New World Winemaker Blog

Few things in life are as annoying as a smart ass. Unfortunately the wine scene is full of them. I’m sure the majority of people have come across the wine snob – you know, the guy that will casually compare the Chardonnay in his glass to the Chassagne Montrachet that he had the night before. If this does not impress or baffle his dining partners, he’ll chuck in a bit of jargon. Just as you are taking a sip of your red wine, he announces that he detects Brett on the wine.

 You don’t know whether you should spit out or swallow the generous gulp you just took. I mean, it sounds like you might contract a life-threatening disease. Now this is not a new topic, but I still come across many people that don’t really know what on earth Brett is all about.

Brett is short for Brettanomyces – a spoilage yeast which was first discovered over a century ago when it caused problems in the British brewing industry. It should come as no surprise that the name was derived from a Greek word meaning “British fungus”. Today Brettanomyces is a worldwide problem; there is not a single wine-growing region on the planet that is free of this potential complication.

 How does Brettanomyces get into a cellar? It is a big grey area as to exactly where Brett comes from. French researchers suggest that Brett can be found in the vineyard and carried into the cellar via the grapes. However, the latest research shows that the Brett in the vineyards is not the same strain as the Brett that is spoiling wine. Back to square one. Okay, so we don’t know what the source is, but we do know that there are countless ways of contaminating new, clean wineries: infected second-hand barrels, bulk wine, contaminated equipment, even little vinegar flies and human beings can bring in this unwanted guest into a clean environment. Problem is, once these little buggers get into the winery, it is really difficult to get rid of them.

How does one manage Brett in a winery? It all boils down to basic cellar hygiene. Taking into account the numerous sources of contamination, this is easier said than done. Brett can be detected via sensory analysis (smelling something funny in the wine) or more than likely with laboratory analysis. Once you detect the first signs of Brett in the winery you have to wash and sterilise everything that could be contaminated, or even better, chuck it out of the winery. This sounds pretty simple, but is takes major cleaning up to get rid of Brett contamination.

So what exactly does this Brettanomyces do to wine? When it grows in wine, it forms flavour components described as mousy, Band Aid, horse sweat and even spicy. Now, the big question is: Exactly how bad are these flavours? This is dangerous territory: Some winemakers and wine writers say that it is microbiological spoilage. Hence, they go for zero tolerance because Brett is bad and kills the character of the wine. Others argue that a low level of infection can actually enhance the quality and complexity of some wines. After all, quite a few of the top French wines show a fair amount of Brett.

I’m not going to stick my neck out and take a stand on this topic, but rather opt for a politically safe conclusion like: This is the beauty of wine; it is all about personal preference!

Boela Gerber is the winemaker of Groot Constantia wine estate in South Africa. This blog was originally published on www.conca.co.za.

One of my favourite stories from the Bible is the one where Jesus turned water into wine during the marriage at Cana. Despite this incredible event, asking most winemakers today whether they dose their ferments with water is like asking somebody about his brother in jail… you just don’t talk about it.

The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV, if you parlez français) prohibits the addition of water in all of its 44 member states, which includes countries such as South Africa, Australia, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, New Zealand, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey. But why is the addition of water such a touchy topic? To answer this, we’ll have to hop into the vineyards and consider the interaction between the sun and the water content of ripening grapes.

Research done in Australia on Shiraz (Australia’s most planted grape variety) showed that ripening grape bunches can lose up to 20% of their weight (all of it water) at the end stage of ripening. The effect of the sun is obvious. This exodus of water basically concentrates sugar, which is further increased by the ripening effect of the sun. Wine producers in the southern hemisphere (i.e. Australia and South Africa) and even northern hemisphere (California) are often faced with the imbalance between grape sugars and tannins (and all the other critical flavour compounds). The problem is thus: sugars develop and build up during the harvest. Often, the heady tannins and usual aroma suspects arrive when the party is almost over, or in other words, when the grapes are already overripe. French winemakers critical of watering back wine (this should more or less include all of them) often state that sugars in their grapes develop more slowly and is thus in concert with phenolic ripeness. For an interesting debate, just mention the word ‘chaptalization’ the next time you encounter one of these winemakers.

Winemakers fiddling with overripe grapes can encounter various problems. Simply put, high sugar musts can lead to stuck ferments, even when inoculated with commercial yeasts. If the commercial yeast does however have a sweet tooth and is impervious to high alcohol levels, a high alcohol wine can result, where an alcohol level of 15% or higher is common. The Lower Alcohol Lobby frowns upon high alcohol wines (for various health, safety and other socio-political reasons) and is a powerful driving force behind many health initiatives and various research projects at leading universities. Another factor is tax that is levied on alcohol in some countries.

What is a winemaker to do, apart from having grapes picked earlier and fermenting with yeasts that have a lower alcohol conversion factor? (The latter doesn’t really exist.) There are a few techniques available, of which adding water to wine is paramount in this blog. But you will have to wait for part two of this blog to read all about these controversial techniques.

Bernard Mocke is a technical consultant for Anchor Wine Yeast.

To say that something tastes “goaty,” in common parlance, is to say that it tastes like goat milk or cheese. I suppose that English-speakers are, in general, more familiar with goat-derived dairy products than they are with goat meat. Too, goat milk is so distinctively flavored that its presence screams through anything to which it is added. Regardless, wine isn’t usually goaty. Usually.

Goaty flavors are apparently related to three fatty acids, the “goaty acids,” C6 (caproic acid), C8, (caprylic acid), and C10 (capric acid.) [NB: incidentally, the Latin name for “goat” is Capra.] These acids collectively comprise 15% of the fats in goat milk (thank you, Wikipedia.) All three have been found in wine. A wine that smells and/or tastes like goat, therefore, probably contains unusually high amounts of these acids.

Why do I mention all of this? By now, you may have guessed – correctly – that I have recently encountered a goaty wine.

The goaty acids are found in grapes and can be produced by both wine-related yeast and bacteria. What I’ve been trying for the past week to learn is what affects the amount of these acids produced by each source. Medium-chained fatty acids (MCFAs), including the goaty C6, C8, and C10, are antimicrobial, inhibit the growth and reduce the rate of growth of both yeast and malolactic bacteria, and are related to stuck fermentations.

MCFAs can slide into the phospholipid bilayer that ordinarily seals the interior of the cell off from its environment. When this happens, the permeability of the membrane increases; in other words, the cell springs a leak (or, rather, many tiny leaks.) This is, needless to say, dangerous.

The research published on wine microorganisms and MCFAs is vast. Synthesizing all of the primary data is more like the subject of a solid literature review for the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, not a blog post. Still, I’ve read enough to fairly conclude that the matrix of MCFA production by and influence on microbes and grape vines remains something of a mystery.

None of this helps me understand why a particular Finger Lakes wine tastes like goat. Or, more particularly, why several wines from a particular Finger Lakes winery taste like goat. Sheldrake Point was new ground for me on my most recent visit to my old wine-tasting grounds in upstate New York. Though I now live within easy driving distance of the wine-rich pastures of eastern Washington, my parents are still close enough to the Finger Lakes to be practical. A Christmas visit afforded an excellent chance to get up to the lakes, revisit several old favorites, and explore a new winery or two. We detoured from the eastern border of Seneca lake to the western side of Cayuga lake and Sheldrake Point on the advice of a Seneca winery tasting room manager. I’m glad we did. None of the wines was remarkable – consistently okay, but not great – but either the terroir of Cayuga lake is dramatically different than Seneca or else Sheldrake Point has a style all its own. “Goat cheese” was a common thread not only through the whites but also into the pinot noir, as was a lightness that stood out even among the typically light-bodied wines of upstate New York.

A few interesting notes about Sheldrake. First, it seems that they do enjoy an unusual mesoclimate. Like the rest of the Finger Lakes, they enjoy the temperature- and humidity-buffering effects of a deep neighboring body of water. Unlike most of the regions’ wineries, however, their vineyards come down nearly to waters’ edge. Their grapes also bed down on the remains of an old cattle ranch. Could that have something to do with those unusual flavors? Finally, I should point out that my impressions were far from normal: Sheldrake Point’s 2008 Late Harvest Riesling took “Best Sweet Riesling in the World” and “Best American Riesling” at Australia’s 2010 Canberra International Riesling Festival and the winery has been named “Winery of the Year” for two years running by Wine and Spirits Magazine and the New York Wine and Food Classic. Heck, maybe I’m weird.

Erika Szymanski is an independent contributor to this blog. She is in no way affiliated with the sponsoring company. This blog was originally posted on her blog: The Wine-o-scope.

An experimental batch of Petit Verdot turned out to be a pioneering piece of art for Stellenzicht Winemaker, Guy Webber, who has recently introduced Stellenzicht’s first ‘no added sulphur’ wines – a Petit Verdot 2008 and Chardonnay 2009.

To classify as a low sulphite wine, the free SO₂ count should not exceed ten parts per million – which can prove to be quite a challenge, since wine yeasts naturally produce sulphur during fermentation. Guy has been experimenting with low sulphur wines for several vintages and explains that these wines are kept in the bottle for six to nine months before they are released – “just to make sure that they’ve made it.”

The Petit Verdot boasts with a particularly interesting story. The wine spent a year on the skins, which is unheard of in conventional winemaking. “Petit Verdot is known for its intense colour and impressive tannin structure, but this wine has turned out to be surprisingly soft and velvety, “ explains Guy.

Sulphur acts as an anti-oxidant in wine, a role that is also fulfilled by tannins. The Petit Verdot was fermented in old 500L barrels that have been transformed into mini rototanks at Stellenzicht. “These barrels are ideal vessels to ferment and mature small batches of wine. We have more than 20 at the moment and also use them for Shiraz.”

The Chardonnay literally went from tank to bottle to avoid exposure to oxygen and was not cold stabilised. Guy adds that the bottling process was done with particular caution, to avoid oxygen exposure or microbial contamination.

This has indeed been worthwhile, with the Chardonnay developing a remarkably complex flavour spectrum of melons, pineapples and citrus, while the palate is surprisingly rich and buttery.

The newest addition to the low sulphur range is most likely to be a Pinotage, which has already been bottled and is now spending time in the bottle to monitor its development. This would be the first commercial low sulphur Pinotage in the world.

Edo Heyns is a winemaker, turned wine journalist working for WineLand magazine.