What is wine made of?

Wine, as one of the most important drinks for people, almost came to this world with human civilization. Since ancient times, no drink has been so popular with people of different nationalities and customs. There is no kind of beverage, like it, which has countless legends, stories, poems and songs, and contains such a wide range of cultural significance.

So, what is wine?

1999 edition of Cihai defines wine as: "Wine is a beverage fermented with sorghum, barley, rice, grapes or other fruits. Such as white wine; Yellow rice wine; Beer; Wine. "

1992 version of Chinese Dictionary is explained as follows: "Wine: 1, name of beverage. Alcoholic beverages made from raw materials containing starch or sugar, such as grains and fruits. 2. drink. 3. Banquet. 4. Last name. "

The above definitions and explanations about wine are common sense. However, it is equally surprising that there are members with the surname "JIU" in our big family.

Therefore, "what is wine" can be summarized as three points:

Wine is a drink;

Wine contains alcohol (ethanol);

Wine is made by fermentation.

At this point, it seems that the question "What is wine" has been answered in detail. But wine is such a romantic and magical drink that countless people have been singing and drinking for thousands of years; There are also countless people who hate it and ban it. Wine must have its richer and deeper connotation.

Xu Shen, a great scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty, had a unique view on wine. He said in Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Wine is just enough, so it is the good and evil of human nature. (Note by Duan Yucai in Qing Dynasty: The guest and the host worship and drink; People addicted to prostitution also drink. ) ┄ ┄ Once created, (paragraph note: making ancient books is like reading) Good things and bad things will start. " Xu Shen thinks that wine has two explanations. One explanation is "just" and the other is "made". In ancient times, "Shi" was pronounced "Gang". Therefore, "both good and bad luck are caused by wine" means that both good and bad things are caused by wine.

Xu Shen's definition and explanation of wine about two thousand years ago summarized the essence of wine, and profoundly and thoroughly expressed the connotation of wine, especially its contradictory character. Just as "wine is still water, it can be stored and covered." That is, wine can not only help good manners, but also cause trouble; It can be the beauty of adults or the evil of others.

Wine is really a magical drink. With its distinctive personality and extremely contradictory personality, it penetrated into the whole society and brewed a colorful and mellow wine culture history for itself.

What kinds of wines can be divided into?

There are so many kinds of wine that no one can tell how many kinds of wine there are in the world. This is because there are many kinds of raw materials that can be used for brewing, and the brewing methods and techniques are different, which forms the colorful family of "wine". However, we can still classify wines according to different types. Although the classification method of wine is not uniform, it is customary to divide wine into three categories according to the main characteristics of brewing technology:

Fermented wine (also known as brewed wine): that is, wine obtained by fermenting raw materials with alcohol, usually with low alcohol content, such as yellow wine, beer, wine and other fruit wines.

Distilled liquor: that is, the liquor obtained by distillation technology after the raw material alcohol is fermented, that is, the liquor with high alcohol content is distilled with fermented liquor, such as brandy, whisky, gin, vodka, rum and China liquor, which constitute the six largest distilled liquors in the world.

Blending wine: based on distilled wine or fermented wine (wine base), with a certain proportion of sweet auxiliary materials, aromatic raw materials or Chinese herbal medicines, peels, fruits, etc. It is artificially mixed and aged, and its alcohol content is between fermented wine and distilled wine, such as various liqueurs, absinthe and osmanthus flowers.

According to the traditional classification habits, China wines can be divided into seven categories, namely: white wine, yellow wine, beer, wine, fruit wine, medicated wine and other wines. Other wines refer to wines other than the first six categories, such as brandy, whisky, gin, vodka, rum and other so-called foreign wines.

In addition, using the same brewing material, different wines can be obtained due to different brewing methods and techniques, such as red grape varieties (red skin and white meat), red wine, pink wine and white wine can be obtained by fermentation, and brandy can be obtained by distillation of wine; Liqueur and absinthe can be obtained by special technology. Therefore, grapes can be used as raw materials for brewing wine, brandy (distilled wine) and liqueur (mixed wine).

I used to measure people's living standards by the kind of wine they drank, that is, the poor drank white wine, the well-off drank beer and the rich drank wine. Although this is not an absolute standard, in the economically developed areas of China, with the improvement of people's living standards, the consumption boom of wine is quietly rising.