(1) Fermented wine refers to low-alcohol wine made from grains and fruit juice, including wine, beer, yellow wine and fruit wine.
(2) Distilled liquor refers to highly distilled liquor distilled from the above-mentioned fermented raw liquor or fermented mash and fermented grains, including China liquor, French brandy, whisky, Dutch gin, vodka, rum and tequila.
(3) The preparation of beverage wine takes fermented raw wine or distilled wine as the main raw material, with certain color, aroma and taste raw materials, and is made through the specified technological process. Including cocktails, liqueurs, medicinal liquor, etc.
According to the manufacturing process, most of the current wines can be classified into these three categories: brewing wine, distilled wine and mixed wine.
1, brewing
Homebrewed wine is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting raw materials and storing them in a certain container for a certain period of time. The alcohol content of this wine is generally not high, generally not exceeding 10%. This kind of wine mainly includes beer, wine and rice wine.
Beer is the general name of alcoholic beverages produced by malt, hops, water and yeast fermentation. Beer is divided into bottom fermented beer and top fermented beer according to fermentation technology. Bottom fermented beer includes dark beer, dry beer, light beer, cellar beer and Munich beer, while top fermented beer includes light beer, bitter beer, rye beer and Scottish light beer.
Wine is mainly made from fresh grapes. According to the different manufacturing processes, it can be divided into ordinary wine, sparkling wine, alcohol fortified wine and mixed wine. Ordinary wine is the red wine, white wine and pink wine we usually drink. Champagne is the most famous sparkling wine. Only sparkling wine produced in Champagne region of France can be called champagne, while sparkling wine produced in other parts of the world can only be called sparkling wine. The representatives of alcohol fortified wine are sherry and wine. Mixed wine such as absinthe.
Rice wine is mainly made from rice and glutinous rice by mixed fermentation with distiller's yeast. Its representatives are yellow rice wine from China and sake from Japan.
2. Distilled wine
The manufacturing process of distilled liquor generally includes four processes: raw material crushing, fermentation, distillation and aging. This wine is purified by distillation, so its alcohol content is high. According to the different brewing materials, it can be divided into the following categories.
(1) China liquor. Generally, raw materials such as wheat, sorghum and corn are fermented, distilled and aged. There are many kinds of liquor in China, and the classification methods are also varied.
(2) brandy. It is distilled liquor made from fruit. Brandy refers to distilled liquor made from grapes. Other brandies include Calva Duo and cherry brandy.
③ Whiskey. It is distilled liquor made from pretreated grains. These grains are mainly barley, corn, rye and wheat, or other grains. The special process of fermentation and aging has long given whisky a unique flavor. The aging process of whisky is usually completed in charred oak barrels. Different countries and regions have different production processes, and the whisky products in Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the United States are the most famous.
(4) vodka. Vodka can be brewed from any fermentable raw material, such as potatoes, barley, rye, wheat, corn, beets, grapes and even sugar cane. Its biggest feature is that it has no obvious characteristics, aroma and taste.
(5) tequila. Tequila is distilled liquor made from tequila.
(6) rum. Rum is mainly made from sugarcane by fermentation and distillation. Generally divided into light rum, dark rum and aromatic rum.
(7) the degree of pine nut wine. People usually call it Jin Jiu according to its English pronunciation, and some people call it gin and Jin Jiu, which are distilled spirits with spices. Some people use the blending method earlier, so some people include it in the blended wine.
Step 3 blend wine
Blended wine is a blended wine with special color, aroma, taste and shape based on brewed wine, distilled wine or edible alcohol and added with various natural or artificial raw materials.
There are many famous mixed wines in China, such as Tiger Bone Wine, Ginseng Wine and Bamboo Leaf Green.
There are many kinds of mixed wines abroad, including aperitif and liqueur.
Brandy-Brandy is a wine made of grapes and various fruits through fermentation, distillation and other processes, collectively known as brandy. The manufacturing method is to store the materials produced in the above process in wooden barrels for many years to make them mature. So the predecessor of brandy is actually white wine. French-made liquor is the best, and natural French brandy is also the first. It is said that in the16th century, perhaps earlier, when the brandy trade was just emerging, the distillation technology used in perfume production had not been used in wine. At that time, the wine trade between La Rochelle and the Netherlands was very prosperous at the pier of the Charente River in France. This kind of business is realized by this kind of sea transportation. But because of the war, the danger is great, and the loss is of course common. The whole case of wine occupies a lot of space in the engine room. So a clever Dutch businessman came up with a wonderful method, which is to remove the water from the wine and concentrate it into alcohol. In this way, it will not take up space when transported to the Netherlands, and the loss will not be too great in case of war. After reaching the destination, adding water becomes the original wine. But when the businessman arrived in Holland, his friends tried this concentrated wine and found it sweet, but it tasted bad after adding water. So the merchant decided to sell it as wine. The Dutch call this wine "BRANDE WINE", which means combustible wine. BRANDY is also simplified from the original Dutch words. What's the difference between cognac and ordinary brandy? Cognac is actually an ancient town along the Charente River in southwest France, and it is also the most famous grape producing area. With unique advantages, it is suitable for grape planting regardless of climate and soil. Therefore, the wine and brandy brewed by grapes in this area are collectively called cognac to show their preciousness. In order to ensure the quality of brandy, the French government has made very strict regulations on the naming of cognac: only cognac produced and brewed in cognac area can be named cognac. Cognac is divided into six growing areas, and the quality of wine produced is also different.
In order:
1 Grand Champagne Zone
2. small champagne, a small champagne area
3. Border areas-borders
4. Planting forest areas-excellent tree species
5.Bonsbois, a superior planting forest area.
6. The quality of ——BOIS cognac, a general planting area, is superior to other brandies, and it is also because of the traditional special distillation technology in this area for hundreds of years.
The distiller includes a large pot with a convex cover for collecting alcohol vapor, and a tube at the top of the cover is connected with the wine collector. The fuel is coal or firewood. All the equipment is made of pure copper according to the ancient method. Another ancient French brandy, Armagnac, has been distilled in Gasconi for 500 years. Armagnac brandy is usually stored in oak barrels for at least three years. Brandy needs to be aged in oak barrels to make the wine more mellow In this process, the texture of oak played a great role. Therefore, the choice of wood and the manufacture of barrels are also very particular. The best brandy is made from many brandies of different ages and sources. Their species and proportions are kept secret by winemakers. The bottleneck of cognac is printed with a star seal, from 1 star to 5 stars, indicating the storage life respectively; In addition, the mass is represented by omitted letters, such as:
E/ excellent
F: Very good.
very good
O/OLD is ancient.
E/ very special
P/ light color
S/SUPERIOR is the best, V. O means very old, generally stored for 3-6 years;
Verb (abbreviation of verb) stores S.O. of 7- 10 years;
X.o storage 15 years;
X stored for more than 40 years;
S.f means kindness and virtue.
But because different companies have different standards, you don't have to believe it too much. Cognac can be used to make cocktails and other drinks. No matter what kind of wine it is mixed with, cognac always maintains its unique flavor.
Before explaining the grade of brandy, let's look at the aging process of brandy in oak barrels. Aging is to store brandy in oak barrels for a period of time to make the wine more mellow. This was described in detail in the previous section. When brandy is stored in oak barrels, perhaps brandy needs to be stored in old barrels; Or, brandy needs to be transferred to a new barrel; Perhaps, brandy needs to be kept in the first barrel; These calculations will be carried out during the aging period of several years, which depends entirely on the experience of winemakers. Before he made these decisions, he relied on the brandy in the barrel and carried out it as needed. One more thing, everyone must understand that the best brandy is actually blended from many different years. Whether or not to reconcile and how to reconcile are, of course, the secrets of all experts and will never be revealed. However, these secrets are actually completely past experience, and there is no formula or formula to copy. The skills of winemakers have been passed down from generation to generation hundreds of years ago. There is no book to look up, and it depends entirely on personal feelings and experience. So we say that cognac brewing is not a technical processing project, but an artistic processing process.
Some books contain false information about the grade of brandy. In fact, the French government has strict regulations on the grade of brandy, especially cognac brandy: Samsung must be stored in barrels for more than two and a half years; The storage period of VSOP Napoleon is at least four and a half years, and the storage period is at least six and a half years.
The French government has only set the above three grades, and the rest cognac, such as XO and EXTRA, has a longer brewing period. The French government has no strict regulations, and it is up to each wine merchant to decide for himself. There is no one-star, two-star V-level or VS-level.
2. According to the flavor of the wine.
This method is based on the characteristics of the main aroma components of wine to classify wine, and it is often used to classify wine in national wine evaluation.
(1) Maotai-flavor liquor
Also known as Maotai-flavor liquor, represented by Maotai liquor. Soft and moist sauce flavor is its main feature. The fermentation process is the most complicated. Most of the Daqu used is ultra-high temperature koji.
(2) Luzhou-flavor liquor
Luzhou Laojiao Tequ, Wuliangye, Yanghe Daqu, etc. Is a representative, characterized by rich aroma, sweet and delicious. There are many kinds of fermentation raw materials, mainly sorghum, and the fermentation adopts the process of mixed steaming and continuous slag. Fermentation uses old pits and artificially cultivated pits. Among the famous wines, Luzhou-flavor liquor has the largest output. This type of wine is produced by wineries in Sichuan, Jiangsu and other places.
(3) Fen-flavor liquor
Fenjiu, also known as Fen-flavor liquor, is characterized by its pure flavor, using steaming and dregs-removing fermentation process and fermenting in ground vats.
(4) Rice-flavor liquor
Guilin Sanhua Liquor, with rice as raw material and Xiaoqu as saccharifying agent, has pure rice flavor.
(5) Other aromatic liquors
The main representatives of this kind of wine are xifeng liquor, Dongjiu and Baisha Liquor. , its fragrance type has its own characteristics. The brewing process of these wines adopts some techniques of Luzhou-flavor, Maotai-flavor or Fen-flavor liquor, and the distillation process of some wines also adopts the cross-flavor method.