Has Anyone Ever "Doctored" a Wine?

I’ve seen people post that they’ve mixed a couple glasses together at the end of the evening, but has anyone ever doctored a wine with non-wine additives?

I’ve thought about putting a couple peppercorns in a glass of a hum drum Syrah, or maybe a bit of orange peel in a bland Pinot, but I’ve never actually done so. Convention aside, I don’t see why it couldn’t marginally improve a wine that isn’t particularly interesting.

Has anyone else actually done/considered this?

A bit of an aside, but I can imagine Bobby Orlando putting green bell peppers in darned near everything.

I know a guy who puts salted peanuts in his Sauternes.

I put fruit in my wine sometimes. I like to call it…Sangria!

neener

Did you ever try it? I’m genuinely interested?

I know people put salt in coffee to smooth out the bitter edges…recall trying it once and liking it, but haven’t tried it since.

I’ve never actually tried it, though the orange peel in Pinot sounds interesting.

I have a Grenache from Beckmen that I’d swear has crushed blueberries in it, but they said it is all grapes. Just delicious!

A white port with a twist and club soda is a very popular aperitif in Portugal, but that is not probably what you meant by doctored.

I have not tried it but he likes the sweet and salty flavor.

I think this is a great question and one i was thinking about a few months back. Why not, right? I mean we have beer we mix. Black n tans. Black n blues. Boilermakers. We do it with harder liquers all the time. Yes sangria is a mix too. So really why not.

The only wine i have mixed was my tawny ports. Sometimes i add a bit of my cognac into it. For some reason i want my port a bit more potent. Not too much but a little bit.

It’s not what I initially thought of, but obviously the twist is no different to what I’m contemplating.

Well black and tans and black and blues are simply mixing two beers. In Mexico, it’s fairly common to serve beers with lime (I rather like this) or to add various ingredients including worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, lime and spices to make a michelada (I like this too).

Very generally speaking, I think the beer community is far more innovative and open-minded, than the wine community.

I might get flamed for this, but after seeing what went on with the Rudy counterfeits, I’d be interested in seeing wine bars make custom blends (being completely transparent of what they are doing). If the “experts” concluded that those counterfeits actually tasted good, I’d like to try them. I know most people are purists when it comes to their wines, but I’d look at it from the perspective of a cocktail where most people only care if it tastes good. It actually would probably be a fun for a competitive offline where people bring their own blends, taste blind, and see who can make the best imitations of classic aged trophies. Even better would be to mix in a few of the real deals as ringers to potentially humble the tasters. Transparency of what is being used being the key.

stirred a slice of green pepper in a bland S. Blanc once to add a little character–had read about that somewhere. Didn’t really hep.

Next time, grab a kitty, have it urinate in your glass and viola! you’ll be instantly transported to Marlborough.

Would it shock you to hear that I actually do not eat green peppers? Pretty rarely. I have definitely mixed some wines before, with some positive results, but have not added non-wine things to them. Well, perhaps an ice cube or two.

Couple guys in South Africa got busted 4 or 5 years ago adding capsicum to cheap SB to give it lift…seems folks were able to pick it out one way or another…not sure how they got busted though.

I don’t think the issue is innovativeness or openness, but rather that beer - particularly somewhat neutral beers - lend themselves more to being altered than wine does. I’m a big fan of a shandy in hot weather, or a grapefruit shandy. I will drink Sangria too, but somehow it isn’t quite the same thing. I don’t think my beer tastes are more innovative or open-minded, I just think that wine is less subject to improvement through addition than beer can sometimes be. Also, I’d be less likely to try to mix a really good beer, so why do it to good wine?

As I told you last night, you never cease to amaze me.

I agree that beer is, generally speaking more neutral in flavor, but how would you know whether a wine could be improved unless you thought outside the box? To be clear, I’m not suggesting that anyone adulterates a 1985 Cheval Blanc anymore than I’m suggesting that they make a shandy out of Cantillon. I’m talking about experimenting with a wine that you’re not really enjoying.

The next time I have one of these ho-hum wines (and I’m thinking of one wine in particular that my gf likes and I don’t care for) I’ll report on it.

I have two thoughts here. The first is that wine is just naturally a really good mimic of fruit and non-fruit flavors. So if you want a wine that tastes like olives, grab a N. Rhone Syrah. If you want bell pepper, grab a cool year Loire Cab franc. If you want chocolate or vanilla grab a cabernet with oak. So maybe it is less necessary to adulterate wine due to the naturally high variability of flavors. Just the red-white divide is something that dwarfs the variety found in beer IMO.

Second, I just think wine hits higher heights. I enjoy beer, but it almost never impresses the way that good wine does. So I’m more inclined to improve a beer with additive than wine.

But hey, if you hit upon any life-changing additions to wine be sure to let us know! Or if you have any ridiculous failures that will make for equally entertaining reading.

I’ve taken crap red and added peat moss, vanilla, pepper, put in a little liquid smoke, a dash of Chanel No.
5, some green food coloring, and some sandalwood incense.

It passed as a '29 Latour, a wine as pure as nature itself.

Some clarification may be in order . . . .

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