Nowadays the market offers the widest range of alcoholic products. White wine, which is made from the fruits of light, green grapes, deserves special attention. It has a pleasant, light aroma and a rich, delicate taste. Depending on how much sugar is added at the time of preparation, you can get either sweet, semi-dry or dry wine.
Properties of white grape wine
Wine has many beneficial properties for the human body, of course, when consumed in moderation. But, for all its benefits, this drink can also cause harm to a person, especially with abuse or the presence of chronic diseases.
Benefit
It has a high content of microelements, vitamins and essential oils, much higher than in grape juice. Wine significantly improves digestion, warms up the appetite, and helps improve the absorption of proteins and iron. It helps remove toxins from the body, including free radicals, which cause great harm to it. The drink also helps fight colds and is used to prevent viral diseases.
Harm and contraindications
Harm from drinking wine can occur if the daily permissible dose of the drink is exceeded, which is 120-150 milliliters. Significant abuse of wine leads to disruption of the normal functioning of internal organs such as the kidneys, liver, digestive and genitourinary systems. Serious disturbances in the human psyche are also observed.
Wine is not recommended for people with bad teeth, as the acids contained in the drink corrode tooth enamel. It is dangerous to consume cheap, low-quality or simply unripened wines, prepared in violation of technology, from dubious raw materials and other unknown ingredients. Otherwise, severe allergies, terrible headaches, and even an asthma attack may occur.
Suitable varieties for winemaking
The production of high-quality, tasty and aromatic wine directly depends on the correct choice of the appropriate variety. At the moment, the best varieties for winemaking are:
- Chardonnay;
- Sauvignon;
- Muscat white;
- Silvaner;
- Kokur;
- Riesling;
- Isabel;
- Firstborn of Magarach;
- Feteasca;
- Müller-Thurgau.
Requirements for dishes
You can prepare and store wine in various containers. Glass bottles and carboys, barrels and kegs made of alder and oak wood, stainless steel containers, as well as cans and barrels made of high-quality polymers are suitable. But the latter option is suitable only for short-term storage of the drink.
Enameled and even aluminum dishes are used to press the juice, but then it needs to be poured into other, more suitable containers for safe fermentation.
How to choose ingredients
To prepare such wines, varieties with the desired ratio of sugar and acids, as well as a high level of juice yield, are selected. The quality of the future drink directly depends on this. Moreover, the grape must must ferment naturally, without adding yeast; this is also taken into account when choosing a variety.
How to make white wine at home
To prepare tasty, aromatic, sweet, semi-sweet or dry wine, you need to select the right raw materials and strictly follow the instructions of proven recipes.
Dry wine
Wines with minimal sugar content (no more than 0.3%) or no sugar at all are considered dry. As a result of fermentation by yeast, all the fructose in the juice is processed, but the preparation is not specially sweetened. To produce such a drink, high-quality raw materials are required; such wine is considered natural and especially healthy.
A proven recipe will help you make excellent homemade wine. Required:
- grapes (with a sweetness of at least 15%) – 20 kilograms.
Step-by-step preparation:
- First, thoroughly wash all the containers needed for preparing the drink and wipe them dry. This will protect the workpiece from the appearance of unpleasant odors and mold.
- Now the berries are sorted. All unripe, rotten and spoiled fruits are discarded.They can spoil the taste of the drink - it will become tart and sour. The fruits are never washed so that the wort ferments well.
- Selected fruits must be crushed by hand, the seeds must be intact, so using a press is not suitable. The pulp and skin contain simple substances that play a vital role in shaping the taste of the drink. Therefore, manual crushing creates the ideal environment for wort fermentation.
- Now the wort is poured into a glass bottle (the container is filled 3/4 of the volume) with a wide neck, which is covered with gauze. Now you need to put the container in a warm place (with a temperature of +20 C...+25 C degrees) for a day.
- Afterwards, the pulp is squeezed out through cheesecloth, and the pure juice is poured into a bottle with a narrow neck for subsequent fermentation. A medical glove is put on the neck or a water seal is installed.
- The container is placed in a cellar or pantry, with a temperature from +16 C to + 28 C degrees. The preparation is left to ferment for 1-1.5 months, and then the young wine is carefully poured into bottles. They are sealed with lids and placed in a basement with a temperature of +6 C to +16 C degrees for 1 month. After this period, the taste will become softer and the wine will be ready for drinking.
Semi-sweet
Making homemade wine with your own hands is not as difficult as it seems at first. But it will require attention, patience and strict adherence to the recipe instructions. Required ingredients:
- grape fruits – 10 kilograms;
- granulated sugar – 3 kilograms.
Step-by-step preparation:
- The grapes are sorted, removing rotten berries. There is no need to wash them - there is yeast on the surface of the fruit, thanks to which the wort will begin to ferment.
- The fruits are poured into an enamel basin or pan and pressed well in any available way.Afterwards, the container is covered with gauze and placed in a warm place for 5 days. Moreover, you need to stir the mass several times a day with a wooden spatula.
- After the first signs of fermentation - the berries begin to float to the surface - all the pulp is placed in a colander, and the grape juice is strained through a layer of gauze into a glass bottle. Afterwards, sugar is poured in, stirred, and a medical rubber glove, pierced in several places, is put on the neck of the bottle. It is secured tightly with an elastic band. The bottle itself needs to be filled to 2/3 of its volume, leaving room for gases.
- After a few weeks, the wine will stop playing - the glove will stop swelling and fall off. Now you need to do a tasting to determine the sugar level. If the product is sour, add more sugar and let it sit for a few more weeks. When the taste of the drink is normalized, it is filtered again and bottled in glass bottles. Then they are corked and placed in a cool cellar for 2-3 months. After this period, the wine can be safely consumed.
Sweet
Sweet wines include those containing 55-80% sugar. To obtain a high-quality drink, select the juiciest, ripe and even overripe bunches, which have maximum sugar content. Cooking begins with preparing the following ingredients:
- grape fruits – 10 kilograms;
- sugar – 3 kilograms.
Step-by-step preparation:
- After sorting the fruits, they are crushed to obtain juice and the wort is allowed to settle.
- Sugar is poured into the mixture and stirred thoroughly.
- A water seal is put on the bottle and the product is left to ferment for 3 weeks.
- Afterwards, the young wine is separated from the formed sediment, closed with a cork and left for another 2 months.
- Now the drink is filtered again through cheesecloth, poured into glass bottles, corked and placed in a cool place (basement, cellar) for 8 months. At the end of the period, the sweet wine is ready for consumption.
Ice drink
Now an interesting and tasty drink is becoming increasingly popular - ice wine made from light grapes. Many people think that a high-quality product is obtained only in factory conditions. But this is fundamentally wrong - excellent ice wine can be easily prepared at home.
You will need:
- white grape fruits – 1.5 kilograms;
- sugar – 1.5 kilograms.
Cooking features:
- To get a truly tasty drink, it is important to select half-ripe berries. The highlight of the technology is that the fruits are frozen before squeezing out the juice. It is thanks to this procedure that the drink acquires a special taste and enchanting aroma, which is the reason for its growing popularity.
- Afterwards, the preparation technology is no different from that used in the production of ordinary white wine. The only important feature is to add sugar to the preparation after the very last, final stage of straining the juice.
Subtleties of storage
An open bottle of white wine is consumed within 3 days, after which it loses its taste and aromatic qualities. To extend this period, the bottle is corked and cooled. An effective technique would be to pour from a larger container into a smaller one to minimize the air gap. In turn, bottles sealed with corks are stored in dry, fairly dark, cool cellars and basements.
The optimal temperature is from +10 C to +14 C degrees, then the wine not only maintains its quality, but also continues to “ripen”, gaining taste and aroma. Moreover, it is desirable that drink bottles are stored in a horizontal position.
A few more important conditions for storing wine are the absence of foreign, sharp, unpleasant odors and complete rest for the containers.
It is not recommended to shake, rearrange or turn them over until use.
