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A fellow wine maker wrote me the following query
Hey Dan. I thought of a question you might use in your Cellar Notes. The question surrounds a winery issuing a "reserve" wine. Other than having aged longer, what might a winery do to call something "reserve"?
Good question! And it provides fodder sufficient for a whole column this month….maybe many more to come, as well! What do the various descriptors on a wine label really mean? Well, of course, the simple answer is: “It all depends!” Terms like “Reserve,” “Private Reserve,” “Barrel Select,” “Late Harvest,” “Estate-Bottled,” and many, many others frequently adorn wine bottle labels. Are these phrases or catchwords meant to provide useful information, or merely to serve as a marketing ploy? Again, it all depends!
Wine labeling laws vary from country to country, and even sometimes from region to region within countries. It isn’t my purpose here to translate all the special terms on French, German, Spanish or Hungarian wine labels, but, rather, to guide you, the home winemaker, in using some common terms correctly.
Let’s talk about using names of commercial wine types, for instance. France produces Bordeaux, Beaujolais, Burgundy, Sauternes, Champagne and many dozens of other wine types whose names are based on the location where the grapes are grown (or “appellation”). As home winemakers, we are free to call our wines by these names if we wish, but note that you won’t find kits labeled with these names. Nor will you find commercial wines made outside the legal boundaries of, say, Champagne, making wine with “Champagne” on the label. That is because the French vigorously guard their appellations as meaningful trademarks.
However, it is quite common to see Spanish and Italian appellations on wine kits; for example: Amarone, Bardolino, Rioja, etc. Are these wines truly made from the proper grapes, grown in the proper districts, and blended or otherwise treated according to the labeling laws of Spain or Italy? Well, in a word, no. How compliant they are with the spirit of the appellation laws is not something I know, and I assume it varies from case to case, company to company. If you want to call your resulting wine an “Amarone,” or a “Rioja,” for instance, well nothing is stopping you. However, your wine is NOT Rioja or Amarone, and it may not even be something reasonably stylistically close to the original wine.
So what about more generic terms, such as “reserve?” Such terms are usually also regulated by laws and/or traditions in various countries, though not, usually, the United States or Canada. The term “reserve” has specific legal meanings in each different appellation that uses the term in Italy or Spain, for example. Generally the word tends to mean that the wine was bulk aged in wood for at least one year longer than the non-reserve version of the same wine. Italy and Spain have specific rules relating to varying lengths of time of extra aging and the label terms used to convey such information. No such rules shackle the free-marketing spirit of American wineries, who can freely make up such descriptive terms to mean whatever you think they might mean.
“Private reserve” traditionally designates a wine so special it was originally set aside for the winery owner’s private use, and does not necessarily relay information about bulk aging. In the New World, however, the term merely suggests that the wine is of premium quality relative to the maker’s “regular” offerings.
If you notice my Chardonnay label, above, you will see the words “Vineyard Select.” I used this term on my label because the wine was made from a kit in the manufacturer’s “Vineyard Select” series. The term has no legal meaning, but is meant to suggest that the grapes come from one or more specially “selected” vineyards, rather from a blend of whatever was available. Another equally nebulous and unregulated term is “Vintage Select,” which, again, suggests a special selection of grapes from among those available for a given vintage.
The term “Barrel fermented” means just that: the wine was fermented in a barrel. The point is that there are certain flavor and aroma components derived from barrel fermentation that are different from those derived from barrel aging. “Barrel Select” should mean that the wine is from a very special barrel or series of barrels “selected” by the winemaker for having produced exceptionally high quality compared to the remainder of the vintage. Whether it actually means that in most cases is doubtful.
You would think that you should be completely safe to simply label your wine with the name of the grape variety from which it is made, but even here there are some caveats. “Syrah” and “Shiraz” are the same grape, but if you call your wine “Syrah,” you are presumably making it in the French Rhone Valley style, whereas “Shiraz” suggests you are aiming for the fat, fruity Aussie style. “Pinot gris” and “Pinot grigio” are likewise the same grape, but choosing one name suggests your wine is more in the Alsatian/German style or, alternately, in the Italian style. “Fume blanc” and “Sauvignon blanc are also stylistic variants from a single grape variety. Finally, you should be as explicit as you can be about the location of the grapes’ origin. Sauvignon blanc from California is VERY different than Sauvignon blanc from New Zealand which is VERY different from Sauvignon blanc from France!
We home winemakers can call our wines whatever we wish to, but it’s good to know how to use terms correctly, so that we convey information rather than obfuscation with our labeling.
Roger writes:
I have found
several recipes for strawberry wine. The main differences seem to be:
1) Add raisins or not
2) Add boiling water to the fruit or just cold water
What's your opinion on 1 and 2?
Roger,
Raisins are okay,
but not necessary. They add a bit more body to wines. I wouldn't use boiling
water...it tends to "stew" the fruit, effecting taste and aroma, and it can
"set" pectins, leaving you with cloudy wine.
Just use cold, filtered water and an appropriate dose of metabisulfite (or
Campden tablets). For a rich dessert-style wine, don't use water at all...just
pure crushed strawberries.
Jack writes:
I'm making two batches each this year of pinot noi, and sauvignon blanc (bordailles blanc) from kits. Any thoughts on what adding a couple pounds of raisins to each batch would do? Dark for the pinot noir, and white for the sauvignon blanc. Maybe I can add raisins to only one batch each so I can make a comparison.
Theoretically, raisins could add some additional phenolics, giving you a bit better mouth feel and body. However, I feel that raisins--at least the dark ones--also add a kind of caramelized flavor, which would not compliment your pinot at all. Likewise, your "bordailles blanc" (which is probably NOT sauvignon blanc, or it would be labeled that way—see “Know Your Grapes,” below) is designed, I presume, to mimic Graves and other white Bordeaux. These should be crisp and clean. The raisins may enhance body, but distract from that crispness. I'm just not sure. If you really want to enhance phenolics in kit wines, I suggest you invest in some high-end enological tannins (or, better yet, buy better kits that have more dissolved solids in the first place!).
If you decide to try your experiment, let us know the results, please. Better yet, share the results in their liquid form with yours truly!
Baco is a French-American Hybrid grape that is widely grown in the American Northeast and the upper Midwest. While Baco once was known primarily as a producer of fairly light red wines, it has been used in recent years to make big, richly intense reds. Like most of the French-American hybrids, Baco retains a bit of “foxy” flavor from it’s American parent, but when well made from ripe grapes, it makes very good wine. Baco is one of the few hybrids still found in Virginia vineyards, but it seems to be a its best in New York state.
Made-up name used on wine kits as a result of an agreement between the French Government and the Canadian Home Wine and Beer Trade Association (now, simply HWBTA). Meant to indicate a wine kit that simulates the style of Beaujolais.
Another HWBTA name that indicates a kit made to mimic the style of Bordeaux (red and white).
Another HWBTA name that indicates a kit made to mimic the style of Burgundy (red and white).
Yet another HWBTA name that suggests a wine in the style of Bordeaux’s Entre-Deux-Mers region, which specializes in crisp, light white wines.
Montalcino, Tuscany
Brunello is a synonym for Sangiovese, the most important red-wine grape of Tuscany. The term is primarily associated with the appellation Brunello di Montalcino, from the district around the fortified town of Montalcino. Brunello traditionally is a rich, spicy, very tannic wine that needs years of bottle aging to become approachable. While some makers are producing a somewhat gentler wine, Brunello remains on of Italy’s “biggest” reds. Your wine kit labeled “Brunello” may be made from Sangiovese grapes, but there is no guarantee they come from Montalcino, and unless you barrel age your wine for at least four years (five for “riserva”), it should not be labeled “Brunello,” but, perhaps “Brunello style.”
Chamboursin is a French-American hybrid grown the world over. It probably the most widely grown red hybrid in Virginia, where it makes wines that vary from light and fruity to deep and powerful. Chamboursin can make a very age worthy wine that will develop considerable finesse in the bottle. Unfortunately, most Chamboursin is over-cropped for a market more interested in quantity than quality. However, if you can get well-grown Chamboursin, you can make some very fine wine!
Comments? Questions? Write me at dan.mouer@verizon.net
Also, see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralVirginiaWinemakers/
Copyright 2005 L. Daniel Mouer