special wine"), everything is legal and correct. Thirdly, not only selected grapes, but also damaged ones, can be put into production, which increases the profitability of wineries.

How to distinguish powdered wine from natural wine?

• Buy wine in a bottle.
• Natural wine is written on the label with natural wine.
• Buy wines that have the vintage indicated.
• Choose dry wines. They cannot be made from powder.
• Appreciate the aftertaste. Powdered wine doesn't have it.

And here is the result of my research - you can buy cheap wine under two conditions:
1. The wine is produced in foreign countries.
2. Wine must be absolutely dry, it is impossible to make it from powder.