Posts Tagged ‘fermentation’

Both! Champagne was an accident. A happy one, to be sure.

Originally the name was only associated with the region from which the wine now comes from. Dom Perignon was actually not the inventor of Champagne as is so often thought. Ironically enough, he was tasked to try and prevent the bubbles from forming in the wine. Grapes were harvested early and because of the timing, when fermentation began again after the cold weather put it to a halt, the result was carbonation – the bubbly.

When Perignon couldn’t stop the bubbles from occurring, instead he turned to blending. He helped craft stronger bottles, helped wines reach a better clarity in their color, and implemented the use of Spanish cork instead of wood.

In the end, he didn’t create Champagne, but many of his new ideas on how to handle wine are still in use today, so why not give an innovative man the credit he deserves? Champagne was a bit of an unexpected trick due to the grapes, but it turned out to be quite a treat. Drink up!

Wine flavors can appear in many different forms, from buttery to berry, you never know what you might get. Usually certain wines tend to have similar tones – most people associate Chardonnay with butter – and they each get these tones from various locations throughout the process. From the vine to the bottle, you never know what might sneak in.

Berry flavors come to life during the fermentation process due to chemical compounds that change throughout the process. Grapes grown in cooler climates tend to have tighter berry flavor, such as cranberry or currant. If the grapes are grown in a warmer environment, they may exhibit flavors more closely related to strawberry and blackberry.

White wines can occasionally share some of the same flavors even if they are from differing grape varieties. Some of the more common ones you may experience are citrus, pear, peach, melon, apricot, mango, pineapple, kiwi, banana, and even warm florals.

The same can be said for red wines. Most of the time you’ll experience darker berry flavors such as cherries, cranberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and even others such as plums, raisins, and figs.

Wine is made from grapes – so why does a glass of wine taste like flavors ranging from cherries to butter and back again? Why don’t wines just taste like grapes?

The majority of these answers come straight from the fermentation process and some of the ingredients that vineyards add to their wines during their creation. No, they’re not throwing in apples or butter to the barrels. Instead, when the yeast eats the grape sugar, a wide range of complex chemical compounds are also being created. The things we are familiar with, scents like berry and so forth, have similar molecular arrangements. And you thought chemistry was boring!

So buttery goodness in a wine comes from the compound diacetyl (also found in artificial butters). Apple flavors come from the malic acid that is made during fermentation. Often this acid is then softened into lactic acid, giving the wine a creamier feel but with those apple tones.

Vanilla actually comes from the oak barrels that the wine is stored in. Vanilla isn’t the only flavor that can appear either. How about mocha, tea, caramel, clove, cinnamon, toffee, and more?

Port wine is one of Portugal’s most well-known types of wine. Many wines are made in a similar way, but Port takes a different path to the bottle. While most wines have a typical fermentation process, the grapes used for Port wine are actually stopped in the middle of their fermentation process. “Brandy” is added in order to kill off the yeast and has about 77% alcohol content. This allows the wine to retain many of the natural sugars in the grapes and still have relatively high alcohol content. This process is called fortification.

Despite the fact that Port is mostly produced in Portugal, the concept came about due to shipping to England many years ago. Typically on such a long journey, the wine would spoil. However, once brandy was added, the wine remained stable, as well as provide drinkers with a unique flavor. Over time, new grapes and ideas were included into the making of Port, and many wineries now have their own brands of well-known Port, such as Graham’s.

If you plan on making your own wine, you don’t need a massive vineyard to do so (unless someday you plan to market your wine!).  Winemaking will take a little time and energy, but if you’re willing to do it right, it can be well worth the effort.

Whittling down winemaking to the nitty-gritty leaves five main steps that must be taken in order to gain anything resembling a bottle.

1. The base ingredients (namely the grapes) must be crushed, chopped, boiled, pressed, or soaked in order to extract the correct flavor and aroma.

2. Place all ingredients into a fermentation vessel (grapes, sugar, acid, yeast, nutrients) and allow it to ferment at the proper temperature (usually 70-75º F) for 3-10 days.

3. Strain liquid from pulp and put it into a second vessel for further fermentation at a lower temperature.  This can take several weeks as it is not finished until the bubbling stops.

4. The wine must be siphoned away from the sediment, put into a third fermentation vessel, and left for another few months.

5. Once all fermentation has ceased, wine can be siphoned into bottles. Cork them and let them rest in a cool area for anywhere from six months to a year.  Then sample them to see if they suit your expectations.  If not, allow them to age longer.

Sulphite naturally occurs in wine during the fermentation process.  Every wine will contain at least some amount of sulphite.  Sulphites are compounds that are made up of sulfur and oxygen.  As grape juice slowly turns into alcohol, sulphites are often a by-product.  There are other times when winemakers will actively add sulfur dioxide into grapes that have been freshly pressed in order to help preserve it.  This is because there are times when bacteria and other natural elements are with the grapes as they are pressed and can potentially compromise the freshness of the wine.

Overall, sulphites in the bottle won’t do you any harm.  They are simply involved so that wine remains as fresh as possible.  Today, the winemaking process is more advanced than it used to be, so even less is needed.  The United States does have regulations that require wines to have warning labels if sulphites are in excess of ten parts per million.

Slowly building up your wine-related vocabulary?  It’s a great idea, especially if you aspire to be a well-versed wine taster.  Being able to confidently converse with other people who thoroughly enjoy wine can help you to feel at ease and have a great time.

Buttery – This one may seem self-explanatory, but why would one describe a wine as “buttery” in the first place?  If a wine smells buttery, it is because of the presence of lactic acid.  The acid forms during malolactic fermentation and is most common in Chardonnay.

Clos – Simply a vineyard that is enclosed by a wall.

Fining – This is the process of clarifying wine.  The suspended solids are removed from the liquid before it is bottled.  Fining agents can vary from egg whites to bentonite that attract the solids and enable winemakers to remove them.

Malic acid – This acid occurs naturally in wines and is often reduced through malolactic fermentation.

Vintage – A word you will often hear.  It refers to the grape harvest.  If you see a vintage year on the label of a bottle, then you are drinking a wine made only with grapes harvested during that year.