Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
fermenting vessels. In the recent past, most white wines were fermented in stain-
less-steel tanks fitted with cooling jackets. Cool, even cold, fermentations preserve
the natural fruitiness of white grapes. More recently, many Napa and Sonoma
producers have begun using small wooden barrels for fermentation of white
wines, especially chardonnay. This practice reverts to old-style French winemak-
ing techniques and is believed to capture fragrances, flavors, and textures not pos-
sible in stainless steel. Barrel fermentation is labor intensive (each barrel holds
only 45-50 gal. for fermentation), and the barrels are expensive ($600-$700 each
for French barrels, $250-$300 for American barrels, although they're often reused
for multiple harvests).
After white wines are fermented, they're clarified, aged (if appropriate), and
bottled, usually before the next harvest. For the simpler white wines—chenin
blanc, Riesling, and some sauvignon blancs—bottling occurs in the late winter or
early spring. Most sauvignon blancs and chardonnays go into the bottle during
the summer after the harvest. Very few white wines, usually chardonnays, take the
slow track and enjoy 15 to 18 months of aging in small barrels with prolonged
aging on the
lees,
the sediments from the primary fermentation. Those treatments
are unusual, but they tend to produce chardonnays that are richly flavored, com-
plex, and expensive.
Not all wines are created with an elite, fussy attention to detail. Charles Shaw,
the brand of wine that is sold for $2 to $4 a bottle at Trader Joe's and is affection-
ately known as “Two Buck Chuck,” blends wine from many vineyards around
Northern California. It's bottled using industrial methods by the Bronco Wine
Company near Napa (the plant isn't open to the public). Just as Starbucks has
methods to create the same general year-to-year flavor profile no matter what
each harvest tastes like, so do the mass wine producers.
RED WINES
The chief difference between white wines and red wines lies simply in the red pig-
ment that's lodged in the skins of the wine grapes. So whereas for white wines the
juice is quickly pressed away from the skins, for rosés and reds the pressing hap-
pens after the right amount of “skin contact.” That can be anywhere from 6
hours—yielding a rosé or very light red—to 6 weeks, producing a red that has
extracted all the pigment from the skins and additionally refined the tannin that
naturally occurs in grape skins and seeds.
Almost all red wines are aged in barrels or casks for at least several months,
occasionally for as long as 3 years. Most of the wooden containers—collectively
called
cooperage
—are barrels made of American or French oak, and they hold
roughly 60 gallons each.
The aging of red wines plays an important role in their eventual style because
several aspects of the wine change while in wood. First, the wine picks up oak fra-
grances and flavors. (Yes, it is possible to “overoak” a wine.) Second, the wine,
which comes out of the fermenter murky with suspended yeast cells and bits of
skin, clarifies as the particulate material settles to the bottom of the barrel. Third,
the texture of the wine changes as the puckery tannins interact and round off,
making the wine more supple. Deciding just when each wine in the cellar is ready
to bottle challenges the winemaker every year. To make the whole process even
more challenging, every year is different depending on the harvest.
