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Spring in the vineyard
…and this upper-middle-aged man’s fancy is turning to thoughts of the 2005 harvest! What equipment will I need? Which grapes do I want to get this year? Will we finally have a decent vintage here in Central Virginia, after two horrible years? But wait! I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s really too early to think about this year’s vintage, when I still have a house filled with carboys full of last year’s vintage….and the year before that!
What April really means to me most years is: it’s time stabilize and bottle last year’s white and pink wines, and to evaluate for bottling red wines from the previous year that are still aging in bulk. To prepare for the latter, I used last month to complete blends of ’03 reds. They are now, for the most part, stable and ready to bottle, or at least to rack one last time. Normally, by this time, my fresh white wines would be crystal clear and showing the fruit aromas I hope to capture in the bottle. My “bigger” whites might still be on their fine lees, but beginning to hint that it’s time to fine and rack them. This year is different.
My Viognier is sparkling clear…and suffused in a cloak of reductive fermentation funk. That’s my winemaker’s lingo for saying “it stinks.” My Pinot gris is a little funky—not nearly so much as the Viognier—but it won’t clear. Even after finings that, in my opinion, could clear the Dismal Swamp, I still have a pretty thick haze. I have two Chardonnays: one cool fermented, no oak, no MLF wine meant to be a summer quencher; the other has been through oak fermentation and aging, malolactic fermentation, lees stirring…the whole nine yards. Both show great promise, but neither has cleared properly. The oaked version is a tad bit funky from long lees contact, which isn’t unusual. The cool-fermented batch has developed a pretty seriously awful aroma.
What do I make of this dilemma? First, I will not rush to bottle wines that aren’t ready. If I put funky wine into the bottle, I will eventually pour funky wine out of it. The first steps are to get all the wines off their lees and to get them clear. I rarely use Bentonite, but it may be needed this year. I am also adding pectinase enzyme to the cloudy carboys. I believe the hazes are either the result of very “fluffy” lees that just won’t flocculate properly, or of some excess proteins in the wines. If Bentonite doesn’t clear, I’ll try Polyclar. If that doesn’t work, I’ll filter the wines.
For the most part, I believe the funky aromas are volatile fermentation byproducts. As the wines continue to warm up in the spring-time temperatures, and as they undergo a bit of agitation from racking, I think they will clean up nicely. In some cases, the odors are a bit “reductive:” possibly indicating some sulfides are present. Some oxygen contact and agitation will, I hope clear those, because none small like they have become bound into skunky or gassy mercaptan compounds…evil smelly things that ruin wine permanently.
Basically, the wines are suffering from high Ph and the winter doldrums. I know they’ll revive…or I think they will. If only the sun will come out and the cherry trees bloom, and if I will only have as much patience as it takes. Meanwhile, I’ve got some reds to bottle.
This month I would like to begin a new “encyclopedia” of the types of wines and grapes home winemakers are most likely to encounter here in Virginia. Whether you make your wines from local grapes, from concentrate kits or from sterile or frozen musts, it certainly helps to know what to expect from your raw materials. To help out, I’ll compile, in these pages, a sort of encyclopedia of wine grapes available to us, as well as wine names used on various kits. It may take a year or more to cover all the bases—and I won’t always go in perfect alphabetical order. I hope readers will find this useful. Please drop me a note if there is a grape or wine type you are especially interested in learning about.
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Corvino grapes drying on racks to make Amarone
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Winexpert’s new Selection Estate Corvino Classic kit. |
It seems that most of the manufacturers these days produce one or more kits called “Amarone.” Amarone is not a grape, but rather a type of wine produced—primarily from the Corvino grape—in the Veneto section of northeastern Italy. Specifically, they are made in a small wine-growing zone known as Valpolicella. The grapes to make Amarone are allowed to partially dry in the sun. This concentrates the color, flavors and sugars to make a richly concentrated wine, usually over 13% alcohol. The wine is dark, with the flavor of ripe dark cherries. It is not overly tannic, but good acidity and high alcohol make Amarone a long-lived wine. If you are making up one of the premium or super-premium Amarone kits, please hold onto at least half your batch for a couple of years, so that you might enjoy what this tasty wine has to offer at its best.
Luigi Giordano estate in Barbaresco
Like the name “Amarone,” Barbaresco is also a specific wine district and type, not a kind of grape. Barbaresco is one of the four principal winemaking localities in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. This very refined red wine is made from the Nebbiola grape, which also figures prominently in the other major red wines of the Piedmont; namely, Barolo, Gattinara, and Nebbiolo d’Asti, and Nebbiola d’Alba. Barbaresco is a powerful, oak-aged, dry red wine known more for its spicy and vinous qualities than for fruit. Barbaresco made from high-end kits should age reasonably well. The real deal, in bottles from Italy, can easily last for a decade or two, and is generally thought to be at its best after 6 or 7 years bottle age.
Barbera is a red-wine grape whose true home is in the Italian Piedmont Region, where it makes big, fruity-smoky wines with a bit of zesty spice. These are generally easy-drinking wines meant for consumption within a few years of their vintage. Barbera used to be grown widely in California’s Central Valley, where it made generally mediocre wines. There are some good Barbera wines coming from the Sierra foothills, as well as a few from Sonoma. However, it is a grape that seems to have largely faded from popularity in recent years, which is a shame, because good Barbera is delicious! If you encounter a Barbera wine kit, just make certain the juice is from a good Barbera growing region: preferably Italy’s Piedmont.
Once again, this is a wine style and winemaking zone, not a type of grape. Barolo is the “biggest,” and priciest, the Piedmont’s Nebbiola-based wines. Traditionally, Barolos were hugely powerful, tannic, impenetrable monsters until they had managed at least 15 years of cellar aging. That is no longer the case, as more contemporary winemaking methods are employed in the region. Needless to say, a top-of-the-line Barolo kit should produce a deeply colored, full-bodied, dry red wine that will complement a meal of beef, lamb or game. I would search for a kit that uses real Piemontese Nebbiola, not a kit labeled “Barolo-style,” which may contain any sort of grapes from anywhere in the world.
Comments? Questions? Write me at dan.mouer@verizon.net
Also, see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralVirginiaWinemakers/
Copyright 2005 L. Daniel Mouer
