New World Winemaker Blog

It’s happened to the best of us and, unfortunately, we all know the feeling: Waking up the next morning, feeling like death warmed up and swearing you’ll never drink again. But what exactly is a hangover and what in wine causes hangovers?

For those who don’t know, common features of hangovers include headaches, nausea, fatigue, dehydration and weakness, even mild depression. I must admit I didn’t realize hangovers are that complex until I started to research them. It gets a little technical, I know, but hang in there – it’s pretty interesting!

The most common cause of a wine hangover is dehydration. Alcohol causes the body to lose water through a complex pathway, resulting in the brain temporarily shrinking. This puts the membranes under strain, causing a headache. This goes hand in hand with a very dry mouth. Furthermore, alcohol causes glycogen (your medium-term energy store) to be converted into glucose and excreted along with salts and minerals, causing you to feel tired the next day. Are you ready to open the next bottle of Chenin yet?

Another major cause of hangovers is biogenic amines, specifically histamine, a chemical we usually associate with allergic reactions. Almost all alcoholic beverages contain some histamine, especially red wine, as it is made from whole grapes. Some people are more sensitive to histamine than others, which can lead to allergic reactions. Symptoms may vary from rosy cheeks to bad headaches. This has nothing to do with the vast amount of wine they knocked back the previous night, of course… There are quite a few factors that can influence the histamine content of wine, and most of them are related to the microbial health of the wine. So, it is very possible that the red wine from one producer will be fine while the same variety from another producer will give you a splitting headache.

And then there is acetaldehyde, which is a by-product of the liver breaking down alcohol. The body can break down small quantities of acetaldehyde, but it cannot metabolize large quantities acetaldehyde, which adds to your hangover. Interesting to note here is that acetaldehyde is closely related to formaldehyde, the preservative that scientists use to store dodgy organs in jars. That really makes you reach out to your wine rack, doesn’t it?

Next is a group of molecules called congeners, which is commonly found in dark-colored drinks like red wine, brandy and whiskey. Very little is known about this chemical group, but apparently it is not very good for us, hence the hangovers.

Interestingly, in my research for this article, I found no mention of sulfur – one of the most popular culprits on which hangovers are pinned. Now you know what happens on the odd occasion when you lose the plot. Having said that, I still believe that moderate wine consumption will definitely add quality to your life and health. Cheers!

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

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.

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.

Is Brett a bad thing? Mmmm….How long is a piece of string? But as a winemaker you should probably have a decent, well informed opinion about Brettanomyces and what it does in wine. I remember as a student going to classes at the Cape Wine Academy in South Africa. We always decided to sit right in the back of the class, because we believed our vocabulary, especially with regards to adjectives, were not sufficient enough to explain why we loved or hated a wine. (And apart from that, we felt quite intimidated by the glares of our fellow classmates should we not agree with some of them…). Luckily I soon realised that it is okay to have a different opinion, because as for the perception of tannin, consumers differ widely in their sensitivity to aromatic substances. Hence, the reason why people differ in opinion when it comes to their perception of a wine and its quality is because of their genetics and not their vocabulary.

Anyway – we’re on Brett. What is it? Apparently also a “probiotic culture”, which will probably make Nicolas Joly shrivel with anguish. I tasted a very highly recommended fruit infused tea the other day. It smelled like the cow shed (the typical old, wet ones) where I learned how to milk cows when I was little. I reflexively read the back label. It contained five different probiotic cultures of which Dekkera anomalaus was one. And I am sure you probably know this, but Dekkera is the anamorph of Brettanomyces. This would be an example of Brett gone badly. Way too much of the pencil shaving, spicy, wet cow yard, funny farmyard, funky, damp hamster cage nuances that can be absorbed and smiled upon by this wine addict.

Five species of Brett are associated with wine, of which B. Bruxellensis is most common. The reason for growth in wine mediums include poor SO₂ management (and molecular SO₂ influenced directly negatively by a high pH), riper grapes and residual sugars. Too high nitrogen levels in musts (mostly as a function of winemakers who do not regard nitrogen management important) also fuels the action of Brett. What does the spoiled wine taste and smell like? Well, it depends on the aromatic culprit. Three common molecules are responsible for much frustration – 4-ethyl phenol (smells like horse stables, sweatiness, cow yard/barnyard, burnt beans) is the main culprit, IVA or 3-methylbutiric acid (smells rancid, horsy) which is a volatile fatty acid and last, but not least, 4-ethylguiacol (smoky, spicy aromas).

And then, the million dollar question: Can it add to complexity in a wine? I believe yes, particularly if the spicy, smoky 4-EP is present. There is however, opposing opinions amongst scientists and winemakers. Some icon wines have been associated with Bretty nuances. Beaucastel, Henschke, Jaboulet’s La Chapelle and even Penfold’s Grange come to mind and interestingly enough, it is postulated that cultivars such as Shiraz and Mourvedre have more phenolic precursors, thus making it more likely to show Bretty characteristics.

I guess in the end, you should probably ask yourself what you get from Brett, how much of it and how, and whether it contribute to the wine’s typicity and quality.

And ultimately measure your sales, just to make sure you got it right…

Bertus Fourie is a winemaker, turned Enology lecturer and creator of the Barista coffee Pinotage.