Why Are Large Format Champagnes Named After Biblical Kings

Some time ago (2013) I blogged about Champagne for Valentine's Day. I got the illustration from Vintage Direct that has an excellent and comprehensive article on 2.10 Making Sparkling Wine. When I blogged about Champagne for Valentine's Day, although I included this illustration, I wasn't curious enough to find out why large format Champagne had strange sounding names, beginning with the 3 liter format called Jeroboam.

I am more curious today, so looking on the Internet, I located a site Why Are Extremely Large Wine Bottles Named after Biblical Kings? that provided the explanation. The names of the larger format bottles are those of kings mentioned in the Bible:

• Jeroboam (Founder and first king of Israel, 931-910 BC)
• Rehoboam, son of Solomon (King of Judah, 922-908 BC)
• Methuselah (Biblical patriarch who lived to the age of 969)
• Salmanazar (King of Assyria, 859-824 BC)
• Balthazar (Regent of Babylon, son of Nabonide, 539BC)
• Nebuchadnezzar (King of Babylon, 605-562 BC)

The site goes on to theorize why the bottles are named after Biblical Kings. This answer was not easy to come by since there are many times this question has been posted on the Internet. Most agree that the Jeroboam was the first named large format bottle and that the other biblical names were imitations of this, probably humorously intended. The earliest known written appearance of the use of "Jeroboam" can be traced back to an 1806 work by Sir Walter Scott that speaks of making “a brandy jeroboam on a frosty morning”. ²
On Mosaic, the author of this article makes a serendipitous discovery while researching "jeroboam". A breeze blew the pages of the OED that he was looking at to the entry "jorum" defined in the OED as “a large drinking bowl or vessel; also the contents of this; especially, a punch bowl”. OED added that “it has been conjectured to be the same as the name of Joram, who ‘brought with him vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of brass’ (2 Samuel 8:10). Cf. JEROBOAM.”²
The word "jorum" was used by the Scottish. Robert Burns’s 1791 Scots dialect poem “O May, Thy Morn,” which offers the toast:
“And here’s to them that like oursel [ourselves]/ Can push about the jorum!”.
“To push about the jorum” was a Scottish expression for participating in an evening of social drinking at which a large pot of liquor was passed around a table.
But the author confesses that to go from jorum-->joram is a stretch, and to go to jeroboam is yet another stretch. So, shall the naming of large format Champagnes with the names of Biblical Kings forever remain a mystery?
Doesn't matter, if you're ever in possession of a large format Champagne, just "push about the jorum" and enjoy!

References:
1. Vintage Direct, 2.10 Making Sparkling Wine.
2. Mosaic, Why Are Extremely Large Wine Bottles Named after Biblical Kings?.

Vintage 2017: Recap

Way back in January, 2017 I blogged about Vintage 2017: Winter. Having lived in this area for 33 years, I blogged that in January, there appears to be a cold dip, followed by a warming "thaw". It looks as if our cold dip is coming a little earlier this year, with temperatures below freezing for the rest of this week.

In Vintage Notes: Spring 2017, written on April 11, 2017, I blogged about how warm this winter has been. Towards the end of April, we were seeing budbreak in the vineyard, which I blogged about in Got Buds! I never take budbreak for granted since the spring of 2014 when our newly planted vineyard failed to thrive and provided us with a lesson I documented in 90% at the School of Hard Knocks. The winter of 2017 in general was a good winter for vine survival. The young plants that were planted in 2016 fared very well.
In May, during an especially rainy week, our friends came out to help us plant the last bolus of vines to repopulate the originally planted vineyard, documented in: Vintage 2017: Planting Time.

In Vintage Notes: Summer Heat Wave, I blogged about the July heat wave. The wet, rainy spring and the hot weeks in the summer lead to bunch closure of our grapes in the last week of July. Leaf pulling commenced at this time to expose the grape clusters to the sun. Veraison came in mid to late August.
Late summer, as we approached harvest was especially challenging due to the cool nights that lead to condensation on our leaves that never got a chance to evaporate until mid morning. This lead to the appearance of downy mildew on some of our vines.

We tried to limit the application of our fungicides and most of our vines fared well. But, another danger was lurking around the corner. This was the first year that we saw huge numbers of yellow jackets in the vineyard and they were out there in September, as harvest loomed. I documented the yellow jacket devastation Problem in the Vineyard, with some of our attempts to lure the yellow jackets away from our grapes.
In late September, we harvested our small crop of Auxerrois, followed by our Chardonnay and then our Chenin Blanc. Winemaking took up most of October and some of November, but now we are in recuperation mode.
Happy Holidays to all!

Tasting Our First Pét-Nat

Our Pét-Nat saga continues: Our First Pét-Nat Tasting.
This year, we had a litle "extra" Chenin Blanc and my husband decided to experiment with a style of bubbly called Pétillant-naturel (natural sparkling), which I blogged about in October: Chenin Pét-Nat.
Chenin Blanc is a white grape variety from the Loire Valley. Kermit Lynch, in his book Adventures on the Wine Route wrote that Vouvrays are prone to pétiller or have an innate natural desire to sparkle.

So, we are helping this process along. We bottled our Pét-Nat on November 3rd (please check out this blogpost: Bottling Our Pét-Nat) with 2-3% residual sugar and crossed our fingers.
We were invited to a pre-Christmas dinner with our friends, the group we call Team Long Pond or the Premier Crew. We decided to take one of our nine (my precious!) bottles to the festivities. This can be risky. We had never opened or tasted any of our Pét-Nat, and here we were having our friends taste it. We opened the bottle and my husband poured small tasting for me so that I

could confirm that no untoward things happened while in the bottle. I gave the "okay" sign and he poured it for our friends.
Bubbles! Unfortunately, the bubbles went away pretty quickly. The Pét-Nat was very acidic tasting to us. This Pét-Nat would make a perfect pairing with oysters.
We could also try to drop some of the acid by putting the bottles in a cold environment. A little more time in the bottle should mellow out the acids and hopefully provide a bit more mouthfeel and mousse. All in all, not bad for the first try. (Giving ourselves a pat on the back!)

Tax Bill to Benefit Vineyard Owners

The online publication Wines & Vines had an article called Tax Bill to Benefit Vineyard Owners. Section 13201 of this bill allows “plants bearing fruits and nuts” to be fully depreciated in the year they are planted. The 100% depreciation will apply to “a plant which is planted or grafted after Sept. 27, 2017, and before Jan. 1, 2023.”
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also creates a excise tax credit that reduces the effective rate:

For small wineries like ours, while the federal excise tax on table wine will remain unchanged at $1.07 per gallon there will be a new tax credit of $1.00 on the first 30,000 gallons produced, making the effective tax rate $0.07 (seven cents) per gallon. The caveat here is that these federal excise tax provisions are programmed to expire on December 31, 2019.
More interesting reading at WineAmerica on:
WineAmerica Applauds Passage of Federal Alcohol Excise Tax Reform.
All of this sounds good to us.

In Search of Wine Quality: Soil and Water---Part 2

Part 2. Water Holding Capacity
In my last blog, In Search of Wine Quality: Soil and Water, the topic was about "Soil Type and Texture". Knowing the type of soil texture is important because that determines the water holding capacity of the soil. The water holding capacity of the soil is the product of:¹

Some definitions:

• Hygroscopic water is moisture that is held too tightly in the soil to be used by plants
• Capillary water is moisture that is held in the pore spaces of the soil and can be used by plants
• Gravitational water drains rapidly from the soil and is not readily available to be used by plants.
• Field capacity is the maximum amount of water that the soil can hold against gravity; the boundary between gravitational water and capillary water; it is the upper limit for soil moisture that is usable by plants
• Permanent wilting point would be a point where there's no water left for the plant; represents the boundary between capillary water and hygroscopic water

Here is how the definitions apply to a soil cross section:²

Looking from left to right on the above diagram shows how water interacts with the various soil textures. Knowing the water holding capacity of the soil is important because the optimum crop growth and health occurs when the soil moisture content is held between 50 – 80% of the “plant available water”. Especially for grape vines, the soil should not be too wet nor should it be too dry, it should be just right.
For more information on watering holding capacity, please check out this blogpost: Soil Texture and Water Holding Capacity.
Next installment of "In Search of Wine Quality" will be about soil drainage. Who knew that there was so much dirt on soils. (I know, cheap shot.)
References:
1. Alan N. Lakso and Tim E. Martinson, The Basics of Vineyard Site Evaluation and Selection, Department of Horticulture, Cornell-Geneva.
2. Steve A. Miller, Powerpoint presentation on Irrigation Scheduling and
 Soil Moisture Monitoring, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University. (The link provided will download the presentation.)

2015 Guy Amiot Bourgogne Cuvée Flavie

Earlier this year, we had another Guy Amiot, that I blogged about the 2014 Guy Amiot et Fils Bourgogne Chardonnay, which we really enjoyed.
Recently, my husband purchased the 2015 Guy Amiot Bourgogne Cuvée Flavie for us to try. The color of this 2015 Cuvée Flavie is clear gold. It had aromas of white peach, honey and lemon with an overall floral nuance. The flavor was of butter, vanilla, with a spicy acid finish. I sensed a slightly oily mouthfeel.
Fermentation and Aging Method: In order to make this wine, Amiot puts 1/3rd in oak barrels and 2/3rds in stainless steel. They employ bâtonnage and natural malolactic fermentation. The wine is aged for 12 months and then put in a stainless steel tank in preparation for bottling.
We enjoyed this wine with seared scallops and a fresh salad with pears and candied walnuts.

In Search of Wine Quality: Soil and Water

Part 1: Soil Type and Texture
In the blogpost In Search of Wine Quality: Vineyard Location, the first step in the creation of a quality wine starts with the location of the vineyard. Concurrently, the type of soil and water availability must also be determined.

We used the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) online tool called Web Soil Survey to help us determine that our vineyard location consisted mainly of Paxton-Montauk fine, sandy loam soils. The NRCS site also has a Soil Texture Calculator. The Soil Texture Calculator requires knowledge of the percentages of clay, silt and sand in the sample. Knowing that, the calculator will determine what type of soil texture the sample is.

Another way to "calculate" the type of soil is to use the Soil Texture Triangle. Knowing the percentage of clay, silt and sand, draw a line as shown in the example. The intersection of the three lines determines the soil texture type. In this case, 15% clay, (horizontal line), 15% silt (diagonal line) and 68% clay (diagonal line) results in "sandy, loam" as the soil texture.
The importance of knowing the soil texture is to help in the determination of the water holding capacity of the soil. More topics to cover in future blogs.
References:
1. D. I. Jackson, P. B. Lombard, Environmental and Management Practices Affecting Grape Composition and Wine Quality - A Review, Am J Enol Vitic., January 1993 44: 409-430; published ahead of print January 01, 1993.
2. Soil Triangle Illustration from: Soil Types.
3. Link: Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS).

Onset HOBO Data Loggers

The first time we purchased the Onset Data Loggers, we didn't have smart phones so while we deployed the HOBO temperature logger in October, 2014, we programmed the data logger in a way that had us going back to the vineyard every month to download the data. That didn't seem so onerous until Valentine's Day 2015 when we had to go to download the data. We ordered snow cleats to put on our shoes because of all the snow that was already on the ground which had melted and frozen a number of times.
We couldn't even park near the vineyard because no one (us) had plowed so we had to park the truck at the entry way to our property and walk the 500 yards to the vineyard. Recently, we were telling this story to one of our friends. We made it sound more dire than it really was, but trekking the 500 yards was a real workout. We even bailed on getting the data from the logger deployed in the northeast corner of the vineyard because we felt that we might collapse and no one would find us until the spring thaw.
Here is what we faced in 2015:

Fast forward to Friday, December 8, 2017. We knew that we had a snow storm coming our way on Saturday. The prediction was for 3-6 inches of snow, so we went to the property to secure our new data logger to the line post. We put it at the height of the graft union. This data logger will keep track of both temperature and relative humidity. My husband activated it with his smart phone and said that we don't have to go right up to the data logger to download the data, the download range is good from 100 feet. Not only that, he said that it is good for collecting 1 years worth of data!

In Search of Wine Quality: Vineyard Location

In a discussion that we recently had with Charles and Kareem Massoud, we all came to the spontaneous agreement that a quality wine can only come from the best quality grapes and the often repeated axiom, "Great wine is made in the vineyard" is certainly true. Care taken in the vineyard to grow the best, cleanest grapes is the starting point for making a quality wine.
My husband and I often do things a certain way and ask ourselves "Why are we doing it this way?" I think that it is related to what I learned from the U.C. Davis online course that I took nearly 7 years ago. So recently, I dug out a 1993 review by Jackson and Lombard. Reviews are very good publications because they summarize knowledge gained on a particular topic and this one is all about wine quality.
In the review is this schematic showing that clearly 80% of what goes into wine quality is about things that happen in the vineyard.¹

Location:
The initial selection of the location may be one of the few decisions that a vineyard owner might have control over in the quest to produce quality wines. This decision encompasses the macroclimate and microclimate determinants as shown on the middle left side of the "Wine Quality" schematic above. Vineyard site selection should also take into account the soil type and water availability on the site.

Our vineyard, the red dot in the photo, is located on a hill, actually the highest point in Old Mystic, at the head of the Mystic River, not far from the Long Island Sound. Proximity to a body of water is a good thing. The Mystic River serves as a sink for cold air creating a warmer microclimate on this hill. As we farm the vineyard, we are learning more about the site. One of the things that we have begun to notice is the breeze that comes up during the late afternoon hours in the summer. In 2011, I wrote about the search for our property in a blogpost I called Quoketaug Hill. In blogs to come, I hope to work my way through the other decision making steps outlined in the schematic above. Stay tuned!
References:
1. D. I. Jackson, P. B. Lombard, Environmental and Management Practices Affecting Grape Composition and Wine Quality - A Review, Am J Enol Vitic., January 1993 44: 409-430; published ahead of print January 01, 1993.

2014 Borgogno Barbera d'Alba

We are fans of Barbera. It is a wine that goes very well with any meal with red sauce. We tasted this wine over 2 days. On the first night, my husband made a simple spaghetti with red sauce and artichokes and on the second night, he made a delicious eggplant parmigiana. The color was a clear, dark garnet in the glass. There was very little aroma on the nose, though I did detect a little Brett, but it was not off putting. The flavor was on the simple to layered side. The wine tasted of sour cherries with a punch of pepper at the finish. I didn't detect any oak notes on the wine but I did find the product sheet for the Borgogno Barbera d'Alba that mentions that 30% of the wine was aged in Slavonian oak.
Fermentation Method:Short winter pruning of the vine (max 7-8 buds per plant) and selection of grapes during harvest. Traditional vinification in estate cellars in Barolo; medium maceration (8-10 days) at controlled temperature(20-22° C).
Duration And Aging Method: Natural fermentation (without the addition of selected yeasts) is carried out for 12 days at low temperatures, 24/28°C, followed by a soft pressing and aging one part (70%) in stainless steel tanks for 10 months and the other part (30%) in large Slavonian oak casks for 10 months at a temperature of 18°C. After that the two parts are blended together for 6 months of refining in bottle.
Alcohol Content: 13.5%
Acidity: over 7 g/l
This wine was priced at $22.99.

Wine Tasting Cheat Sheet

I describe myself as a hedonist when it comes to tasting wine. In wine tasting, being a hedonist doesn't mean that one is "a person who believes that the pursuit of pleasure is the most important thing in life" but simply that one either likes the wine or does not like the wine. But, if I plan to be "in the business" then I need to be more precise about how I describe a wine. So, I spent a few days coming up with a cheat sheet for myself that hopefully has enough descriptors so that I can appropriately convey what I am tasting. Here is what I came up with:

I showed my husband the cheatsheet and he said, "Let's try this out tonight". I wonder what kind of wine he will be pulling out of his stash. I'll report back with a filled in cheat sheet.
If you are interested in downloading this cheat sheet, click on the image then, click on the image again (Mac people, hold down "control" key and select "Open Image in New Tab"), then print/save to a PDF file. Happy tasting!

Malolactic Fermentation

We have intentionally put bacteria in our Chardonnay. Why would we do that you ask? Our Chardonnay currently has approximately 10 g/L of titratable acidity (TA) and in order to lower the acidity, we put in a lactic acid bacteria called MBR-31 to conduct the transformation of malic acid to lactic acid. The transformation makes the tart tasting malic acid a bit softer when it is converted to lactic acid.

Scott Laboratories provides a nice document on Malolactic Bacteria including a score card to determine how simple or difficult malolactic fermentation can be for a given wine.

We chose MBR-31 because it is a strain of Oenococcus oeni adapted to low temperature and low pH environments. It has good alcohol tolerance and is tolerant of sulfur dioxide at a level of 30 ppm.
Prior to inoculating our Chardonnay with MBR-31, we ran a paper chromatography experiment to check for titratable acids, then we inoculated our Chardonnay with MBR-31 on October 24, 2017. So far, we have noticed no change in the malic and lactic acid concentrations.
References:
1. Scott Laboratories Malolactic Bacteria.
2. Lalvin MBR-31

Katherine Cole on Black Chardonnay

My husband forwarded me this link Meet Black Chardonnay written by Katherine Cole (author of the book Voodoo Vintners). Both of us read it with a lot of interest. Since we vinified our first small batch of Chardonnay this year, we know that turning Chardonnay grapes into wine can be tricky if we want our wine to age well.
The question is: reductive or oxidative strategy?
Professor Denis Dubourdieu and Dr. Valérie Lavigne researched the recent propensity of Chardonnay in Burgundy to succumb to premature oxidation and I wrote about their research in a blogpost that I called How to Prevent Premox in White Wines.
Answer: Keep it reductive. So consequently, winemakers struggled mightily to keep oxygen out of their winemaking regime. Press gently, keep oxygen away from the must!

Now, however, Katherine Cole writes about the black Chardonnay movement. This is NOT the "benign oxidation" browning, that our class reached a consensus on, as a good thing, in our online U.C. Davis course while reading and discussing the seminal article written by V. Schneider called Must Hyperoxidation: A Review.
In a technique used in Burgundy some 60, 70 or 80 years ago on Chardonnay, you must crush, grind, shred and hard press the resultant pulp in order to get this black must. This heavy handed treatment removes those phenols that cause astringency and bitterness as a precipitate, leaving the juice clear. It also removes phenols that become prone to browning through oxidation.
This technique is being practiced by winemakers in Oregon with amazing results. My husband looked up OO Wines that is using this methodology on their Chardonnay, but it cost $65.00, a little too rich for our tastes. I did try to convince him that we needed to purchase a bottle for "research purposes".

References:
1. Katherine, Cole, Meet Black Chardonnay, SevenFiftyDaily, August 3, 2017.
2. V. Schneider, Must Hyperoxidation: A Review, Am. J. Enol. Vitic., Vol. 49, No. 1, 1998.

2014 Paumanok Chenin Blanc Minimalist and 2015 Millton Chenin Blanc

Recently, we had our friends over for oysters from Harmony Sea Farm. These oysters are grown right in our backyard by Garrett and Sally Timmons. We got to taste their first harvest!

There is nothing better to pair with oysters than Chenin Blanc and we had 2 exquisite examples. We began with the 2014 Paumanok Chenin Blanc Minimalist. The back of the label is where you will find the vintage information as well as vinification information. Only unblemished, select clusters of Chenin Blanc from the vineyard planted in 1982 (35 year old vines!) were hand harvested and whole cluster pressed. Spontaneous fermentation began in stainless steel barrels and the wine was aged for 6 months. There were only 84 cases of 2014 Minimalist Chenin Blanc made. We heard an interesting story from Charles Massoud when we visited the winery recently. Charles mentioned that the Chenin Blanc was initially planted to blend with Chardonnay. But, Chenin Blanc, (as we found out) is one of those white varietals that doesn't really play well with other varietals in a blend and why would anyone want to dilute Chenin Blanc with Chardonnay!

The next wine that we opened was a 2015 Millton Chenin Blanc that our friends brought home from their sojourn to New Zealand. The Paumanok and the Millton could not have been more different on the palate! We immediately picked out the oak notes on the palate, slightly muted fruit and acidity and overall creamier mouthfeel. This Chenin Blanc was vinified in a totally different way from the Paumanok Chenin Blanc in demi-muids (large 600 litre oak barrels) as well as in stainless steel tanks. The notes from the winemaker mentions that up to four selections are made in the vineyard. The grapes are hand harvested, destemmed and crushed and the juice is allowed to settle. The fine sediment is kept as nutrients for fermentation. This wine had a total acidity (TA) of 7.5 g/L, pH of 3.33, alcohol content, 12.5% and residual sugar measuring 6.2 g/L.
Both wines were deliciously different and both were very much appreciated with the oysters. As we moved on to our second course of salad with bread and cheeses, the wines paired well with the cheeses too, providing for a wonderful degustation with friends!

Happy Thanksgiving: Something to Gnaw On

Here is a pre-Thanksgiving blogpost. I am currently reading a review called Origins of Grape and Wine Aroma. Part 1. Chemical Components and Viticultural Impacts that appeared in 2014 in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture. It is 24 pages long so, I've been plodding along and trying to digest the review in small bites.
This morning, I came upon a paragraph that is almost incomprehensible by a lay person. I reproduce it below:
          Methional concentrations increase in white wines exposed to           elevated temperatures and oxygen. Under these conditions, the           compound is produced via a Strecker degradation of methionine to           methional in the presence of a dicarbonyl compound or via direct           peroxidation of methionol.
Whaaaaat?
Fortunately, my husband who is a chemist was sitting across from me, drinking his morning coffee, and I asked him do you know what a "Strecker degredation" is? He said, "sure, is that an oxidation?" (Close but no cigar!) Back in the days of taking organic chemistry, there were certain "name reactions" that one could memorize. So, here is my take on what the above paragraph translates into in organic chemistry terms.

So, the diagram above can be captioned: In the presence of a compound with 2 carbonyl groups, the amino acid methionine can react with one of the carbonyl groups forming an unstable intermediate. With the incorporation of 2 molecules of water, the unstable intermediate results in the formation of ammonia, carbon dioxide and methional.
What is wrong with having methional in white wine? The smell for one thing is of "cooked vegetables". Methional is also thermally unstable and undergoes a retro-Michael reaction that leads to the wet dog or wet wool smell in wine that comes from methyl mercaptan and acrolein.
Here is hoping that your Thanksgiving is a wonderful one with wines innocent of Strecker degradation and retro-Michael products. Cheers!
References:
1. Wil Konings, ‎Otto Kuipers, ‎O.P. Kuipers, Lactic Acid Bacteria: Genetics, Metabolism and Applications, 1999, pg. 250.

New Tab: White Winemaking

Today, I spent a few hours collating all of the blogposts on "white winemaking" and created a new tab:

Under that tab, you can find all of the postings related to "white winemaking":
How Many Grapes Does It Take to Make a Bottle of Wine
Making White Wine
White Wine Production Theory and Practice
To Inoculate or Not, that is the Question
Skin Contact for White Wines
Reductive Regime vs Oxidative Regime for White Wine Making
Rehydrating and Tempering Yeast
Benefits of Low Temperature Fermentation
Sur Lie Aging of Wine
Diacetyl Formation

White Winemaking Chemistry
Hyperoxidation Revisited
How to Prevent Premox in White Wines
Chemical Marker Sotolon Found in Premox Wines
Strategies to Manage Dissolved Oxygen
Post-Bottling Aroma Defects

I will keep adding to this tab as necessary. I hope it is useful to you!

Sur Lie Aging of Wine

We were able to make a few cases of wine from our 2016 vintage of Chenin Blanc this year. We are still bottling in half bottles, 375 mL so that we can make the most of our limited production. Yes, our wines are that "dear". So far, we have made 2 different styles of Chenin Blanc in 2015, a dry style we call "sec" and a style with sweet juice added back prior to bottling, a technique called "süssreserve" and in 2016 we left the wine on lees. Here is a tabular recap of what we actually bottled in 2015 and 2016:

Vintage	# 750mL Bottles	# 375mL Bottles	Style
2015	8	9	Sec
2015	4	10	Sussreserve
2016	12	27	Sur lie

On Thursday, we took a trip over to Long Island to visit Charles and Kareem Massoud at Paumanok Vneyards to have them give us feedback on our 2016 vintage. For our 2016 Vintage, we left our wine sur lie for approximately 10 months. What does sur lie do? It gives the wine a certain mouthfeel and flavor that Charles picked up on immediately!
At the end of fermentation, yeast and bacteria become inactive and settle out to the bottom of the fermentation tank. If the lees are fine in character without negative sulfur compounds, leaving the wine on this precipitated material can be beneficial. During this time, the yeast cell wall breaks open in a process called "autolysis", releasing mannoproteins and polysaccharides.

Sur lie aging accomplishes the following¹:

• enhances the structure and mouthfeel of a wine
• gives the wine extra body (an impact of polysaccharides on astringency)
• increases the aromatic complexity, flavour/aroma depth and length of the wine
• absorbs oxygen, assisting in maintaining a slow and controlled oxidation during wine maturation

Sur lie is not for all wine styles. But, with sur lie aging, we feel we have a new "tool" in our winemaking to call upon when necessitated by the vintage.
References:
1. Ben Rotter, Sur Lie and Bâtonnage, Improved Winemaking.
2. MoreWine!, Sur-Lie ageing.
2. Marta Dizy, Linda F. Bisson, Proteolytic Activity of Yeast Strains During Grape Juice Fermentation, American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, Jan 2000, 51 (2) 155-167.

8,000 Year Old Wine

My husband recently pointed me to an article that he saw on NPR about the discovery of the 8,000 year old wine from Georgia. In the previous blog Comparison of Wine to Music, Pretorius' timeline lists Georgia as one of the ancestral locations of grape growing.
In research done by McGovern et al. and available online Early Neolithic wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus provides details on how a determination was made to establish that winemaking was in fact occurring in the early Neolithic period (ca. 6,000–5,000 BC) in the region now known as Georgia.
One of the earliest Neolithic cultures occupying the modern regions of South Georgia, Northern Armenia and Western Azerbaijan in the South Caucus is the "Shulaveri-Shomu Tepe Culture". Imagine living nearly 8,000 years ago during the Neolithic revolution when the “founder crops” of barley, einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, chickpea, pea, lentil, flax, and bitter vetch were being cultivated, harvested and stored. This assurance of a food source allowed for advances in the arts and crafts, such as architecture, weaving, dyeing, stone working, woodworking and wine making.
These ancestors possibly saw the domestication of the wild Eurasian grape (Vitis vinifera sp. sylvestris), resulting in V. vinifera sp. vinifera, being hermaphroditic, didn't leave pollination to chance and provided a reliable source of grapes.

Previously, McGovern reported on the Hajji Firuz Tepe region as being the site of early winemaking based on traces of tartaric acid that could be identified on clay sherds.
In this article, wine jars from as early as ca. 6,000 BC have been confirmed for Gadachrili and Shulaveri, preceding the Hajji Firuz jars by half a millennium! In order to do this, the team analyzed five base sherds from Gadachrili and three from Shulaveri. The presence of tartaric acid and other organic acids such as malic, succinic, and citric acids was crucial in establishing the original presence of wine in these vessel sherds.
The next time you pick up a glass of wine, give a nod to the Neolithic people of Georgia who, during the great Neolithic revolution took the wild Eurasian grape (Vitis vinifera sp. sylvestris) and domesticated it, resulting in V. vinifera sp. vinifera becoming the basis of our current “wine culture”.
References:
1. Patrick McGovern, et al., Early Neolithic wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus, PNAS 2017 : 1714728114v1-201714728. 2. David Maghradze, et al., Grape and wine culture in Georgia, the South Caucasus, BIO Web of Conferences 7, 03027 (2016), 39th World Congress of Vine and Wine.

Comparison of Wine to Music

I came upon this beautifully written and understandable article by Isak S. Pretorius called Conducting Wine Symphonics with the Aid of Yeast Genomics. Given my penchant for pictures, this article is a veritable goldmine of amazing artwork all while explaining winemaking and it's analogy to great music. Although it is a somewhat long article, you will want to linger over the illustrations and absorb all of the information presented in this article.
Here is how Pretorius depicts the spread and timeline of grape growing and winemaking.

From the beginning to the end, this article masterfully provides a journey into:

• the spread of viticulture and enology
• determining quality and value of a wine
• outlining the difference between white and red wine making
• providing a comprehensive treatment of yeasts and bacteria that can contribute to fermentation derived compounds

Here is how Pretorious depicts the various styles of yeast fermentation:

I'm glad I stumbled on this article and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
References:
1. Isak S. Pretorius, Conducting Wine Symphonics with the Aid of Yeast Genomics, Beverages, 2016, 2(4), 36.

2014 Etienne Sauzet Bourgogne

We had this 2014 Etienne Sauzet Bourgogne (Chardonnay). We are in research mode, trying to learn what style of Chardonnay we really like and how vintners make the style that we like, so a lot of Chardonnay imbibing is in our future. We really liked this Etienne Sauzet Bourgogne. Chardonnay is one of those varieties that is very malleable in a winemaker's hand. However, there are two styles that Chardonnay drinkers gravitate toward:¹

• Style A: a more “traditional/ oaky” Chardonnay style, marked by “caramel”, “butter”, “honey”, and “oak” attributes
• Style B (a “crisp/fruity” style, with “tropical fruit”, “melon”, and “green apple” notes

Would you believe that this Sauzet had both flavor profiles, not too heavy handed on the traditional oaky, while having some of the tropical fruit. How did they do that? I searched on the Internet but information was very sparse. My husband, on the other hand had taken out a hard cover book that we have written by Remington Norman and Charles Taylor MW, called The Great Domaines of Burgundy, Third Edition, which had a short write up of Etienne Sauzet.
Etienne Sauzet began with 3 ha in Puligny-Montrachet at the turn of the 1900s and continued to add more vineyard land. Tragically, in 1989, Etienne's daughter decided to divide the vineyards, for tax reasons between her three children, but did not stipulate that the domain remain intact!
In 1974, Gérard Boudot, who is married to Etienne Sauzet's grand-daughter, Jeanine, succeeded Etienne Sauzet, with one third of the original domaine intact, including the grand cru holding of Bâtard-Montrachet.
The grapes that go into the Bourgogne is a blend of wine fermented in stainless steel vats and wine that is barrel fermented this leads to a wine that is full and ripe with good length. This may explain why the Bourgogne still has fruit flavors but also has oak notes.
I concur, this is my new favorite Chardonnay.
Once I fine-tuned my search, I did find a site that provided more detail on the care that Gérard Boudot takes in the vineyard and how they harvest and make their wines. If you're interested in learning more, check this out this site: VinConnect: Etienne Sauzet.
References:
1. Gambetta JM, Bastian SEP, Cozzolino D and Jeffery DW., Factors influencing the aroma composition of Chardonnay wines, 2014, J Agric Food Chem 62:6512–6534.
2. Remington Norman and Charles Taylor MW, The Great Domaines of Burgundy, Sterling Publishing, New York, London, Third Edition, 2010.

Bottling Our Chenin Pét-Nat

One of the benefits of this season's harvest is that we had a little more Chenin Blanc juice than we expected, so my husband decided to make a few bottles of Pét-Nat, or pétillant naturel aka méthode ancestrale. To do this, he had to carefully monitor the sugar levels in the 10 liter keg to ensure that we had enough sugar to allow the fermentation to continue after we bottled the juice in champagne style bottles.
In reading more about this style, I came upon the online Esquire site that had an article called The 10 Best Pét-Nat Wines Under $40. This is what the article said: If Champagne is Rolex, pét-nat is Swatch. I think that is pretty clever.

To make our pét-nat, my husband made sure the starting wine had approximately 2-3% (20-30 grams/liter) sugar which will hopefully transform into 3-5 atmospheres of entrained carbon dioxide. So, on November 3, we racked the juice from our 10 liter keg into 9 champagne style bottles which we capped with a crown cap. The great thing about pét-nat is that there is no fining or filtering involved once the product is made in the bottle. So this sparkling will be a little hazy in the glass. Crossing fingers and hoping for fermentation to continue in the bottle.

Chardonnay: Aging Derived Compounds

This is the third (possibly last) of the series of blogposts on Factors influencing the aroma composition of Chardonnay wines. My brain is tuned to looking at pictures which gives me a better understanding when facts are provided in that format so I created illustrations from the tables that summarized the compounds that come from (1) the grape, (2) fermentation and (3) aging.
Here are the compounds that come from wine aging.

Aging in oak barrels leads to wine compounds that can arise from:

• extraction of oak volatiles
• contact with lees
• processes associated with the “low oxidation” conditions
• microoxygenation

The most important compounds released by oak into the wine are the cis- and trans-oak lactones. The presence of these lactones is affected by the age, origin, and volume of the barrel.
Benzenemethanethiol (BM) and 2-furanmethanethiol (FFT) at concentrations above the perception threshold were found to increase during aging. BM has been described as contributing “flinty” and “smoky” notes and may be related to Chardonnay's “mineral” character. FFT confers a strong “roast coffee” aroma and is formed from furfural released by oak barrels and hydrogen sulfide during alcoholic fermentation. BM and FFT were found to increase during aging.
Other compounds derived from aging in oak barrels that confer Chardonnay "typicity" include guaiacol, 4-ethylphenol, 4-ethylguaiacol, 4-vinylphenol, vanillin, methyl vanillate, and 5-methylfurfural. Furfural formed in oak during coopering was extracted during fermentation and aging in barrels.
In general, “young wine”, “fruity”, and “floral” characters decrease rapidly in white wine during aging, mostly due to loss of acetate esters and ethyl esters of short-chain fatty acids transforming into forms with less-intense aromas such as α-terpineol.
In contrast, ethyl acetate, diethyl succinate, ethyl lactate, ethyl 2-furoate, ethyl 2-phenylacetate, and ethyl 2-methylbutanoate were more abundant in the older wines.
With that, this concludes the three part odyssey into aroma and flavor compounds in Chardonnay wines. Thanks for sticking around!
References:
1. Gambetta JM, Bastian SEP, Cozzolino D and Jeffery DW., Factors influencing the aroma composition of Chardonnay wines, 2014, J Agric Food Chem 62:6512–6534.
Illustration created from Table 4. Odorants Derived from Oak Contact or Formed during Aging That Are Important to the Typicity of Chardonnay Wines, pg. 6516 of the reference above.
2. Joanna M. Gambetta, Leigh M. Schmidtke, Jiaming Wang, Daniel Cozzolino, Susan E.P. Bastian, David W. Jeffery, Relating Expert Quality Ratings of Australian Chardonnay Wines to Volatile Composition and Production Method American Journal of Enology and Viticulture Jan 2017, 68 (1) 39-48; DOI: 10.5344/ajev.2016.16058

Chardonnay: Fermentation Derived Compounds

Following up on the blogpost Chardonnay: Grape Derived Compounds is today's blog on fermentation derived compounds. The fermentation derived compounds come from the primary fermentation with yeast and the secondary fermentation with malolactic bacteria, yielding many compounds that contribute to the aroma and flavor profile of Chardonnay. Yeasts are not only important in the transformation of sugar to alcohol, but they are also important in the de novo synthesis of important sensory compounds.
During primary fermentation, esters are formed in excess by yeast metabolism and are responsible for “fruity” and “floral” aromas. Acetates are synthesized at higher concentrations than ethyl esters, and the ratio between both, as well as the concentration at which acetates are produced, is affected particularly by:

• fermentation temperature
• must nutrient content
• yeast strain

As the above illustration shows, there are considerably more compounds derived from fermentation than what the Chardonnay grape provides. The most relevant esters for unwooded Chardonnay aroma appear to be ethyl hexanoate, ethyl octanoate, ethyl decanoate, ethyl 2-methylpropanoate, ethyl 2-methylbutanoate, ethyl 3-methylbutanoate, hexyl acetate, 2-methylbutyl acetate, and 3-methylbutyl acetate. These compounds located on the left side of the illustration contribute floral, berry, red fruit, green apple, strawberry, and other fruity aromas. Esters formed during alcoholic fermentation constitute one of the main groups of sensorially important compounds in Chardonnay.
When secondary or malolactic fermentation (MLF) is carried out on Chardonnay to transform malic acid to lactic acid, this also produces diacetyl and acetoin which contributes the typical “buttery”, “hazelnut”, and “fresh bread” notes.
Next up, Aging Derived Compounds.
Note November 3, 2017: The illustration that was initially on this post has been updated to correct spelling errors. It has also been organized according to chemical class.
References:
1. Gambetta JM, Bastian SEP, Cozzolino D and Jeffery DW., Factors influencing the aroma composition of Chardonnay wines, 2014, J Agric Food Chem 62:6512–6534.
Illustration created from Table 3. Characteristics of Odorants Important to Chardonnay Wine Typicity Formed during Alcoholic and Malolactic Fermentation, pg. 6514-6515 of the reference above.
2. Joanna M. Gambetta, Leigh M. Schmidtke, Jiaming Wang, Daniel Cozzolino, Susan E.P. Bastian, David W. Jeffery, Relating Expert Quality Ratings of Australian Chardonnay Wines to Volatile Composition and Production Method American Journal of Enology and Viticulture Jan 2017, 68 (1) 39-48; DOI: 10.5344/ajev.2016.16058

Chardonnay: Grape Derived Compounds

My husband and I are interested in how best to vinify our Chardonnay. This year, we have 2 small batches of Chardonnay that we fermented in stainless steel kegs and in one keg, we added malolatic bacteria to carry out the conversion of malic to lactic acid.
Since Chardonnay is a neutral grape variety, it can be vinified in a variety of ways in order to affect its flavor profile. A few techniques that are employed include:

• skin maceration
• barrel and/or stainless steel fermentation
• selected or indigenous yeasts
• malolactic fermentation
• aging in barrels with or without lees

I came across a really good article published in 2014, called Factors Influencing the Aroma Composition of Chardonnay Wines. In this article, the authors breakdown the aroma and flavor compounds and precursors derived from (1) grapes, (2) fermentation, and (3) aging that contributed to the various styles achievable when making Chardonnay.

So how do you like your Chardonnay? Oaked, buttery, fruity, searingly acidic, with so many styles to choose from, what defines quality in a Chardonnay? Although Chardonnay is a neutral white variety, some of the chemical compounds that contribute to a particular Chardonnay style can be found in the grape and can determine "quality" as well as "typicity". So, what are these compounds?

The above illustration shows compounds that are in grape berries or, more often, have precursors which are present in berries that are modified during fermentation or aging.
The compounds 1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydro-naphthalene (TDN), β-damascenone, and 3-oxo-α-ionol also known as C13-norisoprenoids, are formed during berry ripening from carotenoids in the grapes. β-damascenone and linalool are compounds that can be used to identify a young wine as a Chardonnay. The "lemon balm" aroma can be attributed to the presence of β-damascenone at perceptible concentrations. At higher concentrations, β-damascenone smells of “apple”, “rose”, and “honey”.
Since wine is a living entity, evolving and changing as time passes, these fresh fruity notes can change with age. Aging of Chardonnay brought about a loss of the fruity and floral characters associated with a young wine. The concentrations of β-damascenone and linalool declined with wine age. The loss of the acetate esters, acid catalyzed hyrolysis of ethyl esters of short-chain fatty acids, and the acid-catalyzed rearrangement linalool into less aromatically intense compounds such as α-terpineol contributed to the loss of fruity and floral notes.
My next few blogs will deal with fermentation and aging derived compounds and their impact on the aroma and flavor profile of Chardonnay.
Thanks for tuning in!
References:
1. Gambetta JM, Bastian SEP, Cozzolino D and Jeffery DW., Factors influencing the aroma composition of Chardonnay wines, 2014, J Agric Food Chem 62:6512–6534.
Illustration created from Table 2. Characteristics of Grape-Derived Odorants Important to Chardonnay Wine Typicity, pg. 6513 of the reference above.
2. Joanna M. Gambetta, Leigh M. Schmidtke, Jiaming Wang, Daniel Cozzolino, Susan E.P. Bastian, David W. Jeffery, Relating Expert Quality Ratings of Australian Chardonnay Wines to Volatile Composition and Production Method American Journal of Enology and Viticulture Jan 2017, 68 (1) 39-48; DOI: 10.5344/ajev.2016.16058

Gabriel-Glas Stemware

I inadvertantly broke our Bordeaux glass, (okay I will admit to a certain amount of klutziness) and thought that we only had one left. My husband seized upon this unfortunate glass shortage to look into procuring the universal wine glass. Currently, our wine glass cupboard is full of wine glasses for different wines: champagne, Burgundy, and Bordeaux glasses. We also have stemless glasses. The claim of this universal glass is that it is a wine glass for all wines.
If you were to get a glass for every type of drink it can be endless: Burgundy, Pinot Noir, large Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, standard red, dessert wine, white wine, Chardonnay, Port, Madeira, standard sweet, Sherry, Sauternes, Alsace, Hock, tumbler, etc. and the reason would be that a specific style of stemware is most suited to showcase that particular wine's attributes.

Not only are there a number of different wine glasses you can choose from, there are countless articles written on how to choose the appropriate stemware. In looking for a universal wine glass, I came upon an article at Kitchn called The One and Only Wine Glass You Need According to Sommeliers, in it, the sommeliers recommended the Zalto. We purchased the standard Gabriel-Glas.
What I like about this stemware is that it is noticeably lighter than our other glasses. I like the shape of it as well. At this point, I haven't reached any conclusions as there is more research and comparisons to do, requiring more drinking of wine!
Reference:
1. Photo attribution from: Wine Folly, Types of Wine Glasses.
2. Kitchn, The One and Only Wine Glass You Need According to Sommeliers.
3. Gabriel-Glas.

Checking for Titratable Acids

Recently, my husband ordered a paper chromatography kit for checking the titratable acids in our wine. We did this because we want to conduct a malolactic fermentation (MLF) on our Chardonnay. So, we needed to have some way of "seeing" what acids are in our wine. This kit comes with standards for malic acid, lactic acid and tartaric acid. Using a special solvent that is provided with the kit, paper chromatography allows the separation of these acids. It is a qualitative, but somewhat semi-quantitative means of ascertaining what acids are present in the solution being tested (wine).
This is rather hilarious for me because my husband has a Ph.D. in Chemistry. So, he had to dust off some of the cob webs in his mind to harken back to a time (General Chemistry 101 and the associated lab), where he actually did a paper chromatography experiment.

The paper that is provided is called the "stationary phase" and the solvent is the "mobile phase". As the mobile phase is being drawn up the stationary phase by capillary action, the compounds (wine samples) in the stationary phase get separated.
These are the results that we got for our wines:

The samples are labeled on the x-axis and the y-axis shows how the tartaric, malic, and lactic acids separated from the various samples. Based on this method, it appears that Chenin-7 contains very little, if any lactic acid.
Since we are conducting our malolactic fermentation on Chard-2 (Chardonnay-2), we will keep this chromatogram to refer to as our MLF progresses.

2010 Chateau du Trignon Vacqueyras

My husband bought this Vacqueyras at our local package store and we had it with a delicious red sauce that our friend gave us.
Vacqueyras is located in the Southern Rhone and in the case of this Chateau du Trignon, is made with Syrah grapes.
The wine was dark magenta in color and the tannins had smoothed out since this wine is already 7 years in the making. I don't recall any tobacco notes, nor do I recall any fruit notes in the wine. To me, this tasted very dry but not astringent and was a perfect complement to a hearty red sauce. The best part of this 7 year old Syrah is that you can purchase it for less than $20.00 and that makes it a very good value in my book!
For this wine and other wines under $20.00, look under this tab:
Wines Under $20

Helpful Conversions for Small Lots

When we first started making our Chenin Blanc, we counted our clusters and determined the number of pounds and then the number of gallons of juice we had. This doesn't take into account the losses that were incurred with each racking. Our first vintage consisted of approximately 355 clusters that weighed 65 pounds and produced about 5 gallons of juice. From the 5 gallons of juice, we produced twelve 750 mL bottles and nineteen 350 mL bottles that equaled 15.65L or 4.14 gallons.
It's a little difficult dealing with such small numbers. Last year, we had 1000 clusters of Chenin Blanc that weighed 100 pounds and turned into 12 gallons of juice from which we bottled one case of 750 mL and two cases of 375 mL plus 3 bottles. We totally had to pour down the drain approximately 4 gallons of juice that we messed up, so we ended up bottling about 4.76 gallons of wine.
We have been going to get our yeast supplies from Hartford and found two charts of helpful conversions for small lots that I took a photo of:

Those conversion charts are very helpful, so I reproduced it so that I could refer to it:

I was wondering why the pounds to gallons chart included what appeared to be an odd 36 pounds conversion.
When we went to get our yeast, the loading dock was full of grapes in crates. There were also crates of Barbera and since we are growing Barbera, I had to take a picture of the crates.
When I got home, I noticed that each crate was 36 pounds. So, if someone bought one crate of Barbera they could make 2.5 gallons of wine. To buy a ton of grapes, one would have to purchase approximately 56 crates!

Chenin Pét-Nat

What do scientists do? The answer is "experiment". This year, since our harvest exceeded our expectations, we have a few small kegs to experiment with. My husband is interested in making a Pét-Nat wine from one of our 10-liter kegs of Chenin Blanc.
The article, What Is Pét-Nat Wine? An Ancient Winemaking Style on the Rise on Bloomberg Pursuits online, provides a very good explanation for what this style of wine is. The article explained that the term "Pét-Nat" can be traced back to sometime in the ’90s in France’s Loire Valley when two natural winemakers, Thierry Puzelat and Christian Chaussard, began rediscovering the method of producing sparkling wines in this style.
The pét-nat style is also referred to as méthode ancestrale, meaning the wine is bottled before primary fermentation is finished, without the addition of secondary yeasts or sugars. This method produces a simpler, more rustic sparkler than Champagne, one that is traditionally cloudy, unfiltered, and often bottled with a crown cap (like a beer) rather than a cork.
I'll try to chronicle our experiment in pét-nat. Please watch this site.

VIN 13

We have been busy cold settling our Chenin Blanc juice in a 50 degree temperature controlled settling chamber, in order to rid the juice of most of the large particulate matter, the gross lees and then racking it to a clean keg to warm up to fermentation temperature, 62 degrees F. This is a tricky procedure because the juice must be racked out of one chamber, the used keg is then removed from the chamber and then the juice is pushed by nitrogen into a fresh keg in a warmer fermentation chamber. Since we only have 3 temperature controlled chambers (freezers), we are now down to putting the racked juice into the same fermentation chamber to warm up.
For all of our previous fermentations, we have used the yeast called QA23, based on a South African study called Effect Of Yeast Strain And Lees Contact On Chenin Blanc Wine Quality, in the on line journal WineLand. This article focussed on the comparison between the following four yeast strains VIN 13, N 96, QA 23 and NT 116 based on:

• successful completion of fermentation
• ester production
• formation of lees character
• overall wine quality

The study found that:

• Yeast strains QA 23, N 96, VIN 13 and NT 116 produced the highest levels of acetate esters and corresponding fruitiness
• Yeast strain QA 23 produced the most fruitiness, lees character and highest overall wine quality
• Yeast strain N 96 produced wines with slightly more body than the other yeast strains
• All yeast strains exhibited low levels of sulphury flavours due to aeration of the lees directly after fermentation
• For those yeast strains that were on lees for five months, nuances of bread, sparkling wine, citrus and buttery flavours were observed

In 2015, the first year that we used QA23, we let the fermentation go completely to dryness, which we later learned was one of the characteristics of this yeast. For the majority of our fermentation, we are using QA23, but we thought it might be instructive to try another yeast, so we chose VIN 13. We are fermenting the juice with VIN 13 in one of our 15 gallon kegs. In rehydrating and tempering the yeast, we thought that the initial foam it produced was darker in color and much finer.

Right now, we are waiting for fermentation initiation.
Reference:
1. Johann Marais and Neil Jolly, Oenology research, Winetech TechnicalEffect Of Yeast Strain And Lees Contact On Chenin Blanc Wine Quality, Oenology research, Winetech Technical, 1 September 2005.
2. Sctt Lab, VIN 13 Technical Sheet.