Another case of home-made wine poisoning, is there a solution?

On July 11, a widely circulated video of a Chongqing woman making homemade wine and her husband drinking it caused concern. News of home-brewed wine "accidents" have been frequently reported in the media, but they still occur from time to time. Is there a solution to this type of incident other than to encourage consumers to buy wine products directly from formal companies and professional institutions?

In the interview, Ms. Pan, one of the protagonists, said that after picking grapes from a vineyard last month, she learned to make wine based on many online tutorials for making wine at home, and only two days ago she took it out to her husband to try. As a result, his husband didn't drink much before he said he had a bad headache and was experiencing vertigo. After being taken to the doctor, the doctor decided that it was probably methanol poisoning and treated him directly with gastric lavage.

From "one taste" to "stomach lavage", this is not an alarming story, and some have paid the price in "blood".

Our investigation into home-brewed wine poisoning has led to a number of personal accidents in recent years, and a number of deaths from home-brewed wine have been reported in the media overseas, not including those that have not been reported in the media. The "underwater part of the iceberg".

In an interview, Du Zhancheng, who is the chief engineer of Aroma Estate, a national wine judge and a national-level winemaker, pointed out that "home-made wine is not strictly enforced in every aspect, from the source of raw materials, production, fermentation, storage to the final product, and problems can easily occur if one step is missed. "

It is understood that the three main hazards of home-made wine are: excessive methanol, contamination by bacteria and fermentation explosions.

Excessive methanol: According to the GB 15037-2006 National Standard for Wine, the methanol content in each litre of wine must be below 400mg. Home-made wine is often prone to excessive methanol due to the raw materials, fermentation environment and testing control methods.

Contamination by bacteria: the sterilisation of wine in the traditional winemaking process is very strict, and if the raw materials and fermentation conditions are not well controlled, this can lead to the production of "bacteria", which can damage the normal fermentation of the wine. Food poisoning.

Fermentation explosion: during the fermentation of grapes, sugar and other substances are converted into alcohol, which then produces a lot of gas, which grows in a completely sealed container and once the container exceeds its capacity, the container will be burst and the container filled with homemade wine can become a "bomb" that can explode at any time.

"Even if the wine is eventually made successfully and there are no quality or safety issues, it will be difficult to reach the level of professional institutions in terms of flavour, texture and quality, so it is really better to just buy regular branded wine products." A wine industry insider pointed out.

However, there are also voices with different views on tackling the phenomenon of home-brewing.

"Many consumers of home-made wine are actually not just looking for something as simple as 'drinking wine', just as many people around the city today go and adopt a field of organic farms to grow vegetables, it also has many attributes of wanting to participate, experience and pursue health. " A wine marketing expert explained that the DIY component of homebrewing is inherently experiential and participatory, and that it is difficult to 'plug' the practice in terms of human nature.

In this regard, there has a report on a real-life case of a winery in Shandong. The owner of the winery, observing the home-brewing tradition of local consumers, took his winery on a completely different path by organising events and launching his own winery, directly involving consumers in the harvesting of the grapes to providing fermentation, bottling and personalised labelling services, allowing them to participate and experience the specialised winemaking process and drink wines that could almost be considered home-made. The winery has taken a completely different path.

"It's a very good path in terms of consumer experience, spreading wine knowledge and culture, and building the brand of the winery." Du Zhancheng says that his aromatic winery also organises events such as grape harvesting festivals to bring it closer to consumers.

As well as Shandong, our team understands that there are similar wineries like Ningxia doing the same exploration, although there is also some resistance to getting more wineries across the country to participate. "Wineries usually need to do more marketing investment and may not see significant results in the short term." Du Zhancheng admits that the overall atmosphere of the wine market needs more consumer cultivation work, and relying on individual wineries alone will have too little impact.

"There is definitely a need for more companies to participate in this kind of experiential guidance in order to form a more mature, wider coverage of the market atmosphere." Only in this way can the popular act of home-brewing wine better reduce and circumvent the current widespread risk of personal injury, said the above-mentioned wine marketing expert.