Do you like visiting castles and chateaus? I love it, because I also love the stories and fairytales about ghosts, white ladies and headless knights connected with these places. But there also exist another type of “fairytales and myths”. Of course, they are connected with wine. And I am here to prove or refute some of them.
1. Dringink wine before 5 p.m. is embarrassing
This myth is probably connected with 19th century in Great Britain. First they had to have their afternoon tea and then maybe something stronger. Fortunately we live in 21st century and also no many aristocrats live among us. So in case, you would like to have a glass of wine before 5 p.m., do not hesitate and enjoy the wine. Nobody will reprobate you. (And if yes, give him or her also one glass, so they will be on the same ship with you :-))
2. An extra sugar is added into sweet wine
Of course, this is not true, speaking about wines of higher quality. We called them “přívlastková vína” and it means, that the ripeness of grapes for these wines was very high, so they have natural residual sugar. There also exist cheap sweet wines, you can buy them for example in news stand. And usually there is added an extra sugar in them. You can recognize it easily, because they are fishily cheap and next morning you will have a horrible headache after drinking some of them.
3. The older wine, the better wine
Unfortunatelly, this is not always true. The majority of wines on the market is designed for quite a quick consumption, which is also taken into acount during the production. So if there is not information about cellaring the wine on wine label, drink it rather not longer than a year after you have bought it. And you will enjoy its fresh, fruity character. In other case you could be disappointed by spoiled wine.
4. Drinking wine makes you fat
This is partly true, but in other way, than you probably think. Wine, like other alcohol, promotes appetite. In case you will eat different delicacies such as pizza, hamburgers or salted peanuts with you glass of wine, you can quickly put on weight.
5. Drinking wine alone means, that you are an alcoholic
Again one of social prejudices. Does it mean, that if you are single, you could not have a glass of wine? Nonsene. From time to time I also sit alone on the terrace and drink a glass wine. And what about people who study hard for being a sommelier or Master of Wine? Of course, in case you drink one or more bottles instead of a couple of glasses, it maybe means, that you have a problem and need to solve it with some professional …
6. Only snobs can drink an excelent wine
I do not consider myself a snob, but I think, I can drink very good wine. Of course, I have neither the money, nor enough good friends to buy wine from vineyards Romanée-Conti. But here we have also interesting and world class wines. Anyway the most important is to enjoy the wine and it works best with a good company.
Maybe you know other wine myths? You can writte them into comments …