4 weird things make wine a fascinating drink

How weird it will be if someone asks you to eat a rotten berry! Or what will be your reaction if you are served a clear juice with debris at the bottom? In both cases, you will question the intention of the host. But do you know both are possible if you sit in a winery and taste a fine wine? Some sweet wines require rot in the berries and have sediments like fine wine. At times even winemaking brings many surprises with it.

In this article, you will learn the most shocking facts about wine and its making.

A Noble Rot makes a sweet wine

Noble rot is a gray rot of the fungus Botrytis cinerea. It feeds on the grapes to make them dry and concentrate the sugars. The wine made from such infected grapes is always high in residual sugars.

Noble rot grows on the fruits at the onset of ripening and requires a temperature of 12 ℃ to 25 ℃ and 90 to 100% humidity. Until the condition reaches optimum, the rot resides in dead woody vine parts in resistant forms. It mostly affects the ripe and too closely clustered fruits, not the flowers. The ripening causes an increase in nutrients like sugars, amino acids, soluble pectin, etc. The cuticle of the fruit becomes weak and permeable. All these factors create favorable conditions for growth. The rot first develops on the skin and slowly forms filaments that penetrate the cuticle.

Noble rot wine is always made from the white grapes of Chardonnay, Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Scheurebe, Viognier, Welchriesling, etc. Then what about the red wine? Any rot is avoided in the case of red wine because; A) there is a possibility of the color getting faded. B) If the process of making is not under control, it can increase the microbial load and spoil the wine. 

The gunk in the wine

Gunk, or sediment, is the solid particles in wine. It never floats but rather settles down at the bottom of the storage vessel. It can exist in a bottle of wine, a glass, or even a barrel. The size of the particle varies from fine specks to large grains.

What does gunk carry with it? It can carry A) grape solids in the form of stem, skin, and seeds. B) Yeast and Bacteria. C) Tartrates. D) Tanins.

As an occurrence, gunk can be classified into two categories;

• Improper filtration; the grape solid and yeast & bacteria fall under this category. It occurs due to a faulty filtration and refining system. This type of gunk is rare nowadays, thanks to modern technology.
• The bottle aging;
  • Tartrates; These are crystals of phosphate and tartaric acid. When the wine bottles are stored below 40 ℃ for a long time, the tartaric acid combines with the phosphate to form the crystals of tartrate. To avoid this situation, many winemakers opt for cold stabilization. The aged wine is stored in large tanks at freezing temperatures for days. All the tartaric acid converts into tartrate, thus eliminating the chances of further crystal formation at the consumer end.
  • Tannins combine with other polyphenols to form sediments.

The gunk is a part of the wine and is harmless. But it may appear weird to wine lovers. So, to avoid this situation, many refinements have been introduced. Still, if you get gunk in your wine, be assured that your wine is one of the finest. It has gone through a less aggressive process. Go ahead. Decant the wine by using a decanter and enjoy it without any worries.

The Bottle Shock or Bottle sickness

It is a temporary condition that occurs in bottled wine. For a brief period, the wine loses its integrity in terms of flavors, aroma, taste, and color. The wine is known for its fruity, floral, or spicy aroma. In the case of bottle sickness,

• The wine either completely loses its aroma or becomes faint. It appears as if the aroma is muted.
• Sometimes the wine flavors go off-beat and lose their harmony. It appears to be unbalanced and toned down.
• Bottle-sick wines are harsh on the palate and create an unpleasant mouthfeel.

What causes this condition? The wine has to go through maturation to get a well-balanced taste and flavor. Aging helps in achieving the desired result. Aging is of two types: oxidative and reductive. Barrel aging is an oxidative process where carry-over fermentation and other reactions happen at a controlled oxygen level.

The one that happens in the bottle is reductive, where oxygen is as good as poison. The wine picks up oxygen during bottling. As the wine was pumped into the bottle, a large amount of oxygen entered the headspace. The air from the headspace is pushed into the wine when the bottles are corked. The dissolved oxygen reacts with the alcohol in the wine and produces free aldehydes, which give the wine a “flat” bouquet. But the condition is temporary and lasts for 3 to 4 weeks.

There are many ways to avoid this condition. The use of vacuum filling, where the air is removed before putting a cork in the bottle. Or, by quickening the recovery process. Decanting the wine from the bottle or giving it a gentle swirl can help to recover the wine faster. 

The Lees of Champagne

Champagne is a wine blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Petit Meslier. The still wine from all the grapes is blended at different proportions to create a base wine. This base wine is mixed with young wine sugar and yeast, filled in a bottle, and sealed with a crown cap. The yeast causes a second fermentation and produces carbon dioxide gas. The gas creates a fizziness under pressure.

As time passes, yeast consumes the sugar in the wine and starts dying. The dead cells of the yeast are known as lees. And these lees need to be removed from the final product. To do so, the bottles are shaken and tilted little by little every few days until they are inverted. The process is known as riddling.

Riddling helps to gather all the lees at the neck of the bottle. Then the neck is plunged into a freezing solution. As a result, the lees froze into an ice plug. Finally, the screw cap is removed, and the Lees ice cap bursts out. Once the lees are out, the fizzy wine in the bottle is once again dosed with still wine and sugar. At last, the cork and wire cage are put in to hold the pressure inside.

Riddling requires special skills and a lot of time. With modern equipment, the process has become easier. Otherwise, in earlier days, a riddler could only do this job. A good riddler could riddle 50,000 bottles a day. Before and during the process, the Champagne picks up the flavors of the lees.