the so-called "x o" is actually an abbreviation in French or English. "X" stands for the word "Extra", which means "extra"; "O" stands for the word "id", which means "old". The abbreviations of these two words are usually simplified to two capital letters "XO". However, it is also a sign of wine grade or mature year, which is reflected in wine grade, and "X" stands for "special alcohol" wine; "O" stands for "aged" wine, and when the two letters are added together, it is "special alcohol" grade "aged" old wine. Reflected in the mature year, such as "XO" stands for Napoleon wine, while it is a 4-year-old brandy; If it represents Extra wine, it is a 7-year-old brandy. In addition to using letters to mark the grade and mature year of wine, Cognac brandy in France, as well as the practice of using the symbol of stars as a symbol, such as Samsung brandy in France, is a five-year-old wine. Of course, to identify the mature year of foreign wine, it is also subject to the brewing age on the bottle trademark and the number of storage periods. For example, "Samsung Brandy" mentioned at the beginning of this article, if it was imported before liberation, it would have been 2 years since the beginning of the battle of crossing the river on April 25, 1949 until it was seized in l 968, which is enough to be "V·S·O". The so-called "mature" period of wine is the time when the wine liquid enters the best state. For example, there is a kind of wine called "MAECHUT" in South Korea, which is marked as "five-year mature" in Chinese. Those who are "mature" are also called "mature". The symbol letters of foreign wine grade and maturity, together with "X", are as follows: (1) The abbreviation letters of foreign wine grade are: e: special grade; S= advanced; F= exquisite; P= light color; V= sufficient; X: special yeast; O= aged C= cognac. (2) The abbreviation of wine maturity: .vo: 1 years; VSO: 15 years; VSOP=2 years; XO: 4 years (Napoleon); XO: 7 years (Extra). (3) foreign wines from different places have similar abbreviations, such as brandy produced in Burgan, France, with V S O P as the special alcohol and aged light-colored brandy as the most. The series is as follows: V O = 1 ~ 12 years old; V s o = l 2 ~ 2 years old; V s o p = 2 ~ 3 years old; V v s o p = 4 years old wine. In addition, there are series marked by the symbol of the star as follows: ☆: 3-year-old brandy; ☆☆: 4 years old brandy; ☆☆☆=5 years old brandy. (4) Wine merchants from different countries add different levels of English abbreviations to brandy produced in France, such as the following letters, which are also translated into Chinese with the following meanings: E= particularly good, the original text is "especial"; F= ok, the original text is "fine"; O= old, originally "otd"; S= good, the original text is "superior"; P: light color, the original text is "pate"; X= extra, the original text is "ext r"; C= Cognac, that is, "cognac". And "V S O P" is regarded as "very high-quality aged light-colored brandy" as a famous wine, which is different from the meaning of the same letter mentioned in this section (3) only in Chinese translation, and has no significant difference. (5) Due to the variety of world trademarks of foreign wines, the French government has made the following provisions on the code name and age of the famous wines it produces:' A, the whole sentence of "Three Star" is used as the symbol of four and a half years of aging;' B, with the abbreviation of "V O V S O P", as the sign of wine aging for not less than four and a half years; C, with the whole sentence of "Extra Napoleon", it is a sign that the wine is not less than five and a half years old. However, the de facto level and maturity standards held by the international wine business community are lower than those stipulated by the French government. It is not difficult to see from this that the XO or VSOP, such as Remy Martin and Martell, which flock to the China market, are hardly higher than the French standards in terms of their large sales volume and wide sales area. Because we know that all "VSOP" from Britain is only three years, and those from the United States are only two years. The "Samsung Brandy" from these places is often only one year. Therefore, it is hard to avoid spending more than 9 yuan to buy a bottle of brandy known as "X" and "cognac Remy Martin". It can only be said that it is only a foreign meat. However, the above situation is limited to the international market, and it does not mean those authentic foreign wines produced and stored by restaurants. Whether to spend money or not depends mainly on consumers' recognition ability and consumption level, especially their proficiency in foreign languages. However, if we can grasp the law of the production date and maturity time of foreign wine on the trademark, it is not difficult to buy the year as the lower limit, and calculate its production and maturity period. It can be said that if you miss, it is not far away! Besides, the foreign wine produced in China today has followed the practice of marking the brewing date in Europe and America. For example, the gold medal brandy produced by Yantai Changyu Wine Brewing Company has been introduced with "XO" and "VS" grades. For example, the "Dynasty Semi-dry White Wine" produced by Tianjin Sino-French Joint Venture Dynasty Grape Brewing Co., Ltd. and the "Dynasty Pink Wine" produced by this factory have indicated their production year and maturity date. Its "pink wine", and also noted that it was brewed from "1 992 grape season". This is undoubtedly in line with international famous wine standards for identifying the quality of wine. Another example is "Vitniya White Wine" produced by Kyle Polo Brewing Co., Ltd., a Sino-foreign joint venture in Hangzhou, which indicates the production year. The label of "Vitniya" wine stored by me has been marked as "1989 grape season", and it is a bottled white wine presented by the manufacturer for tasting. It has not been unsealed so far, waiting for the guests to come. Nowadays, in the counters of many restaurants, hotels, shopping malls and bars, world famous wines such as Remy Martin and Napoleon are often seen, and the words "V O" and "X O" are all on their trademarks, so people can't understand their true meanings for a while. It turns out that this is the abbreviation of the year of each bottle of wine, so as to reflect the value of the wine. The longer the brewing time, the higher the value of the wine. The unified standards stipulated by the French government are: X-one star, 5 years XX-two stars, 1 years XXX-three stars, 15 years V O-more than 15 years V S O-more than 2 years V S O P-more than 3 years X O-more than 4 years extra- According to the length of storage life of the original wine in oak barrels, cognac wine is divided into many grades, from low to high, there are VS grade (three-star), VSOP grade, XO grade, EXTRA grade and so on. VS grade refers to those cognac wines whose original wine age is less than 4.5 years, VSOP grade refers to cognac wines whose original wine age is between 4.5 years and 6.5 years, and XO grade is at least 6.5 years old (note "above"). The longer the original cognac wine is stored in oak barrels, the better the quality and the higher the price. All brandy wineries use letters to classify the quality, as follows: E stands for ESPECIAL (special) F stands for FINE (good) V stands for VERY (good) O stands for OLD (old) S stands for SUPERIOR (good) P stands for PALE (light and old) X stands for EXTRA (exceptional). XO is a kind of grade representation of grape distilled liquor (brandy), which is the abbreviation of Extra Old, meaning "extremely old". Brandy can be roughly divided into three grades: the first grade is V.S., that is, three stars. According to relevant French laws, the minimum age of the original wine when blending cognac is at least 1.5 years. The second grade is V.O, V.O.P, V.S.O.P When blending, the minimum age of the original wine is at least 4-4.5 years. The third grade, X.O, Napoleon, Exatra, etc., are very old brandies, which are called fine or best. When blending, the minimum age of the wine is over 6 years. Therefore, X.O is different from vintage wine. Vintage wine means that the color of high-quality wine brewed from grapes harvested in a certain year will change to dark blue after adding alkali. Knowing this truth, when drinking red wine, friends might as well try it with sodium hydroxide or household white vinegar and edible alkali. There are other ways to identify red wine: ① Look at the label and you can tell whether it is original juice wine or semi-juice wine. You can't add anything to raw wine. If white sugar is added, the alcohol content of wine will be improved; Adding potassium sorbate (preservative) will destroy the composition of wine, and then affect the quality of wine. If a red wine is marked as containing whole grape juice, white sugar and potassium sorbate, it should undoubtedly be a semi-juice wine. 2 Look at the appearance. The appearance of real wine is clear, transparent and shiny. Its color is consistent with the name of the wine, and its color is natural and pleasing to the eye. The fragrance is balanced, coordinated and integrated, and the fragrance is elegant and pleasant; Fake wine is cloudy and dull, its color does not match the name of the wine, it has no natural feeling, its color is gorgeous, and it has obvious artificial pigment feeling. (3) Real wine tastes pleasant, soft, full-bodied and has a long aftertaste; Fake wine has outstanding and violent fruit flavor (plus essence), outstanding alcohol flavor, outstanding foreign flavor, thin body and no aftertaste.