White and Sweet Winemaking Flashcards
What are six important options in white winemaking?
Skin contact, clarity of the juice, fermentation temperature and vessel, post fermentation and maturation options, blending, clarification and stabilization
What is typical skin contact for white winemaking?
The juice spends little time with the skin. The grapes are crushed, the free run juice is separated off and remaining grape mass is sent to press.
What skin contact does a white winemaker use if they want to increase the flavor, intensity and texture of an aromatic grape?
Keep the juice in contact with the skins for a short period of time (usually a few hours) at a cold temp to avoid fermentation
What does a white winemaker do if they want to increase the delicacy and purity of the wine?
Load the press with whole bunches of uncrushed grapes, its gentle and reduces oxidation
What is optimum fermentation temp for white wine?
12 degrees C to 22 degrees celcius
Which fermentation vessel usually runs warmer?
Barrels
What happens if you ferment at too low of a temp?
Pear drop aromas and fail to capture varietal fruit characteristics
What happens if you ferment at too high of a temp?
Encourages complex non-fruit aromas to develop but loses varietal fruit characteristics
What are three post fermentation and maturation options a white winemaker can use?
1) oak or stainless steel (wood chips?) 2) Add fine lees to improve texture 3) Choose to allow or block MLF
What are three things a winemaker may hope to achieve by blending?
consistency, balance and style
What are two neutral white varietals often used in making high-volume inexpensive wines?
Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio
What is a common adjustment made in the winery for high-volume, inexpensive wines grown in warm/hot regions?
Acidification
How does a winemaker retain acidity and fruit flavors i high-volume inexpensive wine?
Prevent MLF, and racking off less immediately after fermentation
What are a few other common winemaking tools for high-volume inepensive wine?
Oak chips for oak flavor, residual sugar for consumer palate
Name five aromatic white wine grapes?
Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Muscat, Gewurtztraminer and Torrontes
Sauvignon Blanc Characteristics?
Cool climate grape with high acidity and ripens early
Two most famous regions for Sauvignon Blanc?
Loire Valley, France and Marlborough New Zealand
Describe the Sauvignon Blanc from Loire Valley?
Restrained and elegant, cool climate gives aromas and flavors of green apples, asparagus and wet pebbles
Describe the Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough?
Powerful aromas of gooseberry, elderflower, grapefruit and passion fruit, possibly herbaceous notes
How is Sauvignon Blanc in Pessac-Leognan different?
Wine is fermented and matured in some oak giving it a rounder, fuller body and spicy, toasty notes. It is also blended with Semillion further adding to body and richness.
Riesling characteristics?
Produces wide variety of wine styles, cool climate grape, buds late to avoid spring frosts, mid to late ripening, high acid, can use botrytis and make sweet wines as well
What white wine has some of the longest potential for ageing?
Riesling
Mature flavors in a riesling?
honey and toast, petrol
Major regions for Rieslings?
Germany, Alsace, Austria, and Australia
What two parts of Australia are known for riesling?
Clare and Eden Valleys
Why are inert stainless steel vessels usually used for fermentation for aromatic grape varietals?
to keep any vessel flavors from interfering with the pure fruit character of the grape
Why is MLF usually avoided in Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling?
Because high acid is desirable in both grape varietals, and buttery flavors interfere with the pure fruit characteristics
Why are aromatic varietals usually bottled right away after fermentation?
the aromas gained from maturation in oak are usually not desirable
Where do you see barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc?
Pessac-Leognan Bordeaux and Fume Blanc California
What are some other ways to increase richness and body to Sauvignon Blanc?
Barrel ferment, time on the lees and undergo MLF
Two neutral aroma and flavor white wine grapes?
Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio
Chardonnay characteristics?
easy to grow and ripen in varied climates, early budding so suffers from spring frosts, aromas and flavors vary depending on the climate
Chablis characteristics?
high acid, green apple and citrus notes, wet stone, slate
Cote D’Or characteristics?
stone fruit and creamy oak flavours
Maconnais characteristics?
ripe and rounded, hints of toasty oak
Tertiary aromas of Chardonnay?
Nuts and mushrooms
Characteristics of Pinot Gris/Grigio?
early budding and early ripening, medium acid, neutral
Major regions for Pinot Grigio?
Alsace, New Zealand, Tasmania, Australia, Oregon, Alto Adige, Trentino and Friuli-Venezia, NE Italy,
Where are the high volume, inexpensive Pinot Grigios produced?
Veneto, Italy
Where do you often see new oak used in maturation of Chardonnay?
Cote D’Or and New World
Where do you see older oak and larger barrels used in Chardonnay?
Chablis
What is used in almost all premium white wines of Burgundy?
MLF
What are the 3 different ways in which a sweet wine can be made?
Stopping the fermentation (fortification, SO2, chilling wine), Adding a sweetening component, Concentrating grape sugars ( noble rot, Drying grapes on the vine, Drying grapes after they are picked and freezing grapes on the vine.)
What is fortification?
The addition of grape spirit to stop fermentation while sugar is still present.
What happens when you fortify a wine?
It kills the yeast and stops the fermentation.
What must be done when you stop the fermentation to keep the fermentation from resuming?
You must filter out the yeast.
What are some examples of sweet wines usually made by the process of stopping the fermentation by adding SO2 or chilling the wine?
High-quality German Kabinett or Spatlese/ Asti from Italy
Stopping fermentation in wines by adding SO2 or chilling the wine usually results in wines with low alcohol or high alcohol?
Low alcohol
What is unfermented grape juice usually called in Germany?
Sussreserve
What are the two ways called of adding a sweetening component?
Sussreserve or Rectified Concentrated Grape Must (RCGM)
Which is usually used for high volume inexpensive sweet wine production?
RCGM (Rectified Concentated Grape Must)
What is Sussreserve used to make in Germany?
Medium sweet wines
When is the Sussreserve added to the wines?
It is added to dry wine just before bottling
What are the 3 ways to stop fermentation in the making of a sweet wine?
Fortification, Adding SO2, chilling the wine
What are the 4 ways of concentrating grape sugars when making a sweet wine?
Noble rot, Drying grapes on the vine, Drying grapes after they are picked and freezing grapes on the vine.
What type of grape concentration is used in most of the greatest sweet wines?
Noble Rot
Name some famous regions known for noble rot wines?`
Sauternes, Tokaji, Beerenauslausen, and Trockenbeernauslausen and Austria
What do wines made from Noble rot have flavors and aromas of?
Honey, apricot, citrus zest, dried fruit
What are the critical conditions for noble rot to exist?
1) Grapes must be fully ripe 2)must be in region with humid misty mornings and long dry afternoons
How does the fungus work in noble rot?
Fungus punctures the grape leaving tiny holes, the warm afternoon slows development of rot and causes liquid to evaporate concentrating the grapes acids, sugars and flavors
Can botrytis wine happen every year?
No
Are noble rot grapes picked by hand or machine harvested?
Hand harvested, the spread of noble rot is never uniform so many passes have to be made
What is passilerage?
Drying grapes on the vine
Wines that are made by passilerage are often referred to as what on the label?
Late Harvest
Late Harvest wines have what type of flavor characters
Tropical fruit and dried fruits
What is the Passito method?
Drying grapes after they have been picked
Where is the Passito method used?
Italy, Recioto dell Valpolicella
What is the flavor profile of wines using Passito method?
Raisin flavors
Freezing grapes on the vine happen where and produce what?
Eiswein in German and Icewine in Canada
Which of the sweet wine processes retain the pure fruit varietal character?
Freezing the grapes on the vine
Do sweet wines made by concentrating grape sugars result in high alcohol or low alcohol wine? and why?
Low, sometimes as low as 7%, yeast cannot survive in very sugary environments
