The Rise of the European Emperor

In fact, not only fake wine is mixed with dry additives such as glycerin and ethyl acetate, but even normal wine will add these things. Nothing else, just for better taste and stronger fragrance.

People in later generations have higher requirements for the quality of life. It is impossible for people in this era to drink rancid and inferior beer in later generations. If the taste is slightly bad, you may be complained. If something goes wrong, it will be posted on the Internet.

Therefore, the manufacturers of later generations also racked their brains in order to please customers. For the problem of taste improvement, money and time are also devoted to research. Even the famous academician candidate of Moutai Group is engaged in blending research.

Therefore, in the beverage industry, blending is everywhere. As long as it is widely distributed in supermarkets, there is no one that has not been blended. Want to drink real wine? You can learn from some celebrities, buy a winery yourself, and make authentic barrel wine. You can also make your own wine or even liquor at home according to online tutorials.

However, additives like glycerin and ethyl acetate are not scourges. Otherwise, these things will not be defined as food additives and are allowed to be added legally. For example, glycerin, as long as it is not industrial glycerin, but food grade glycerin, then there is no problem.

In addition, wine can also add edible weak bases such as potassium bicarbonate to neutralize the sour taste in inferior wine. Of course, this is low-end practice. Some winemakers will add lactic acid bacteria to convert the malic acid in the wine into lactic acid with a milder taste...

The above two methods, winemakers of this era will not know... After all, the semester of chemistry only appeared in the 17th century. Now, it is the world of alchemists.

However, it is not that people in this era are completely ignorant of additive technology. For example, in this era, around 1487, that is, 7 years before Marin came here, the Kaiser issued a decree ordering that sulfur be added to wine at an amount of about 18.8ppm (one part per million). Although it is higher than today's international standard of 10ppm, the difference is not too far.

(This order seems to be issued by the father of Maximilian I, the old emperor Frederick III. The emperor Frederick III of the Habsburg family loved to study astrology and alchemy in his later years. Adding sulfur to wine may be from the emperor's alchemy achievement)

This is because Europeans discovered very early on that adding sulfur to wine can inhibit the rancidity of wine and facilitate the preservation of wine. Even adding it during the fermentation period can reduce the generation of rancid substances. This principle, explained by later generations, is that sulfur inhibits the production of bacteria and the oxidative deterioration of wine.

Of course, in later generations, people added sulfur dioxide, which is more direct than sulfur. But sulfur dioxide is a foul-smelling poisonous gas. In this era, even if Marin knew that adding sulfur dioxide would be more effective, he would not do it. Because sulfur dioxide stinks.

If you saw someone farting into the wine while brewing, would you drink it?

Therefore, even if Marin knew, he would not let people add sulfur dioxide to the wine. How easy is it to put sulfur directly? And the cost is also low.

Moreover, there is another advantage of putting sulfur-it does not inhibit the function and development of lactic acid bacteria. As long as the amount added is small, the presence of sulfur does not affect the function of lactic acid bacteria, but it can inhibit the growth of other harmful bacteria.

Lactic acid bacteria convert malic acid with poor taste into lactic acid similar to the taste of later lactic acid bacteria beverages, which can make wine taste better.

But what surprised Marin was that in this era, it seemed that only the German region added sulfur to wine because of official orders. In France, sulfur is not added to wine.

Therefore, the wines in the German region in this era have relatively low acidity. However, French wines, especially low-quality wines, are sour and bitter. No wonder the price cannot sell the wines in the German region.

After Marin imported inferior French wine, the wine was found to be very sour. But after using some technologies from later generations, he first added lactic acid... What, you said lactic acid is difficult to deal with? This is easy to do. Natural yogurt (not the fake yogurt of later generations) contains a lot of lactic acid...

Then, add potassium bicarbonate to neutralize the sourness. Of course, control the amount well, don't get rid of the sour taste. The taste of lactic acid is still very good. Potassium bicarbonate is also very easy to obtain, that is, plant ash is soaked in water and extracted. Plant ash contains potassium, as well as carbonate and bicarbonate. Extracted, it is potassium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate. In fact, there is not much difference between the two, and the effect of neutralizing acid is similar. It's just that potassium bicarbonate is easier to decompose and produce bubbles.

Then, add glycerin to remove Ganning. At the same time, sulfur is added to inhibit oxidation and bacterial reproduction. With the addition of sulfur, there is no need to pasteurize the wine.

...

After this series of operations of adding lactic acid bacteria, potassium bicarbonate, glycerin and sulfur, Kohler and others were surprised to find that the taste of the originally sour and low-quality French Bordeaux wine became much better. Although there is still some sourness, it is a part of lactic acid that has a good taste and is intentionally retained. With the sweetness of glycerin, the taste of this wine is greatly improved, and it has the feeling of top wine.

It should be noted that, thanks to the addition of sulfur. Otherwise, the shelf life of wine will be very short. Because, Marin breaks down the tannins with glycerin. However, although tannins can bring a bitter taste, they can kill bacteria and inhibit oxidation. Glycerin breaks down the tannins, bacteria can get out of control, and the wine itself is more susceptible to oxidation.

Therefore, if only glycerin is added to solve the tannins, the wine will easily deteriorate and the shelf life will be greatly reduced.

In other words, low-quality wine can be added with glycerin, but it must also be paired with sulfur. In this way, it can not only remove the bitter taste, but also ensure that the wine is not easy to deteriorate...

...

Marin shook his head. He felt that it was a headache to search for these memory fragments of previous lives. These days, he's on the verge of becoming a master brewer.

But to be honest, his series of operations of adding glycerin, adding lactic acid bacteria, adding potassium bicarbonate and adding sulfur did greatly improve the quality of wine. At least, everyone loves to drink.

But there is a problem - there is no grape producing area in Beihai, where do these high-quality wines come from?

If it is reselling low-quality wine, no one will pursue the origin. After all, low-quality wine is as good as it can be drunk. And high-quality wine will always arouse the interest of others. Especially hypocritical aristocrats will be very concerned about the origin of wine.

This is related to the traditional habits of Europeans. For example, muskets, craftsmen will engrave the inscriptions of their names on them. In addition to being used to pursue accountability, it also has the meaning of a brand. The same is true in the wine industry, even if the poor quality wine, the producers probably feel embarrassed to engrave the inscription on the barrel. However, for mid-range and high-end wines, producers are very proud, and they will definitely engrave their names to promote their own wineries.

Therefore, although Marin blended a good wine. However, it made it a bit of a headache how to engrave the inscription.

In the end, he didn't care about it, and asked someone to engrave the inscription "Burgundy quality wine" on the barrel after the name of the region. As for which winery in Burgundy? you guess……

However, it is different from the arquebus made by the previous "Master Hans". The "Master Hans" matchlock gun is made of low-quality steel, which is easy to explode. However, "Burgundy high-quality wine" is really not bragging. It is indeed very high-quality, with a good taste, sweet and sour, without any bitterness, like a drink for later generations.

Therefore, later, "Master Hans" arquebus and "Burgundy Premium Wine" became two famous brands. It has been unanimously recognized by the whole of Europe... They are all fake brands, but their fates are completely different...

However, what is nonsense is that later, when the authentic Burgundy wineries saw the fire of fake "Burgundy premium wine", they also learned this trick and engraved "Burgundy wine" on their own wine barrels. "Good Wines of Burgundy". It's a strange thing for Li Kui to catch Li Gui's popularity...