Chapter 4-Grape Growing and Labelling Flashcards
Parts of grape?
Seeds/stems: Contains high levels of tannins, that xan make wine taste bitter if they are handled roughly durig winemaking.
Skins: skin and the area inmediately below it contain high levels of flavours. Skin contains cokour and tannins, both at kuch higher levels on black grapes.
Pulp: made of water and sugar, contains acids and flavours. With a few exceptions, pulp of both white and black grapes have the sane pale colour.
Grape formation process
Flowering - spring. Each flower cluster become a bunch of grapes. Each individual flower needs to be pollinated to become a grape. Unlike other plants, vines rely on the wind to pollinate their flowers.
Fruit set - after pollination, flower starts to grow seeds and swell and turns into grape. Small, hard, dark feeen, unpleasent to taste.
Veraison - midsummer, the grapes are large enough so the vine can start ripening process. Veraison is ghe point at ehich the grapes start to lose their dark green colour. White grapes become golden, black grapes become first red then purple.
Ripening - at the start, very high levels of acid, almost bo sugar, and unattractively herbacious. Then they swell with water, becomes soft and fleshy. Acidity drops, sugar rises. Herbaciousness decrease, characteristic flavours rise. For some white, aroma/flavour change from green fruit to stone and tropical. For black, fresh fruit to cooked fruit. In black, tannins start to develop in the skin. They have to be ripe otherwise would taste bitter
Concentration of grape sugars?
Extra ripening - water evaporates, higher concentration of scid and sugar. Typically used to make sweet fines.
Botrytis/noble rot- botryris is a fungus that can grow on ripe frapes. Makes tony holes on the grape skin, water evaporates. High acid/sugar/flavours. Fungus can destroy grapes, tight conditions needed. 1-grape needs to be ripe. 2- damp misty mornings to allow growth and spread of fungus, and then warm/dry afternoons to limit the growth of fungus to prveent it from destroying the grapes. Nearly always used for sweet wines.
Frozen grapes - Grapes are unpicked theough autm even in to early winter. When temps drop, water freezes in the grape. Grapes are picked while frozen, and are pressed before they thaw. The remaining liquid free of ice crystals are concentrated. It is used to make icewine/eiswein.
