Perspective of Drinking Wine

Jakarta Lifestyle Now - Tradition of drinking wine is now considered a normal thing for some people. Wine is usually drunk as a complementary dish, such as steak and seafood also. Can be spelled out, wine friend right in the time of relaxed fun. In some European Restaurants often provide the wine with different brands.

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from the pollen types of wine Vitis Vivifera that usually only grow in the area 30 to 50 degrees latitude north and south. Alcoholic drinks made from juice ranged that alcohol content between 8% to 15% is usually referred to as fruit wine (fruit wine). There are several types of wine, namely, Red Wine, White Wine, Rose Wine, Sparkling Wine, Sweet Wine, and Fortified Wine.

Humans have been making wine since about five thousand years ago. Wine is also a popular drink in many countries. Countries that residents drink wine most often (using 2000 data) are: France, Italy, the United States, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Britain, China, Russia and Romania.

The fact that wine has become a phenomenon for the enjoyment of a particular can not be denied. But it also is still a lot of people who see wine from the wrong side. Giving rise to myths that are not true about the wine.

Yohan Handoyo, author book "Rahasia Wine," said, "I always try to put the wine in the correct perspective for the new wine drinker." According to him, a perspective that wine is seen as the only alcoholic beverages, not as a culinary product. Gastronomi is not only food, but also drinks, chocolate, snack. That's all culinary products. When viewed in terms of positive, wine also contains the benefits. For example, the wine is good for heart health, but not for overall health.

Yohan also provides an example of confusion in assessing wine. The old saying the more tasty wine. This is wrong, he said, because not all like that. More than 85% of the market would better be drunk within two to five years. If stored no longer taste, character and its "aroma" lost.

Like other Henry Santoso is a class to learn more about wine. Santoso charge in the wine class at Rp 300,000 per person. At least 30 people join in the class. In the class, which includes the mystery of red wine and white wine revealed. "Why should wine drinking glasses with the use of certain? Why drink wine must also played first-turn. Vodka, if not exhausted, and then closed again botolnya, five years later still Vodka. If the wine, it is not opened out, when the bottle is closed, five more days so vinegar. That let me explain that, "said Santoso.

Indeed, for the layman may ask why I drink wine seemed to be bothered. The reason is because, to consume any food or drink, there is always the best way to get a perfect pleasure.(dari Rosmita)

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Wine Decrease In Inflamasi Vein.

Adding the existing evidence for this, that women who consume wine in a small amount can bring good for the heart. Now scientists say that it is Spanish can also help reduce the inflamasi in the blood vessel. Inflamasi is part of the body's reaction to the injury condition. Researchers from Spain found, after four weekends during the two small glasses of wine each day, the women showed a low level inflamasi in their blood.

Some research found that the wine drinker tends to have a number average low exposure to heart disease compared with the no. The researchers also believe that Spain it can cause a level of good HDL cholesterol may Estimated inflamasi low levels in the body respond to stress conditions such as smoking, high cholesterol levels and the Obesity contributes to the storehouse of fat called plaque in the arterial wall in the section.

Inflamasi most likely can make a plaque to form blood or blood-clot that can trigger heart attacks. Sacanella team includes 35 women with healthy people who drink wine regularly in a number of small. Each woman spent four weekends of activities that are providing positive conditions for heart health without consume wine, and then followed by the last four red wine on the dinner, and a similar pattern is also followed by a drink of white wine. Overall research level of HDL is to find the woman after four weekends to drink wine while increasing the level of a compound inflamasi such as C-reactive protein decreased

Drink red wine have a positive effect is greater than the benefits of white wine that is greater that the likelihood of red wine associated with the polyphenol concentration is higher so it is said by the researchers. Polyphenol is a compound that can act as anti oksidan and can reduce the level inflamasi. Sacanella according to the results of their research-that those who drink a small glass of wine a day can reduce the risk of death due to heart disease as much as 33% compared with a group that does not consume wine.

Sacanella added that the doctors can not recommend for those who do not have the habit wine because some people are very weak (ringkih) drinking habits of the problems that can result for health.

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WHY WINE?

Why Wine? ...pleasurable, sensual, social, intellectual, and stimulating...

SENSUAL

Wine is a pleasant stimulant to four of our five basic senses, as well as to the human spirit. Wine has a nearly limitless variety of flavors. Due to its origin as a product of soil, geography, climate and vintage conditions, grape variety, production technology and aging regimen, it offers more variations and possibilities for sensual appeal than possibly any other stimulus.

INTELLECTUAL, UNIVERSAL AND COMMERCIAL

Wine is also stimulating to the intellect, since a true understanding of wine and its various aspects involves many areas for study. Although most of the literature about wine has historically come from the wealthy and educated, even the poor and illiterate partake of wine's pleasures; therefore, it is a democratic beverage. The grapevine flourishes in most of the temperate climates of the world and has been cultivated since before the earliest historical records. Wine has a broad commercial scope, involving one of every ten persons on earth in one or more facets, from farming, to production, to distribution, to regulation.

WINE CHEMISTRY

Composed of roughly 85% water, 12% ethyl alcohol, a touch of tartaric, malic and several other acids, wine also contains various sugars and carbohydrates, less common alcohols, aromatic aldehydes, ketones, phenolics, enzymes, pigments, many vitamins, some minerals and other substances yet to be identified. There are in all, over 300 separate ingredients identified in wine so far, more than half of them discovered since 1956, when modern chemistry techniques began to improve.

Most of these elements lend complexity to wine flavors with nearly insignificant nutritional impact, either positively or negatively, on the diet, other than to assist in digestion. There are, however, compounds in wine, specifically catechins, flavinoids, resveratrol and quercetin, which have either prophylactic effects against human diseases or preservative effects on the human body itself (see Wine and Health).

While wine does not contain any fat or cholesterol, it does contain calories from carbohydrates. The actual caloric content, therefore, of any wine depends entirely on its levels of both sugar and alcohol. Each six-ounce glass of dry (12.5% alcohol) wine measures about 150 calories, which is about the same as a pint of beer. A stronger, sweeter wine such as Port (20% alcohol) may pack the same calorie count in a much smaller three-ounce serving.

WINE AND FOOD

The chemical composition of wine makes it a natural accompaniment to many foods, since the mild acidity of wine contrasts with the oily or fatty content of some foods. On the other hand, the carbohydrates, sugars and alcohols in wine tend to complement these elements in other foods. Wine and food may each taste good alone, but the end result of this contrasting and complementing is that most wines and foods taste especially good together.

SOCIAL

As with all beverages that contain ethanol, wine is a psychotropic drug. The effects or response vary by individual metabolism and quantity consumed and are somewhat variable, but begin with relaxation and stimulation. This can be positive for the individual and also promote social interaction. It is deceptively easy, however, to indulge beyond the safe measure.

As the quantity of alcohol in the blood increases, its toxic effects become more pronounced. What began as relaxation may become loss of motor control or, in the most extreme and sustained situations, conciousness. Initial stimulation can proceed to aggravation or aggression. Drinking any alcohol until drunk is unhealthy for mind and body and a foolish and lazy way to attempt entertainment. Drunkenness can be both painful to the drunk and dangerous to the bystander.

Regardless of age, weight, gender, type or quantity of food accompaniment, or any other mythical reference point or supposed buffer, a six to eight ounce portion of table wine is the proper serving to avoid overindulgence at one session.

The best way to prevent consuming too much is to consume slowly and to be certain to always accompany with plenty of available water. Moderation is the watchword in order to include wine as part of a healthful lifestyle. (see Wine and Health)

Jim LaMar

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Cork Taint in Wine

Cork Taint in Wine
©Richard Gawel
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Interesting Articles on Wine Tasting

The waiter reluctantly returns a bottle of opened wine to the kitchen. "The gentleman out there says this wine is corked, and wants another one," he says to the manager. The manager looks at the wine, and grudgingly replies, "What's he on about, there's no bits of cork in there! Give him another one we don't want a scene." I'm sure this scenario is played out daily in restaurants and cafes throughout the world. Such is the lack of understanding surrounding cork taint or corkiness in wine. So what is cork taint?
In practical terms, it is the biggest peril bottled wine buyers face. It strikes sporadically, randomly and often very ferociously. No wine, regardless of its pedigree or price, is immune. What is worse is that it forms in the wine after bottling, and cannot be detected until it is opened. It is the serial killer of wine. So exactly what is it, and how prevalent is it?
Cork taint is in fact a set of very undesirable aroma and flavour characters that are imparted to bottled wines following contact with their cork. Six chemical compounds have been found to contribute to cork taint. These are guaiacol, geosmin, 2-methylisoborneol (MIB), octen-3-ol and octen-3-one; and the most important of them all 2,4,6 trichloroanisole. TCA as it is affectionately known is a small and chemically simple molecule. With the exception of guaiacol, these compounds are sensorially very potent. TCA can be detected in dry white wine and sparkling wines at levels around two parts per trillion (0.000000000002 grams in a litre of wine), and in red and port wines at around five parts per trillion.

The Chemical Structure of 2,4,6 Trichloroanisole

Such low concentrations are difficult to conceptualise but it is analogous to one teaspoon in a couple of thousand olympic sized swimming pools or one second in 32,000 years. A single gram of pure TCA could badly taint the entire volume of wine produced in Australia each vintage. The other less common contributors to cork taint are not much better having sensory thresholds of around 20 parts per trillion. So how can you tell if a wine is cork tainted?
For particularly badly tainted wines it is relatively easy if you know what to look for. TCA which is implicated in more than 80 per cent of cork tainted wines typically has a musty, mouldy or wet hessian character. MIB and geosmin have an earthy/muddy aroma, guaiacol is smoky or medicinal, and octen-3-ol and octen-3-one smell distinctly of tinned mushrooms.

The Wine Aroma Dictionary contains the classic smell of TCA cork taint as well as a number of the other cork taint aromas.
While most corked wines are musty or mouldy, occasionally one of the other characters predominates. Complex chemical mechanisms underlie the production of TCA. The one of most importance is the conversion of chlorophenols to chloroanisole by common microscopic fungi such as Aspergillus sp. and Pennicilium sp., in the presence of moisture. Chlorophenols have been used as pesticides and as wood preservatives and as such are common environmental pollutants. The uptake of the minutest amounts of chlorophenol by cork tree bark during any stage of its growth, or subsequent manufacture into cork will provide the potential for cork taint production.
Cork bleaching with hyperchlorite (less frequently used now, peroxide bleaching is now favoured), also provide a ready source of chlorophenols for use by these micro-organisms. TCA can also be formed in packing materials and wooden shipping container floors. It can then pass either through the air or by direct contact to previously unaffected corks. For similar reasons TCA is a major contaminant of many other foods and beverages. The exact incidence of cork taint in Australian wines is hotly debated. Estimates range from one to seven per cent. Australian Wine Research Institute records of the incidence of cork taint seen by winemakers in thousands of bottles of wines opened as part of their Advanced Wine Assessment Course suggest that the figure is around five per cent. My experience in running sensory classes for the winemaking degree at the University of Adelaide/Roseworthy Agricultural College over the past decade would suggest a slightly lower rate of around three per cent. Whatever the exact figure, it is indisputable that cork taint is responsible for adversely modifying the sensory properties of a great deal of bottled wine each year. Arguments by even experienced tasters often arise over whether a wine is corked. This is due to a number of reasons. The first is that people vary greatly in their sensitivity to aromas, taints included. A rule of thumb is that for a specific aroma compound, the most perceptive five per cent of the population are about 200 times more sensitive than the bottom five per cent. Therefore when at low levels, you can be sure that not everyone will perceive the taint. Secondly, cork taint manifests itself differently depending on its degree. At low levels, while not being noticed in its own right, the TCA suppresses the wine's aroma and flavour. Under these circumstances, comparison with other bottles is the only way in which the taint can be confidently verified.
The taint compounds themselves also smell differently depending on their concentration. For example, MIB is somewhat earthy at lower concentrations but when present in large amounts has a camphorous aroma. These shifts in the way the taint compounds smell makes them hard to pin down in some wines. Finally to exacerbate these problems of identification, humans quickly become adapted to the musty aroma of TCA. Continued sniffing of a TCA affected wine can result in rapid reductions in its perceived mustiness. In fact TCA is one of the most strongly adaptive compounds known.
The upshot of this is if you think a wine is corked on the first sniff, it probably is. Subsequent sniffing is far less reliable. The question of whether a wine is corked is also complicated by the fact that the same taints can arise not from the cork but from wine storage in TCA-affected oak barrels. Winemakers describe this as musty oak, and typically associate the fault with poorly maintained old oak. However even relatively new barrels can be affected by TCA.
The wine from a single badly contaminated barrel when blended with hundreds of others, will significantly affect the entire blend. Such is the potency of these compounds. So if you open a bottle of corked wine what can you do about it? In short, nothing. Under wine conditions TCA is a very stable compound. After it leaches into the wine shortly after bottling it will remain there outliving the wine itself. No amount of subsequent breathing will clean up the wine. So what can you do? You could take the wine back to where you purchased it. The cork is simply part of the wine's packaging. If its failure results in the wine not being of merchandisable quality then you have the legal right to return it. Large wineries receive hundreds of returned bottles each year on the basis of them being 'off'. Most of these are subsequently found to be cork tainted. Alternatively you could choose to purchase wines with alternative stoppers such as Stelvin capsules or synthetics. However for a range of other reasons, cork is still undeniably the stopper of choice for most consumers and producers, and remains an important component of the wine packaging mix.
To their credit wineries and cork suppliers spend a large portion of QC budgets on identifying tainted batches corks before they are used research into how TCA formation is affected by the growingmaking distribution process continuing. world without TCA? It's must.

This article appears in The Wine Tutor: Winestate Magazine
www.winestate.com.au

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