關於葡萄酒的錯誤認知

Hi, I'm Konstantin Baum, master of wine. And today I feel like busting some myths. Wine has been around for a long time. And over the millennia, people have come up with a lot of BS to explain our connection to fermented grape juice. I'm therefore going to dismantle my favorite wine myths. Who you're going to call myths busters? Quinch, roll the intro. So let's start with one of my favorites. Good wines don't give you hangovers. I sometimes just nod along when somebody tells me they believe this as it is not really harmful or rather gets them to drink better wines. But it's just not true. So what is a hangover? A hangover is a combination of different symptoms caused by the consumption of alcohol. Symptoms like headache, fatigue, nausea and sensitivity to light and sound. We've all been there. Alcohol consumption dehydrates which causes thirst, unsteady sleep and headaches. It also irritates the stomach and increases acid release which causes nausea. So the problem is really alcohol. Ethanol, this little molecule that looks like a cute little dog and it's included in every wine, good or bad. You might even want to argue that better wines tend to have higher alcohol levels than lower end wines. My personal explanation for why we have fewer problems when drinking higher end wines is that we appreciate it more. We savor it. We drink it in a more civilized setting maybe over dinner rather than chugging it down from the bottle in a parking lot. Some people also have the theory that sulfides cause their headaches which is generally possible but rather unlikely. Research actually suggests that you're more likely to get headaches from biogenic amines. The most well-known one is histamine. They are actually linked to bad microbial management. So if you have low or no sulfides in a wine you're more likely to get higher levels of histamine which can cause headaches as well. Another mini myth busted. The next wine myth is that legs are an indicator of quality. Look at those beautiful legs. Wine legs aka tears aka church windows are not related to quality. But they are real. So what do they indicate? In 2020 a paper called Theories for Undercompressive Shocks in Tears of Wine was published. And it basically states that wine legs occur due to the evaporation of alcohol on the side of the glass. And the more alcohol you have the more wine legs you get. So that's basically it. It just shows how much alcohol is in a wine. But what about viscosity? Viscosity meaning the concentration of a wine generally linked to sugar does not cause those wine legs. I can show you in a little experiment. We are going to fill the same water into two glasses. And I'm going to add quite a lot of sugar in one glass. And stir. So you can see that the sugar water runs a little bit slower. But it does not produce any legs on the side of the glass. So alcohol is the only reason why you get legs on the side of your glass. So it's not an indicator for quality. It's more likely an indicator for how much of a headache you will get if you drink the whole bottle. That's it. The next one is an easy one. Only red wines can age. Which is simply not true. Tannic red wines tend to be perceived as more age worthy. But that's definitely not the only factor that plays a role here. Quality is much more important. So if you have a great wine it generally tends to be able to stand the test of time. There are other factors though. Wine making is an important one. If you age a wine in a barrel before bottling for a long time it tends to be able to age longer in bottle as well. For example the Bois that I tasted the Madeira which was 177 years old when I opened the bottle. That's a white wine. And it was just treated in a way that basically makes it indestructible. A high amount of tannins and high acid levels are also really useful for making the wine age worthy. Another one really important one is sugar levels. If you have a high sugar level that really helps conserve the wine. This is why Trockenbeeren Oslesen from Germany can age for more than a hundred years because of that high level of sugar and high level of acidity. Red wine with cheese is another myth or a general rule that should be broken more often. If you're in France in some places for example in Bordeaux you oftentimes get the best wine of the meal with the cheese course and I don't really understand that. Oftentimes white wines tend to be better with cheese. They have higher levels of acidity that breaks up the protein and the fattiness of the cheese. On top of that some finer and more elegant cheese are just overpowered by red wine. So drink your vintage port with blue cheese but also try some champagne with goat cheese or have some light and lively white wines with your hard cheeses. You won't be disappointed. Another myth is wine gets better with age. Wine is a fascinating always evolving product. But most wines are actually not made to be aged. Barolos from Italy Grand Reservas from Rioja and Auslesen from Germany tend to age really well and they get more complex and develop tertiary aromas over the years. However bad wines don't get better with age. So don't keep your entry level wines for too long hoping that they will get better eventually. And on top of that there are some wines that are just not supposed to be aged. Most Sauvignon Blancs for example are much better when they are young crisp and fresh. So don't wait. Another myth that helps sell wine but is not really true is that red wines are healthy. This is also called the French Paradox and it goes back to a paper written in 1992 by Serge Renaud and Michel Delogueril and it was entitled Wine, Alcohol, Platelets and the French Paradox for Coronary Heart Disease. The paper explored that why even with similar saturated fat intake the French have a lower coronary heart disease rate and they basically concluded that it might also be due to the high level of wine consumption. The statement was based on the positive impact of resveratrol the substance present in wine. However in order to get that substance to a level that it would have a positive impact would mean that you would have to drink bottles and bottles of wine a day. Nowadays the French Paradox is explained by a generally healthier diet and a different way of recording heart diseases in the past in France so it was always too good to be true. To finish this off now a few smaller myths. One is heavy bottles mean higher quality that's generally untrue. Heavy bottles only mean a higher carbon footprint and I think the wine industry in general should look at using lighter bottles because they are just better and they conserve the wine in the same way and they're better for the environment. Another one is only white wines should be chilled. That is not true. I think there are quite a few red wines that benefit from a little bit of chilling. I mean they shouldn't be in the fridge for a few hours but they should be in the fridge maybe for 30 minutes. For example high alcohol wines tend to be a little bit less aggressive when they are cooled down to 16, 17 degrees Celsius. Also light bodied red wines tend to be juicier, fruitier if they are a little bit cooler. So also cool down your reds. And finally some think you need an expensive decanter expensive glasses and an expensive corkscrew in order to really enjoy wine. And while I really like having those toys I also know that you don't need that. I started off tasting wines out of IKEA glasses and decanting it in water jugs. So there's no reason why you shouldn't start enjoying great wines. You definitely don't need those toys to really have fun with wine. So you only need to make sure that your glasses and your carafe is clean. And that's basically it. And just get one of those corkscrews that they give out everywhere at every wine fair and be happy with it. And if you can afford stuff like this then do it. But don't think that this will make you a better wine taster. So thank you for watching. If you like this video then please like it down here. Subscribe to my channel if you haven't done so already. My question of the day is what is your favorite wine myth or your worst wine myth you know of. So please comment down below. I hope I see you guys again soon. Until then stay woof woof thirsty.