Nothing is ever perfect and we have an awful secret for you: there are flawed wines. This may be unbelievable, but it is the sad truth. So, which are some of the worst wine countries?
The worst country to produce wine is Vietnam. The climate of Vietnam is inhospital for growing wine, and there is not really a wine culture in the country.
Now let’s discuss why these wines aren’t up to par and others in the worst wine countries list. We care about what our readers drink, so besides listing the best they can get, we should warn them about the worst to avoid.
Let’s get started!
What Is Bad Wine?
Author Note: You may think that there are millions of tastes; how can one state so confidently that this is a bad wine. But these standards are not about the taste: it’s the exact vine grape variety choice, the cultivation of that same grape, then the winemaking process, the tools used, and finally the aging process.
For example, a grape can be the best in the world, but not suitable for a particular wine type.
Aside from all the facts we mentioned already, fermentation is the crucial period for wine to finalize its birth. If fermentation goes wrong, the wine is spoiled. This process was mostly a mystery, as were the reasons that wine spoiled.
All those factors mentioned above make the wine into wine.
Tips and Tricks for Determining Wine Quality
Even if you are not a pro of what wines to drink and what not to, these hacks will help you be a bit more certain.
Color
Even before you smell or taste the wine, the first thing you see is the color. The red wine color tends to be burgundy if it is a bold red. White wine is more of a yellow. The exciting thing is that both wine colors are brownish if they are bad.
The secret is in the acids in wines. When something goes wrong in the wine, it rings with the alert of brown color. So if you spot brown, put the bottle down!
Smell
The smell of wine is a multilayered topic. The wine aromas are fruity or creamy, and that is pleasant. But some wines smell like gasoline. So you may think about what can be worse than a drink that smells like fuel. Maybe nothing, you are right, but the bad smell and smell of a bad wine are two different things. So, here are some aromas that are alerting us of bad wine.
Wetness
Wet cardboard or wet dog aromas are associated with cork taint, or the wine being ‘corked.’ The wine aromas may browse from one style to another, but they are confident. The wet feeling aroma signifies that the cork has had mold growing on it at some stage, leaving chemicals in the pin.
You may clear the mold from the cork or wine, but even tiny amounts of those chemicals can negatively impact wine.
Band-Aids and Barnyard
A little bit of barnyard can add complexity to wine in small doses, and it doesn’t have to be wrong. But if you’re smelling band-aids or farm animals all the time, it’s a problem with the wine. Generally, this results from a yeast called Brettanomyces or “brett,” which alerts of poor hygiene in the winery.
It would not be harmful to you to drink, but you can imagine that the whole wine set will probably have the same issue. It won’t help if you take a fresh bottle.
Nail Polish Remover and Vinegar
You may think that high acidity wines can have such smells, but your guessing is wrong, sorry. These smells are the sign of acid bacteria, which is actively working in your wine and causing a fault named volatile acidity, or VA.
Like most bacterias, this one can also be used in small amounts and add complexity to a wine, but it becomes a disaster when it dominates. It still isn’t harmful to drink, but it may lead to a burning sensation for sensitive people.
Vermin
It doesn’t matter how much you love animals; it is disgusting to smell them in your wine glass! When you smell a mouse in your wine, don’t think it was in the barrel when the wine was aged. The mousy smell is another bacterial fault. This is also not deadly, dangerous, but very unpleasant.
Burnt Rubber or Cooked Cabbage
Those smells testify about the wine, which was not all organic. This is also another winemaking mistake leading to formation of undesirable sulfur compounds in wine. Avoid such wines, please.
No Smell
We talked much about the bad smells, but did you know that no smell is also a bad sign? Don’t panic yet! The wine’s temperature may cause it, or maybe the wine needs some air. Warming your glass with your hands and spinning a bit of the wine inside it can help. If these tips are of no help, that means the wine does not have much flavor.
The reason can be a deficient cork taint level, enough to displace any fresh flavors from the wine, but not high enough to display the wet cardboard or doggy unpleasantness commonly associated with TCA.
Now, let’s move on to the worst wine countries. When you see the countries’ names, consider that they either did what was mentioned above or simply didn’t follow the rules of winemaking.
Worst Wine Countries
Azerbaijan
Top Tip: You are probably surprised that Azerbaijan generally produces wine, as it is a Muslim country. Alcohol is forbidden in Islam, yet Azerbaijan has wine. As you can conclude, this is not the best. There is a joke in Russia saying when they run out of vodka, they drink poor quality wine.
This may be the reason why they import 90% of Azerbaijan wine. The bad quality of Azerbaijanian wine might be because they don’t follow the rules while making wine. They try to produce famous wine types like pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon pinot blanc, and other labels without the proper grapes, tools, or techniques.
Russia
Russians drink but not produce. This sounds ironic but has elements of truth in it. Russian people are not great wine lovers; they prefer something more substantial. This is caused by the cold winters they have there. The weather is a barrier for viticulture, like how Château Le Grand Vostock has lost vines due to cold weather.
But they don’t give up and are still trying to produce some wine types but to no avail.
Besides, Russian people prefer more sweet wine and sparkling wine, and they import them from France and German. Some wine critics say that some vine grapes don’t fear the cold weather, which makes us believe that Russia can adopt all the rules of doing it and will start to produce great wine soon.
Vietnam
French people brought wine to Vietnam. The first wine grape areas were developed in the French colonies. France’s presence could be a valid reason to have great wine, but unfortunately, not in our case.
Vietnamese people did not adopt all the tips and tricks they used while winemaking. To be fair, we should say that the unstable climate causes many wine grape types to die. It doesn’t matter how much English and Australian people in business try to grow various international grapes in this country. The only ones that succeed are Cardinal and Chambourcin grapes.
It seems that wine could be made from other fruits as Vietnam is a tropical country, and there are millions of fruit kinds. But sadly, the majority of the fruits growing in Vietnam are not good for making wine.
There were some failed tries, though. The mix of different fruits and the aging process didn’t get along, so people decided to give up on this notion.
Vang Dalat is the most popular wine Vietnamese wine and only a few companies commercialize these.
Fruit Wine
Because of this monopoly and scarcity of quality grapes, some producers decide to add fruit juice to the grape wine, getting a strange mix that ruins the real taste wine should have. In fact, only around 3% of Vietnam’s total wine production is made from grapes.
Author Note: People in Vietnam are very hardworking, and they like to improvise, so we hope that they will find a way to produce great wine and export it. They will surprise the world soon!
If you have read the name of your country, don’t be sad. And we want to mention that there is no intention to offend any of the nations.
We deliver information in our blog that may help our readers to choose the best wine and avoid the ones that are not good. If you read your country’s name, use it as a motivation to find ways, and help your country be a leader in the winemaking contest.
Parting Thoughts
The words “wine” and “bad” are not made to stand next to each other. No one should drink bad quality wine. Some countries spent ages to find out the best grapes, the best way to cultivate them, and the best technologies to make the best wine!
And they succeed! Your job is to read our blog often and find out more about those wines and enjoy them correctly. The wine producers of different countries can follow the examples of successful brands and try to put their own twist on these techniques. We hope you enjoyed this article on the worst wine countries.
No need to reinvent the wheel! Work hard and make the flag of your country win the contest of best wine in the world. Good luck!
To living a full-bodied life,
Wesley