Ever since the center of gravity of quality wine production moved north in the centuries after the Roman conquest of the non-Germanic regions of Europe, the struggle to ripen grapes (never an issue in the more ancient vineyards of the Aegean, Southern Turkey, and Syria-Palestine) has been winemaking’s central problem. Historically, in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, and other classic regions, a fine vintage was one in which the grapes achieved full ripeness. It really was just as simple as that.
It’s still true, but it seems that getting grapes to this point is at least somewhat less of a struggle now. Global warming is part of the answer, surely, but one has to give a nod to human ingenuity, too. In the last 30 years or so, plant scientists and enologists have made real progress in this area, and in those regions where vintners have been able to shrug off the dead hand of tradition and try something new, significant strides have been made.
One way to track the trajectory of this trend is the rising levels of alcohol in wine, almost universally now so much greater than when I started drinking with intent in the late 1970’s. Since sugar translates directly to ethanol, it was inevitable that riper grapes would produce wines with elevated levels of alcohol – but there’s more to it than this, and it begins with the question “when is a grape ripe?”
It seems that there is more than one way to measure maturity: sugar ripeness (the traditional method) and something called polyphenolic ripeness. In the former a winemaker tracks the development of sugar with a view to getting to the point where he can make a wine with enough alcohol to make a stable, palatable wine, say, 12 degrees. In the latter, the winemaker is more concerned with the development of tannins in the grapeskins, hoping to bring them to a point of velvety sweetness that will caress consumer palates.
The problem is that phenolic ripening lags well behind sugar ripeness, such that while waiting for the tannins to come to a cushy pitch of perfection, sugars climb, acidity drops and the flavors of (red) wine shift from the crisp, red berry end of the spectrum to the soft, plummy, black fruit end. The result is softer, cushier wines – but also less lively, refreshing, appetizing wines.
I think that one of the advantages provided by wine shop owners who are also restaurateurs is a preference born of longstanding experience for the kind of wine that performs best not in blind tastings but in the dining room where wine is the natural accompaniment to food. I think of this professional deformation as having a powerful influence on the character of wines on the shelf at the Bottle, and I’m personally thrilled that this is the case. My sense is that the wine world may be slowly, ever so slowly turning away from its infatuation with polyphenolic ripening and returning to a standard that by its nature provides a simpler and saner measure of when a grape is ripe. Doesn’t it feel good to be among the party for whom no turning is necessary?
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I’m working on a series of posts for my personal blog that will chronicle the 2013 vintage in three New England wineries. The properties — Greenvale Vineyards in Portsmouth, RI; Turtle Creek Winery in Lincoln, Mass; La Garagista in Barnard VT — have all volunteered to participate and have been wonderfully cooperative. I expect to publish the first installment early next week. It will provide profiles of the properties, and describe their somewhat varied approaches, and offer a look at the first steps each takes in their vineyards to prepare for the season. I’ll be tweeting each new post and I hope you will look for it and retweet it if you have followers who might be interested in the subject matter. Working title for the series is A New England Vintage.
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First steps in every vineyard involve the pruning of vines – a tedious and time-consuming task often undertaken in very uncomfortable weather. Pruning is quite an interesting activity and one I have struggled to comprehend in its almost infinite variety. I got a nice close look at the process two weeks ago when I visited Greenvale and Turtle Creek to observe their vineyard managers at work. I shot a video of Greenvale VM Hever Ortega pruning one of his cab franc vines. He provides a useful commentary, but you may have turn your speakers up to hear it clearly. He’s using an approach called ‘vertical shoot positioning.’ You can view it here.
For a professionally produced video that really does a fine job of explaining the theory behind pruning and describes in a very clear way both spur-trained and cane-trained methods (the two basic types) see Dr. Grape of the University of Oregon’s agricultural extension service here and here.
That’s it for now.
-stephen