Pop A Cork - Wine

Agree that if feels tacky and horrible, spoils the wine drinking experience, though as Alien says, even expensive wines have them these days.


Actually cork is more ecological than caps!

"Screw caps imply environmental issues associated with the loss of cork farming. After removing the outer layer of bark it results in the tress consuming huge amounts of carbon dioxide, making the World a better place, in some forests up to 14m tonnes of CO2 are consumed."

I think the screw caps are actually about preventing the wine from becoming corked.

Here's something that you'll enjoy, Alien:

notesfrompoland.com/2024/07/24/polish-divers-find-shipwreck-with-19th-century-wine/

This is a topic for discussion. Good wines can continue to mature in the bottle, but this is only possible with a cork that breathes. On the other hand, corked wines must be opened with a corkscrew, which not everyone can do, and the cork may crumble. Then you have to pour the wine through a strainer... a disaster. With a cap you can cover a bottle that you haven't finished drinking and put it in the fridge. With a wine cork it is much more difficult. Personally, for now I only buy corked wines.

We are doomed, I tell ya ... ;)


There's another way: if the cork crumbles, push the rest into the bottle. Works every time.

So no sauvignon blanc for you? I don't think I've ever seen a SB that had a cork-all have screw caps. I wonder why that is.

Here's one of many:

drinkavaline.com/products/sauvignon-blanc-wine?pb=0

Is it a CA wine?

What does it mean?
Is this altar wine? white and organic.

Does CA stand for California?

Yes, California.

I'm not sure, to be honest. The company seems to import wines mostly from France and Spain, and bottle them.

Friday evening is the perfect time for a little wine tasting. This time we are not doing any experiments. The wine is French, red, dry from Bordeaux. And that would actually be enough of a description. But to be precise I must add that this is Chateau Cazeau from 2011. On the bottle there is of course the obligatory 'Mis en boteuille au Chateau'. And there's something else we can learn from the label. This wine won a gold medal at the international wine competition in Lyon in 2013. it must be something good, you can recognize the class already by the sound of pouring into a glass. It's extraordinary, such a juicy gul, gul, gul, it's such a classic sound like the closing of the doors of a Vel Satis, an icon of French motoring. Once in the glass, it is extremely mild from the first sip, almost sweet. I am very curious how it will taste on the second/third day. Closed, of course, with a classic cork and a typical concave bottom. This is a pretty good wine.

drunk in the evening of the second day it tasted nothing better than after opening.

We are currently in the capital of Polish winemaking, Zielona Góra. I am surprised how many different types of wine you can buy here, for example, in the Winery near the Palm House. Yesterday there was a tasting, the wines were semi-sweet because apparently these are the only ones that sell well in Poland.

Sweet flavour has been Polish fave for centuries. Foreigners who visited Poland in 17-18th century complained the dishes were very sweet.
Now, a riddle for you - why only semi sweet and not sweet?

I would say that Poland has too few sunny days. Despite everything, these are not the southern slopes of the Mosel.

Yes, true. Still, wine makers boast of making their drink of gods without adding any sugar, depending solely on fructose in fruit. But it seems impossible to me that natural sugar in fruit is enough to make sweet wine. I use really sweet fruit for my wines and still have to add 1kg sugar per 3 litres to achieve proper alco content.

To produce sweet wines, you can use dried grapes, i.e. raisins. However, sugar can be added to make wine. Otherwise there would be no overproduction.

Then it isn`t true wine but wine like product.

In Germany you can actually add sugar to the cheapest wines. You can't add it to the more expensive and better ones.

That`s what I meant when I said - true wine.

To calm you down with that sugar, citric acid and ascorbic acid may be added to wine, as well as protein, gelatin and milk. For a better aroma, rock dust is allowed. And finally, oak chips and PVPP polyamide. Enjoy.

That is why I make my own fruit wine - just fruit, spring water and sugar. And wine yeast, of course.
Now when I recall all kinds I have ever made, the best is black currant wine.

If you have to make something yourself, it's only cherry liqueur. The best cherry liqueur I ever drank was not from a store but from (someone's) grandmother.

"The original Dark Horse" is a surprise wine, found in the Alien wine cellar. The wine is from California, which is not without significance, vintage 2017, Cabernet Sauvignon. On the label there is a stylized horse head with a glass inside. An interesting company logo, I must admit. By the way, the owner is a woman. The wine has a classic dark bottle (red wine) but closed with a screw cap. The taste is completely fine, just a classic, Cabernet. Something doesn't seem right though. I would pay around €15 for a bottle of similar wine from a Polish vineyard. This wine was made in sunny California, undoubtedly by a professional, and then traveled thousands of kilometers to be bought by Alien for a whole €3.49 at a bargain price. No California, that's not how you do good business.