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September 2, 2018August 28, 2024

Why should I let wine breath?

“Why should I let wine breath, if it has been locked inside the bottle for a few years already? Whatever was inside it’s probably dead by now” – that’s how the conversation started at the table.

There are two procedures that would help your wine breath: decanting and aerating (also known as carafing or oxygenation). Aeration, as the name suggests, puts the wine in touch with the air (mainly oxygen), allowing a better expression of its aromatic components. Decanting, helps separating eventual sediments in the wine before serving, with some oxygenation coming along with it.

Why should I decant wine?

Certain wines, particularly the aged ones, naturally develop an amount of sediments overtime. These sediments impact the texture of the wine, which can be distracting and even unpleasant. Removing these sediments will take you to a better tasting experience.

What about aeration?

Every wine could benefit a bit from aeration. I would recommend aerating all wine, with a few exceptions and bit of care. As discussed in a previous post, a lot of details in the bottle and on the wine production methods are designed to slow down the aging process. One of them is to limit the contact with oxygen. Once the bottle is open and the wine gets in contact with an overwhelming amount oxygen, a series of chemical reactions are triggered. In older wines, for which the time has stopped for a while, this process happens much faster once the bottle is opened.

If done in the right measure, the aeration can:

Help soothing some of the aggressive tannins in young wines. Don’t expect miracles, but it can soften a bit the texture of wines where tannins are still super active.
Help brushing away off odours that occur in some wines, especially the ones with low content of sulfites. Unfortunately, if your wine is corked, aeration won’t help – actually it will make it worse.
Help bringing up the layers of aromas that might have been trapped in the wine. As the oxygen triggers some chemical reactions, it induces volatilization of some aromatic components.

Aeration is a process that needs to be handled gently and with care. If the process is too aggressive or takes longer than required, it might damage the wine. You don’t want oxygenation turning into oxidation. Often in old wines, it takes minutes for us to notice it changing aromas and even colour inside the glass.

What wines should I aerate?

Not all wines have sediments, which would require some decanting. Nevertheless, most of the wines would benefit from some aeration. There is a component of personal preference to it. Experiment and have fun in the process. Despite this grey zone in the discussion about what wines should be aerated, much lead by personal preferences, there are some general guidelines worth mentioning.

Aerating Red Wines

To simplify, if we think about how much aeration a given varietal needs, based on its age, we could probably draw something like a bell curve.

Young wines need little aeration since they are still young and little stimulation is needed to have the aromas coming out. Aeration in young wines tends to help most on (slightly) soothing the more aggressive tannins. Again, it won’t do miracles but you should see a difference if you let a young Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon rest for an hour or so.

Mid aged wines are the ones that would benefit the most when it comes to bringing up dormant flavours. The time in the bottle can mask the aromas, especially some of the tertiary ones that you have been patiently waiting for.

Old wines need decanting because of possible sediment, but little aeration. We need extra care with them, as the wine structure might have become fragile over the years. In this case it is suggested to have the wine decanted just before serving.

Aerating White Wines

In general, white wines won’t benefit as much from aeration as the average red wine. Those that could possibly get a boost are the ones that got some aging (e.g. German Riesling) or heavier bodied ones that had some time in Oak (e.g. Californian Chardonnay) or that have a more complex aromatic structure you would like to bring up (e.g. Alsatian Gewürztraminer). If aerating, I would suggest to chill down the decanter, to a temperature that is 1-2 degrees lower than the one of the bottle, so that you don’t warm up the wine in the process.

Aerating Sparkling Wines

I am not a fan of oxygenating sparkling wines. It depends on the wine, and I believe those should be treated case by case. However, if you DO happen to have a nice vintage champagne, decanting can add an interesting edge to your experience (together with the use of a proper glass, please not a flute!).

A key thing is to have the decanter chilled down before aerating (as mentioned above for whites). Keep it in the fridge for a while so that it gets cold and you don’t warm up the champagne during the process. The second thing to keep in mind is to work gently and continuously when pouring the champagne. Gently let the champagne flow through the walls of the decanter and avoid having the champagne hitting the bottom at once. This way you avoid breaking the bubbles and having the champagne losing perlage once served in the glass. Don’t let it sit for too long. Keep the decanter covered and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. That should wake the vintage up a bit without stressing it out. Allowing you to enjoy the depth that a more complex sparkling deserves.

My thoughts on aeration

Aeration should be a process to gently wake up the wine and help it to rise and shine in the glass. It might have been sleeping for a long time in bottle, let’s be careful with the old ones. The timing on the process requires a bit of experience, probing and sensibility. If oxygenation is too much for the wine, it will let some of the aromas fade, and we’ll end up missing some of the stories that the wine would like to tell us.

Open the bottle, pour a sip in your glass and taste it. If you can’t feel the main notes (fruity, earthy, herbal…), or if it’s young and too tannic or if you spotted some off odours, let it sit for a bit in the decanter. Wait, try it again. Repeat. The right point is the one that matches with your preferences, expectations or curiosity (ok, also patience).

Personally, I avoid using a decanter whenever I can. If the time is short and you have a table of guests waiting, there are not many ways to scape and a decanter will be a good friend supporting you. However, whenever possible, I just open the bottle, serve the wine in the glass and enjoy it as it opens, the aromas develop and get wider in the glass. While the oxygenation happens slowly in the bottle, once opened, it allows you to taste each stage of wine waking up.

Pretty much like having the wine catching up with time, but that’s a show that you get a first seat to watch, interacting with it right there, in your glass.

Santé!

June 2, 2018August 28, 2024

Difference between organic and biodynamic wines

Consumers have been showing a growing interest about the origins of their food and drink, while the demand for sustainable practices gets stronger across the markets. When it comes to wine, UK alone has seen a growth of 15% on the consumption of organic and biodynamic wine, compared to the previous year.

The market share of organic and biodynamic products is still relatively small, but they are getting traction from consumer demand and you will be seeing more of them in the shelves.

But what are organic wines, to start with? And how are they different from the biodynamic ones? Are they any different in taste? In the end, why should you care?

Organic Wines

Simply put, organic wines are produced without the use of synthetic pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. This requires the adoption of a series of sustainable practices to ensure proper maintenance of the vines.

The regulation of organic wines is heavily focused on restricting the use of chemicals, but there are differences on how these rules are defined around the globe. In the USA, organic wines cannot have added sulfites. In the EU however, the addition of sulfites might not prevent a wine from getting the “organic” stamp. The EU regulation defines a maximum level of sulfites for organic wines which is lower than the non-organic ones. This allows sulfites to be added as long as the total concentration is under this level.

The use of certain additives such as gelatin or egg whites for fining, or yeast to speed up the fermentation is permitted. Also, practices that still don’t have a substitute in the market might be used in the production, with certain restrictions. Those include heat treatments, filtration, reverse osmosis and the use of ion exchange resins.

The regulation for organic wines in the EU became official in 2012. All wines complying with the requirements have been bearing the green leaf logo on the bottle since then.

In the US, the Department of Agriculture is responsible for the organic certification. The bottles that comply with the country regulations can show a “USDA-Certified Organic” stamp.

In the absence of chemicals, a set of practices come into play to manage the health of the vines. As example, we have the so called “sexual confusion”, in which pheromone pods are placed around the vineyard. It has shown to be effective especially against white moths. The way it works is that the essence confuses the male insects reducing the changes of the female insects being fertilized.

Another practice is to use cover crops (clover, ryegrass, barley, dandelions). Each one brings a different kind of mineral to the system. They can be also ploughed and mixed into the soil, helping to fix nitrogen, among others.

Biodynamic wines

Imagine a wine production going even further into wearing the hat of sustainability, to the point that it’s all grounded in a philosophical stream.

Biodynamics are much closer to a philosophy than to just a series of sustainable practices. It adopts a holistic approach to farming, seeing it as a complex system of inter-dependencies between animals, soil, plants, weather and even planetary alignments. The practices look at fostering a healthy and sustainable balance between all those elements. If there is any type of unbalance in this chain, the treatment is done with natural materials applied in specific ways to the soil, compost, and crops, with the intention of engaging non-physical entities and elements.

The philosophy is wide and complex. We can compare it to lenses through which you see and interpret the world, that eventually dictates how you manage agricultural practices.

The concepts of biodynamics were created by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. He started applying it 1924, to help a group of farmers fixing recurring issues in the fields.

The biodynamic certification for farms and products is managed worldwide by Demeter International.

Natural wine (or vin naturel)

I am commenting also on a third category of wines that is often mentioned in the context of organic and biodynamic products. “Natural” wines (or frequently referred to “vin Naturel” in Europe) are a bit of a question mark. The practices around their production are not standardized nor the use of the term is regulated in the industry.

Natural wines use organically or biodynamically produced grapes. The vinification process is oriented towards letting the environment do its job creating the wine. While in organic and biodynamic productions we still have a steering hand from the winemaker designing the wine, natural wines are produced with as little intervention as possible from the human side.

No yeast is used. The wild yeast (naturally found on the skin of the grapes) is the one responsible for the job of converting the grape juice into wine. It adds a bit of complexity and new flavors, but at the same time the results might be a bit unpredictable. Since there are no control over the concentration of yeast or even the presence of other fermenting agents, each wine might have its own personality to some extent.

Filtration and finning are also not used. For this reason, you will often find natural wines to have sediments and look cloudy.

No correction is done. Meaning that the acidy and sugar levels in the wine are defined by the natural process as well. Reinforcing the name of this wine category.

Sulfites are not added during the process either.

When it comes to the experience, in my opinion, natural wines are not for every taste. The wild yeast and the natural style of the production help developing wild flavors and textures in the wine. Aeration and decanting can help taming some of those before enjoying the first sip.

In between organic and biodynamic wines, we also find half-ways. You might have already come across wines with “made with organic grapes” or “made with biodynamic grapes” printed on the labels. Despite the fact that these wines were produced from grapes that undergo organic or biodynamic practices, the overall production processes were not that strict. In this case, they didn’t qualify for having the organic or bio stamp on the bottle. As an example, it is not uncommon to find wines “made with organic grapes” in which sulfites were added, in order to extend the life time of the wine.

So why hasn’t everybody shifted to organic or biodynamic wines yet?

Higher costs, production risks and consistency on the profile of the wines are key challenges when stepping out of traditional processes and into the world of organic and biodynamic wines.

Not all producers can afford hand harvest. If trying to compensate for the costs, the price of the wine will rise and it will start competing with wines in higher tranches, with potentially higher quality standards.

Risks can be harder to manage. It is surely concerning to see your winery pilling up with bottles of wine that have a much shorter lifetime than traditional wines from the same category. That’s the case when wines are low on sulfites, one of the key elements for preventing wines to become vinegar too soon.

If a producer praises consistency on the profile and quality of the wines, it’s uncomfortable to pass that responsibility to practices that actually reduce your control over the final product. If we look at Pinot Noir, which is known to be a moody grape, it is much more challenging to have it thriving organically, without the use of synthetic herbicides and fertilizers.

There is still a lot of discussion on how to approach the use of sulfites when it comes to the regulations. Even if organic wines have no added sulfites (in the case of the US regulations), it doesn’t mean they are sulfites free. As seen in a previous post, sulfites are a natural byproduct of the fermentation. They have a very important role in preserving the wine due to its antioxidant and antibacterial properties. Without the added sulfites the aging potential of the wine is compromised. This means that natural, organic and biodynamic wines, in general, are not designed to age and have a shorter life cycle.

The market is tough and the industry is still very traditional in great part. Relying on centuries of knowledge built around viticulture feels safer than experimenting with new practices, and putting your source of income at risk.

Little changes might take time to materialize, but they are slowly happening.

After thoughts and trends

The public has been creating a growing pressure to have chemicals abandoned from food production. It has been a significant driving force for more eco-friendly practices, natural and chemical-free products.

The push is not only coming from consumers but also from people that are being directly impacted by the use of chemicals.

Bordeaux is a large producing region known to use pesticides in the vineyards for a long time. After reported cases of sick workers and growing popular pressure, they started to set an example in the industry. Saint Emilion is mandating with the 2019 vintage, that every bottle produced in the area will have been made from grapes grown with sustainable farming methods, such as organic or biodynamic viticulture. The mandate is being enforced by the local wine council for four Bordeaux appellations. Any wine not farmed sustainably may only be bottled as generic Bordeaux.

Wine producing regions have created a micro ecosystem over the years with the traditional viticulture.

Questions have been raised among farmers and professionals in agriculture on whether the change on methods and treatments would help new diseases to appear.

Great part of the wine producing regions today don’t have vines that are native from their ecosystems. Agricultural techniques and synthetic products, to some extent, had their role in the beginning to have the vines thriving. Since then, technology and understanding of the environment has increased massively and we are in a better position now to look at how to produce great wine, sustainably.

May 8, 2018August 28, 2024

How long should wine age after bottling?

How long should I wait to open my bottle of wine?

Why should I let the wine age? If at all.

Wine is a living thing and is trying hard to become vinegar, as discussed in a previous post.

A bit of art and technique come into play to slowdown the time for wines said to have aging or development potential. Magic happens if we open the wine at the right point of its lifetime curve.

When it comes to the line “the older the wine the better”, it is not always true. Especially if there are taste preferences involved. Not all wines are worth aging. In reality, most of the wines produced today reach the shelves ready to be drank.

Besides the production costs and retail margins, there are subjective elements that might contribute to the price you see in a wine bottle. One of these overheads is attributed to the aging potential. What does that mean?

Aging is described by a slow and sustained oxidation of the wine. During this process, the wine goes through some changes that impact its flavors, texture and color.

If a wine is designed to age or has aging potential, opening that wine ahead of time might not be “too bad”. However, you might be throwing away the share of the price you paid for its aging potential, and you might not benefit from some features of the wine you actually paid for.

How does aging impacts the wine?

Wines with good structure are prone to have good aging potential. In other words, the elements that form the wine structure evolve in harmony overtime, improving the overall balance of the wine.

Two elements change the most with aging: tannins and acidity. Acidity tends to decrease over time, bringing down also the descriptors that correlate with the freshness of the wine. Tannins tend to combine into larger chains (polymerization), resulting in a rounder and softer presence of the wine on the palate.

Red wines tend to become lighter in color. White wines tend to become darker, instead.

As consequence to the changes in the wine structure, the taste and aromas also change their profile.

Flavors (the joint perception of taste + aroma) are classified in three layers. Those are based on the origin of the aromatic compounds produced along the grape-to-wine journey:

PRIMARY (OR VARIETAL) FLAVORS, derive directly from the grape variety. The anthocyanin from the grape skins are transferred to the juice during maceration. Primary aromas as strongly influenced by climate, soil and degree of ripeness of the grapes. Example: asparagus, cherry, herbal aspects, green pepper, violets, lime, orange blossom.

SECONDARY FLAVORS develop during various stages of the alcoholic fermentation process. Those are influenced by the winemaking process and temperatures sustained during each stage. Example: pineapple, banana, butter, honeycomb, almonds, mango, brioche, freshly baked bread, black pepper.

TERTIARY FLAVORS develop during the slow and steady oxidation of the wine along the aging process. Example: cocoa powder, cigar box, leather, tobacco, vanilla, caramel, truffle, musk, coffee.

As a result of aging, the bright, fresh, crisp and vegetal aromas give way to ripe, dried or stewed fruit. Spices also become more evident and include descriptors such as leather, cigar, musk, truffles and chocolate.

So, technically, if you’d like to savor tertiary flavors in your wine (assuming it has the ability to develop them) you will need to wait for time to work its magic.

When to open that bottle?

We say that a wine is at its peak when it reaches the point of its best expression, during its life cycle.

It doesn’t mean that a wine is not ready to drink before its peak. Great wines are already great before reaching the best version of themselves.

As a reference on how each wine has its own developing period, I am sharing below an oversimplified view on aging potential. The reference was taken over better quality wines from the indicated regions or made from the indicated grape varieties. It is important to remember that this depends a lot on the vintage, winemaker, storage conditions, and many other factors. Those were taken from Jancis Robinson “The Oxford Companion to Wine”.

Current Trends

With the improvement of production methods and ever-changing consumer preferences, producers are shifting the profile of their wines to adapt to those swings. More traditional producing regions such as France and Italy have been tweaking their production, creating wines that don’t require too much cellar time before they are drinkable.

In Bordeaux, as an example, Saint Estèphe has been incorporating more Merlot into its grand vins to make them more approachable. This is a change in their style as Saint Estèphe wines are known to be quite austere in their youth.

In Italy, Barolo is one of the most classic examples of a wine built to age. It requires at least 3 years of aging process (or 5 if reserve) before it reaches the market. Meaning that if you look at your preferred wine store now, the youngest vintage of Barolo you will find is from the vintage of 4 years ago. Besides, it has a developing potential of a couple of decades.

The “Barolo Boys”

There is the famous story about the “Barolo boys”, who created a revolution in the 80’s in Piemonte. Elio Altare and a few of his friends stepped a bit over the feet of tradition when chasing their dreams. Their goal was to improve the quality of Barolo wines while reducing the aging needed to have it drinkable. Spoiler: they introduced the concept of production for quality over quantity, by reducing the yield. But the big step came with them introducing the use of barrique (225 liters) in the process of making Barolo. Not only improving its complexity but also speeding up aging, by increasing the contact surface of the wine with the wood for aeration. Until then it has been used “botti” (400 liters and above).

The innovation movement sparked a revolution putting on debate how much culture and tradition should give space to innovation (at least when it comes to wine).

Aging as part of the experience

There is still a lot of marketing and speculation when it comes to aging potential of wines. The point on the higher price sometimes is, are you ok on paying more for an old wine or you’d rather pay less for a younger version and keep it in the cellar until the right time comes? If it’s all about the flavors and curiosity, investing in an old bottle and drinking it now could be an interesting option (especially if building a wine collection in the cellar is not your goal).

Having said that, it’s not always true that old wine taste better than young ones. They sometimes are just different. Age contributes to changes in the wine that you need to wait and see the results.

Wine appreciation is also about context and environment. The waiting and expectations raised on the process add story and romance to the bottle, besides the tertiary flavors.

Sometimes, the older the vintage the heavier the weight of memories attached to it. And that’s when aging finds a way to add a perception of value that is personal to each one.

Aging becomes part of the value when you bring home a crate of Riesling from your memorable trip to Alsace. You will be reviving the trip every time you open one of those bottles, through the years. Or the crates you bought on your wedding and that you keep on opening at each anniversary. Celebrating, remembering and enjoying how that vintage is evolving over time… together with your relationship.

The evolution inside the bottle and the savoring of the memories attached to it will have a taste that only the patient touch of time can build.

April 8, 2018August 28, 2024

Wine headache – still blaming the sulfites?

“Wines from France don’t give as much headache as the ones from the US”. That’s how a conversation between a couple of friends started last week during visit to a wine store I enjoy visiting. The argument was based on the belief that old world wines don’t have as much added sulfites as new world ones.

I thought about sharing some thoughts on that, but focusing on the reason being of that discussion: are the sulfites to blame for the wine headache?

You might have heard from the wine passionate crew that wine is a living thing and ever evolving. I won’t disagree. That is true for me both on the philosophical and on the physico-chemical side of it.

What are sulfites and why they are added to wine?

Sulfites, also known as Sulphur dioxide (or SO2), are used in the wine making process for its antioxidant and antibacterial properties. It’s an important component to improve the lifetime of the wine.

Wine is trying hard to become vinegar while resting inside the bottle. It is always evolving in that direction and we have been creating and improving processes over time to slow down this cycle. Holding longer the stage that we all enjoy between grape juice and salad seasoning.

Every time we open a bottle of wine the taste will be unique to that particular moment in its life cycle. Catching and savoring the wine at the right point of its evolution curve is where the magic happens.

Over time we have discovered several tweaks on production and storage to help preserving the wine. The dark color of the bottle to protect it from light. The seal of the bottle with a cork, to allow just enough oxygen inside to sustain the aging. Special care during the storage with the humidity of the environment, horizontal position of the bottle, swings of temperature, adequate levels of acidity to allow aging and… sulfites.

Are organic wines free of sulfites?

Sulfites naturally occur in wine at less than 10ppm (parts per million), generated by the yeast during the fermentation process. It’s a choice of the winemaker to further add sulfites, mainly aiming to avoid spoilage. In the EU the maximum levels of sulfites that a wine can contain are 160 ppm for red wine, 210 ppm for white wine and 400 ppm for sweet wines. Quite similar levels apply in the US, Australia and around the world. In reality the actual levels are much lower, with many dry red wines having around 100 ppm.

There are very few winemakers who produce wines without adding sulfites. In the US, to use the term “organic wine”, it means that no additional sulfites were added. These are unusual because the wine is very perishable and often have uncommon aromas from the chemical compounds that are normally neutralized by the sulfites. In Europe organic wines are called “bio” but sulfites are allowed in production, but not in those exported to the US. The term “natural” winemaking is used in Europe for no-sulfite-added wines.

The addition of sulfites to wine is not a recent practice from the industry. In fact, the first use of sulfur compounds in wine seems to date back to the Greeks, over a 1000 years ago. They noticed that the wine contained in the amphorae that treated with resin and fire, to seal eventual cracks, lasted longer than the ones from non-treated amphorae. What happened was that the pitch on the inner walls of the amphorae resulting from the fire, were dissolving sulfites into the wine.

In the United States, wines bottled after mid-1987 must have a label stating that they contain sulfites if they contain more than 10ppm. In the European Union an equivalent regulation came in November 2005. Bottles of wine that contain over 10 mg/l sulfites are required to bear “contains sulfites” on the label. This does not differ whether sulfites are naturally occurring or added in the winemaking process.

Do sulfites cause headache?

The consumption of sulfites related to wine consumption is harmless. However, if you constantly get headaches after small doses of wine you might belong to the 1% of the population that presents intolerance to this chemical compound. The allergy to sulfites is found in really few cases of people that have an asthmatic record. If you would like to make a test, you can go to the closest supermarket and get a package of your preferred version of dried fruit (preferably raisins or apricots, which hold higher levels). They have about 10 times more sulfites than wine. Sulfites are also find in high concentrations in canned foods, potato chips, pickled vegetables, frozen juices and sodas. So, if you don’t get headaches from eating dried fruits most likely are not the sulfites that give you headache when you drink wine.

Red wines have generally less sulfites than white wines, and that is mainly due to the presence of tannins. This naturally occurring compound from the skin of the grapes has antibacterial and antioxidant properties. White wines don’t have tannins, hence cannot count on the natural help from the grape skin to improve its life time. This asks for an extra dose of sulfites during the production to make it up for it, respective to the red wines.

So, where does the dreaded wine hangover come from?

The research done so far tells us, nevertheless, that sulfites are probably not the reason of your wine headaches. The list of possibilities can get quite long and would include, of course, alcohol. This last one can induce dehydration which, among others, can increase the possibility of a headache.

Cheap and low-quality wine can be as well more prone to give you an unpleasant morning after. As seen in a previous post, if the wine price doesn’t reach the minimum threshold to insure an ok quality of grapes and a fair production process, there is a chance that more invasive methods were used. In order to correct the quality of a cheap and low-end wine the producer can add citric acid, concentrated grape juice, sugar and chemical preservatives beyond sulphur compounds. Besides, high quality wines contain less sulfites compared to low quality ones. This is simply because the latter, having a greater risk of unwanted fermentation, needs a higher level of added sulfites.

Ultimately, we are all looking for a wine that offers a long-lasting impression for the right reasons, and not because of a splitting headache. Moderation on the alcohol and better choices on the precedence of the wine are good bets for a happy morning after.