Wine accompanies the mankind for over 10 thousand years! During this time wine, wine-making technology evolved, there are new wines, a new winery equipment, wine makers have learned a lot. But one thing has remained constant: the role of wine in our everyday life and the human passion for this incredible beverage. No significant event that neither party is without fault. The wine attracts with its mystery, inspiring us to great deeds and gives us inspiration.

Today, more and more people want to know about wines, know at least the basic principles of winemaking, own rules of serving wine and matching with food. Today it is considered prestigious to be able to handle a bottle of wine. Increasing popularity of the school sommelier, which give the opportunity to obtain basic knowledge in enology (the science enology and about the profession of enology Colonist told in the previous article, to learn to understand wines of the world and surprise your friends and colleagues with your knowledge about the magical beverage.

even if You never went to sommelier school, Your profession has nothing to do with wine, You can still have a good knowledge about wine. Colonist will help You with this and will tell you what to do if You long to wander among the shelves with a variety of wines in the store and don't know what kind of wine to choose from. Nobody wants to buy "a pig in a poke"! Colonist will tell you how to determine the ideal balance between price and quality? How to choose a bottle of wine and be confident in it? What will tell the buyer a label, whether it is wine will bring You pleasure? So the Colonist decided to help You choose a good quality wine in the store.

 

tip 1. Appearance bottles of wine.

  the the Glass VS bag-in-box

Now on the shelves of wine can be seen not only in bottles, but in Tetra Paks so-called “bag-in-box”, which can have a different amount (e.g., 1-2 liters). Classic wine bottle has a standard volume of 0.75 liters. Please note that the “bag-in-box” wine, usually, very cheap, that says about their low quality. Colonist advised to buy wine only in bottles, because glass is the best container for proper wine storage.

 

the Cork VS twist

the Bottle can be closed as cork and metal twist. Again, the dilemma: whether to be a quality wine under a metal twist? Such a tube facilitates the problem with the corkscrew, because it is in this case not needed, and the price of these wines will be cheaper. You need to keep in mind that metal twists can officially close the wine only a few countries of the New world and European wine should have a cork. It is through the cork, the wine continues to breathe in oxygen, continues its life, changing, maturing, evolving. This does not mean that under the metal twists You will find low-quality wine! Just wine with this type of traffic will be of medium quality, usually Cutlery, is quite simple in its flavors and taste.

so, finding the shelf with wine bottles and corks take up two different bottles. You probably have noticed that some bottles of wine seem lighter in weight than others. Is it possible? After all, the classic bottles have a standard the same volume (750 ml). In this case an important role plays the thickness of the glass bottle. Easy the bottle is, as a rule, is cheap, and the heavy bottle is better and more expensive glass. Great wines are sabotinova exclusively in the “heavy” bottles.

the bottle Shape

bottle Shape also can tell You what kind of wine is waiting for You inside. There are several classical forms of the bottle, which are used in the world for bottling wines. The most common of the so-called a Bordeaux shape bottle of cylindrical form, which has “shoulders”. The shape of the bottle due to the fact that red wines of the Bordeaux region (hence this form of bottle), aged in oak and not filtered, so the bottom of the bottle often settled noble sediment. And for that, pouring the wine, the sediment got into the glass, came up with the shape with “shoulders” that he is detained in the bottle. Glorify this region such as red grapes like Cabernet and Merlot, so their assemblage (blending) is the most common.

Today most of the wines are already filtered, and the residue in them does not appear, but the form of this bottle has survived and is widely used in the world. The shape of the bottle helped to not only hold sediment, but is very convenient to store on the shelves, because it is easy to fix in a horizontal position. Especially with the shape of the bottle cork is always soaked with wine, which is extremely important during long-term storage of wine.

In Ukraine, by law, all wines, without exception, must be filtered, because (by law) “the wine is suitable for implementation only in case if it did not produce any visible haze or sediment”. Manufacturers are forced to filter red wines to the shelves they shone with its brilliance and transparency. Although filtration of red wine takes away from a lot of substances that make this wine full-bodied, giving a good balance of acidity and cannnot and prolong his life in the bottle.

Colonist butile your wine bottles Bordeaux type and closes them exclusively corks that buys in Portugal.

Another form is called a bottle of Burgundy – it has smooth lines and has no “shoulders” for the detention of sediment. This is because in the Burgundy region mainly produces white wines that are well-filtered, which do not have sediment and hence more suitable this form. Among the famous wines of the standards of Burgundy – aged Chardonnay, including Swords, because the grapes Chardonnay is one of the best in the region. In several other regions of France also use a bottle of this form for bottling wines from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

the shape of the bottle often speaks of the character of the wine in it. Quite strange, at first glance, the shape of the bottle of German wine is reminiscent of “the flute” – dougovito and graceful. As a rule, in the “flute” You will find the Rieslings and Gewurztraminer from the regions of Moselle and Alsace.

This is not a complete list of the forms of bottles, because some regions of the world has secured the use of liquid forms of the bottle exclusively for their own wines, and it is in forms that are very different from the other, and you can find these wines.

Bottle of sparkling wine are all well-known bottle shape, mostly dark green. The most important difference between this bottle from wines is the thickness of the glass, as bottles of sparkling wine must be able to withstand the pressure inside. Colonist for the production of sparkling wine Bser (by the classical method champagnization in the bottle) purchases of bottles that can withstand pressure of 5 atmospheres, because while the traditional method of champagnization the wine is saturated with gases in the bottle (and not in a separate metal containers), the pressure inside rises, so it's important to have a glass, which in the future will survive the game of bubbles. This should be considered, because the average speed at which the tube can shoot, is 13 meters per second!

 

Tip 2: what you tell the label?

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Selecting a bottle, the first thing that should draw attention is the presence of excise stamps. The excise tax is compulsory on bottles of wine, so the Colonist advised not to consume wine without excise stamps, to suddenly stumble upon a counterfeit.

After that, take the time to read the label. Labels consist of two parts – the front and back. Usually, the front label will tell You the name of the wine, the manufacturer (trade mark), logo of the manufacturer, the year of harvest. Ukraine has a list of mandatory information that the legislative provisions should be specified on the front label and back label. Please note that the list of mandatory information on the labels is different in different countries, so the bottles produced in Ukraine, you can find the information that you absolutely do not need to specify on the bottles, for example, in France.

the First thing you should pay attention on the General appearance of the labels. World practice has proved that large and very good wine in any case will not use too bright with neon colors labels, if drawn with colored markers. It is believed that the label should be in muted colors, because it should not distract from the contents within. But in this case, the main! Some manufacturers of cheap industrial wines can use extremely bright labels for samprost to attract the attention of the buyer. Agree that among the hundreds of bottles in the shop are easier to select exactly bright, which immediately catch the eye. And experienced buyer will still pay attention to simple relaxed labels, which will be important text. Such labels can obscure the fantastic wine inside.

the most important thing on the label? Some information can be written on the label with their own desires of the manufacturer, but it will be important and useful to the buyer. For example, specifying a particular region where the wine was made. It was this geographical location is already automatically increases the quality of the grapes, and therefore wine. Please note, wines that made from grapes grown in the same area where the winery is located, will always have the highest quality. A wine made from grapes or wine, which was transported across the country, and maybe from abroad, a priori lose quality.

the Standard label wines Cabernet Colonist with the exact geographical region[/caption]

the example labels Colonist can be seen this region, the vineyards and winery are located in the Danube Bessarabia, a well known wine region, the largest in Ukraine Yalpug lake, on the same latitude with Bordeaux and Piedmont – 45 parallel. Indeed, the winery is located at a distance of 10 minutes from the vineyards, so the harvest for the past hour falls on primary processing and does not oxidize or begin fermentation.

We believe that the word “wine” many of You are puzzling and the question “what is it?” The wine is a wine that has not yet been bottled in the containers for consumption. That is, it is a ready product before bottling to stage filtration and stabilization of sulfur, and in the future will be bottled. Typically, the wine is stored in large metal tanks. And the greatest distrust and even fear among buyers causes the phrase “dry wine material”. There are many who might think about “powder wine.” But tasting powder does not happen! There are wines from poor, sick, rotten grapes, or of poor quality wine, which could ferment and deteriorate in long distance transport from abroad, and it must be saved with antibiotics or other chemicals! “Dry wine material” should also not be afraid of, it's just a technological term that means the wine is not bottled. Dry wine is because he was completely fibrogene dry, does not contain sugar, and in the future this wine will be a dry wine.

In Ukraine on the labels, and Colonist in particular, you can read the following sentence: “ingredients: wine from grapes of Cabernet”. Do not be afraid of the word “wine” in this case, because there is a legislative process instructions describe the composition of the product, which the manufacturer is obliged to adhere at the time of writing labels. In this case the wine is completely produced from grapes of Cabernet, but the manufacturer needs to specify raw material – wine materials. Most importantly, the wine was its own production, not purchased.

Imagine wines made from purchased grapes, imported from abroad in huge quantities! To store this amount of wine during transport can be used artificial stabilizers, which make the wine alive in a strange liquid. Make wine not from grapes, and have purchased wine directly reduces its cost, quality, and simplifies the whole process of making wine for the manufacturer.

Among the useful consumer information on the label there is a list of grapes used for the production of a particular wine. Wine can be monocrotaline – made exclusively from one grape variety. For example, wine Colonist Cabernet, Merlot, Odessa black, Suholimansky, Traminer, Riesling. There may be assemblages of wines from several grape varieties, mixed at different stages of the technological process and in various proportions. Colonist produces classic Bordeaux assemblage Cabernet-Merlot the category of “High gamma” by mixing wine from two varieties of grapes Cabernet and Merlot during aging in oak. There are a few months of Merlot and Cabernet aged in French oak barrels separately, and then they are mixed in the correct proportions (usually 50%-50%) and Demetriades until tender. The entire period of oak aging can take 9 months.

There is a fault, which may have three, four or more varieties in one bottle. Manufacturers in some European countries are not required to identify the varietal composition of the wine. For example, the famous wine of France Chablis for many years holds a reference position in the world, but until recently, many did not even know that Chablis is made from 100% Chardonnay! And if You want to buy a bottle of white wine, produced in Ukraine, which is not written anything except “dry white wine”, it is unlikely that You will get high quality wine. Such bottles can be mixed all the varieties that we could collect or purchase for wine.

Among the useful information on the label should also emphasize the crop year. Please note, on the bottles indicate the year of harvest, not the year of bottling. So the date of bottling may be much later. In the case of aged wines, the bottling takes place the following year after harvest. Specify the crop year suggests that the wine is made from a single harvest year. Hence, the global pursuit of big crops, because in the world of wine reference books you can always find the list of best and worst harvests in different wine regions of the world. In Ukraine, for example, outstanding productive years in the Odessa region are considered to be 2009, 2011, 2013. According to the chief technologist of the winery Kolonist Lydia Zadnepryany, 2011 had the harvest, which Ukraine has not seen the last 50 years! That year, all the climatic and the weather conditions were so favorable that all the grapes on the bunches ripened evenly! But 2010 had a lot of rain, which of course affected the grape harvest. Red wines of the following years are also high quality, but they are still quite young, their potential will be revealed with time.

the Year of harvest may not be listed on the bottles of sparkling wine, because for the production of champagne wine materials are used several years. Thanks to the blending of wine from different harvests and to receive annually the same taste and aroma of sparkling wine. It is important for the consumer, who is accustomed to a particular wine, its taste and aroma.

There are a lot of additional information, which can be found on the labels. Of course, a detailed description of the organoleptic characteristics (color, taste and aroma) of wine will help you to choose wine according to Your own taste. Colonist also decided to help the consumer and placed on the label information on the flow temperature of the wine, the right glass for this wine, and described the process of manufacture. Namely, it is indicated, in which the oak, the wine is aged, what technology is used and even specify the parameters of grapes and age of vines. Than older the vine the better. Improve the quality of wine is also information with respect to the manual harvest. Colonial plantations on their own uses exclusively manual grape harvest.

 

tip 3: the Price of wine.

 

you can find a quality wine for a low price? It may surprise You, but it is possible! There are many affordable wines (in the range of 200 hryvnias). These wines are aged in oak, are canteens, is quite simple, easy, understandable, but they are well made, natural, vivid.

Let us consider the components of the price of a bottle of wine, and then we can conclude how much low can cost a bottle of quality organic wines on the shelf in the store.

That the manufacturer establishes the price of your wine? It is clear that pricing is one of the most difficult tasks facing the manufacturer. If we talk about industrial wine, that is, manufacturers-giants that produce several million bottles a year, these wines are generally in the lowest price category. And if we talk about signature wines, small family wineries each bottle cherished as a child, each bottle is a laborious hour, each bottle is a work of art. In this case the wine for the author of the winemaker is priceless!

the Price of a bottle made in Ukraine, includes the cost, which is the sum of the cost of production materials (grapes, reagents, bottle, cork, label printing, and the like), resources expended, wages, cost of excise, the cost of licensing licenses that margin of store margins and taxes. To the price of bottles from abroad, add the cost of transportation, customs fees when importing to the countries, translation of labels, and the like.

Earlier, in Ukraine the cost of a bottle of wine is also included and is extremely expensive license for wholesale trade in wine, which amounted to 500 000 UAH. But thanks to the efforts of winemakers and growers, groups of people's deputies and their colleagues from the ministries, a year and a half ago, there was submitted a bill on amendments to the Law of Ukraine and cancellation of this license. And recently this bill was adopted by vote in Parliament in October 2016 signed by the President of Ukraine!

Colonist calculated lower threshold value of one bottle of simple table wine unseasoned on the shelf in the store. The approximate cost in the range of about 100-150 UAH (4-6$). Please note that the cost of the same wine in different stores may differ depending on their own margins of the store. In addition, such a cost should not say, if we are talking about wines in the HoReCa segment (Hotel, Restaurant, Catering). Wine, eating out can be several times more expensive.

in Any case you cannot compare wine and wine from Europe for the same price, because the price of bottles from abroad in the country of origin will be much lower than a bottle for the money in Ukraine. And very often the consumer, not trusting Ukrainian wines, selects a bottle of wine from abroad for the same price with Ukrainian wine, but in this case, the buyer loses. Because the quality of Ukrainian wine.

If the wine will be of the highest category, for example, designed in the French 100-year-old oak and made with rare and complex technology, it will have a much higher cost.

while choosing wine in the shop use the helpful tips from a Colonist, and You select the wine that will not disappoint You. Follow your own tastes and preferences. Don't be afraid to experiment and meet new unknown wines for You! Believe in the Ukrainian wine! As they say, you don't need to be famous to be unforgettable!