Wine misconceptions

Since there is no single media that educate the people about the wine and with the increased consumption some unusual folklore have crept in.The following 5 misconceptions about wine give some more insights about the true reasons:

1) Wines with screw caps are cheap wines:

The reason for the usage of screw caps instead of cork is only to prevent the famous cork taint in wine. By using screw caps this wine failure can be excluded and less wine has to be wasted due to the cork taint (wine for about 500 Million Euro per year). Furthermore during fermentation of wine, a great number or flavor compounds, among those also very volatile flavors, which make the wine appear very fruity. Screw caps can conserve these volatile flavors a few months longer in the bottle.

2) Sweetness and Fruitiness are the same:

Sweetness is perceived on the tongue and is one of the five basic tastes located on our tongue. In contrast fruitiness consists of many volatile and fruity flavor compounds, which are perceived via the nose and the palate (retro-nasal). Therefore both in their quality and in the area of perception both descriptions can be clearly distinguished.

3) Due to the sulfur content in red wine I get a headache:

This is only partly true. A higher sulfur content in wine can cause a headache for very sensitive persons, which are only a very small percentage of persons. Sulfur rather leads to some stomach pain, as the sulfuric acid is split up in its parts due to the acid milieu in the stomach. The more likely reason for the headache (apart from the alcohol) is histamine.

It increases the blood circulation, comparable with a swelling after an insect bite. Histamine is an undesirable side-product of the biological acid decomposition and can be found in Chardonnay and in general red wines. Already small amounts of histamine (5-8 milligram) can cause reactions.

4) Cheap wines should be used for cooking:

That would be a great mistake. Always choose a wine for cooking, which you also would drink. Cheap wines can even waste a dish instead of enriching it.

5) With cheese red wine matches best:

Red wine matches very good with some cheeses, but for many cheeses also semi-dry aromatic white wines combine as least as good as red wines. Quite often it is even easier to find a well matching white wine rather than a red wine.