There are many, many schools of thought on how to measure the quality of a glass of wine. A few of the terms commonly used are; aroma, acidity, sweetness, body, alcohol content, clarity, color and overall flavor and "mouth-feel". These are just a few of the terms you will see when people talk or write about wine. There are MUCH more terms out there, and it would take a book to actually walk you through them. That is why "wine tasting" is often described as a hobby. Here, we'll just touch the tip of the iceberg.
Is your very first batch of home made wine going to win you any awards at the state fair? Probably not. Yet, if you tended to your wine diligently throughout the fermentation process, and that first taste of your very own product gives you a rush of pride and a sense of accomplishment, then what other award do you really need? At the end of the day, the only person who can tell you whether or not your homemade wine is good is YOU.
If you need further proof of this, just ask twelve of your closest friends what they think makes a wine "good". I guarantee that you will receive no less than thirteen different answers! If you like what you've made, that will be good enough for anyone.
However, if you ARE interested in taking home a blue ribbon at the state fair with your wine, I'll share a few tidbits on what wine connoisseurs look for in a glass of wine. The key attributes that you will want to focus on while crafting your wine are: Flavor and Aroma, Alcohol Content, and Clarity. Each of those three terms is central to determining the other characteristics of your finished wine. By no means is my opinion in this article an "official" or "certified" stance, but I due read a lot of articles on wine, and I have entered my wines into a few tastings.
Flavor and Aroma
Much of this area is determined by the quality of the ingredients you've chosen to make your wine out of. For traditional wines, you'll get more mileage out of simplicity than anything else. Especially if you're a beginner to winemaking, stick to single varieties of grapes rather than blending several kinds. Each variety of grape has many layers of complexity in its flavor and aroma that change and develop as the wine ages. For meads, as well, simplicity is often a key to success at first.
Quality of the grape juice or honey often goes a long way towards the finished product as well. Grape juice suffused with syrups, additives and preservatives is not going to taste as rich and complete as purer juice. With honey for mead, the less processed and raw honey often tastes a lot better than much of the honey found in the grocery store, which is often heated and filtered so often that many of the flavor compounds have broken it down to just plain sweet.
If you are using herbs and/or spices for your wines, MODERATION is the key to outstanding flavor. Everything you put in your primary fermenter will be MUCH more powerful and flavorful than you expect. For a five-gallon batch of cider, I often have cloves included in my recipe. I use no more than three individual cloves for the entire batch, and I remove them after the first couple of weeks of fermentation. Many herbs and spices often have medicinal values that you need to be aware of, as well. These properties will often be magnified by the fermentation process, and to avoid a potentially dangerous scenario, use them sparingly.
With fruit wines, there are many variables to consider. However, freshness is biggest one to be concerned with. The fresher the fruit is, the better its flavor is going to show up in the fermentation process. Also, many fruits, especially apples, have wild yeasts present on their skins. Be sure to fully implement your must sanitation methods (whether heat or sulfites) to keep these little buggers from affecting your wine.
Alcohol Content
When a wine has too much alcohol, the flavor of that alcohol can really overpower much of the taste that was intended in your wine. There are two primary factors that determine how much alcohol is in your finished wine: the original sugar content of your must, and the alcohol tolerance of the yeast you've used.
My best advice here is to know what the general alcohol tolerance of your chosen strain of yeast. For lighter bodied wines, such as white wines and lighter colored honeys and fruits, you'll want yeast that tops out around 12 - 14%. For rich, heavier bodied wines the alcohol content can reach upwards of 18% before the flavor begins to be compromised. If you're attentive to the ratios of water and base fermentables in your original must, these will tend t o balance out naturally.
However, if you do need to stop a fermentation to control the level of alcohol, it is recommended to use campden tablets to do so. These are sulfites that will eliminate any active microbes in your wine, including yeast. I have never had to do this, so it is up to your own taste buds to determine if it becomes necessary.
Clarity
Now, right off the bat, I want to say that the clarity of your wine has little bearing on its flavor. However, as many people measure their enjoyment of a thing by its presentation. So the clearer a wine is the better. What makes a wine cloudy in the first place? Well, especially in fruit wines, the cloudiness is there due to pectins. Pectins are long molecular chains of complex sugars. The yeast consumes and converts simple sugars into carbon dioxide and alcohol, leaving these more complex sugars alone.
You can eliminate this by adding pectic enzyme when you first prepare your must. Pectic enzyme breaks down the long, complex sugars into the more simple variety. In turn, allowing your yeast to metabolize it. It can also be added to the wine at a later time, if you encounter cloudiness that you had not anticipated.
If you pay attention to these three areas, then you will be well on your to making outstanding, crowd-pleasing wines. However, I still stick to my original comments about you being the best judge for the quality of your own work. No matter how your wine measures up to others, it is YOUR creation. Not many people have the initiative and dedication to take on a winemaking operation in their own home. For that simple fact, you've already beaten most of the competition! So, drink up, make a toast, and most of all: ENJOY!
With a toast to you and yours, I wish luck and satisfaction in your wine making endeavors! Blessed Be!
Joshua T. is an avid home brewer, gardener and recreationalist. For those interested in learning more about brewing wine at home, please visit http://www.squidoo.com/Winemakingtips.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joshua_Traversie
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