b.Passion Business I - Taste

The last part is here:   Passion Business I - Great Wine Fermentation 

It's been a while since I last wrote about wine-making.

Here is my pigeon account:

Most people in the wine-making industry would like to mystify the wine-making process. Once upon a time, I crapped up tens of thousands of dollars to get a gal to concoct the best wine for me. Fuck her! All my money were wasted.

Wine-making is actually very simple. If you study the wine scientifically, you would realise that only about 11%-17% are alcohol, the rest (which is actually the majority) is still very much fruit juice. Therefore, to start the wine-making, one must have the most tasty fruit juice to start.

So the most tasty fruit juice must come from fruits that are sun-ripened, i.e., the best fruits must be naturally sweet while it is still on the tree. Most fruits in the markets are plucked well before they are ripened. Hence, they are not sweet and only marginally sweeter after a few days; the fruits are ripened artificially using funny methods, such as putting in rice sacks and so on. Hence, the first step is to collect sun-ripened fruits.

Once juiced, the must may be very nice and very tastefully sweet. But, this will still make very bad wine. The must must have a certain level of acidity, i.e., sour. That is why lemon juice when nicely sweetened is one of the hot ladies' favourite. At this point, it is important that you let a few gals to taste the must. They would always like a hint of sour-ness.

Water is always an enemy to the wine-making. Use pure spring water if you can. Notice the fucking hawkers will always add syrupy water to buffer their fruit juice and they taste horrible. Hence, never add water to the must if at all possible.

Even if the must tastes sweet, it is still not enough to start the fermentation and not be poisonous. The yeast must take control of the must. Any wrong conditions, the bad bacteria or other organisms will take over and you would be out of business quite soon. Sugar has to be added. Make sure the sugar is of the highest quality and dissolve quickly.

The next step is to add the yeast. There are too many yeast species. Hence, learn to find the right ones by playing god. This is a trade-secret and shall remained so.

The rest of the additives are also trade secrets.

So please don't mystify wine-making. It is actually quite simple to make a decent wine. But, wine with character is a different kettle. This type of wine needs great experimentation.

The other important factor is aging. Any brandless wine when aged correctly will taste like nectar, i.e., (in Greek and Roman mythology) the drink of the gods.