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2008
Calculating a wine's
brix Dec 08
Last
month we used our column to answer some of
the many questions we receive from our readers
and tasting room customers. We had another
interesting question from one of our readers.
Karen
asks: "It appears wineries don’t advertise the brix score of their wines. I’ve found that I
like a wine that isn’t too dry or too sweet.
The Fredericksburg (TX) winery sent me a
current price list that also had the Brix on
it, and I think I can say I like a white wine
at 2.0 and a red between 2 and 3.5. Is it
possible to calculate a wine’s Brix if the
sugar and alcohol content is posted on their
website (such as Schlink Haus)?
First,
let’s talk about brix. We’ve discussed brix
before but as a refresher…Brix describes the
sugar content of the grape juice from which the
wine is made. In general each 2° brix of juice
leads to about 1% alcohol by volume. Most
grapes used in making "still" wines (wines that
do not contain carbon dioxide, which would make
it sparkling or effervescent) are picked when
the brix is around 25°-28°.
This
equates to wines with alcohol percents about
12.5-14.0 give or take. Once the grape juice
begins to ferment a different measurement is
taken with a hydrometer which measures brix/specific
gravity, S.G. In a simple world, the
fermentation in most "dry" wines is complete
when the S.G. is 0 or less. These numbers
suggest that the yeast has converted all of the
sugar into alcohol. So,
why don’t wineries advertise the brix score of
their wines? Quite simply, "still" dry wines
will have a zero or minus brix number, most
consumers are more concerned about the alcohol
percent, and it’s not required by the ABC or
TTB (the alcohol labeling police).
The
winemaker may create a "sweet" wine by
interrupting the yeasts interaction with the
sugar and stopping the
fermentation before all of the sugar has been
converted. The fermentation in late harvest
wines and dessert wines are typically stopped
when the S.G. is 2° or more to allow residual
sugar to remain in the wine.
A
winery making late harvest wines or dessert
wine may choose to add a brix or residual sugar
reading to the wine label to give the consumer
one more indication that this is a sweet wine.
As Karen mentioned, she prefers white wine at
2.0° and red wine at 2.0° - 3.5°. Based on
these readings Karen’s tastes lean more toward
sweeter wines.
Finally, is it possible to calculate a wine’s
brix if the sugar and alcohol content is posted
on their website (such as Schlink Haus)? Yes,
you can calculate the approximate starting brix
if you know the final alcohol content and the
final amount of residual sugar. Ohio State
offered these basic formulas:
Calculating alcohol content
•Alcohol is produced by yeast in anaerobic
fermentation
•Sugar
content in must (in degrees Brix) multiplied by
.55 = final % alcohol – Example: Juice with 20
degrees Brix sugar will give wine with 11%
alcohol
•If
not all the sugar is fermented, then that
amount is first subtracted; Example 20°Brix
starting sugar and 2°Brix residual sugar is
(20-2) x .55= 9.9% alcohol
•Can
calculate what starting sugar must have been
from final alcohol content and final residual
sugar. E.g.: 12% alcohol with 2°Brix residual
sugar = 12/.55 + 2 = 23.8°Brix
The
postings on the Schlink Haus website present a
different problem. These are German wines and
rather than using brix they use a different
method of calculation called ochsle and it is
more complicated. 1° ochsle = 0.2% sugar by
weight. So, you can try and do the conversions
or you can just look at the bigger picture;
these are sweet wines that have residual sugar
and simply enjoy the wine.
Karen,
I hope this answers your question. Happy
Holidays everyone, see you next year! Until
next time, Gary and Sue Send
us your comments, favorite recipes and favorite
stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to
us c/o Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter
Creek, CA 95685. 'Wine makes daily
living easier, less hurried, with fewer
tensions and more tolerance.' Benjamin
Franklin
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Gary & Sue's Mailbag
Nov 08
Whew! Harvest, at
least for most of us, is finally over. And,
after speaking with many of the local
winemakers, it looks like 2008 turned out to be
a pretty good year. We are taking this time to
answer a few of the many interesting and
intriguing questions from "Gary and Sue’s
Mailbag" and from Frog’s Tooth tasting room
patrons.
Mark in Modesto asks
"Are cork closures better than screw cap tops
because they let the wine breathe?" Well, there
is still a lot of debate over which is better:
natural cork or screw cap. Both have
advantages. However, the last thing you want in
a cork is for it to allow the wine to
"breathe". Air is the enemy of wine. A "leaking
cork" does the following: 1) it oxidizes and
removes the SO2 protection from the wine; 2) it
oxidizes and removes the tannin, pigment and
other protections from the wine; 3) it oxidizes
and destroys the flavors of the wine and causes
the wine to turn brown; 4) finally, because all
of the wine’s protection has been removed,
bacteria begins to grow and turns the wine to
vinegar. To expand on Mark’s question a bit,
Lori in Sonora asked "why aerate/decant a
wine?" Old wines that have been cellared
properly will contain sediment. Properly
decanting old wines will leave the sediment in
the bottle. Also, the decanting of both old and
young wine introduces oxygen and releases the
aromas present in the wine.
I read an article
recently in Appellation America by Dr Richard
Peterson regarding this subject. To summarize,
every-thing we eat or drink is bathed in air as
it passes over our taste and smell receptors. A
wine that has been sealed up in a bottle for a
long time is not bathed in air and will taste
and smell funny at first. (It’s like a suitcase
or trunk that has been closed up for a long
period of time. It smells funky doesn’t it?
After it has been opened for awhile or the
clothes that were tucked inside are taken out
and "aired" everything smells better.) It’s the
same with the wine that has been sealed in a
bottle for a long time. The wine in the bottle
has been changing (bottle aging) while living
in a "reducing atmosphere". This is the
chemical opposite of aeration (an aerated
atmosphere). Exposed to air, that is-decanted,
the wine becomes more aromatic and easier to
drink.
Freshly dissolved air
doesn’t oxidize the wine immediately. Oxidation
takes place slowly. You won’t see the effect
for several hours. Aeration/decanting is simply
mixing air with the wine but not allowing
enough time for the air to attack and oxidize
the wine. Your assignment (should you wish to
accept it) is to drink the wine before it can
oxidize. Jennifer asks "Sometimes I get
headaches when I drink red wine. Is that due to
sulfides? What are sulfides and do all wines
contain them?" Let’s talk about a couple of
things.
First, all wines
contain some sulfides. Potassium metabisulfite
and sulfur dioxide, sulfites for short, are
added to wine and other foods to protect
against oxidation, discoloration, and microbial
spoilage. Without sulfites, few wines would
last much more than a year in the bottle. All
proteins make some sulfite all by themselves,
including fermentation yeasts. Sulfites have
been used in wine for centuries. In ancient
times, sulfur was burned in the storage
vessels, producing sulfites, which dissolved
into the wine with the same advantageous
effects we seek now.
Sulfites are used in
much higher concentrations in many food items
than you would find in wine. Dried fruits such
as apricots and golden raisins are especially
high in sulfites. People sensitive to sulfites
can experience sneezing, and burning, runny
eyes from the much higher quantities of sulfite
used in dried apricots. If these foods don’t
give someone problems, it is highly unlikely
that they would suffer ill effects from
sulfites in wine.
Sulfites are necessary
to produce wines which are pleasant to drink.
The amount of sulfites in wine is so small that
adverse re-actions would be rare. Nevertheless,
if a consumer has bad asthma or severe lung
disease, it would be wise to stay away from
very young, sweet, white wines. Aged red wines
have very little residual free sulfite, and dry
whites aged 2 to 3 years will likely cause no
problems. There has been some research on Red
Wine Headache syndrome that points to a
naturally occurring material in grape skins and
not sulfides in the wine as the culprit. We’ll
do a bit more investigation and provide some
information next time. Good questions…Keep them
coming. Until next time, Gary and Sue. Send us
your comments, favorite recipes and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685.
"You haven't drunk too
much wine if you can still lie on the floor
without holding on." ~ Dean Martin
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Harvest Time Sept 08
Hello, fellow wine
lovers, and welcome to the busiest month of
the vintner’s year. It’s September and it’s
HARVEST TIME! The vineyards and wineries are
aflutter with activity and I am hip deep in
picking, pressing, crushing, etc. (The etc
includes eating bratwurst and drinking beer. It
takes a lot of beer to produce a barrel of wine)
While composing the following tasty comments
(Remember ladies, with these guys it’s all
about the old tum-tum) and remembering last
September’s harvest article, I got that feeling
of deja vu. Some of the points from 2007 were
so pertinent that they merited repetition.
(Plus, he was so sated with dogs and suds that
his brain was on pause mode)
Some
of you who have walked the aisles of your local
produce market and squeezed a few tomatoes may
wonder how we know when it is time to pick the
fruit. I’m tempted to say it’s magic and have
you all gaze at me with slack-jawed awe but
this is the season for sharing so I will let
you in on field tests and laboratory tests.
Field
tests are generally begun after the grapes go
through veraison (The official definition of véraison is "change of color of the grape
berries"). Véraison signifies the change from
berry growth to berry ripening in grapevines.
One of the field tests that are conducted is to
check the brix (sugar level) of the grape
berries. The grower and/or winemaker walk the
vineyard and randomly select berries while
trying not to focus on any particular color or
size of fruit.
All
the berries, not just the juiciest and most
brilliantly colored ones, will wind up in the
barrel so a balanced representation is
required. The chosen berries are dropped into a
plastic baggie and crushed. A few drops of the
resulting juice is placed onto the business end
of an instrument called a refractometer. This
handy device allows the user to look into its
eyepiece (Oh, that sounds decidedly
Transylvanian. Admit it, we all have thought of
Count Dracula as a mildly sexy guy. Something
about that black cape) which reveals a scale
calibrated in degrees brix. The higher the
number the more sugar in the juice. As the
berry ripens, the brix level will rise. Another
less technical indicator of ripeness is the
color of the seeds. Less ripened grapes will
have green seeds and ripe grapes will have
brown seeds. (Of course, dear, any
hardworking sparrow could tell you that)
The
most common laboratory tests revolve around
acid (titratable acidity or TA), and pH. The
key to knowing when to harvest is to find the
optimal balance between brix, TA and pH. One
can argue what is optimal but in general, the
optimum brix is around 22, TA 0.60 to 0.80 for
reds and 0.65 to 0.85 for whites. While this
might sound easy, it is very difficult to
coordinate a harvest where all three of these
elements are in their optimal positions.
It is
more common to find only one or two of these
elements at their prime at one time. This is
where the winemaker’s skills come into play in
syncing up these elements during the winemaking
process. Water may be added to bring down sugar
levels, tartaric acid maybe added to raise
acidity and lower pH. We can talk about the
effects sugar, acid and pH have on the wine
another time. Suffice it to say each has its
purpose. All of these tests are important but
one of the most important tests is conducted
utilizing one of the most complex instruments
ever created. The test is TASTE and the
instrument is your mouth and tongue. Taste is
often "The" indicator that best defines the
right time to pick.
Until next time,
Gary and Sue. Write to us c/o Gold
Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek, CA
95685. "Wine had such ill effects on Noah’s
health that it was all he could do to live 950
years. Show me a total abstainer that ever
lived that long." - Will Rogers
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Enrich Your Wine
Experience August 08
Welcome to another
edition of fun and, on occasion, facts, from
the wide, wide world of wine. Today we want to
digress a bit. Man does not live by bread alone
and, as much as it grieves us to say so, wine
tasters can not experience the full range of
flavors inherent in a bottle or flight of wine
merely by dutifully beginning with the least
pretentious white and progressing to the most
complex red. "How then," you ask," does one
achieve the ultimate pleasure in wine tasting?"
Well,
one could employ a clean glass for each wine
tasted (One is obviously not the one washing
the stemware after all that tasting is
finished!) Rinsing the glass between wines is
another option. (True greenies would call this
a waste of Mother Earth’s resources.) Nibbling
on wine crackers between varieties is another
technique. (I would avoid the boxes of garlic
onion or lemon pepper crackers.) Or even
better, pair your wines with gourmet cheeses
(remember to hide them from little Junior or
his sister Sally when they are hankering for a
grilled cheese sandwich.) Here are some sure
bets to enrich your wine tasting experience.
Let’s
say you have a Fume Blanc. Obviously, as the
Blanc suggests, this is a white wine. The Fume
refers to the smoky flavor derived from being
aged in an oak barrel instead of in stainless
steel. Try this with an Epoisses de Bourgogne
(Okay, just don’t expect me to pronounce it.)
This cheese is made in the village of Epoisses
in the commune of Cote-d’Or in France. It is a
cows-mild cheese that is formed and then washed
in the local pomace brandy. Napoleon was a fan
of this cheese. The second wine we want to pair
up is Barbera. For this we would suggest
Fontina, a cow’s milk Italian cheese. Young
Fontina has a softer texture and can be used
for fondue. Mature Fontina is a hard cheese. It
has a mild, somewhat nutty flavor and melts
well. (Okay, this one might end up between two
slices of Wonder bread)
For
what we call our pizza wine, Tempranillo, buy
Manchego cheese. Manchego is made in the La
Mancha region of Spain (Do I hear strains of
The Impossible Dream being hummed by our
readers?) and aged in caves for three to six
months. Manchego is a semi-firm cheese with a
rich golden color and small holes. The taste
depends on the maturity: mild and subtle for
the fresh cheese, to strong and full-bodied for
those aged at least one year.
A
Cabernet or a Meritage would pair up well with
a Bleu Cheese such as Gorgonzola. Gorgonzola is
a veined Italian cheese made from unskimmed
cow’s milk. It can be buttery or firm, crumbly
and quite salty, with a ‘bite’ from the blue
veining. The name comes from a small town near
Milan, Italy (I suppose we can safely say the
town was named Gorgonzola?) and was reportedly
first produced in 1879.
When
you are settling down for the evening to savor
your favorite Port, don’t forget to get your
Gouda. (Hmm, are you trying to be alliterative
there?) Gouda from the Netherlands is made
from cow’s milk and is processed so that some
of the lactic acid is removed. This results in
a sweeter flavor. You can send your children
out for this cheese-just tell them to look for
the roly-poly hockey puck with a red paraffin
coating. Exported Gouda in red is usually the
young variety that was aged between one and six
months.
Until
next time, Gary and Sue. Send us your comments,
favorite recipes and favorite stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685. "Wine is bottled poetry." - Robert
Louis Stevenson. "The poets have been
mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
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Basics of Serving
Wine
July 08
Welcome back, fellow wine enthusiasts! Hope
your Independence Day celebration was exciting
enough to make your hair stand on end but not
wild enough to singe it off. Along with at
least a hundred other guests, we enjoyed
spending the evening with Joan and Russell
Irish at their Fourth of July party at Irish
Winery. We were able to share wine biz stories
with Carol and Gary Zucca, sample down-home
dishes prepared by many talented cooks, and
delight in children bouncing and dogs
cavorting. Gary, of course, tasted wine.
Russell’s new private release Cabernet was so
big, bold, and bodacious that Gary threatened
to trade in his Frog Tooth flippers for an
Irish shillelagh.
Today,
we want to discuss some of the basics of
serving wine to your own guests. Have you ever
found yourself walking in a daze down the
aisles of Bev Mo or Nordstrom’s and puzzling
over all the shapes and colors and sizes of
wineglasses? What glass is best for red wines?
Which one is more suitable for whites? Which
one is going to take the $3.99 bottle of "Red
Table Wine" you picked up at Drinks For Less
and transform it into a lightly chilled bottle
of Mouton-Rothschild?
Let’s
answer the last question first: it just ain’t
going to happen. No glassware will take a poor
wine and turn it into anything other than what
the winemaker was able to craft. But stemware
choices can allow your guests to more fully
enjoy good wine. The most important quality in
a wineglass is a big bowl. From an aesthetic
point of view, the generous bowl reflects the
bounty you wish to share with your guests. You
also want them to be able to swirl the wine and
release the nose that is so important to the
total wine tasting experience. You do not want
a bowl so tiny that the swirl cascades into
your guest’s laps or onto their dinner table
partner’s shoes.
You
also want to purchase a glass that curves in
gently at the top. This will help to contain
the aromas in the glass. A trumpet-shaped glass
may match the new overhead lighting system your
partner spent fourteen hours installing but you
will lose points on the pleasure you and your
guests feel. Stay away from colored glasses.
Remember your second grade experiments mixing
red and green water colors and creating some
abomination that your mother is still trying to
get out of that special dress she wanted to
keep forever. Wineglasses are like people: they
too come in all shapes and sizes. Generally,
red wines do better in a bigger glass than
white wines do. Serve sparkling wines in a
tall, narrow flute so the happy little bubbles
remain joyous as long as possible. For your
dessert port and other fortified wines to have
a chance to sparkle in their own refined
manner, serve them in a smaller, tulip-shaped
glass.
What
about, you may ask, those lovely cut-crystal
glasses your favorite Aunt Sadie gave to you on
your fifth wedding anniversary? Surely I can
use those? Yes, every time Aunt Sadie comes to
dinner. Otherwise, serving wine to your guests
in cut glasses will be like looking at the Mona
Lisa through your two-year-old daughter’s
kaleidoscope.
Finally, when you decide on the glass that best
serves your needs, be sure to buy extra.
Unfortunately, accidents happen. You don’t want
to spend hours walking those aisles seeking
your own Holy Grail and then shuddering the
very next day when Uncle Moe breaks one. In the
back of your mind you suspect the inevitable:
the store has changed its stock and you will be
forced to wander those very same aisles again.
Until next time, Gary and Sue.
Send
us your comments, favorite recipes and stories
to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685. "I made wine out of raisins so I
wouldn't have to wait for it to age." - Steven
Wright.
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Fun Facts & Trivia
about Wine June
08
We decided that this month’s column should be
filled with some fun facts and trivia. Answers
to questions we have been asked over the years
and tidbits of information to put a smile on
your face or to win that bar bet. For starters,
we are constantly asked how many cases of wine
are in a barrel, how many grapes does it take
to make a bottle of wine, or how much wine can
be made from an acre of grapes. So, this should
satisfy the inquisitive. On average: (To the
professionals out there, please cut us some
slack. We know that there are many variables
that go into calculating these numbers. These
are intended to be generalizations)
1 grape cluster = 1
glass
6 grape clusters = 1 bottle
12 bottles = 1 case
32 clusters = 1 vine (based on bi-lateral
cordon with 16 spur positions and 2 clusters
per spur)
0.25 - 0.50 pounds = 1 grape cluster
13 pounds of grapes = 1 gallon of wine
1 gallon wine = 5 bottles
60 gallons = 1 barrel
1 barrel = 25 cases
807 vines = 1 acre (6’ x 9’ spacing)
1 acre = 4 tons (approx. for foothills)
4 tons = 8 barrels/ 200 cases
"The
Irish believe that fairies are extremely fond
of good wine. The proof of the assertion is
that in the olden days royalty would leave a
keg of wine out for them at night. Sure enough,
it was always gone in the morning." Irish
Folklore.
The
bill for a celebration party for the 55
drafters of the US Constitution was for 54
bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, 8
bottles of whiskey, 22 bottles of port, 8
bottles of hard cider, 12 beers and 7 bowls of
alcohol punch large enough that "ducks could
swim in them." There
are about 400 species of oak, though only about
20 are used in making oak barrels. Of the trees
that are used, only 5% are suitable for making
high grade wine
barrels. The average age
of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine
barrels is 170 years.
In
ancient Babylon, the bride’s father would
supply his son-in-law with all the mead
(fermented honey beverage) he could drink for a
month after the wedding. Because their calendar
was lunar or moon-based, this period of free
mead was called the "honey moon", or what we
now call the "honeymoon".
According to scientist Bill Lembeck there are
approximately 49 million bubbles in a bottle of
Champagne.
The
largest cork tree in the world is known as "The
Whistler Tree". This tree is located in the
Alentejo region of Portugal and averages over 1
ton of raw cork per harvest. Enough to cork
100,000 bottles of wine.
There
is a cloud of alcohol in outer space with
enough alcohol to make four trillion-trillion
drinks. It’s free for the taking…but it’s
10,000 light years away from Earth.
The
word "toast", meaning a wish of good health,
started in ancient Rome, where a piece of
toasted bread was dropped into wine.
In
English pubs, drinks are served in pints and
quarts. In old England, bartenders would advise
unruly customers to mind their own pints and
quarts. It’s the origin of "mind your P’s and
Q’s".
The
shallow champagne glass originated with Marie
Antoinette. It was first formed from wax molds
made of her breasts.
The corkscrew was
invented in 1860.
The
purpose of the indentation at the bottom of a
wine bottle is to strengthen the structure of
the bottle.
Frederick the Great of Prussia tried to ban the
consumption of coffee and demanded that the
populace drink alcohol instead.
Don’t
swallow in Utah! Wine used in wine tasting's in
Utah must not be swallowed.
What
is the ideal temperature for storing wine?
Whites: chilled (45-55 degrees F) for a few
hours in the refrigerator. Reds: slightly
cooler than room temperature (about 65 degrees
F); Younger fruity reds benefit from chilling.
Sparkling Wine: thoroughly chilled; refrigerate
several hours or the night before serving.
Dessert Wine: room temperature.
The
first U.S. winery, established in 1823, was
located in Missouri.
In
Fairbanks, Alaska, it’s illegal to feed a moose
any alcohol beverage.
While
in some countries the penalty for driving while
intoxicated can be death (yes, death) in
Uruguay intoxication is a legal excuse for
having an accident while driving.
A morbid, irrational fear of or aversion to
wine is called Oenophobia.
We
hope you have fun with these tidbits of
information. Until next time, Gary and Sue.
Send us your comments, favorite recipes and
stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 9568. "Hey Man, I'm drinking wine, eating
cheese, and catching some rays." Donald
Sutherland as Oddball in "Kelly's Heroes".
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Tasting Room - May
08
Welcome to From
the Vine tasting room,
ladies and gentleman. Please proceed gingerly
as you descend the wine cellar’s ancient steps.
The temperature down here is a chilly 65
degrees, so you more sensitive guests may want
to slip on your sweaters. You are in for a
treat today. Here in the safety of our
underground redoubt we will be discussing the
power of words versus Old World tyranny and
bureaucratic obstinacy. (A wee bit full of
ourselves today, are we? Dare I say, even
pedagogic? Someone must have purchased a new
thesaurus.)
Today
we are discussing Meritage, a fairly new
addition to the wine lexicon. (There he goes
again) Meritage is the wine category name that
was coined in 1988 by Neil Edgar in response to
an international contest that attracted 6,000
total entries. Previous to the creation of the
name, Meritage, vintners were very limited in
the choice of names they could legally bestow
upon their oenological handicraft (Uh-huh). Why
was that, you ask? (Please stop encouraging
him!)
First,
New World wines are mostly named for their
grape type: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay,
Merlot, Grenache, etc. In order to call a wine
by its varietals' name, say Chardonnay, the
wine maker must use at least 75% Chardonnay
grapes. Many Old World wines are named for
their place: Bordeaux, Champagne, Rioja, etc.
So, a New World wine maker can not legally
produce "Champagne" because his grapes are not
cultivated in and his wine is not aged in
barrels in the Champagne region of France. This
New World wine maker can only call his product
"Sparkling Wine".
Second, if the New World wine maker wants to
produce a wine that is blended from several
grapes to emulate a "Bordeaux Blend" but
his/her product is less than 75% of one
variety, US wine laws say he/she can only name
it "Red Wine" or "Red Table Wine". (How boring
is that?) In 1988, a group of frustrated Napa
Valley winemakers who wanted to make Bordeaux
style blends without being limited to a name
that sounded like something Uncle Bob brewed in
his bathtub formed a loose association of about
20 members.
Led by
Augustin Huneeus of Franciscan Winery, Mitch
Cosentino of Cosentino
Winery, and Julie
Garvey of Flora Springs Winery, the new
association announced a contest to give their
"concept" a name. Enter Neil Edgar and the word
"Meritage" which is a blend of the words Merit
(for quality) and Heritage (for the Bordeaux
tradition of blending wines). Incidentally,
Neil’s prize was two bottles of the first ten
vintages of each Meritage Association member’s
wine. So, what constitutes a Meritage wine?
(The man is going full speed now. Stand back or
be pummeled by rolling wine barrels!) First,
the wine must be made from a blend of at least
two Bordeaux grapes-Cabernet Savignon, Merlot,
Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, St.
Macaire, Gros Verdot, or Carmenere.
Second, no varietal can exceed 90 percent of
the blend. Of course, the wine maker also needs
to join the Meritage Association. There are
also a few white Meritage wines that contain
Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, or rarely, Sauvignon
Vert. The Meritage Association is now
celebrating its 20th anniversary. The
association has 201 members from 20 states as
well as Argentina, Australia, Israel and
Mexico. Its latest member is from France, Anne
de Joyeuse of the Languedoc region. (Good,
good, enough statistics. Let’s get to the
bottom of the barrel in this discussion and
talk about taste. What constitutes a great
bottle of Meritage?).
I am
sure you can surmise from my discussion on the
various locations of vineyards that produce
Meritage (those of us who stayed awake) that I
am unable to describe a "typical" Meritage
taste. Grapes grown in Virginia, Michigan,
France, Argentina or the Sierra foothills will
each result in wine that tastes different from
each other. Also, different wine makers will
employ different quantities of the eight
possible wines in their finished product.
However, I can say that Meritage wine will be
full bodied and best served with hearty foods.
These bottles of red Meritage can be aged, some
for a very long time. White Meritage wines are
medium bodied.
Today is your lucky
day, my friends, because several local wineries
make very tasty Meritage wines. Before I end
our conversation, I want to congratulate the
recent winners of the Calaveras County Fair
whose Meritage wines were awarded medals: Brice
Station (bronze), Charles Mitchell (bronze), DK
Cellars (double gold!), Frog’s Tooth (silver),
Ironstone (silver), Madrona Vineyards (bronze),
Newsome Harlowe (silver), and Winery by the
Creek (double gold!). Until next time, Gary and
Sue. Send us your comments, favorite recipes
and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685. "If God forbade drinking, would He
have made wine so good?" Cardinal Richeleu
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Mystery Wine Tour -
April 08
Welcome back,
fellow travelers to the final installment of
the Magical Mystery Wine Tour. Like our
ancestors who uprooted their vines and sailed
to foreign shores, we have abandoned our
reliable but cramped bus and boldly embarked
from the familiar terroirs of the Old World
where wine has been continuously produced for
the last 1000 years. Specifically, we are
redirecting our wine history lesson from
Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa to
the Americas, Australia, New Zealand,
sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. Wine came to the
New World for many reasons. Spanish
missionaries wanted to have wine to continue
the observance of the Mass (I must refrain from
silly comments that pit me against the big boy
upstairs. Repeat with me: the wine is for the
Mass, the wine is for the Mass. Drats, I
couldn’t step away from the tasting room table
without opening my mouth).
Australian immigrants favored wine over local
brews because it was said to cause less
drunkenness and rowdy behavior. A colony that
began as a penal institution would favor any
effort to control the local lads. (A few of us
have discovered that radar guns pointed down
Highway 4 have the same effect) North American
East Coast settlers and Spaniards who had not
taken vows of charity, poverty, and abstinence
drank wine for the same reason that Calaveras
County folks do today.
After
spending a long, hot day looking for the Seven
Cities of Cibola or leveling sixteen acres of
rocky Maine shoreline wine tastes amazingly
good and cheers your flagging spirit. (Let’s
not forget the members of the fairer sex who
rose before dawn to chop wood for the stove,
draw water from the well, bake buttermilk
biscuits, and burp the babies!) Alas, Old World
vines that came to New World regions died. The
New World had its own varieties of grapevines
that thrived but the wine that was produced
from the fruit just didn’t taste the same. Then
tragedy almost struck when New World vines were
taken back to the Old World. The dependable
vines that had been producing happily in France
and Italy for centuries also began to die. This
was a calamity! (Personally, I’ve always
wondered about space exploration. Might it have
been wiser for the astronauts to leave all
those moon rocks behind when the LEM module
blasted off? HMM, just think about it.)
In addition to
wonderfully surprising new people, new crops,
and new animals, the New World also had new
bugs. What would later be known as the eastern
United States was home to Phylloxera vastratrix.
This bad boy bug was very tiny but very nasty
when it bit and sucked on the roots of
grapevines. Growers and vintners scratched
their heads (and nervously licked the rims of
their wineglasses) and wondered what was
happening. Unfortunately, cuttings from New
World vines had been brought back to the Old
World (Are you thinking moon rocks yet?) and by
the 1860’s and 1870’s vineyards in France and
Italy were dying. Many tactics were tried but
none were completely successful. Bad news,
folks, there was simply no cure and no
prevention for Phylloxera (moon rocks, moon
rocks).
Seeking a light at the end of the tunnel,
growers looked to the New World where the
problem had originated and saw the robust vines
that thrived in spite of evil little Phil and
his root sucking mayhem. If New World
grapevines were immune to this lethal pest why
not graft the Old World standards onto American
rootstocks. Voila! After some initial
resistance the grafting technique caught on and
the vines and the wine industry were hauled
back from the brink of a very high cliff.
Some
pre-Phylloxera wines and vineyards still exist.
Yes, there are priceless (or perhaps very, very
pricey) bottles of wine from the 1870’s (Yum,
yum, let’s all put our heads together and
create a new holiday/Presidential
win/multi-trillion-dollar-new-home- purchase
reason to pop open one of those puppies!) A few
small vineyards in Europe are not planted on
New World rootstock and for some quirky reason
have not been affected. (I wonder if those
vineyards could be next door to Lourdes?).
Nearly all the vines in Chile are ungrafted
because Phylloxera hasn’t dropped in for a very
unwelcome visit there. (All you traveling wine
tasters be sure to kick off your boots and race
quickly through the delousing station when
entering Chilean vineyards).
We
could not end our tour without a very special
mention to Louis Pasteur. His work in
fermentation was invaluable. He and other
scientists revolutionized winemaking throughout
the world. Well,
folks, that concludes our tour. We hope you
have enjoyed your trip. Until next time, Gary
and Sue. Send us your comments, favorite
recipes and favorite stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685. Wine is the "healthiest and most
health-giving of drinks."--Louis Pasteur
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Wine History, Part Dos!
March 08
All aboard! The next Magical Mystery Wine Tour
Bus is embarking on another rousing adventure
into the History of the World, er, I mean
History of Wine – Part Dos! For those of you
who are new to our tour, we have been exploring
the history of wine. When last we spoke, the
Monks of old had just introduced the world to
what some would say was a prelude to modern day
viticulture practices and the
differences in terroir. Our stops in this
month’s tour will be outside the doors of
selected wineries throughout the centuries. As
we disembark, our guide cautions us to avoid
pushing our seatmates and watch our steps on
the wet floors where the wine is being stored.
Last month we learned that the Egyptians,
Greeks and Romans all used clay flasks or jars
for storing wine. The Romans may have also used
glass bottles. Many historians give the Romans
credit for developing glass blowing. (Of
course, I have to wonder who was writing those
history books. Huns? I don’t think so. Celts?
Not likely. Macedonians? Getting warmer, I
think. Just a guess, but could it have been
Roman historians?) The Romans had discovered
that glass was a good medium for storing wine.
One of the problems, however, was that glass,
at the time, was hand blown, and therefore,
varied greatly in size and shape. As a result,
consumers never knew exactly how much wine they
were getting. Another problem was these early
glass bottles were expensive and very fragile.
It is
also believed that the Romans knew about cork
and used it for sealing wine. Up to this time,
wine containers were sealed with wads of cloth,
wood plugs, and anything else that would fit
into the opening of the container. (Pickles,
the odd sock that appears with every load of
laundry I do, play dough, old pizza crusts,
silicon ear plugs I once bought for swimming
and then rejected after reading the packaging
that specifies to mold the plug into a flat
surface and never, ever on pain of federal
prosecution dare to form a point on the plug
that might actually plug the ear canal and keep
the water out. I could keep this up for hours
but Gary might lose his patience) Wine
merchants (yes, even back then there was a
middleman between the winemaker and the
consumer) needed a way to transport wine in
something less fragile than clay jars or the
glass bottles of the time, so they began
shipping wine in barrels. The consumer would
buy a barrel of wine and store it in the same
shipping container at home. Wine would normally
be served from the barrel in jugs made of leather
or metal. Re-member the wineskin bags that
Conan the Barbarian, Jason (of Argonaut fame),
and let’s not forget Spartacus (All together
now-I am Spartacus!) carried? Wineskins were
simply animal skins that were cleaned, tanned
and turned inside out so that the hairy side
was in contact with the wine. The skins would
be sewn up and the inside would be lined with
pitch. Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it? (Just
what I want to have with my filet mignon, a
lovely glass of shingle tiles and roofing
sludge)
During
the Middle Ages, people tended to drink young
wine. They would buy a barrel of wine and drink
it until it was finished. As most of us know,
wine that is exposed to air would eventually
turn to vinegar. So, you can imagine how this
wine must have tasted as you neared the bottom
of the barrel. Over time, bottles of various
sizes and colors were experimented with. It was
found that bottles that had a longer, flatter
shape were better for storing wine on its side,
which helped it age properly and kept the cork
wet. Bottles ended up being around 700ml to
800ml as an easy to carry size that was also
easily made. (Still trying to convert us to the
metric system, aren’t they? Don’t go into the
light, Carol Ann. Liter rhymes with skeeter and
they transport nasty blood born pathogens we
all want to avoid) It wasn’t until the 17th
century that the modern bottle was developed.
It was made of stronger, thicker glass. It was
relatively inexpensive and was made in standard
sizes such as 700ml; 750ml, 800ml, even
magnums. Each wine region could decide which
bottle would be their standard.
And,
even though the Romans identified the virtues
of cork, it wasn’t until the 17th century that
cork was re-discovered as the closure of choice
for wine. It was cheap, airtight and because it
had no effect on the flavor of the wine, it
made it possible to store wine in bottles for
longer periods of time. Oh my gosh, look at the
time. Our driver is nearing his limit of road
time and must, by law, return to the bus barn
for a well-deserved rest. It looks like we may
have to schedule another History of Wine Tour.
After all, we still have to explore the New
World, find out what nearly killed all the
European grapevines, and how it was saved.
Until next time, Gary and Sue. Send us your
comments, favorite recipes and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to
us c/o Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter
Creek, CA 95685. "Good wine is a good familiar
creature if it be well used." William
Shakespeare (1564-1616) Othello, II. iii. (315)
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Wine History, Part One
February 08
A jolly group of
wine lovers visited the tasting room recently
and we talked about some of the things that
intrigue most people (I suspect Gary did most
of the talking. Belly up to the bar, ladies &
gents, and share in the wonders of grapevines,
wines, and winemaking). Many of the questions
are familiar ones: do frogs have teeth, sweet
vs. dry wines, the effect of barrels on the
wine, etc. But these folks wanted to get even
deeper into the history of wine. (Gary tends
to salivate heavily under these circumstances
and his eyeballs have been known to twirl
erratically) When was wine first made? Who
made it? How was wine stored originally; when
did barrels come into play; what about bottles
and corks? So, this got me thinking, maybe a
little wine history would be fun.
The History of Wine –
Part I (This sounds a lot like The History of
the World-Part I by Mel Brooks "In Gary We
Trust.") No one really knows who made the first
wine but archeologists have found grape seeds
in an area around the Black Sea and the
Caucasus Mountains. Coincidentally, this is one
of the areas where civilization began. The
Bible tells us also that Noah planted a
vineyard once his ark settled on Mt. Ararat.
And, you may ask, where is Mt. Ararat? Good
guess, smack dab in the Caucasus Mountains.
(Sounds like Mr. Noah planned on doing a little
celebrating with a glass or two of Syrah once
all those noisy animals had been relocated)
Now hop on the Magical
Mystery Wine Tour Bus and head southwest. There
you will discover that the Egyptians left many
tomb paintings that provide detailed pictures
of viticulture and winemaking. Those clever
lads may have been the first winemakers to rank
wines by quality. When Tutankhamun’s tomb was
opened, they found wine jars buried with him
that were labeled with the year and name of the
winemaker and sometimes with a comment like
"very good quality". Of course, it’s no secret
that the Greeks had an affinity for wine.
According to Greek
mythology Orestheus, planted the first vine.
There is also evidence that the Greeks, like
the Egyptians, made distinctions between the
production of different years and different
vineyards. The island of Chios was considered
to have the best wine while Kos and Rhodes
produced wines that were only suitable for the
army rations. (Hmm, wasn’t the Greek Empire
defeated by the Roman armies? Might the outcome
have been different if those Greek soldier boys
had been provided with a better quality of
wine? It’s just a thought) The Greeks
considered the cultivation of grapevines as a
sign of a civilized nation. Interestingly,
however, they had a habit of adding water to
their wine and in fact, considered it
uncivilized to drink wine without adding water.
The cultivation of
grapevines spread from Greece to southern Italy
and later northward as a result of trade and
the expansion of the Roman Empire. Wine became
a commodity that was in high demand. Every city
that could afford wine wanted it. Although the
Romans loved Greek wine, they began to develop
their own viticultural skills and soon the
Greeks and Romans were trading each other’s
wines. It didn’t take them long to discover
that different grape varietals give wines
different qualities and flavors.
As the Roman Empire
expanded, vines were planted in Spain, France
and England. After all, it took a lot of wine
to meet the daily wine ration of the Roman
legions. (All that my high school history
teacher lectured on was the discipline of the
Roman army. Who knew they were such party
animals?) Religion also played a role in the
expansion of grapevines and wine. In
Christianity, wine symbolizes the blood of
Christ. In Judaism, wine is a vital part of
religious rituals. Christian monasteries
throughout Europe planted vineyards and made
wine for ceremonial uses. In addition,
monasteries were the hospitals of their day and
wine was considered a vital part of medical
care. The monks were meticulous grape growers.
Much of what we
know today about what constitutes the "terroir"
of a vineyard and how it acts upon the grape
and wine we owe to the work done by the monks.
Time to hit the brakes on this part of the
tour, disembark, and as the sun sinks into the
azure waters of the Mediterranean snuggle into
our Lazy Boys and gather our thoughts for The
History of Wine Part II.
Until next time, Gary and Sue. Send us your
comments, favorite recipes and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685. And Noah he often said to his wife
when he sat down to dine, 'I don't care where
the water goes if it doesn't get into the
wine'." G.K. Chesterton(1874–1936) Wine and
Water
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Sweet & Dry Wine Differences
-
January 08
Happy New Year
everyone! We hope you have returned to us
safely, sanely and with anticipation for an
even better 2008. We have 365 glorious days
ahead of us in the coming year and Sue and I
are snooping around for items to write about
that interest you. (Oh, I thought we were
looking for the keys to the John Deere.)
Please let us know what’s on your mind. What
burning questions have you always wanted to
ask? Is there something you would like us to
investigate? Don’t cower from the intimidation
blanket that some wine producers/sellers/snobs
try to throw over the subject of wine. Nothing
is too obvious and nothing is too complicated.
(You should all know by now how much Gary
loves to ferret out answers from his collection
of books, friends, and wine devotees). Or
share a favorite story, recipe, topic that is
related to grapes, vineyards or wine. (And
if you’ve read some of our columns over the
last couple of years you’ll know that we, like
Kevin Bacon, are only 6 degrees away from a
grape or wine link to just about anything
else…remember the Kings?) Now, on with the
wine biz.
For the most part,
December was a "resting" month in the vineyards
and wineries. We did a little vineyard floor
cleanup down in the Salt Springs Valley; in the
big valley down below folks were doing some
pruning; wine was being bottled in some
wineries. All in all though, it was a time for
taking a well deserved break, drink some wine,
enjoy the family, drink some wine, think about
the coming year, and drink some more wine. So,
here we are, January 2008. We’ve started work
in the vineyards. Pre-emergent sprays are being
applied; pruning is beginning in many foothill
vineyards while finishing up in many valley
vineyards. Wineries are bottling and labeling
this year’s releases.
We and our partners
recently opened Frog’s Tooth tasting room and
one question that is frequently asked there is
what is the difference between "sweet wine" and
"dry wine". First, let me say that a wine that
tastes "fruity" can be either sweet or dry.
Generally speaking, the difference is the
amount of residual sugar that remains in the
wine. A dry wine has less than 1% residual
sugars while sweet (or dessert) wine may
contain 20% or more residual sugar. Some late
harvest and ice wines may contain over 25%
residual sugars. (Okay, smartie, so how does
all this sugar magic happen?)
I’m glad you asked me
that. You see, grasshopper, during the
fermentation process yeast eats the sugar in
the grape juice and produces alcohol. When the
winemaker wants to make a dry wine he (or
she) allows the yeast to eat all the sugar.
When a sweet wine is desired the fermentation
is stopped before the yeast can gobble up all
the sugar. The level of sweetness is determined
by how much sugar is left behind after the
yeast finishes its job. (How do I get that
job of eating sugar? I bet the yeasties don’t
even have to feel guilty. "It’s my job, guys,
God made me for this purpose! Sugar is my life".)
The winemaker is able
to control the sugars by manipulating the
fermentation. (Ah, sugar and control-every
woman’s dream job.) Yeast cannot live in wines
with high alcohol levels (above 16%). So, if
the grapes are very sweet (high in sugar or
brix) when harvested the yeast will
probably die (sorry, little guys) before all of
the sugar can be consumed. Of course, the
winemaker can also add sugar (yum, yum, love
that winemaker) or alcohol (how about a
massage, big boy) to control the yeast during
fermentation.
And in some areas, the
winemaker may also add sugar or sweetened juice
after the fermentation is over, and that also
makes for a sweeter wine. (Personally, I was
sure this all had something to do with sweeter
female vs tougher male grapes. How would you
like the job of telling the difference between
a girl and a boy grape?) Be serious, woman, I
don’t even know how to do that with your cats.
Until next time, Gary and Sue. Send us your comments,
favorite recipes and stories to
fromthevine@pacbell.net or write to us c/o
Gold Country Times, PO Box 897, Sutter Creek,
CA 95685 "What contemptible scoundrel stole the
cork from my lunch" W. C. Fields
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|
From the Vine 2008
