Winemaking and Maturation Flashcards
battonage
stirring the lees
What is blanketing?
winemaking term for protecting grapes, juice, or wine, particularly from oxygen, by applying a gas, usually inert gas or sometimes CO2
What compound is to blame for the smell of oxidation as it is the first to react with Ethanol?
Acetaldehyde
Which compound is considered the main component of Volatile Acidity (VA)?
Acetic Acid
What are the main goals of acidification? (4)
1) Increase the apparent freshness and fruitiness of wine
2) Protect the wine against attack from bacteria and spoilage yeasts such as Brettanomyces
3) Enhance the effectiveness of SO2
4) Improve the color of wine. Lower pH values promote color stability by affecting the ionization of pigment compounds such as anthocyanins.
What are the two most important acids in wine and present in grapes?
Tartaric Acid and Malic Acid
What is acidulation refer to?
The process of acidification.
What are a few examples of aeration during winemaking?
Racking
Delestage
Pumping Over
How does fining and filtration affect maturation of wine?
When extreme it can hasten the rate of maturation.
How does temperature affect the maturation of wine?
Increase in temperature will hasten the maturation process but the complexity of flavor will be far less than if matured and cooler temperatures.
How does the concentration of phenolics in white wine relate to its ageability?
White wines with low levels of phenolics when bottled such as Riesling will have more potential for long aging.
What are a few techniques used for artificial aging of wine?
1) Shaking the wine to encourage effects of dissolved oxygen in the bottled wine.
2) Exposing the wine to extremes of temperature
3) Exposing the wine to radiation or ultrasonic/magnetic waves.
Describe the difference between Actual Alcoholic Strength and Potential Alcoholic Strength. What about Total alcoholic strength?
Actual is the final amount of alcohol in the wine as expressed by proof or percentage by volume.
Potential Alcoholic Strength refers to what the concentration of alcohol in a wine would be if all the sugars were converted to alcohol.
Total Alcoholic Strength refers to the sum of the actual alcoholic strength (post fermentation) + Potential Alcoholic Strength.
What techniques may be used for the reduction of alcohol in wine?
Spinning Cone Columns which are a form of low temperature distillation.
Reverse Osmosis, Electrodialysis, Evaporative Perstraction, Ultrafiltration, and Nanofiltration which are all forms of membrane separation techniques.
Humidification.
Allier is a department well-known for its oak. What AOP is located within this departement?
St-Pourçain
Why are amphora traditionally narrow at their base? What style of wine results from this? What style of wine does the concrete egg lend itself to?
To allow less lees contact with the maturing wine. This creates a more vibrant and fresh style of wine compared to egg shapes which tend to produce richer styles as a result of more lees influence.
What is the Georgian equivalent of an amphora?
Qvevri
What is a Tinaja?
Earthenware vessels commonly used in Central and Southern Spain as well as Southern Chile for fermentation and/or Maturation
How does pH or level of acidity affect the color of red wine?
The lower the pH / higher the acidity, the redder the wine will be.
The higher the pH / lower the acidity in the wine the bluer the wine will look.
pH affects the degree of ionization of anthocyanins
In 1923 what factors did Baron le Roy implement into the AOC system in addition to geographical delimitation?
Permitted Vine Varieties
Pruning
Vine Training Methods
Minimum Alcohol Strength
What drove the massive amount of fraudulent and adulterated wines to be produced in France during the first half of the 20th century?
Economic depression in the 1930s, widespread cultivation of hybrids, and a serious wine surplus increased the incentive for wine merchants to indulge in nefarious blending.
In what year was the VDQS system aboloished?
After the 2010 vintage
What technique is the catalan native Arnaud de Villeneuve credited with innovated and what style of wines resulted from this innovation?
Mutage, or the halting of fermentation by the addition of grape spirit.
Vin Doux Naturels, which became widely popular and a tradition of French Catalonia.
What is arrope and what is it used for?
Boiled down and thus concentrated grape syrup most commonly used for the sweetening of Sherry
What is ATA and what is it the result of?
Atypical ageing; a term used to identify a phenomenon found i white wine-growing regions worldwide where heat and dry conditions immediately before and after veraison resulting in extreme water stress can lead to the development of this aroma/flavor defect which can smell like moth balls, wet towel, or old furniture varnish, and may show an increased bitterness.
What is the top wine auction that takes place in Burgundy every 3rd Sunday in November and what auction house it’s official artner?
Hospices de Beaune who partners with Christie’s
What do the proceeds of Auction Napa Valley go to?
Vineyard worker healthcare and children’s education
What are the two most famous charitable wine auctions in the United States?
Auction Napa Valley
Naples Winter Wine Festival
What is the most famous wine auction that takes place in South Africa?
Niederburg Auction
What is the only way to remove Brettanomyces cells from a finished wine?
Sterile Filtration through a membrane.
What does autovinification promote and for what style of wine is it most commonly used?
Maximum extraction; most commonly used for the production of Port.
Why were the use of autovinifiers so popular in Portugal during the 1960s?
These require no outside source of power and with a labor shortage like the one faced in the 1960s and with many wineries without electricity plus an erratic power supply for those that did this was a solution to the lack of labor and energy for sophisticated pumps or presses.
How to autovinifiers work?
Pressure from a fermenting must builds up in a closed vat. This pressure forces the must up into a reservoir and then sprays back down into the vat when enough CO2 has been expelled.
What are the two most important bacteria for the production of wine?
Lactic Acid Bacteria
Acetobacter
What are the 5 attributes that must be in balance to give a wine optimal balance?
Acidity Tannins Fruit Alcohol Residual Sugar
What does the Balling scale measure?
Measures the total dissolved compounds in grape juice and therefore it’s approximate concentration of grape sugars. Very similar to the Brix scale
What style of wine is desired by winemakers who press fermenting red wines off the skins and allow a completion of fermentation in barrel? Where is this common?
A style that is softer and more approachable. This is common in Australia.
What do proponents of barrel fermentation of red wines suggest this technique promotes?
softer tannins, increased stability, and better color concentration
Why is a small degree of maturation on lees encouraged for barrel-fermented wines?
This promotes a better degree of oak tannin integration into the wine due the yeast acting on aromatic oak flavor molecules to transform them biochemically into much less aromatic substances. Additionally the yeast adsorb these aromatic compounds on to their cell walls.
What techniques can lessen the impact of oak flavor in wine?
Lighter degrees of toasting of the barrel staves.
Lees aging; yeasts will lessen the impact of oak by converting the molecules into less aromatic molecules and by adsorption of aromatic compounds into their cell walls.
Fining
What is responsible for the enhanced mouthfeel in wine following barrel fermentation? What enhances this sensation?
The rise in polysaccharides due to the contact with lees.
Batonnage will enhance this
Why do white wines that have been matured for a few months on their lees in barrel usually have a lighter color than those put into barrel after fermentation to mature?
Certain colloids are liberated during fermentation and lees contact and these will stabilize some of the phenolics extracted from the oak precipitating pigment.
Why is American oak traditionally sawed?
Because it is less porous it can be cut by sawing which maximizes the yield out of a single tree.
French Oak is more porous and thus care must be taken to split the wood in a manner that ensures the staves will be water tight.
What are the three stages of toasting and bending the staves?
Chauffage: warming the staves
Cintrage: shaping the staves
Bousinage: toasting afterwords
When are wines traditionally racked into new oak barrels?
Following fermentation prior to malolactic because malolactic fermentation occurring in barrel will promote a better integration of oak tannins into the wine.
When are nouveau wines bottled? How does this contribute to the style of these wines?
Immediately following fermentation. For this reason there tends to be a high proportion of grapes primary aromas and flavors.
What are two methods used for barrel renewal? Advantages and Disadvantage of renewal?
Shaving and retoasting the inner staves.
Removing the wine soaked part of staves with dried ice
While money is saved on purchasing of barrels, wine coming from renewed barrels rarely has the subtlety of influence that wine aged in new barrels does.
What is the ideal humidity percentage for a cellar regarding wine maturation with barrels? Why?
75%; above 75% alcohol evaporates and below it water will evaporate
What is the ideal temperature range for a barrel room for wine maturation?
50-66F
What is the volume of a barrique in Bordeaux?
225L (25 cases of wine or 300 bottles)
What is the volume of a tonneau?
900L (x4 barriques or 100 cases of wine)
What is the volume of a Burgundian pièce?
228L
What is the name of the traditional barrel in Chablis and what is its volume? What is the size of this type of barrel in the Côte d’Or?
Feuillette
132L (Chablis)
114L (Côte d’Or)
What is a quartaut? What is its volume?
Small 57L barrel often used for holding wine for the purposes of topping up.
What is the volume of a standard Cognac barrel?
350L
What is the volume of a demi-muid?
600L
What is the volume of a Mosel Fuder?
1,000L
What is the volume of a Stück? Halbstück? Doppelstück?
Stück: 1200L
Halbstück: 600L
Doppelstück: 2400L
What is the Italian synonym for barrique?
Carato
What is the traditional barrel used for the maturation of Italian Vin Santo called and what is its range of volume?
Caratelli
50-225L
What is the volume of a Gönci barrel?
136L
What is the volume of a hogshead?
300L
What are the volumes of puncheons?
132L or 450L or 500L
What is the French term for lees stirring?
Batonnage
What is the relationship between degree Baumé and potential alcohol?
The degree Baumé also is equivalent to the percentage of alcohol by volume if the wine were to be fermented to dryness.
What is blanketing?
Covering or protecting grapes, juice, or wine, particularly from oxygen, by applying a gas, usually inert gas or sometimes carbon dioxide.
What is the difference between coupage and assemblage?
Coupage and assemblage are technically the same thing meaning both blending though coupage is seen as more pejorative as it commonly refers to “cutting” a wine with inferior wines.
Assemblage refers to blending lots of fine wine for a superior product.
Why is there more bottle variation of older vintages of fine wines?
Because blending was much less common practice then as it is today. Instead of blending several vats prior to bottling, wines were often bottled from individual vats of several different fermentations.
What does “blue fining” remove from a wine?
Copper and iron
How do blush wines differ from most rosé?
They are made similar however are most often paler in color, sweet to taste, and often slightly fizzy.
What is the capacity and volume of a bonbonne/demijohn?
25L
What is bouille bordelaise, what is it composed of and what is it used for?
AKA Bordeaux mixture; composed of lime, copper sulfate, and water.
Used for the control of bacterial and fungal diseases and one of the few preparations permitted in organic and biodynamic viticulture.
What are the drawbacks of using too much Bordeaux mixture?
Can cause copper toxicity in soil.
How is wine quality affected for red wines that are influenced by botrytis?
The wines won’t have as deep of color and will develop off flavors of mold.
Why are higher levels of SO2 required at bottling for the production of botrytized wines?
The enzyme laccase is produced by the botrytis fungus and this will increase the risk of oxidation. Also the chemical composition of botrytized wine more readily binds with SO2 so more is needed than for other wines.
Before what year was selling wine in bottle illegal in Britain?
Before 1860
What does feuille morte refer to?
Refers to the yellow-green color of wine bottles used for the bottling of white Burgundy. Means “dead leaf” in French.
What is bottle sickness and what are two reasons a bottle may display this? How is this alleviated?
Refers to the unpleasant and increasingly rare smell apparent in a wine immediately on opening which can happen as a result of high levels of dissolved oxygen in the wine as a result of racking or other agitating procedures prior to bottling or can be caused as a result of a lack of oxygen (reduction) which can lead to the development of sulfur like aromas.
Can be alleviated by decanting .
What is the volume of a Marie-Jeanne wine bottle?
2.25L or 3 standard bottles
What is a Methuselah called in Bordeaux? What is its volume?
An Impériale; 6L or 8 bottles
What is a double magnum called in Champagne? What is its volume?
Jeroboam; 3L
What is the volume difference between a Jeroboam from Bordeaux and a Jeroboam from Champagne?
Jero from Bordeaux is 4.5L or 6 bottles
Jero from Champagne is 3L or 4 bottles
What is the volume of a clavelin?
62cl
What is the name for a wine bottle holding 24 bottles and 34 bottles respectively?
Melchior - 24 bottles
Sovereign - 34 bottles
If a wine is bouchoné, what is it?
Corked (TCA)
What strain of Brettanomyces is most commonly found in wine and beer?
Brettanomyces bruxellensis
What is the most important substrate necessary for a Brettanomyces takeover?
Residual sugar
Which two methods can eliminate Brettanomyces at the time of bottling?
Sterile filtration and/or the use of dimethyl dicarbonate (DMDC)
What is the capacity of a botta chica? Where is this most commonly used?
500L; used in the Jerez region for shipping sherry.
What does the process of watering back entail?
The process of diluting prefermented juice or grape must for the purposes of reducing alcohol levels in the resulting wine following fermentation.
What is illegal in the US unlike Europe in regards to sulfite addition?
The US does not allow any addition of sulfites which would raise the free SO2 level over 10 parts per million.
What is the biggest drawback of cans for wine storage?
Cans are lacquered on the inside but if there is a pinhole or small breach in this layer, the wine will react with the metal creating foul smelling Hydrogen disulfide and the wine may turn black.
The wine fault casse refers to what?
An excess of iron, copper, protein, or Tartaric Acid precipitation.
What is a girasol used for?
A girasol is a gyropalette and is used for the automted remuage of hundreds of bottles of traditional method sparkling wine often for the production of Cava
What is Verbesserung?
German for Chaptalization.
What does enrichment refer to?
Refers to the addition of sugar, grape must, grape concentrate, and rectified concentrated grape must (RCGM) in order to increase a wine’s alcoholic strength.
What is the most desired effect winemakers are looking for by chaptalization?
Higher complexity of flavor and better texture of wine, not to boost alcohol as its most often believed. Flavor and texture are improved due to chaptalization extending the length of fermentation.
What is charcoal used for in winemaking?
Used to remove color and off flavors caused by botrytis or sour rot. Also used to absorb the pigment polymers responsible for amber or brown colors in the manufacture of pale cream sherry.
What is the difference between clarification and stabilization?
Stabilization is a form of clarification but refers to the removal of substances such as excessive tartrates, pectins and gums, some proteins, and small numbers of micro-organisms such as yeast and bacteria that ARE NOT VISIBLE to the unaided eye. No further clarification is needed following this.
What is débourbage?
Debourbage is the french term for settling, or the process of holding liquid, wine or must, in a tank and allowing the solids to settle to the bottom. This is a form of clarification.
What are 5 methods used for Clarification?
Settling (debourbage) Filtration Centrifugation Fining Flotation
Red wines are not commonly clarified before fermentation because the skins are fermented with the juice in order to provide color and flavor. Be that as it may pectin-splitting enzymes are sometimes added to red must prior to fermentation. Why?
To aid subsequent clarification and increase the eventual yield of free-run wine.
What is ropiness?
A wine fault where an excess of polysaccharide is produced by malolactic bacteria leaving a stringy almost slimy residue in the wine.
What are the 3 top goals of cofermentation?
Lift a wine’s floral aromas
Enhance its texture
Improve the brilliance and intensity of the wine’s color
What does “collage” refer to?
Collage refers to the process of fining
What are 5 factors that can influence the color of red wine?
Berry Size
Homogeneity of Ripeness
Length and Temperature of Maceration
Techniques influencing Extraction such as Pumpovers and Punchdowns
Thickness of Grape Skins
Why do red wines show more brick red pigments with age?
Brick red pigments are a more stable form of pigmented tannins and remain in the wine for a longer period of time.
The purple pigmented tannins that are very present in a wine’s youth are less stable with age and combine to form large molecules in the wine, falling out of solution to become sediment.
How does barrel maturation influence pigmentation in wine?
Barrel maturation increases the stability of pigments in wine by introducing modest amounts of oxygen which promote the formation of stable pigmented tannins.
How does free sulphur dioxide in wines affect red wine color?
Free sulphur dioxide in wine has a bleaching effect on pigmented tannins and so wines with more free SO2 will present paler than wines with less free SO2.
This is more obvious in youth as the bleaching effects on the wine’s color become less effective with age.
How does free SO2 affect bouquet development of tertiary flavors with age?
It slows the development by disrupting the chemical interactions between wine phenolics and other wine constituents responsible for generating the wine’s bouquet.
In most white wine production, why is extended maceration avoided prior to and during fermentation?
This will extract more phenolic compounds that when react with oxygen will promote premature oxidation and browning of the wine.
How does lees contact influence the color of white wine?
Lees contact will produce wines with paler color due to darker pigments in the wine being absorbed by the lees.
What is the major disadvantage of using epoxy -lined concrete vats for fermentation?
Very little oxygen exchange which affects tannin development. It’s for this reason that many choose unlined concrete vats.
What are the three main acids found in grapes?
Tartaric (most present)
Malic
Citric