Napa Valley Wine Radio

Question from Mark: Hi Nancy, What creates a higher alcohol level in wines. Apparently they’re higher in alcohol now then a few years ago.

Answer: Hi, Mark! Thanks for writing!

The alcohol comes from the sugar in the grapes. Fermentation is a natural chemical reaction in which yeast, either added or native, consumes the sugar and converts it to heat, carbon-dioxide gas and alcohol. You can figure the conversion rate to alcohol is between 50 and 60%, depending on the yeast.

The alcohols have been climbing over the past few decades for a few reasons. The biggest one is that winemakers are inclined toward a longer “hangtime” now than in the past, which just means they’re letting the grapes hang on the vine longer and get sweeter than they did in years past. They are waiting for ripe flavors and good seed maturity. The fear is that if they don’t wait long enough the wine will display “green” characteristics.

Plus, winemakers are currently rewarded for producing big, ripe, fruity wines. Even wines from cold-climates, where it’s harder to get the sugar, are often higher in alcohol these days. Big alcohols can give the wine more body and a sense of richness and lately many European brands have been mimicking California-style wines to score big with powerful wine writers.

Aside from harvest decisions we have younger, healthier vines now because we did so much replanting during the phylloxera era in the ’80s and 90s. The vigorous vines are more efficient at converting sunlight to sugar. Another factor is that the yeast strains we use have been “cleaned up” over the last few decades and have a higher conversion rate.

There’s a great deal of study and discussion taking place in the industry about extended hangtime and the associated higher alcohols, so it will be interesting to see where it all takes us.

I hope that helps! Cheers! Nancy

Question from Marie: We’ve met a few times when I’ve visited friends in Napa. I’ve come to your wine school and have purchased several of your products. Our discussion came up when I told you that I’d opened a bottle of your Chardonnay 2 weeks after I returned to my home at 8400 feet elevation. The wine was very good. A second bottle of the same wine and batch was opened a few months later and was distinctively better. That brought up the question of whether the suggested shelf life might be longer at higher altitudes as there is less oxygen in the air.

I have two bottles of wine from Goosecross to compare, one to be tasted at the “best time” and the second to be tested about 6 months after the suggested best date. I will ask a few friends to rate the wine now and in 6 months.It’s time to test the first bottle so I wanted to ask if there is a “taste test check list” that you use to assess the characteristics of wines. Saying that the wine “tastes good” now and “tastes good” 6 months from now won’t really add anything to the understanding of how wines keep differently at altitude. I’ll be most happy to use any tasting tests and/ terms that you think are viable and/or are industry standards.

Answer: Hi, Marie! Thanks for writing!

As I expect you already know, there’s almost nothing written on this subject. It’s interesting, in fact, because as I was checking one of my favorite resources, Jancis Robinson, she mentioned that, while there’s endless science behind wine production, our information on wine storage and its behavior during that time is mainly based upon anecdotal evidence. What a sorry state of affairs! So, my hat’s off to you for trying to be analytical about this.

I saw this summary of some comments by Master Sommelier, Richard Betts, who has worked in Aspen:

• You decant a wine to let it breathe; this is very important in high altitudes.

• The lack of oxygen in high altitudes allows the wine to last longer.

I wish he’d been more specific. My suspicion is that if the difference in aging at high altitudes was significant, more would be written about it.

Regarding your question about differences to look for, you’re absolutely right - “better” is in the eye of the beholder and “best time” to drink is equally subjective. For those who prefer fruitiness, younger is better. As your Chardonnay continues to age, it will slowly give up its fruitiness and will take on more and more rich, toasty, caramelized character.

Taste check list:

Appearance: For whites, pale color is youthful, yellow and gold come with age.

Aroma: Fruit dominance is youthful; those richer, more caramelized characteristics come later. When the wine is tired, it begins to smell sherry-like.

Flavor: Fruitiness, again, is a youthful trait. Fruitiness shouldn’t disappear with age, but it shares the stage with nutty, soy and mineral character for Chardonnay. The flavors will be more complex and difficult to describe. Acidity and tannin (astringency) are signs of youth. Older Chardonnay will feel softer and rounder. If it was low in acidity to begin with it may feel “fat” and oily on the palate - it can become cloying (this sometimes happens with old California Chardonnay; I’m happy to say not so for Goosecross). If it’s completely washed out, it either wasn’t well made in the first place or is over the hill.

Aftertaste: Well-made wine should linger on the palate in all life stages. The older, richer wine may seem to linger more.

We have an article on our website with more detail on tasting techniques.

It would be interesting to do a comparison with a friend who lives at a low altitude. If you each purchased the same wine at the same time and place and then got together to compare your wines 6 months or a year later, you could see and taste first hand if the wines are aging at different rates (assuming both households have favorable/similar storage conditions).

I hope that helps! Have fun with your experiment, and we’d love to know the results! Cheers! Nancy

Question from Jennifer: I heard a bad rumor that wineries were going to the plastic or screw tops on wine bottles… It would really cheapen the experience of a moment. Opening the wine to the pleasure of a cork is a historic and romantic reminder of the occasion. I think many people would agree that this is a dishearting change in the future of wine. Please tell me it is not true.

Anwer: Hi, Jennifer! Thanks for writing! Well, I can tell you it’s not true here at Goosecross but, in fact, there are more and more wineries are switching to cork alternatives every year. Most of the wines with the alternative closures are moderately priced, although there are exceptions.There are two main forces at work. One is cost. Natural cork is expensive compared to plastic corks and screw caps. The other is referred to as “cork taint.” No one seems to agree on the frequency, but from time to time a bad cork will taint the wine so that it smells musty and moldy. It’s not harmful, but it ruins the wine and some winemakers don’t want to deal with the risk any more.

It’s ironic that the new closures have become so widely accepted now that the cork industry has nearly solved most of the cork taint issues (and many would say that the cork industry went to work on this only due to the growing popularity of the alternatives.) Our supplier has access to cutting-edge means for measuring the trichloroanisol (TCA) that causes the taint and has also developed a very sophisticated way of removing it. Other companies are doing similar work, and it’s probably just a matter of a short period of time before cork taint is no longer an issue.

Let me give you a quick run-down on the most popular alternatives.

Plastic Corks: There’s no risk of TCA and they can protect the wine for up to around three years. So, they’re only meant for wines that should be consumed young. Sometimes they’re difficult to extract from the bottle.

Screw Caps: There’s no risk of TCA and they appear to be superior to cork in protecting the wine from oxygen. We need to wait and see what happens over the long term. Some enologists are concerned that the screw cap protects the wine from oxygen so well that the wine may become “reduced” and smell like rubber after a period of time. Others say that concern is overblown. A clear-cut advantage of the screw cap is for those times when you forgot to bring your opener! There are a few other new closures out there. We have an article on our website with more detailed information. We also did a 4-part podcast with our cork supplier discussing these very issues right here at Napa Valley Wine Radio, episodes 18-21.I should add that wine can become tainted with TCA from sources other than the cork, but it’s not nearly as common.

I understand how you feel. Nothing else has the cachet of natural cork. Surveys tell us that Americans are accepting plastic corks very well but we’re not warming up to the screw cap as quickly. Anecdotally, when the topic comes up in our tasting room, it seems the majority of people still prefer cork.

So, I’m afraid I may not have made you feel better, but I cannot tell a lie with George Washington’s Birthday approaching. Anyway, I hope the information is helpful to you. Cheers! Nancy