I had a few thousand cups of wine when I met my confidant, and I felt like I had met too late. Ding Mengyao took Johnson to the most core wine cellar, and outsiders would definitely not be allowed to visit it.

It was the first time that Johnson saw a real wine cellar. He looked at the large wooden barrels of various colors in front of him and was very curious.

Ding Mengyao walked to a large dark brown barrel and explained: "The best wines in the world are made of oak barrels. During the fermentation process, chemical changes will occur between the wine and the oak barrels, making the wine's flavor more complex and the quality better."

"Oak barrels can be divided into compact textures, moderate textures and loose textures. Most of the debate is about who is better and who is inferior to the so-called French oak or American oak?"

Johnson nodded secretly and began to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of different oak barrels with his nose, because oak barrels should be breathable. The reduction in wine due to evaporation is called sharing of angels.

The oxygen that enters the barrel due to breathability allows the wine to undergo complex chemical reactions in the bottle, which will soften the tannins in the wine.

If the wine is stored in a new oak barrel, the tannins in the wood will be leaching out from the boards that make up the oak barrel and absorbed by the wine, which will make the wine more sour.

However, after a period of time, with the oxidation of oak barrels, the tannins are softened much faster than the tannins absorbed by wine. This is also the most precious reason why the more vintage oak barrels are, and the same principle is to cure patina.

Ding Mengyao understood that Johnson didn't know much about professional knowledge, and said with a smile: "For different types of oak, the most important measure is the tightness of the oak texture. Its type helps determine the formation of tannins and thus determine the evaporation rate of the wine."

When I walked to an oak barrel next to me, I touched it with my hands: "American oak is a transverse wood with a unique taste and a very low porosity. It has a high lactone content and can sweeten wine. The typical taste it emits is: coconut, vanilla, etc. For example, this is a good oak barrel with a vintage of more than a hundred years."

Then he walked to another wooden barrel next to him and said, "As for this barrel, produced from Limusang, is a French oak with a relatively loose texture. It usually gives the wine a fine aroma, and the same points are all scented with the smell of dried ginger, cloves, cedar and cigar boxes."

"In the early days, people thought that American oak prices were cheaper, so they could not be compared with French oak. The reason is that the American oak barrel industry was originally based on the production of oak barrels for spirits, and at that time, it did not pay attention to the precision and subtlety of barrels. Now, as barrel making continues to improve technology, it has begun to compete with some of the world's best quality oak barrels."

Then he slowly came to the obviously lighter barrel and smiled: "Hungarian oak has suffered a loss of reputation for decades due to improper management, but today it is slowly rising as the main alternative to French oak. For example, the texture of this barrel seems to be similar to French oak, but it has a more obvious acidic smell."

Johnson listened carefully and recorded it carefully. The so-called "straight of the road is like a mountain". As a culture of hundreds of years, red wine is profound and naturally has unique charm.

After brief introduction, Ding Mengyao said with emotion: "Actually, I have just begun to understand oak barrels. The channels are very deep. Different oaks are different when fermenting. Even the air-drying method will have a subtle impact on the wine, which is very complex and changeable."

Johnson Smith smiled and said, "Isn't this one of the charms of wine tasting?"

Ding Mengyao has beautiful eyes and is very comfortable to chat with Johnson. It is rare to meet her peers who truly know how to taste wine. She is in a very happy mood.

Turning around and picking up a universal six-ounce wine glass, opening the wooden barrel, putting out a glass of red wine and saying, "Wine glasses are also of particular importance. This kind of wine can be consumed. Its medium-sized cup belly gradually shrinks upwards, sending the aroma of the wine directly to the mouth of the cup."

He handed his hands to Johnson and asked him to taste it first. Johnson took the wine glass, raised it gently, and shook it slowly, and asked, "I often hear people say that the quality of the red wine depends on the degree of the hanging glass. Is there any secret?"

Ding Mengyao said seriously: "In my personal experience, the traces of a wine hanging have nothing to do with whether the wine is delicious, but whether the wine is hung or not may have a great relationship with the body and year of the wine."

"Wines without signs of hanging cups or not obvious signs of hanging cups are often wines with poor body shape. In the final analysis, the blending ingredients are very high and the original content of grapes is not high, so it is definitely not a good wine."

"Wines with signs of hanging cups and the signs of hanging cups stay for a long time means that they are basically produced from grape juice and stored in oak barrels for a long time and are long."

"Wines with signs of hanging cups are often of better quality, higher prices, longer storage time, and they feel mellow and sweet when they drink them. Therefore, this basic theory is popular on the market. Wines with signs of hanging cups must be better than wines without signs of hanging cups."

He suddenly thought of something and smiled: "We Chinese people seem to be very sensitive to the precipitation of wine. They think that precipitation is a hygienic thing. This psychology affects the producers of wine, so the wine circulating in the market now basically has no precipitation."

"In fact, if a bottle of real wine has sediment, you can feel the adhesion in your mouth and tongue. Congratulations, you must drink a truly tasteful wine. Among foreign wines, wine with adhesions is a good wine, and a bottle of real wine."

"So that's it!" Johnson felt that the trip was worth it. The two of them drank and chatted. It was rare to taste the raw red wine fermented directly from the oak barrels, which had a more unique taste.

Ding Mengyao took out a few bottles of treasured fine products from the wine cellar, returned to the private room, took out a few boxes from the cabinet, placed them on the table, and opened them one by one.

"cheese?"

Johnson looked at the table with some surprise and asked curiously: "What does this mean?"

Ding Mengyao smiled and pointed to the cheese and said, "This is my personal treasure. In fact, the best combination of red wine is cheese! Cheese will make the wine sweeter and more rounder, while wine can suppress the fishy or moldy smell of cheese, making the cheese taste more delicious."

"The nutrients of milk in cheese can be concentrated to 1/10, and the amino acids contained in cheese can help liver activity, effectively break down alcohol, and be more beneficial to health."

He glanced at Johnson and joked: "I ordered these specifically from the place of origin, and I'm going to keep them for secret enjoyment. Today you're lucky!"

Johnson laughed, looked at the dazzling array of cheese, picked up a handful of them and asked: "Different wines should be matched with different cheeses, right? How to choose?"

"It's actually very simple. Ordinary cheese and wine are produced from the same place or in the same area, and products produced from the same terroir are very suitable."

"For example, the piece in your hand should be Parmigiano-Reggiano, produced in the Emilia-Romagna region, and one of the famous cheese brands."

"It is suitable for pairing with fragrant wines, such as the new brand wines from Lafite Manor, as well as the wine varieties from Nabone Manor and Camelon Manor, such as this bottle, you can try it."

After saying that, he opened a bottle of wine, poured it on, and signaled to try the new flavor with cheese. Johnson took the wine glass and was eager to try it: "Since that said, what's the difference between me trying it out?"

After saying that, I picked up a piece of cheese with a small fork, put it gently into my mouth, waited for a while and raised the wine glass, took a sip slowly, and instantly felt full of enjoyment expression, intoxicated.

An unprecedented smell exploded in the mouth, sweeping over the taste buds like a storm, and the complex and wonderful feeling is indescribable!

Instantly conquered by the wonderful taste, I couldn't help but close my eyes and indulge in the passion of cheese and wine colliding with each other.

"magic!"
Chapter completed!