The Differences Between Wine, Red Wine, and Dry Red Wine, Their Benefits, and How They Are Made
Wine is a type of fruit wine made from grapes. Its alcohol content is higher than beer and lower than baijiu. It is rich in nutrients and has notable health benefits. Many people ask: What is the difference between red wine and wine? What are the differences between dry red and wine?
First, let us state this clearly: red wine ≠ wine!
Red wine is only one of the many categories of wine; it represents only the red wine category. What we call "dry red", English name "Dry red wine", is a type within red wine.
Classification of Wine
By the color of the finished product, it can be divided into three categories: red wine, white wine and pink wine. Among them, red wine can be further subdivided into dry red wine, semi-dry red wine, semi-sweet red wine and sweet red wine. White wine is subdivided into dry white wine, semi-dry white wine, semi-sweet white wine and sweet white wine. By the method of production, it can be divided into four categories: wine, sparkling wine, fortified wine and flavored wine.
1. Wine can be divided into three categories by color: red wine, white wine, and rose wine.
White wine: made by fermenting separated juice from white grapes or grapes with red skins and white flesh. The color of the wine is slightly yellow with a green tinge, close to colorless or light yellow, straw yellow, golden yellow. Any color such as deep yellow, earth yellow, brownish yellow or tawny does not meet the color requirements for white wine.
Red wine: made by fermenting a mixture of skins and juice from grapes with red skins and white flesh or with both red skins and red flesh. The wine color is a natural deep ruby red, ruby red, purple red or garnet red; any yellow-brown, brown or earth-brown color does not meet the color requirements for red wine.
Rose wine: made by fermenting colored red grapes with their skins or by fermenting separated juice. The wine color is light red, pink, orange red or rose. Any color that is too deep or too light does not meet the requirements for rose wine. This type of wine has a fresh flavor and obvious fruity aroma, and its tannin content should not be too high. Varieties such as Muscat Hamburg, Pinot Noir, Carignan and French Blue are all suitable for making rose wine. In addition, blending red and white wine in a certain proportion can also be considered rose wine.
2. According to the sugar content of the wine, it can be divided into
Dry wine: wine with a sugar content (calculated as glucose) of less than or equal to 4g/L.
Semi-dry wine: wine with a sugar content greater than 4g/L and less than or equal to 12g/L.
Semi-sweet wine: wine with a sugar content greater than 12g/L and less than or equal to 45g/L.
Sweet wine: wine with a sugar content greater than 45g/L.
This distinction requires our tongues: if it tastes not sweet at all, it is dry; if you feel a slight sweetness, it is semi-dry; if it is fairly sweet, it is semi-sweet; if it is cloyingly sweet, it is sweet.
3. According to its state, wine can be divided into still wine and sparkling wine.
The dry red and dry white we usually drink are both still wines; the difference between still and sparkling can also be distinguished from the bottle shape and appearance.
What people often call Champagne is one type of sparkling wine, and only sparkling wine produced in the Champagne region of France is called Champagne.
Sparkling wines from other regions also have different names, such as Cava sparkling wine from Spain and Sekt sparkling wine from Germany.
Benefits and Effects of Wine
Medical research shows that grapes are highly nutritious, and wine made from grapes also contains various amino acids, minerals and vitamins; these substances are all nutrients that the human body must supplement and absorb. It is known that wine contains about 600 components beneficial to the human body. The nutritional value of wine has thus also been widely recognized. According to experts, the roots of grapevines aged 25 years or more grow very deep in the underground soil and relatively absorb more mineral trace elements, and wine made from such fruit has the greatest nutritional value.
1. The nutritional effects of wine
Wine is an advanced beverage with multiple nutritional components. Moderate drinking of wine can directly act on the human nervous system and increase muscle tone. In addition, wine contains various amino acids, minerals and vitamins, etc., which can be directly absorbed by the human body. Therefore, wine can play a good role in maintaining and regulating the body's physiological functions, with especially better effects for people who are weak, those with sleep disorders, and the elderly.
Wine contains various inorganic salts. Among them, potassium can protect the heart muscle and maintain the heartbeat; calcium can calm the nerves; magnesium is a protective factor for cardiovascular disease, and magnesium deficiency can easily cause coronary arteriosclerosis. These three elements are important components of human bones and muscles; manganese has the effect of blood coagulation and the synthesis of cholesterol and insulin.
2. The special effects of wine on women
Women who understand red wine often have delicate skin like silk. The reason is that what women like most about it lies in its magical beauty and health benefits.
The beauty-enhancing and anti-aging functions of red wine come from the super-strong antioxidants contained in the wine; among them, SOD can neutralize free radicals produced by the body, protect cells and organs from oxidation, and prevent spots, wrinkles and sagging skin, restoring the skin's whitening radiance. Red wine lovers affectionately call it “a drinkable face mask”.
Another benefit of red wine——weight loss: each liter of wine contains 525 calories, but these calories are only equivalent to 1/15 of the average daily calorie requirement of the human body. After drinking, wine can be directly absorbed and digested by the human body and can be completely consumed within 4 hours without causing weight gain. Therefore, people who often drink wine can not only supplement the water and various nutrients the body needs, but also help reduce body weight. Red wine contains relatively high levels of potassium tartrate, potassium sulfate and potassium oxide, which can prevent edema and maintain the body's acid-base balance.
3. The digestive aid effect of wine
After drinking wine, if there is 60~100ml of wine in the stomach, the amount of gastric juice formed can be increased to 120ml.
If diabetics drink alcohol, they must pay attention to the following points:
1. Blood sugar is well controlled, with no other chronic diseases of important organs and no diabetic complications;
2. Do not inject insulin or take oral sulfonylurea hypoglycemic drugs;
3. Liver function is normal;
4. Eat when drinking alcohol to avoid hypoglycemia;
5. Drinking amount: no more than 100~150ml of wine each time; no more than 350ml of beer, and do not drink baijiu. The above alcohol amount is about equivalent to 25g of staple food and should be subtracted from the diet plan. Do not drink more than 2 times per week.
6. Wine contains sorbitol and tannins, which help the secretion of bile and pancreatic juice, increase the contractility of smooth muscle fibers in the intestinal muscular system, strengthen the digestion and absorption of food by the gastrointestinal tract, and can also regulate the function of the colon, with a certain therapeutic effect on colitis.
How Wine Is Made
1. Harvesting and destemming: after picking the ripe grapes, first sort them, pick out rotten and dried grapes and grass leaves, clean and air-dry the rest, then put them into a destemmer to remove the stems. When making red wine, the grape stems are sometimes retained.
2. Crushing and pressing: when making red wine, the grapes are fermented with their skins; when making white wine, the grapes are pressed to remove the skins before fermentation.
3. Juicing and fermentation: after juicing, the raw material for winemaking can be obtained——grape juice. With grape juice, fermentation for winemaking can begin. Through fermentation, the sugar contained in the grapes gradually turns into alcohol and carbon dioxide. During fermentation, artificially cultured dry yeast may be added, and some wineries use natural yeast.
4. Adding sulfur dioxide: to maintain the fruity flavor and freshness of the wine, sulfur dioxide treatment must be added immediately after fermentation is completed. Sulfur dioxide can prevent the oxidation of wine caused by oxygen in the air.
5. Aging: after fermentation is completed, most red wines are transferred to oak barrels for aging. Some wines are not suitable for oak barrels and instead use stainless steel tanks to preserve fresh fruity aroma to the greatest extent.
6. Clarification and bottling: in order to maintain the stability and appearance of the wine's structure, the wine needs to be clarified. There are two methods, natural clarification and artificial clarification, and finally it is bottled.