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Elements of wine: Alcohol
Wine has five components that determine taste and quality: alcohol, acidity, tannin, sweetness/dryness, fruitiness. This is the first in a five-part podcast/post series, and the subject is alcohol.
Alcohol is the component that separates wine from grape juice.
Wine is created when yeast converts grape juice sugar into alcohol. Conversion continues until the yeast dies because the temperature gets too hot or the alcohol level reaches 16 percent or more. The top end is about 16.5 percent. Past that, wine has to be distilled to remove some of water and concentrate the alcohol. When some distilled wine is added to wine to increase its alcohol content, it is called “fortified wine.”
Refractometer measures Brix (Fernando G.)
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