It seems that with most things in life, bigger is considered better . . .
In the wine industry, though, conventional wisdom is that ‘smaller is better’ . . . smaller yields, smaller tanks, smaller presses, smaller case volumes, etc. ‘Smaller’ wineries produce better wine then ‘bigger’ wineries, right?
Well, just as with all things wine related, there really is no ‘absolute’ answer here. I’ve had many conversations over the past 5 years with consumers about this very topic, and the vast majority of the time, the ‘conventional wisdom’ seems to hold true for them.
Why am I bringing this up? As you know, my ‘day job’ is Assistant Winemaker for Fess Parker Winery, a moderately sized winery that produces over 100,000 cases per year (though of this, only about 2/3 is ‘estate produced’). The winery is considered ‘large’ in relation to other wineries in Santa Barbara County.
When I give tours at either of our facilities, I’m always careful to watch the reactions of those entering our production area. They are drawn to the size of our largest tanks, to the size of some of our presses (we use both bladder presses and a basket press), and to the stacks of barrels we maintain. There is a natural tendency to compare what they see at our facility with what they’ve just seen at much smaller wineries in our area – with much smaller production areas . . .
What I stress to all who visit, though, is that at a larger winery such as ours, we have LOTS of different tanks to use – from the small 1.5 ton fermenting boxes that are the choice of many many smaller ‘hands on’ wineries to much larger tanks that do a very fine job, thank you very much!
We ferment all of our lots separately, oftentimes splitting the lot into multiple tanks – some very small ones where we’ll do hand punch downs, medium size ones where we’ll do pneumatic punch downs, and larger ones, where we’ll pump over the tanks. We’ll keep each of the resulting wines separately – we’ll create separate barrel plans for each and age them as separate entities.
Throughout their lives, we’ll go through and ‘rate’ each lot, and, guess what – sometimes, our favorite lots are those that some from some of the largest tanks! We do not presuppose that ‘smaller is better’ and ‘bigger is not’, because it is a generalization which simply is not true.
So just because you visit a winery and it is ‘large’, don’t presuppose the wines will be ‘pedestrian’ – you will most likely enjoy yourself – and the wines – a whole lot more!
Cheers!
Sep
28
Brix is a measure of sugar levels in grapes in the wine industry. It roughly translates as follows: a grape sample showing a reading of 20 brix means that that sample has approximately 200 grams of sugar per liter of solution . . .or almost 2 lbs. of sugar per gallon! Yikes! It also means that should you ferment this wine to dryness without any ‘manipulation’, the subsequent wine would have an alcohol level of between 11 and 12 percent.
Many in the wine industry use this as the main determining factor for when to pick grapes. It used to be ‘back in the day’ that many grapes were picked at 22-23 brix so that the finished wine would be in the 12.5 -13.5 alcohol range . . .and there are some that still feel this is the ‘ideal’ area to pick in.
This measurement, as I’ve spoken about before, is simply one of many factors to help determine when to pick. More importantly, this measurement is heavily influenced by weather patterns, watering patterns in the vineyard, crop loads, and a few other variables.
There are some varieties that simply do not ‘come into their own’ until their sugar levels rise to much higher levels. Grenache, my favorite variety, is a prime example. Here are a few reasons for this:
* Grenache clusters are relatively large compared with other varieties, and in order to get complete ripening of the entire cluster, it is necessary to hang them out longer
* Grenache skins are very thick and tannin-filled; if picked too early, the resultant juice and wine will end up being less than stellar – thinner in body, full of tannin, and lacking the beautiful fruit character that draws me to these grapes
* The grapes simply do not produce ‘a harmonic balance’ in the subsequent juice until they are much riper than other varieties – this comes from tasting and tasting and tasting – you just KNOW when it’s time to pick them . . .and it tends to be at higher brix.
What does this all mean? I’m not really sure I know . . . I just felt like sharing this information this morning!
Cheers!!!
Sep
21
Now that I have your attention, I wanted to tell you a bit about one of my favorite hours spent at UC Davis in my Viticulture and Enology study days . . .
Tim Hanni is a real heretic in the wine industry – pure and simple. He championed the concept of ‘progressive wine lists’ before most people could comprehend what they were . . . He championed ‘umami’ as an integral 5th taste to go along with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty, understanding how it affected wine and food pairing ‘harmony’ . . .He is an avowed ‘anti-wine snob’ . . . AND Mr. Hanni was one of the first two Americans to ever achieve the level of Master of Wine.
I invited Mr. Hanni to come speak to our class about food and wine pairing and he gladly accepted. During his captivating talk, one brief topic popped up and has stayed with me until this day . . .
‘All of you soon-to-be ‘high end’ winemakers – do me a favor . . . When you graduate from this illustrious institution and you’re working for your ‘exclusive’ winery, go out to a very nice steakhouse, call the sommelier over, and ask for their best bottle of White Zinfandel’ . . .
‘Why are so many of you laughing? Because I said ‘White Zinfandel’? Because I suggested asking for this at a steakhouse?!?!?!?!
You may laugh, but I need all of you in this room to understand that one of the three top selling varieties (and true even now) is White Zinfandel. Beringer and the like are ‘laughing’ all the way to the bank , , ,
And White Zinfandel with steak? Are you crazy? Why NOT?!?!? Who made up the rule that you had to have red wine with steak and NOT white wine (or blush)? Is this truly a ‘rule’?
Talk about ‘eye opening’ . . . I loved it! Here was a guy working in Napa and consulting with some spectacular restaurants around the world giving us some great advice . . . .and you would not believe how many of my classmates came up to me after his talk and laughed and shook their head at his ‘white zinfandel’ comment. To a one, they said that they would never be so crazy as to order that type of wine in a steakhouse . . . .
HELLOOO! I think someone (or, in this case, MANY folks) missed the point here . . .who are WE to tell someone what they should and should not LIKE!?!?!? You are not WRONG for liking this type of wine, and if a white zin is what you want with a steak, more power to you!
Just a little food for thought today . . .
Your thoughts are welcome (-:
Cheers!
Sep
16
There has not been a lot of ‘scientific research’ about matching certain wines with certain foods. Most of the ’common knowledge’ about the subject has been disseminated by wineries themselves, with specific suggestions of which food to pair with their specific wines.
In addition, there are the ’conventional wisdoms’ that tell us that one should serve only red wine with meat and white wine with fish. And most people seem to take this advice without doing a little ’trial and error’ for themselves . . .
While attending UC Davis, I organized a seminar series on food and wine pairings, since this was a subject that was not covered in the Viticulture and Enology Program (and I simply wanted to learn more about it for my own knowledge!).
One of my favorite classes had the Master of Wine and Executive Chef from the Robert Mondavi Winery visit our class to share their knowledge. They generously agreed to supply food and wine and lead us in an informative comparison of some of these conventional wisdoms.
They grilled steaks on a barbeque we supplied, adding no spice to the meat whatsoever. They steamed white fish, again with no spices. And they steamed asparagus as well – with this vegetable being known as a very difficult one to match with ANY wines.
As we sat down, we were poured two wines – a Fume Blanc and a Cabernet Sauvignon – and were lead through the tasting by the MW. We were instructed to first try the white fish and then the white wine. Not very good at all. We then tried the red wine with the fish – not much different of a reaction from the white.
We then added two magical ingredients to the fish – sea salt and fresh lemon juice – and VOILA . . . Both wines went beautifully with the white fish. The added acid seemed to make the pairing work a lot better.
We went through the same routine with the unseasoned steak and the asparagus spears – and in both cases, the results were the same. Neither worked well with either wine until the food was spiced accordingly.
The moral here? Sometimes it has NOTHING to do with the wine itself – it’s a matter of how the FOOD is prepared in order to make the two match better!
Just thought I’d share . . .and I’m hoping you’ll share your thoughts no this as well!
Cheers!
Aug
28
I ‘love’ these two words – Conventional Wisdom – especially when used together to talk about the wine industry! There are MANY conventional wisdoms that folks hold as ‘truths’ or ‘near truths’ just because . . . For instance:
Conventional Wisdom would say that an unfiltered wine is better than a filtered wine. The filtering process ‘strips’ the wine and makes it ‘less’ than it would have been . . .
Well, this is NOT necessarily the case anymore. Old school plate and frame filters – comprised of a number of ‘plates’ filled with diatomaceous earth – did have a tendency to ‘beat the wines up’ fairly well and did SEEM to strip the wine of some of its characteristics. I say ‘seem’ because I myself was never involved in any ‘apples to apples’ trials looking at the same wine under both conditions . . .
Newer filtration methods, especially cross-flow filters, have changed this game altogether. With these types of filters, the wine does not go ‘through’ a media (diatomaceous earth), but instead is moved at relatively high speeds in two different directions. The ‘pressure’ built up forces very minute particles to go through tiny pours in ceramic membranes, thus ‘sterile filtering’ the wines. I have done numerous ‘apples vs. apples’ tastings, and in most cases, you can not tell the two wines apart. In addition, in preference tests, the filtered versions are oftentimes preferred to the non-filtered ones . . .
The other caveat is when you bottle a wine unfiltered, you leave open the risk for microbial activity to continue in the wine anytime during its life – ESPECIALLY if it is ever exposed to higher temperatures. So let’s say you purchase a wine from an East Coast store and you’re on the West Coast . . . and that wine is shipped via UPS ground . . . And it sits in the back of a UPS truck for a good couple of hours . . . . and it’s hot outside. Guess what – the wine you consume very likely will NOT be the wine the winemaker INTENDED you to drink . . .
Just something to think about the next time one of your wine friends says ‘This wine is ‘unfiltered’ so it’s really good!’ . . .
Looking forward to hearing your comments on this as well . . .
Cheers!
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Larry | 
02 1st, 2010| 
