The Winemaker's Answer Book; Solutions to Every Problem; Answers to Every Question

THE WINE MAKER’S ANSWER BOOK THE WINE MAKER’S ANSWER BOOK Solutions to Every Problem Answers to Every Question Alison Crowe Columnist for Wine Maker. The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by publishing practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with the environment. Edited by Lisa H. Hiley and Margaret Sutherland Technical editing by Daniel Pambianchi Art direction and text design by Vicky Vaughn Cover design by Kent Lew Text production by Jennifer Jepson Smith Illustrations by Alison Kolesar Indexed by Susan Olason, Indexes & Knowledge Maps © 2007 by WineMaker magazine All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other — without written permission from the publisher. The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. For additional information please contact Storey Publishing, 210 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247. Storey books are available for special premium and promotional uses and for customized editions. For further information, please call 1-800-793-9396. Printed in China by Regent Publishing Services 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crowe, Alison. The Winemaker’s answer book / by Alison Crowe.      p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-58017-656-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Wine and wine making. I. WineMaker. II. Title. TP548.C695 2007 641.2’2—dc22 2006102591 DEDICATION For my grandmothers, Mary Hartley Crowe and Bernice Blythe Michel Ranch managers, world travelers, master gardeners, expert chefs, and California pioneers, they taught me a woman’s place is doing whatever she sets her mind to. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I greatly enjoy lending my winemaking knowledge and experience to the readers of WineMaker magazine, but at the end of the day (sometimes at 2:00 A.M. with grapes in my hair), I live and work as a professional winemaker. I owe heartfelt thanks to many who have contributed to my career. I am grateful for the friendship of Dr. Andy Waterhouse, Dr. Jim Lapsley, Dr. Roger Boulton, Dr. Ralph Kunkee, and Dr. Jim Wolpert at the UC-Davis Department of Viticulture & Enology. I also have had the fortune to log long and hard hours with some of the world’s most talented winemakers, including Michael Michaud, Eric Laumann, Don Blackburn, Randall Grahm, Laureano Gomez, and Michel Rolland. Their life lessons, from Mozart’s sonatas to Argentine BBQ, go well beyond wine. I also want to thank my winemaking colleagues and neighbors Jef Stebben, SaDawna McCart-Stebben, Carol Wilson, Sunshine Gladish-Cowgill, Bruce Devlin, Danielle Cyrot, Haydn Wilson, and Nicole Haller-Wilson. Winemakers and wine appreciators, they remind me to stop and smell not just the Cabernet Sauvignon but the roses as well. Elizabeth Hoff, Hope Thrane, Jim Baird, Susan Andersen, and Maureen Foley, as well as editors past and present at the Davis Enterprise, Vineyard & Winery Management, and Wine Business Monthly have all helped me tremendously. Brad Ring of Wine-Maker and Lisa Hiley of Storey Publishing, along with their staffs, have been the real “superheroes” of this book. Lastly and most importantly, I thank my husband, photographer Chris Purdy, and the Crowe and Purdy families for their love and support. CONTENTS Foreword Introduction Chapter 1     The Basics of the Winemaking Process Chapter 2     Choosing and Using Winemaking Equipment Chapter 3     From Vine to Vat: Wine from Fresh Grapes Chapter 4     Wine Chemistry 101: Sulfites, Acid, pH, and More Chapter 5     Choosing and Using the Right Yeast Chapter 6     Fermentation: Bubbles without Troubles Chapter 7     Aging, Oaking, Fining, and Filtering Chapter 8     All About Bottling Chapter 9     Smelly Wine and Other Tough Problems Chapter 10   Evaluating, Serving, and Enjoying Your Wine Chapter 11   Fruits and Roots: Country and Kit Winemaking Chapter 12   Different Sips: From Sparkling to Strong to Strange Glossary Resources Index FOREWORD When will my fermentation stop? Why did my fermentation stop? The one thing I can count on as publisher of WineMaker magazine is that my e-mail in-box will have questions each day from wine-makers asking for help and looking for answers. Making your own wine is an incredibly fun and fulfilling hobby, but it comes with a host of questions. Some questions are obvious ones we all will face in our winemaking pursuits, while others pop up only when something has gone horribly wrong with our latest batch. And, of course, there are questions that are just plain strange, such as one asking about making wine from Sprite soda. All of these questions are important to ask — and answer — because they help build a greater base of knowledge among winemakers, which results in a more successful and more satisfying hobby for each of us. When WineMaker magazine launched in 1998, we realized from the start the value and importance of seeking out reader questions and answering them in each issue. We were lucky to bring Alison Crowe on board as our Wine Wizard right from the premier issue to answer all those questions. Fresh out of the renowned enology program at the University of California-Davis, Alison brought a wealth of wisdom as well as a sense of humor to her answers. Since then, Alison has answered literally hundreds of questions spanning the world of winemaking. Winemakers can’t seem to get enough of Alison’s Q&A; department. Each year we send out our annual reader survey and each year readers tell us their favorite department in the magazine is the Wine Wizard because of the variety of questions and the depth of answers it provides each issue. The “Wine Wizard Question of the Week” section of winemakermag.com is among the most visited areas of our Web site. Simply put, winemakers have lots of questions and love reading Alison’s answers. The funny thing is few people knew Alison was the Wine Wizard. Like the identity of most “superheroes,” we decided it would be fun to keep her “true” identity as the Wine Wizard a secret. So for eight years, Alison shared her wisdom anonymously with readers on top of her daily duties as a professional winemaker in California. Not even her coworkers and friends in the wine industry knew of her secret double life as winemaker by day and wizard by night. Well, now the secret is out and Alison’s best work has been collected here in this book for you. Eight years’ worth of the best questions from small-scale wine-makers are in the following pages. These are real questions from real winemakers like you; learn from their mistakes. Alison’s answers will expand your understanding of wine and winemaking no matter if you are a first-time winemaker or a knowledgeable veteran with many harvests under your belt. So enjoy as the “Master of Must,” the “Sultan of Siphon,” the “Great One of Grapes,” the one and only Wine Wizard answers common — and some not-so-common — winemaking questions. You will definitely learn more about making super wine from this “superhero.” —Brad Ring, Publisher, WineMaker magazine INTRODUCTION Winemaking is equally a science and an art. That is really why I ventured, as a 17-year-old college freshman, into the world of winemaking. I wanted to devote my life to a field that would keep me firmly rooted in the sciences — chemistry, biology, agriculture — and yet allow me to channel my love of the arts. Pursuing a winemaking career, starting with a degree from the University of California-Davis Department of Viticulture & Enology while working summers at wineries around California, seemed like the perfect choice. I already had a few harvests under my belt when an e-mail came through the department asking for contributors to a new magazine called WineMaker. Because appending my personal e-mail address to my inaugural Q&A; column flooded my in-box with questions from knowledge-hungry readers, we decided to go “underground,” routing all questions through the magazine’s office and making the mysterious and anonymous Wine Wizard the star of the show. At nights and on weekends, trying to avoid the busy harvest season by prewriting a column or two, I’ve had fun being the Wine Wizard (amusingly, many readers assumed the Wizard was a gentleman of a certain age), helping everyday people make better wine and dispensing homeopathic doses of winemaking — and wine enjoyment — philosophy along the way. As better material and equipment have become available (largely thanks to the Internet), I’ve gently encouraged readers to evolve as well, to apply the same cutting-edge professional techniques to their few barrels that I was employing in my “day job” as a winemaker in California’s Central Coast, in Argentina, and now in the Napa Valley. General interest in wine has never been higher and winemaking remains one of the fastest-growing pursuits in North America. People are more wine-savvy than ever, especially my loyal readers at WineMaker magazine. Largely distant from the commercial wine world of glossy magazines, luxury resorts, and touristy tasting rooms, it is the small-scale and hobbyist producer that represents to me the true creative, curious soul of winemaking. Throughout my own seasons in the wine business, the Wine Wizard columns have remained a welcome chance to give back and, perhaps, to look back; being a bimonthly “consulting winemaker” to readers in garages, basements, and start-up cellars across the country reconnects me to my own first harvests and the wonder and excitement I felt as I began learning about this complex and beautiful thing we call wine. Though many Wine Wizard readers make wine on a small scale, I always try to answer their questions on a level that is not. It is my hope that this book will serve everyone, from experienced wine-makers troubleshooting fermentations to connoisseurs looking for an in-depth informational edge. Because every batch is different, every harvest is unique, and each wine has its own particular truths, the Wine Wizard always aims to explore both the science and the art of taking a wine from grape to glass and, most importantly, to share that experience with you. —Alison Crowe Napa, California CHAPTER 1 The Basics of the Winemaking Process Q Is it difficult to make wine? A Just as a tasty meal is the result of reading cookbooks, buying the right pots and pans, and trekking to the farmers’ market to obtain the freshest ingredients, so it is with wine. Anyone can learn to cook up a few gourmet dishes with just a little research and planning, and anyone should be able to learn how to make wine. Only the raw ingredients and the utensils are different. Wine also requires an attitude adjustment: We have to have a little bit more patience. While our puttanesca sauce can be ready in an hour, a batch of wine made from fresh grapes can take many months, and sometimes years, to become ready for drinking. Stripped to its essence, here’s how to make wine. Select your starting material with extreme care and get to know it intimately so you’ll know where it can go realistically. Tweak that raw material if need be (and as the law allows, if you’re a professional winemaker) to enable a harmonious end result. Make sure your starting material is only visited by “good” microbes that will do the desired job in a healthy manner. Give a gentle nudge when necessary, and once the microbes have done their work, protect your new store of ephemeral fermented goodness from oxygen, light, and bacterial scavengers that might harm it. Sit back and wonder at what Nature has wrought. Q What changes grape juice to wine? A The simplest answer is yeast. Yeast cells, either ambient in the environment or purposefully introduced by the winemaker, metabolize the grape’s sugar and excrete it as ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. In the process, the grape’s natural color, flavor, and aroma components are changed and enhanced. Add some action from other microorganisms and a few months’ aging, and all of a sudden, simple fermented grape juice starts to become actual, factual fine wine. Do grapes even need humans to make wine? Some historians believe that we “discovered” wine thousands of years ago when someone stumbled upon the enjoyable and intoxicating effects of a basket or skin bag full of fruit that had sat around for a few hot days. To truly change grape juice into fine wine, however, one needs top-notch ingredients, the right equipment, and the patient guidance of a winemaker willing to do everything it takes to make the best wine possible. WINEMAKING TIME LINE A half-ton (1,020 pounds) of red grapes yields 75–80 gallons (284–303 L) of wine, enough for one full barrel (59 gallons/223 L) and a few kegs or carboys. A half-ton of white grapes yields 80–85 gallons (303–341 L). Yields differ depending on your individual grapes — these are just rough guidelines. Some small presses aren’t very powerful, so you will press out less juice (in the case of whites) or finished wine (in the case of reds). Sometimes you will pick very sweet grapes and so may want to add water to bring your Brix into a safe fermentation range, therefore increasing your yield per ton. Making a dry red table wine is similar to making white wine, only the grapes are often picked a bit riper, the skins are allowed to ferment with the juice, and the wine is allowed to age a bit longer before drinking. Once you get to know your grapes and specific varietals better, you will no doubt tailor your practices to meet their individual needs. Here are the basic, universal steps of winemaking. 1. Harvest red grapes at 24–26° Brix (concentration of sugar), or sooner, if they taste ripe and you like the flavors. White grapes should be picked at 22–24° Brix; you can let them hang longer if the flavors are a bit green or too acidic. 2. Red: Destem grapes, mix sulfur dioxide into the crushed grapes, cover loosely, and let sit 1–3 hours. Mix grapes again and take initial readings of Brix, pH, and titratable acidity (TA). White: There is no need to destem white grapes and better-quality juice is often produced if you take the clusters directly to the press. However, if you destem and crush the grapes first, you may experience higher yields. Press grapes gently or until the juice coming from the press is still interesting to you (harder pressing yields higher pH and high-phenolic juice, which you may not want to include) and sprinkle sulfur dioxide into the juice. Take initial readings of Brix, pH, and TA. 3. In an ideal world, your juice or must will not need any adjustment. If you feel the need, however, and for professional winemakers as the law allows, add water if Brix is too high or concentrate or other sugar if it’s too low. Add tartaric acid to bring down the pH and raise the TA if necessary. 4. Inoculate with yeast. 5. Monitor fermentation daily by taking a hydrometer reading at the same time each day. Red: Mix the cap of skins and pulp into the liquid at least twice a day. 6. Red: Once the must has reached dryness, press the liquid from the solids. Let pressed wine settle, covered, for 24 hours. White: Once the juice has reached dryness, rack into a clean, covered container. Let the wine settle for 24–48 hours. 7. Rack your wine off of the heaviest sediment (gross lees) into a sanitized container that will hold your lot in an almost-topped situation. At this point new red wine may not be completely dry, as pressing will sometimes liberate unfermented sugar “hiding” in raisins or dried grape berries. In the first week or two of a wine’s life it may be finishing the fermentation of a last 1 percent or so sugar, so don’t top up containers completely until you’re sure of dryness or you may lose some still-fermenting wine. 8. Fit your containers with sanitized bungs and fermentation locks to exclude air; top them completely when confirmed dry. 9. When dry, inoculate red wine with malolactic bacteria and monitor fermentation. White wines do not need to go through malolactic fermentation (MLF), but can, depending on the style of wine. If MLF is not desired, add SO2 to achieve the desired level of free SO2. 10. When MLF is complete, rack into a clean, topped container and add SO2 to adjust free SO2 as needed. 11. Every month or so (as wine levels warrant it), top up your containers, monitoring free SO2 levels every month or so, if possible. 12. When the wine falls bright, isn’t spritzy, and tastes ready to you (usually nine months minimum for medium-bodied reds or two months for whites), rack the clear wine off any remaining sediment and adjust the free SO2 one last time. 13. Rack clarified wine off into clean, sanitized bottles and seal with a cork. 14. Store bottles in a cool, dark place and begin tasting for development a month after bottling. I suggest tasting reds every two or three months to monitor development and to discover when they are nearing their peak. White wines are generally ready to drink sooner than reds and have a shorter life due to their lower levels of tannins and other antioxidant compounds, so tasting a bottle every month is a good idea. Note: This basic time line doesn’t include any oak aging, clarification, or stability work, such as using bentonite on your white wines or doing an egg white finish on your reds to round out rough tannins and to help settle the wine more completely. Please refer to chapter 7, “Aging, Oaking, Fining, and Finishing,” for more information on these topics. Also see the glossary for definitions of unfamiliar terms. Q What is the difference between must and wine? A There are three distinct physiological stages in a wine’s life: the grape, the juice or must, and the wine. The first, obviously, is the raw material from which wine is made. White wine grapes are typically pressed before fermentation to separate the grape skins and seeds from the juice. The resulting juice is then turned into wine by the yeast. Red grapes are crushed into a mixture of fresh grape juice, seeds, and skins called “must.” Most winemakers don’t consider a juice or must to be “wine” until it is dry (no sugar left to ferment) or until the fermentation is arrested (by means of cooling, filtering, or adding sulfites, sometimes all three) at the point desired by the winemaker. Q What is pomace? A Pomace is the general term for the solid material that is left over after winemaking, juice production, or cider pressing (pomme means “apple” in French). The composition of pomace depends largely on what kind of wine is being made and at what stage of processing the liquid has been pressed out. With white wine, the juice is pressed out of the grapes before fermentation. The resultant pomace is rich in sugar, nitrogen, amino acids, and other goodies that didn’t make it into the fermentation tank. Red pomace, which is pressed off after fermentation, is depleted of sugar and nutrients and has given many of its tannins and colored compounds to the wine. Pomace, even when fermented, contains a staggering variety of chemical components. The skins mainly consist of cellulose, tartaric acid, trace amounts of other organic acids, unfermentable sugars, tannins, anthocyanins (plant pigments), and some aromatic phenolic substances. The seeds, which remain largely intact during pressing and fermentation, are gold mines of bitter and astringent tannins, as are the stems. The seeds also contain large amounts of nutritious oil that is gaining popularity with chefs due to its high smoke point. If the pomace is pressed from a fermented wine, it will contain water and alcohol. White or red, pomace varies in moisture content depending on how hard it has been pressed. White pomace, often pressed gently to avoid extracting bitter compounds into a delicate white wine, can end up juicy and sticky with sugar. Red pomace often forms amorphous clumps and can be quite dry to the touch. Anything added during the juice or winemaking process — like enzymes, tannin powder, or yeast — will be present in the pressed pomace. (See page 79 for more on pomace and page 80 for second-run wines.) Q What are the lees? A Lees are the solids that are left in the wine after the primary or secondary fermentation is finished, but the term also refers to any sediment that remains in the wine after it is pressed. It is advisable to rack the wine off of these heavy, immediately post-press solids, often called “gross lees,” because they can contribute to off flavors or lend a reductive, closed-in character and, in the worst case, hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell) if the wine is left too long in contact with them. Taking some of the “fine lees” along into the next container is fine at this stage. This is the sediment that will flow easily down a siphon tube. Some winemakers believe this fine sediment contributes a fatness and richness to the mouthfeel of a wine as it ages. (See page 148 for aging wine sur lies, or “on the lees.”) Q What is racking? A Racking means transferring juice or wine from one container to another, using a siphon line or pump and hose. It is done at many stages of the winemaking process, with the goal of separating liquid, be it raw juice, recently pressed wine, or almost-finished wine, from a layer of solids. Racking can be a delicate operation and it’s important to go slowly. You don’t want to stir up the sediment, but you don’t want to lose your siphon suction. Racking from bucket to carboy How often you rack a wine before bottling depends on the wine. White wines are racked several times: after the juice is pressed and has settled for 24 hours; after primary fermentation; after fining, if that occurs; and an additional time right before bottling. A minimum racking schedule for reds is after the wine is pressed off; after malolactic fermentation, if carried out; after settling out any finings; and sometimes once more before bottling. White and red wines can also be “splash racked,” that is, racked from one container to another using various techniques to incorporate air into the wine as it pours into the receiving vessel. This is done to incorporate oxygen into the early stages of fermentation (necessary for the healthy development of yeast cells) or to help “blow off” unpleasant aromas that may develop in wine during bulk aging. Normally, however, racking is performed with the goal of not oxygenating the wine needlessly, especially during the latter part of a wine’s life when it has lost a good part of its carbon dioxide and therefore its natural protection against air. Q Can wine be made out of anything? A The bottom line is that yes, technically you can “ferment” just about anything organic. When you’re looking for a certain end product, however, and you want it to be drinkable to boot, it’s important to select the right microbe for the job, give it the proper starting conditions, and carefully control the fermentation to help your microbe deliver the results you seek. There’s a reason the best wines in the world are made from grapes, by the way. The grape is the one naturally occurring fruit that most often has the right combinations of sugars, acids, and yeast nutrients to naturally make a stable, tasty, and healthy beverage. Other fermented beverages include beer and sake, but cheese, olives, and even some sausages and deli meats are considered fermented, though in a nonalcoholic sense. Cheese results when bacteria turn the lactose in milk into lactic acid, separating the liquid milk into solid curds. The famous dry-cured Felino salami of Parma, Italy, owes its tang to various strains of indigenous molds and bacteria. In winemaking, when we talk about the “secondary fermentation” or “malolactic fermentation,” we really mean the common metabolic process through which certain bacteria eat the naturally present malic acid in wine and spit it out as lactic acid. Even though it’s not yeast turning sugar into alcohol, it’s still called a fermentation. This is the academic definition of fermentation, which sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of everyday “winespeak.” A general microbiologist will tell you that fermentation is “a metabolic breakdown of a nutrient molecule brokered by microbes through an enzyme-controlled pathway,” or words to that effect. In plain English, fermentation occurs when bacteria or yeast eat something, take energy from it, and excrete something else out the other end. A dear professor of mine at UC-Davis, eminent microbiologist Dr. Ralph Kunkee, used to tease the undergrads by pointing at his podium and saying, “You can technically ferment anything, even this desk here, providing you could find the right microbe to do it.” His point was that, according to the technical definition of fermentation, there are “edible” plant carbohydrates out there (even wood) that under the right conditions, will “ferment,” or become microbially digested, at least to some extent. Fortunately for us oenophiles, the conversion of sugar to alcohol, as in winemaking, is a fermentation that tends to have pretty pleasant results. If you present the right microbe (say your typical Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine yeast) with the right set of conditions (say a freshly pressed barrel of 23 percent sugar Chardonnay grape juice), you’ll end up with an aqueous solution of acid, aromatic compounds, and roughly 12 percent alcohol — in other words, wine. Q Is red wine made the same way as white? A Many steps are similar, but there are some major differences. Red wines are fermented with the skins and pulp; the solids are pressed after fermentation is complete. This is done to extract color, aroma, and flavor from the skins. Red wines are typically picked at a higher Brix (concentration of sugar) than white wines and are made with a higher pH (lower acidity). They are also fermented at warmer temperatures (70–90°F, or 21–32°C) and are almost always subjected to more new oak, whether in the form of barrels or oak adjuncts like oak beans or staves. White wines are often made in a crisper and more refreshing style; to achieve this, the grapes are picked at a lower Brix and so naturally have a higher level of acid than most reds. White wines are always pressed before fermentation, so only the grape juice winds up in the fermenter. It is rare for a white wine to be exposed to much new oak and, more because of style trends than anything else, fewer and fewer white wines are allowed to go through malolactic fermentation. Whites tend to be fermented in neutral containers like stainless-steel vats or well-used oak barrels. Though late-harvest whites like the famous Château d’Yquem are rare exceptions, most whites are bottled sooner (sometimes within three months of harvest), released to the marketplace sooner, and are not aged as long as reds. (See pages 65 and 66 for more on crushing and pressing options.) FIVE GOLDEN RULES OF WINEMAKING 1. Your wine is as good as your starting material. This is Rule Number One. It’s possible to make mediocre wine out of great fruit, but you can’t make great wine out of mediocre fruit. An ancillary rule is that you must understand and accept your starting material, both its potential and its limitations. You can ferment with the latest yeast, stir the lees, and use an expensive French oak barrel, but an insipid wine can’t grow beyond its roots, even with all the expensive and time-consuming treatments in the world. 2. Acid is the backbone of a wine. I learned this at Chalone Vineyard near Monterey, California. Even with blasting 100-degree days, the limestone soils and the chilly nights kept the acid levels in the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay much higher than one would expect. This is one of the secrets to the long ageability of Chalone’s wines — they are rich in natural grape acids, modest in alcohol, and rooted in what I would call one of California’s only true terroir vineyards. Lower acid wines historically don’t age as well and are more prone to damaging oxidative reactions and microbial spoilage. Fine wines should be made with the true focus being on the pH, titratable acidity (TA), and flavor/texture balance of tannins and acids. 3. Learn the science behind the art. Don’t just blindly follow a protocol that says to add 30 mg/L sulfur dioxide. Take classes, read books, learn from experienced winemakers, and do whatever you can to learn why you add that 30 mg/L sulfur dioxide. More importantly, you should know when to add 30 mg/L, when to add 50 mg/L, and when to add none at all. 4. Listen to your wine. Let the wine tell you what it needs and where it wants to go. Winemaking buddies, current style trends, and market pressure for the commercial winemaker can lead winemakers to use too many new barrels, leave a little residual sugar, or bottle too soon. Once the grapes are picked, the path to wine is already laid out before you. A super-corpulent 30° Brix Syrah must will have a hard time squeezing itself into the bottle as a crisp, light rosé. Such ripe, luscious fruit really wants to be the base for a stellar Port-style dessert wine. Don’t force it. Go where the wine leads. 5. Don’t take wine, or yourself, too seriously. Maybe this should be Rule Number One. Even those of us who make wine for a living need to remember that wine is, at its core, supposed to be fun. Whether it’s touring wine country with your sweetheart, watching reruns of Lucy stomping messily away, or bringing out a bottle of your finest for the backyard bocce ball team, wine heightens our enjoyment of everyday life, links us to the past, and connects us to the natural world in a very tangible way. If that’s not worth celebrating, I don’t know what is. Q Are rosé wines made from a different kind of grape than red wines? A Most of us are familiar with the three “colors” of wine: red, white, and rosé. The latter is sometimes called blush, vin gris, or pink wine and, in the minds of many, not taken as seriously as other wines. Thought to be in some nebulous category that’s not quite red and not quite white, rosé wines are often considered as “not quite wine.” This lack of respect is unfortunate, however, as these wines are about as serious as you can get, for the drinker as well as the winemaker. Pink wines may be candy-colored and smell of simple fruits, but they are actually more challenging to make than many others and deserve greater recognition from the consumer, trade, and hobby sectors of the wine world. Perhaps some of the confusion about and mistrust of pink wine stems from the fact that we often aren’t speaking the same language when we discuss them. Having all those different names for pink wine certainly doesn’t help. In addition, pink wines suffer from the misconception that they are made from inferior red grapes that wineries have rejected or are blends of “scraps” of red and white wines, essentially a dump bucket for second-rate wines that didn’t make the quality cut to be bottled. The true origin of pink-colored wines couldn’t be farther from the truth. Rosé wines traditionally are made from freshly pressed red grapes that are not allowed to ferment with the grape skins. They are allowed just enough skin contact to take on a pink (or blush) hue but are separated from the skins early in the winemaking process. Some of the best rosé wines in the world are made alongside (and from) the best red wines in the world. It’s a common practice for premium red producers — traditionally in Italy and France, but also in other parts of the world — to bleed off a portion of juice from freshly crushed red grapes (sometimes called a saignée), keeping it separate and treating it in the cellar like a white wine. These wines are usually fermented completely dry, which may come as a surprise to some Americans accustomed to sweet so-called white Zinfandel. Rosé wines generally aren’t taken through malolactic fermentation, as their fragile color can turn orange and their fresh aromas run the risk of being negatively changed or lost altogether. Q What does vinifera mean? A Vinifera, or more specifically, Vitis vinifera, is the species name for the European domesticated grapevine, a well-traveled and much-planted fruit from which most of the wines of the world are made. Well-known varieties of V. vinifera include the familiar Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay but also include such esoteric and worthy varietals as Torrontés, a delicate white that is a specialty of northern Argentina, and Chasselas, thought to be the oldest known grape varietal still in use today. Domesticated somewhere around 8500 BCE near present-day Turkey, V. vinifera was spread throughout ancient Asia, the Near East, and all parts of Europe. This particular grape species gained wide popularity for making fermented beverages because it was one of the few fruits available to prehistoric or modern humankind that accrued enough sugar to produce sufficient alcohol to ensure stability. In contrast to wild grapes, V. vinifera is monoecious; having both male and female sex organs on the same plant produces higher and more consistent yields. Early winemakers liked the high acid content, depth of color, and sheer flavor variety among the different types of V. vinifera. From the days of the Roman Empire to the age of European exploration in the 1500s, the domesticated grapevine followed travelers and adventurers around the globe, taking root in Australia, South America, Mexico, North America, and Africa. V. vinifera doesn’t grow well everywhere, however. It prefers a temperate climate with mild summers and mild winters (although a little frost is okay). In the United States, V. vinifera grapes thrive in California and the Pacific Northwest. They also grow well in pockets scattered from the Great Lakes to New York and the mid-Atlantic states. Q What are the most common “rookie mistakes” to avoid in winemaking? A Though it’s hard to anticipate every possible mistake and take into account every contingency, there are some errors that many beginners make. Here are five. Picking grapes too early or too late. I can’t say this enough — it all starts with the raw material. Pick too early and your Cabernet will never lose that nasty green bell pepper aroma. Pick too late and your delicate Malvasia Bianca will be a flabby, high-pH flop with 15 percent alcohol. Making the pick call is the single most important decision you will make in your wine’s life — be sure you do it right. Analyze the numbers (Brix, pH, and TA), but more important, use your taste buds. If you’re taking someone’s second crop, let it hang on the vine as long as possible to lose some acid and develop the flavor profile you want. Inappropriate must adjustment. Acid, water, enzymes, nutrients, tannins, sulfur dioxide — the list of things we can add to our freshly processed grapes is too long to enumerate. Many beginning winemakers believe that the more tweaks and additions they make, the better their wine will be. I prefer a minimalist approach that uses additives only when the grapes really call for it. Not understanding the destructive power of oxygen and spoilage microbes. After the carbon dioxide from the primary and the optional secondary fermentation blows off, your wine is vulnerable to attack by oxygen and spoilage yeast and bacteria. Leaving wine uncovered, untopped, or unprotected with inadequate free sulfur dioxide is asking for trouble. When a wine is actively fermenting, it can be roughed up, left uncovered, and moved around without much worry. Once a wine goes still, it’s critical to protect it. Misunderstanding the constructive power of oxygen and good microbes. Believe it or not, oxygen is critical for a wine’s early development. A healthy fermentation needs oxygen, and young red wines in particular can benefit from an aerative racking in the first months of life. Good microbes like yeast and certain strains of lactic acid bacteria are your partners in the fine winemaking process. Learn how to use these tools to your advantage and to actively manage their interactions with your wine. Keeping inadequate records. So much in winemaking happens by chance — the weather influences the grapes, a cold cellar slows down a fermentation, or a random spoilage yeast invades a perfectly good wine. To maximize control over your wines, keep good records during the winemaking process. Only by logging in dates, treatments, wine analysis, and tasting notes do we learn what works and what doesn’t and what we can do to improve. CHAPTER 2 Choosing and Using Winemaking Equipment Q What equipment do I need to make wine? A You should be able to find all the equipment you need at any home-brewing or home-winemaking supply shop. Commercial winemaking supply houses often cater to the small-scale winemaker and are good sources for the most current yeast strains, enzymes, additives, and lab equipment. Purchase cellar equipment through a supplier that specializes in small-batch winemaking. Here’s everything you need to make your first one-barrel batch of wine from fresh grapes. Hand-crank destemmer Primary fermenter (a 1/2-ton plastic MacroBin works great for larger batches; for smaller lots, try food-grade plastic containers or buy a small, stainless-steel variable-capacity tank) Cover for the fermenter if it doesn’t already have one (a tarp with a bungee cord works well) Punch-down device (if you don’t want to use your hands, you can fashion your own from non-toxic wood scraps) Small basket press Basket press One 59-gallon (223 L) oak or stainless-steel barrel Two 10-gallon (38 L) stainless-steel kegs and four 5-gallon (19 L) carboys or other small containers (to store the overflow wine) One large plastic or stainless-steel funnel Four 5-gallon (19 L) plastic buckets with lids Hydrometer(s) that read from –5 to 30° Brix Plastic 250 mL (1 cup) graduated cylinder Thermometer (digital is preferable) Acid titration kit One 5-foot (1.5 m) length of clear, food-grade, flexible ¾-inch-diameter plastic tubing for siphoning One 2-foot (0.6 m) length of clear, food-grade, flexible ½-inch-diameter plastic tubing for siphoning Fermentation locks and stoppers to fit your barrel and other containers 750 mL (25-ounce) wine bottles Corks Hand corker (floor-mounted models are easiest to use) Assorted brooms, dustpans, and shovels for cleanup Fermentation locks The next items are nice to have if you can afford them (or borrow them). pH meter Hand bottle filler Digital balance that weighs 0.01 g–500 g Small cylinder of CO2 gas Keep in mind that a half-ton of grapes (1,020 pounds) generally yields one 59-gallon (223 L) barrel with a few 10-gallon (38 L) kegs or 5-gallon (19 L) carboys left over for topping wine. Grapes are usually sold by the ton, but growers who sell to boutique producers often sell them by the pound. Winemakers working with smaller batches can certainly scale down their equipment needs. If, for example, you’re making just a few carboys of wine, you don’t need a destemmer or a press; you can destem a few pounds of grapes by hand and use a large, sturdy colander or strainer to separate the fermented skins from the wine. Hydrometer Q How does a hydrometer work? A As winemakers, we care about the density of sugar dissolved in water — for example, the ripeness of fresh grapes or the sweetness of the juice. The measuring of liquid density is called hydrometry and is based on the principle that an object floating in a liquid displaces an equivalent weight of said liquid. Hydrometers measure the amount of displaced liquid with a calibrated scale enclosed within a glass tube that is weighted to keep it upright while floating. The height at which the tube floats tells us how dense the liquid is or how much it weighs in relation to water. The hydrometer will float much higher in a sweet juice at 20° Brix than it will in a dry wine (with all the sugar turned into less-dense alcohol), which will register on the negative end of the scale. There are many hydrometers with scales in units like degrees Brix, specific gravity, Baumé, Oechsle, and Balling. Luckily there are great calculators that will help you convert between these obscure units if you don’t happen to have them floating around in your chemistry book. (See pages 134 for a conversion chart.) However, most hydrometers sold in the United States are in the Brix or specific gravity scale, the latter being favored in Europe. Q Can temperature affect the accuracy of my hydrometer? A Since the density of a solution changes with temperature (warming makes it less dense, cooling makes it denser), any hydrometric reading must be calibrated according to the temperature at which the reading is taken. Most scales are calibrated to read a sample at 15.5 or 20°C (60 or 68°F). For an accurate reading, be sure to use the temperature conversion chart packaged with your hydrometer. Q How do I allow for suspended solids when taking a hydrometer reading? A Because the hydrometer reading reflects the amount of dissolved solids (density) in the juice, it’s easy to see that if you have lots of little bits of suspended pulp pushing the hydrometer above its natural level, you’re going to get an artificially high reading. This is why it is so important to measure juice that has as few suspended solids as possible. I don’t recommend investing in a battery of strainers, settlers, and centrifuges, because if you follow the tips below, your juice will be just fine to measure. The extra degree of precision that these tools of paranoia could buy you would be minimal indeed and certainly not worth your time or money. Instead, follow this procedure when checking your sugars: soak, sample, strain, and squeeze. When you receive a load of fresh fruit to ferment, go ahead and crush the fruit for fermentation as you normally would. Then let it soak, which means leaving the fruit and juice to macerate for one to three hours — this step is vital! Freshly breached cell walls take time to release their sugars into the juice. After you’ve waited for most of the sugars to be released (but not waited so long that the juice starts to ferment), stir up your container and scoop out a nice, sloppy sample, about 3 cups’ worth (710 mL), making sure to include some of the chunky stuff. Put the whole gloppy mess into a large strainer lined with two or three layers of cheesecloth. Strain the liquid out and give the solids in the cheesecloth a very gentle squeeze, just until the juice stops coming out in a steady stream and begins to drip. Being gentle is the key. If you’re forceful, a lot of the solids will squish through the cheesecloth bundle into your sample, which is just what you’re trying to avoid! At this point you should have enough clear juice for a representative sample, so go ahead and measure. If you want to be particularly accurate (for example, if you’re going to add sugar or water and you want to know how much to ameliorate), you could let the sample settle for another couple of hours in the refrigerator. We don’t want any spontaneous fermentations happening here. Siphon the clearest juice off the top and measure that, adjusting the reading for the temperature (see previous question). The Refractometer Another great tool for measuring sugar is the refractometer Refractometers measure the amount of sugar by bending light through a prism in a way that correlates to the refractive properties of the juice. Refractometers are quick and easy to use but somewhat expensive to buy. They also can only be used on clear, nonfermenting juice and so are best used in the field or on the lab bench to test grapes or just-crushed juice samples. Q What’s the best way to take accurate hydrometer readings during fermentation? A Since temperature affects density (the colder something is, the denser it is), the temperature of a solution must be taken into account and corrected in order to get an accurate reading. Typically, a fermentation is warmer on top and cooler on the bottom because the warmer fermenting juice tends to rise. Furthermore, if your wine is fermenting on the skins, the floating “cap” of skins will be even hotter than the fermenting juice below and will create its own fermentation “microclimate.” The warmer a fermentation is, the faster it will go to completion, so naturally, if you haven’t mixed up your container in a while, a top sample will have a lower specific gravity or Brix reading than a bottom sample. Because density is a measure of dissolved solids, any solid particles in the sample will contribute to the appearance of density. This means if you take a bottom sample out of the valve in your tank, it will most likely be nice and thick, even during fermentation. This extra material will make your hydrometer float higher, giving you a poor picture of what the entire vessel is doing. If you take a sample from the top of a fermenting red wine, you will run into the aforementioned cap, with its thick floaty bits that you will have to strain out to get a good reading. The solution? Take a sample after punching down your red fermentation and strain it to remove any floating skins that might disrupt your reading. (A plastic or stainless-steel kitchen strainer works fine.) As always, correct for temperature and you should get a pretty accurate density reading. Q Can a broken hydrometer be hazardous? A Arrgghh! The dreaded broken hydrometer! With much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair, I welcome you to a select international fraternity of the few, the proud, the clumsy. I myself have been known to go through five (count ’em, five) hydrometers in the space of a single harvest. Check to see what kind of material the hydrometer had in its weighted base. Sometimes the insides of hydrometers, especially old ones, are made of lead. If this is the case, you should not drink the wine for fear of lead poisoning. If you still have it, consult the manufacturer’s literature insert to see if that can shed any light on the situation, or try calling the manufacturer directly. To avoid worries about hydrometer breakage in the future, develop the practice of measuring your densities in a plastic 250 mL graduated cylinder or in a special hydrometer cylinder (it has a collar designed to catch any overflow). These cylinders can be obtained at any winemaking or home brewing supply store. Characteristics of Oak Barrels vs. Inert Containers OAK BARREL Imparts flavors and aromas to the wine, especially if it’s a newer one Can contribute to the “rich and complex” style desirable in many wines like Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon Can be harder to control fermentation temperature because wood is a good insulator Harder to completely clean; barrels build up tartrate crystal deposits, which can be difficult to remove; sanitizing materials can’t get underneath these plaques, meaning that microbes have a perfect place in which to multiply A bit pricey: A 50-gallon (233 L) American oak barrel might cost $500, but an imported French one can easily top $800 Used barrels are a wild card; you don’t know what microbes are living in them The traditional storage vessel of the world’s finest wines INERT CONTAINER (GLASS OR STAINLESS STEEL) Does not contribute any flavor or aroma to the wine; does not add the classic “oak-aged” or “barrel-fermented” character to wine Can contribute to the “lean and crisp” style of wine that emphasizes fruit and acidity Easier to control temperature through ambient air or with conductive method like cold-water bath or glycol cooling coils Easier to completely clean and thoroughly sanitize More affordable; often can be bought secondhand Used stainless-steel and glass containers are more trustworthy than used barrels; you can see most contaminants and can sanitize well to remove the rest Q Can I use old glass carboys and other items picked up at a flea market for winemaking? A My response is kindly meant but firm: Don’t go there. Though an antiquities enthusiast myself, when it comes to winemaking, I have no trouble putting historical curiosity aside and choosing new equipment instead of charming old bottles encrusted with mysterious matter or “moonshine” jugs of questionable pedigree. When you can pick up new bottles and new carboys relatively cheaply, there’s no reason to jeopardize the quality of your hard-won wine just to save a few dollars. I’m confident in saying that old containers might contain toxic (or just plain smelly) residue that you don’t want in your wine and subsequently the digestive tracts of friends or, even worse, customers with friends who happen to be lawyers. When you don’t know, it’s best not to take any chances. Use those old jugs, rusty pails, and patina-stained carboys in an antique collection, country cottage, or backyard garden where their beauty will be better appreciated than in the cellar. Q What is the best way to store plastic fermenters and other containers? A It is better to clean your fermenting tubs thoroughly and then dry them out for storage instead of trying to use the old-fashioned wet-storage method, where containers are filled with something like a strong solution of sulfur dioxide and citric acid. In my experience, even closely monitored wet-storage solutions lose their potency with time. Forget to add more potassium metabisulfite powder, go on vacation for two weeks, and you’ll probably come back to a microbial house party in your tub hosted by those same spoilage organisms you were trying to avoid in the first place. While many strains of bacteria are sensitive to even low levels of sulfites, many spoilage yeasts and other fungi are perfectly happy cohabitating with sulfur dioxide levels at 30 mg/L, especially if the pH of the solution is above 3.0. The best thing to do is relax and realize that, after all, you’re going to clean and sanitize your plastic equipment before you use it again, right? Take a cue from commercial wineries, and don’t worry about keeping crush-specific equipment 100 percent sanitized year-round. If it’s not going to be used for a few months or until next crush, remove any visible soil, scrub thoroughly (being gentle with stainless steel), rinse, dry, and put the gear away in a safe and dry place. Many wineries even store equipment like large pneumatic presses outside. They simply clean them, let them air-dry, and cover them with a tarp until next crush. For your tubs, wash them well with any chlorine-free cleaning compound (I’ve even used dish soap), dry thoroughly, and hang up uncovered so moisture won’t accumulate in nooks and crannies and grow any microbial interlopers. If you want to exclude dust, insects, and other pests, use old sheets or large pieces of cheesecloth to loosely cover your equipment. Don’t worry about excluding airborne microbes since you’ll clean and sanitize before your next crush — it’s more important that the tubs be clean, dry, and in a place where they’ll stay out from underfoot until next year! Q Can I use empty beer half barrels as fermenters and long-term storage devices? A By all means, use clean, sanitized, stainless-steel half-barrels (usually 15–35 gallons/57–133 L in capacity) in your cellar, as long as you know where they came from and are certain nothing toxic has ever been stored in them. I have used beer kegs for storing my topping wines, and as long as they’re bunged up tight, are topped, and have SO 2 added when they need it, they’re great. They are easier to clean and sanitize than wooden barrels and obviously don’t need as much “care and feeding” as their cooperage counterparts. For the beginning winemaker or for making trial-size batches of experimental wines, they are fine primary fermentation vessels and do a good job aging wine on oak chips or beans. Stainless steel is an inert material, and as long as the vessels are well sanitized, they will not impart any off flavors or aromas to wine. As with any vessel that has a “past,” I suggest a thorough cleaning with hot water and caustic soda followed by a rinse with citric solution and then water. Since one can’t see through stainless steel without X-ray vision, I also recommend a good scrubbing (take care not to scratch the surface, though). Get into all the nooks and crannies with a bent-handled brush designed to clean out carboys. Another method to try (to take a leaf out of the tome of medieval winemakers and brewers) is to add a couple of handfuls of coarse sand or fine gravel to the vessel along with a few cups of water. Agitate the vessel vigorously by rocking it back and forth. This should help to clean up any soil or detritus. Inspect the interior with a flashlight to make sure no crud remains, give it a sniff, and if all appears clean, the vessel is good to go! Q Is it okay that my variable-volume fermenter leaks gas during primary fermentation? A If you have the lid on during active fermentation, sometimes the carbon dioxide gas generated by the tank can’t all escape through the fermentation lock. It’s easy to get this kind of high-pressure gas seepage when the gasket and the tank wall aren’t completely flush, especially if there’s a grape seed or a piece of skin under the gasket. This can happen if you’ve let the lid float on the surface of the wine, so be careful when doing that. A note of caution: Don’t ever underestimate the pressure generated by a rolling fermentation — I’ve seen bungs blown off barrels, tank tops thrown back on their hinges, and geysers of wine shoot 30 feet in the air! The gas bubbles you’re seeing, especially if it’s after the fermentation dies down, could be from a leak in the gasket around the lid. If you suspect a leak, deflate the gasket, remove it from the lid, reinflate it, and swab the surface with soapy water. If you see any soap bubbles, you know the gasket has a leak. I make it a practice to check the integrity of my inflatable gaskets every week or two by walking past the tank and making sure that the gasket is tight and the seal still good. Sometimes giving the gasket another good dose of air helps. I keep a bike pump handy for just this purpose. To avoid leaks, make sure you are treating the gaskets carefully. They are very delicate, especially those made of vinyl. Gaskets made of Desmopan (a thermoplastic polyurethane) are much more durable but still need to be handled gently. The manufacturer’s information on these small variable tank gaskets doesn’t recommend inflating over 1 bar of pressure. The lid should be raised well above the wine if fermentation is still quite active. This will relieve some pressure and reduce the stress on the gasket. It is critical to always maintain your pumped-up gasket well above the height that a fermenting cap could potentially reach, as contact with the cap can put too much pressure on the gasket. Better yet, use a tarp, cheesecloth, or fine-mesh screen on top of an active red ferment and only start using the inflated gasket lid to cap off the tank once the fermentation has gone dry and the cap will no longer push up against the inflated gasket and lid. It also helps to use Teflon tape to seal any threaded parts (some gasket air valves have these) and to never raise and lower a lid unless the gasket is completely deflated. Most gaskets can be damaged by extreme heat or cold, ultraviolet light, cleaning chemicals, and SO 2 gas in high concentrations. Q Why are cleaning and sanitation so important?