Today, the editor will talk about a real case that just happened during the National Day holiday! As a boy with a rich night life, the editor naturally has a small gathering every day and a big gathering two days during the National Day. Of course, wine is also indispensable. Just when the friends happily opened a wine, they suddenly found that the cork was hairy ( stunned)
Is this wine still drinkable? Will it be poisonous if I drink it? Will I have diarrhea if I drink it? Waiting online, very urgent! ! !
When everyone is tangled in their hearts, come and tell your friends the truth!
First of all, I want to tell you: if you encounter a moldy and hairy wine cork, don’t worry or be sad. Mold does not necessarily mean that the quality of the wine has deteriorated. Some wineries even take pride in the fact that the cork is moldy! Don’t be sad even if you find out that it’s really gone bad, just throw it away.
With a reassurance, let’s continue to analyze the specific situation.
A friend went to Italy with a group, and when he came back, he was very angry and complained to me: “The tour group is not a thing. They took us to a winery’s cellar to visit and buy wine. I saw that the wine was dirty, and some bottles were moldy. Yes. Someone actually bought it, anyway, I didn’t buy a bottle. I won’t join the group next time, huh!”
The following editor will use the original words explained to her at that time, and explain it to everyone again.
Everyone knows that the ideal environment for wine preservation is constant temperature, constant humidity, light-proof, and ventilation. Wine that needs to be sealed with a cork needs to be placed horizontally or upside down, so that the wine liquid can fully contact the cork, and fully maintain the cork. Moisture and tightness.
The humidity is about 70%, which is the best storage state for wine. If it is too wet, the cork and wine label will rot; if it is too dry, the cork will dry out and lose its elasticity, making it impossible to seal the bottle tightly. The most suitable temperature for storage is 10°C-15°C.
So when we go into the wine cellar of the winery, we will find that the inside is shady and cool, and the walls are wet to the touch, and some older wine cellar walls will seep water.
When we find traces of mold on the surface of the cork, the reaction in our minds should be that the bottle was stored in a relatively humid environment, and the moisture in the air caused the mold on the surface of the cork. The moldy state is an environment with good humidity for wine, which just meets the storage needs of wine.
Moldy wine corks can be divided into two situations: one is moldy on the upper surface of the cork; the other is moldy on both the upper and lower surfaces of the cork.
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Mold on the upper surface of the cork but not on the underside
This situation shows that the storage environment of the wine is relatively humid, which can also prove from the side that the wine cork and the bottle mouth are in perfect harmony, and neither mold nor oxygen enters the wine.
This is really common in the wine cellars of some old European wineries, especially in those old wines that have been stored for a long time, mold often occurs in them. Generally, every ten or twenty years, in order to prevent the cork from completely softening, the winery will arrange for cork replacement in a unified manner.
Therefore, moldy cork does not have any influence on the quality of wine, but sometimes it is a common manifestation of old wine or high-quality wine. This can also explain why the owners of wineries in Germany and France are proud of the fact that there is mold in the wine cellar! Of course, if a customer buys these wines in the wine cellar, the winery will still clean the wine bottle to see if it needs to be re-sealed, and label the wine and package it before giving it to the customer.
Mold on the upper and lower surfaces of the cork
This kind of situation is very rare, because we generally recommend that you store wine flat, right? This is especially true in the wine cellar, where they pay more attention to laying the wine flat or upside down so that the wine is in full contact with the lower surface of the cork. Mold on both the upper and lower surfaces of the cork, usually occurs more often in wines that are placed vertically, unless the winemaker deliberately did so (Shanshou)
Once this situation is found, it is not recommended to drink this bottle of wine, because the mold on the lower surface has proved that the mold has run into the wine, and the wine may have deteriorated. Mold will absorb the nutrition of wine to breed heteroaldehydes or heteroketones, which will endanger human health.
Of course, if this is a wine you love very much, you can also test it further: pour a small amount of wine into the glass and observe whether the wine is cloudy; then smell it with your nose to see if the wine has any peculiar smell; If you have both, it proves that this wine is really undrinkable! For the sake of health, let’s cut love!
talked so much
Everyone should know that a little hair on the surface of the wine cork is harmless
Post time: Dec-12-2022