2) Factors Influencing the Production of Red Wines

Question 1

A Grape’s Components

Answer 1

• Skin
• Pulp
• Seeds and stems

Question 2

What does a vine need to grow?

Answer 2

Photosynthesis

water + carbon dioxide + sunlight + nutrients = sugar

Question 3

Grape formation and ripening has the following phases, from bud break to harvesting:

Answer 3

• Flowering (bloom)
• Fruit set (flowers become grapes)
• Véraison (the onset of the ripening of grapes aka “change of color of the grape berries.”
• Ripening of grapes

Question 4

*Bonus

Blooming of grapes in the North & South Hemisphere:

Answer 4

In the Northern Hemisphere, a grape’s lifecycle starts at bud break in early March, when daily high temperatures start to hover at and exceed 50°F.

In the Southern Hemisphere, this starts in or around September.

https://www.coravin.com/community/learn-how-grapes-grow-bloom-veraison-ripening#

Question 5

A Vine’s Growing Environment: Climate

Answer 5

Climate

• Cool (16.5°C/62°F or below)
• Moderate (16.5°C/62°F to 18.5°C/65°F)
• Warm (18.5°C/65°F to 21°C/70°F)

Question 6

A Vine’s Growing Environment: Influences on climate

Answer 6

• Latitude • Altitude
• Seas • Rivers
• Slope • Aspect
• Cloud • Fog
• Mist • Mountains
• Soil • Air

Question 7

A Vine’s Growing Environment: Weathers Influences

Answer 7

• Temperature • Sunlight
• Drought • Rain
• Hail • Frost

Question 8

Growing grapes:

    - Vineyard activities

Answer 8

• Training and pruning
• Irrigation
• Managing weeds, pests, diseases:
Fungicides; Insecticides; Herbicides
• Yield
• Harvesting
- By Hand
- With Machines

Question 9

Labelling terms used to indicate origin and regulation:

Answer 9

Geographical Indications (GIs):

• Outside the European Union
• Inside the European Union:
- Protected Designation of Origin
(PDO)
- Protected Geographical Indication
(PGI)

Question 10

Labelling in France

Answer 10

Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)
Appellation d’origine protégée (AOP)
Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC)

Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)
Indication géographique protégée (IGP)

Question 11

Wine regions of France

Answer 11

• Alsace
• Beaujolais
• Bordeaux
• Burgundy
• Champagne
• Languedoc-Roussillon
• Loire Valley
• Northern Rhône
• Southern Rhône
• Provence

Question 12

Characteristics of: PINOT NOIR

Answer 12

• Thin skin
• High acidity (sparkling wine)
• Low to medium tannin
• Red fruit:
strawberry, raspberry, red cherry
• Typically single varietal
• Careful use of oak
• Used to make sparkling wines
• Cool
• Moderate
• Very good examples can age:
mushroom; forest floor

Question 13

Wine Regions of France:

                 Burgundy

Answer 13

• Côte d’Or District
(Cool to Moderate)
Soil: Bedrock is limestone and
topsoil is mostly a varying mixture
of limestone, clay, and flint.

    Climate: Continental-ish. 
     Warm summers (though not hot, 
     per se) and cold (but not too cold) 
     winters. 
     Budbreak is usually around April, 
     flowering in June, veraison in 
     mid-August, and harvest around 
     late September. 

• Côte de Nuits (North)
  Gevrey-Chambertin
• Grands Crus (Central)
  Nuits-St-Georges
• Côte de Beaune (South)
  Beaune Pommard

Question 14

World Wine Regions of: PINOT NOIR

Answer 14

• France: Burgundy. Champagne.
• USA:
California:
Sonoma, Los Carneros,
Central Coast,
Russian River Valley
Oregon:
Willamette Valley
• New Zealand: Central Otago,
Marlborough, Martinborough
• Australia (Adelaide Hills): Tasmania,
Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley
• Romania
• Germany: Ahr
• Chile: Casablanca Valley
• Canada: Okanagan Valley
• England: Rother Valley (sparkling)
• South Africa: Elgin, Walker Bay

Question 15

Winemaking: Process of Red Wine (Alcoholic Fermentation)

Answer 15

Alcoholic Fermentation:
Sugar in grapes + Yeast =

Alcohol + Heat + Flavor + Carbon Dioxide

Question 16

Winemaking: Red Wine

Answer 16

• Crushing; Alcoholic fermentation;
Draining (typically at the end of
alcoholic fermentation); Pressing;
Storage or maturation; Packaging

Inert Winery Vessels:
• Material
- Stainless steel
- Concrete
• Features
- Fermentation and storage
- No flavour added
- Can be airtight
• Oak Winery Vessels:
- Contributions: Flavor, Oxygen,
Softer tannins
• Blending:
Style, Consistency, Complexity
• Maturation in Bottle:
- What a wine needs to age:
Flavor concentration;
Flavors that can develop in a
positive way;
High acid, tannin or sugar.

Question 17

Characteristics of: ZINFANDEL/PRIMITIVO

Answer 17

• Ripens unevenly
• High sugar levels
• Medium to high acidity
• Medium to high tannin
• Warm Climate
• Rosé and red wines
• Red wines often oaked
• Very good examples of red wines can age: earth; meat
• Zinfandel is a thin-skinned grape that grows in huge bunches on the vine. The best vineyard sites for Zinfandel are poorly drained hillsides that are rich in minerals. The thin skins means that they are low in tannin, and prone to uneven ripening.

Question 18

World Wine Regions of: ZINFANDEL/PRIMITIVO

Answer 18

• USA:
Napa Valley (Chiles Valley)
Mendocino, Paso Robles (Central
Coast), Central Valley, Sonoma
• Italy: (Southeast: Puglia; Apulia) The main three DOC areas are Primitivo di Manduria, Gioia del Colle Primitivo (Riserva) and Falerno del Massico Primitivo (Riserva o Vecchio).
• Croatia (Crljenak Kaštelanski)
• Other newer productions are increasingly coming from South Africa, Chile, and as far afield as Australia.