In vino veritas is an ancient quote that when people are liberated under the influence of alcohol, they say what they really think. In addition, wine can make a cold winter evening warmer and lighter. The Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa once said: “Life is good, but wine is better.” But all this is only about real, natural wine, without chemicals and unnecessary additives. But how to choose real wine among thousands of bottles of fakes? We offer to remember a few rules for choosing wine.
Bottle
Usually the wine is bottled in bottles of 0.75 liters, the bottom of which must necessarily be concave. A real wine bottle should also be dark colored glass so that sunlight does not affect the quality of the drink.
Cork
A cork cork indicates the status of the drink, but this is not always the case. The reserves of the Portuguese cork tree are not endless, and therefore even good wines often have plastic corks. You can distinguish them by the name of the wine and the manufacturer printed on them, and sometimes by the batch number. If there is no data on the cork, then most likely the wine is not a factory spill, but a fake.
Sediment
As a rule, even in good wine at the bottom you can find a little sediment. Tartar settles in aged wines. But if there is a lot of sediment and it is cottony, then this wine is definitely with impurities. The sediment consistency can be easily checked by turning the bottle upside down. If the sediment does not fall, then the wine is of poor quality.
Label
If people read everything that is written on the label, they would not buy wine from wine materials made in the Crimea, but bottled somewhere in Tambov. Also, the label will help to identify real vintage wines with many years of aging. After all, if the bottle is many years old, then its label will also look old, and not shine with fresh printing.
Glycerin test
A simple experiment with which you can establish the authenticity of wine. It is enough to drop a drop of glycerin into the wine. If the glycerin remains colorless, this is an indicator of real wine. If the droplet acquires a reddish or yellowish tint, then there are a lot of dyes and impurities in the wine. Glycerin costs a penny and you can buy it at any pharmacy.
Bubble test
Wine does not mix with water, so you can check its naturalness by mixing these two substances. Pour a small amount of wine into the bottle and plug it with your finger. Then turn it over, lower it into a vessel with liquid, and remove your finger. If there are no impurities in the wine, it will not mix with water, otherwise the mixing will happen quite quickly.
Foam test
Shake the bottle and pour the wine into a glass. If the wine is good, then the foam will be mainly in the center of the glass and will quickly disappear. In a fake, the foam remains for a long time, concentrating along the edges of the glass.