Yeast Inflection

I spent most of a recent rainy afternoon researching yeast and I came across so many pages of information, I quit after the ‘L’s. So I’ll boil it down to some essentials. It’s easier to digest that way.

Yeast is necessary component in fermentation process, and is added to the juice when in the barrel or fermentation vessel. It melds with the sugar in the juice, producing heat to convert sugar to alcohol. This reaction continues until the yeast dies off. Fermentation ceases, and we have wine. The end.

Okay, maybe I oversimplified there.The type of yeast is also important: yeast is generally selected for both the amount of alcohol content it will produce, and the taste it will create. It can come from two main sources: ambient (wild) or commercial.

Cups of Yeast ~ Chez Ray Winery

Going Native~ 

Bloom ~ refers to the pure or native yeast strain found on grape skins, and a common view is that to produce a truly indigenous wine, thus expressing terroir, one can only use wild yeast. A problem exists when using ambient or wild yeast: very few can consistently reproduce the qualities a wine maker is looking for. Where commercial yeasts win is that they are incredibly reliable and make it easier to control the outcome of the end-product.

For some purists, adding commercial yeast disrupts the ‘expression of terroir’ in a wine. That’s fair enough, I guess, but I’d imagine that to be easier to control if you’re making very small quantities of very specific wine, that’s going to a very limited customer; like your Aunt Lorraine. Most wineries, cottage or otherwise, have to answer the call of supply and demand, moreover, must address consistent quality issues. That is something that wild or native yeast can’t regularly deliver.

Terroir or no terroir, the last thing a winemaker needs, at the end of the day, are bottles of undrinkable wine coming back from the consumer.

What I want to know is: does the yeast go in before or after your feet?

Grape-stomp Lucy ~ Desi-lu Productions ~ jimi's cyberstore

Cheers!

[Vinography] [Articlesbase]

 

 

 

 

Wine 101 ~ Autumn Harvest

Grapes on the vine ~ ready to be picked

September, to me, always means two things: back to school (whether I’m going or not) and the grape harvest. This year, I am planning to go back to school for the WSET Foundation Course through the American Wine School here in Cleveland. For four weeks, I’ll learn the basics about how to taste, serve, buy and store wine, and get a little introduction to food and wine pairing. It’ll be great knowledge for my trip to California Wine Country in November. More about that in future posts.

So, I’m back to the study hall and today’s subject: harvest and white wine production.

The harvest itself can be done in two ways:

Machine harvest is by far the quickest and most efficient but it is very costly. It can also be a little heavy on the grapes, and depending on the variety, can damage or minimize the flavor. You have to have the correct vineyard setup (your vines must be straight), and it doesn’t lend well to grading. This is a task that can’t be done afterwards; you have to go through the vineyard before the machines ever start up.

Manual harvest allows you to grade or sort as you go, and allows for the removal of low quality and damaged fruit. This, in turn, can maximize potential quality and flavor of the product.

Harvest ~ Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Once the grapes are harvested, sorted and graded, they go to the ‘crusher’ for stem removal. If stems are left on in the pressing, the wine can become bitter, thereby reducing the quality of the wine. Who wants bitter wine?

Main steps for white wine:

First, it’s a must that I talk about must. Sorry. I know that’s a bad groaner, but I had to.  Must is ~ the juice, seeds, pulp and skins from the grape. All of it (except stems) is thrown into the press.

Juice is extracted from the must and then sent to the fermentation vessel (barrel, tank or concrete lined).

Yeast is added next to convert grape sugars into alcohol. When all the sugars are finally converted, the yeast dies and fermentation stops.

Voila! We have white wine.

The whole process for white wine takes from between 5 ~ 15 days. Smaller batches allow for more finely tuned wine making. A large batch might give you a bigger yield but the result will be a less finely nuanced wine. Sometimes great things can come in smaller packages.

Any winemaker would say that there is so much more that goes into the process than that, and I agree. You have to take into account the weather, how the growing seasons were up to harvest time, canopy management, terroir, among other things. All have  great influence on what ends up in the bottle and eventually in your glass. I’ll get to those elements in greater depth as we go along, but this is a general overview of the basics.

Next study hall, I’ll write more about the influence that yeast in particular has on making or breaking a wine.

Cheers!

A little chill

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy. I’m very grateful for the wonderful friends and family who have ventured down to see me. We’ve shared some wine, a lot of laughs and it’s been nice to feel that home isn’t really so far away.

2007 Daniel Lenko Viognier

So tonight, I’m toasting the lovely new memories with an 07 Daniel Lenko Viognier from Niagara. It’s proving to be a delicious end to a wonderful few weeks.

Cheers!

At the Crocker Park Wine Festival

Face-off! 2007 Mike Weir vs. 2007 Wayne Gretzky Pinot Noir

2007 Wayne Gretzky Estate/ Mike Weir Wine Pinot Noir

Last night, I had a little tasting with my friends Judy and Terri and I wanted it to be as unbiased as possible. Since I’m an ex-pat from the Niagara region, I’m partial to many wines from that area, not just the Icewine that it’s noted for. Maybe I’m feeling a little homesick especially since it’s Grape and Wine Festival time. Sigh. I know it’s called ‘The Niagara Wine Festival‘ now, but it’ll always be ‘Grape and Wine’ to me.

For years, I’ve enjoyed the whites and particularly liked what had been coming off the vine from Mike Weir Wine. Having never sampled anything from Wayne Gretzky Estates, I wanted to try something different and compare the two. To keep things on equal footing, I chose the same type and vintage, otherwise it could be like comparing apples to oranges, and not really a fair fight. We poured both through an aerator since we didn’t have time to decant.

Armed with both the Wine Aroma Wheel and Mouth-feel Wheel, we started with the 2007 Mike Weir Wine Pinot Noir. The color ranged from a burgundy (Terri) to light claret (me) to garnet (Judy). We all agreed that, sadly, there didn’t seem to be much on the nose. As for mouth-feel, it seemed to be a bit thin and watery; as if it could’ve been cellared longer. We found the taste to be more tart berry; Judy thought it had a grippy, alcohol feel. Terri thought it had more of a chemical, bitter feel. She described it as ‘gird-y’: for her, it produced more of a burn-like sensation going down. Overall, it wasn’t bad, it just tasted quite young. I wondered if pairing it with something like Brie and fruit might have brought out more of its depth.

On to the 2007 Wayne Gretzky Estates (Estate Series) Pinot Noir. By comparison, the Gretzky was richer in color; a deep garnet with nice floral notes on the nose.  The mouth-feel was warm, satin-y and supple with a viscous, mouth coat texture (yes, ‘mouth coat’ is listed in the wheel). Terri found it had a smoother, softer, fuller texture compared to the Weir. It tasted of rich cherry, sulfur with a light smoky, butter finish, and would probably pair well with a nice filet or roasted chicken. We thought it was a nice wine to drink all on its own, from start to finish.

Looks like, for now, No.99 is still the Great One.

Cheers!

Wine Tasting 101~ The Mouth~feel Wheel

The Mouth~feel Wheel

It’s been a busy time for the Wine Student; none of it wine related, I’m sad to say. So, yes, I’ve been blowing off my studies a bit. I’m back to the study hall and picking up where I left off: the Mouth~feel Wheel. Like the Wine Aroma Wheel, the Mouth~feel Wheel, is made up of various terms that describe how red wine feels when it’s on your tongue. This part of wine tasting is really new to me: I’ve never thought of wine as ‘chewy’ or ‘grippy’; according to the Mouth-feel Wheel, it can be.

Developed by Richard Gawel in collaboration with Dr. Leigh Francis and Anita Oberholster of the Australian Wine Research Institute, the Mouth~feel Wheel lists 53 terms to describe red wine’s various sensations and texture. When I was looking through the wheel, I noticed some of the terms weren’t anything I’d ever use to describe wine. Like ‘chamois’. Chamois, according to the wheel, describes the surface smoothness and astringency of the wine. A harsh wine could be described as hard and aggressive while a complex wine might be fleshy, rich or supple.

My friend Katrin (who was visiting for the weekend) and I decided to take a spin with two offerings: a 2008 Angel’s Gate Cabernet Shiraz from Niagara and a 2009 Sean Minor Pinot Noir, Carneros.

We found the Angel’s Gate Cab Shiraz to be ‘astringent’ or “pucker-y,’ with a thin weight. It seemed a little young but pairing it with dark chocolate covered pomegranates seemed to cut it nicely.

The Sean Minor Pinot Noir, Carneros offered us more mouth~feel. I found it had a fuzzy sensation with a slight tingle; Katrin found it to be ‘fleshy’ and ‘active.’ We agreed that it provided a good measure of heat: warm and peppery and the finish was like ‘microsuede.’ I’ve never tasted microsuede, but it’s probably like a chamois.

It took us a few glances around the wheel to really put terms to how the wines felt, and the more we sampled, the better the descriptions became. We likened it to CSI for wines, except I don’t think our findings would ever hold up in a court of law.

Cheers!

 

2008 Angel's Gate Cabernet Shiraz