tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2010:/grapecrafter/1 2010-01-14T19:05:20Z The Wine Technology Blog Movable Type 3.32 tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2010:/grapecrafter//1.105 2010-01-14T18:35:30Z 2010-01-14T19:05:20Z

Clark: What can one stand to gain by making multivintage/nonvintage blends? What are the pitfalls and drawbacks of multivintage/nonvintage blends? Arthur Z. Przebinda Founder and Publisher redwinebuzz.com Arthur: The truth? Let me get on my hobbyhorse. Removing the constraint of...

Clark Smith Clark: What can one stand to gain by making multivintage/nonvintage blends? What are the pitfalls and drawbacks of multivintage/nonvintage blends? Arthur Z. Przebinda Founder and Publisher redwinebuzz.com Arthur: The truth? Let me get on my hobbyhorse. Removing the constraint of vintage purity gives the winemaker more freedom to blend for consistency, complexity and balance. Thus non-vintage wines are without exception a superior product and a better deal for the consumer. However, Brother Timothy of Christian Brothers basically brought that winery to its knees by insisting on a non-vintage direction, because it was perceived as a commitment to mediocrity, and to advocate this simple truth is still marketing suicide today. For those of us who make wines which take longer to come around in the bottle, vintage dating has a second concern today, which is its new role as an expiration date. Any chardonnay on the market now labeled before 2006 is suspect – something must be wrong with it or it would have sold by now. We are just coming out with our 2004 because the combination of lees contact, minerality and lower alcohol (12.9) causes it to close up for five years or so. This stale goods phenomenon is worst in dry rosés. The consumer seems to think that 2008 is now over the hill, and will only buy 2009 this summer. In fact, most rosé is pretty reductive for the first year or two. Even Sutter Home White Zinfandel takes over a year to open up. The solution we’ve found to this problem is to remove the vintage date from our rosés. Everybody should do this until the American consumer wises up – not likely any time soon. In a time when consumer ignorance is at an all-time high, it should be illegal to vintage date rosé. Clark tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2010:/grapecrafter//1.104 2010-01-03T08:14:51Z 2010-01-03T08:24:35Z

Hi I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this question but ive spent weeks researching with little results; I make wine, for myself not as a business, and now i know that filtration can be looked down...

Clark Smith Hi I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this question but ive spent weeks researching with little results; I make wine, for myself not as a business, and now i know that filtration can be looked down upon, and I personally dont require it for my wine, however the woman I intend to marry has an slight intollerance to yeast and can only drink wines filtered to a kosher degree (i know its .4 something microns right?) and she Loves wine, especially my wine, so i would like to filter half of all my batches(or all if im as pleased after filtration as i was before) for her to be able to enjoy it; would you happen to know of a relatively cheap($100-150 initial investment) filtration method for home use that would produce kosher (yeast free) wine? I'd heard that forcing it through some under the sink water filters that go to the right micron size can work-having the right micron size filter-? Thanks in advance for your time, if you cant answer my entire question maybe you can tell me what exact size/micron filter im looking for to remove yeast? Enraged Poet Dear EP: Either a 0.45 micron or 0.65 micron will give you a sterile fermentation against whole cells. There may be some autolyzed yeast fragments still in the wine, but this should take out most of them as well. You will be hard pressed to buy a small pump, housing and filter of any sort for under $100. Try St. Pat’s in Texas, the number one provider of equipment to home winemakers. There is also Napa Fermentations in Napa, CA or The Beverage People in Santa Rosa, CA. There is a good chance you could rent the pump and housing from your local home winemaking shop. Since sterile filters are expensive, it might work better to use a depth filter which is cheaper, has more holding capacity and a longer life. With small amounts and proper storage (drug store ethanol), a good 10” depth cartridge such as a Pall Profile cartridge could last several years for you. I just use diatomaceous earth filtration, similar to a swimming pool filter, for clarification, which does not harm the structure of the wine. This would not absolutely remove every yeast, but it will take out over 99.9%, which might be fine. Homewinemakers often fine rather than filter to achieve clarification, because it's very cheap. It’s a black art. I’d start with Sparkaloid, which is pretty neutral. Another trick that works pretty well is to chill the wine and let the tartrates form on your yeast and drop it to the bottom. The wine needs to be left still for a few weeks to get good clarity. Sitting peacefully in a cold basement or old fridge works best. Then carefully rack off the sediment. Good luck! tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2009:/grapecrafter//1.103 2009-10-05T23:20:43Z 2009-10-05T23:34:16Z

Clark, I have a technical question about my wine list that I hope you can help me with. A winemaker says he does not spray any chemicals on his grapes and says he is "natural without compromises". But he uses...

Clark Smith Clark, I have a technical question about my wine list that I hope you can help me with. A winemaker says he does not spray any chemicals on his grapes and says he is "natural without compromises". But he uses copper and sulphur, as well as treatments based on propolis. So I'm not sure if he would be organic or natural or sustainable. Can you give me some guidance? He's in Italy, not the US by the way. Thanks, Michael Bordeaux mixture are acceptable for organic certification although both are toxic to workers and copper has been found to be harmful to fish, livestock and—due to potential build up of copper in the soil—earthworms. Any substance is made of chemicals. Water is a chemical. If he sprays anything on his grapes, it's made from chemicals. The pop definition implies “bad chemicals; harmful, industrial, synthetic chemicals.” Water, of course, can be synthesized and can be harmful, but I’m mostly in favor of it. How can you tell bad chemicals? Either you ask a certification board or you trust the grower. Or ask what he does use. This I could research for you. “Sustainable” at least implies some sort of neutral carbon footprint, and has the potential for validation organizations to spring up eventually. I am convinced that “Natural” is the most worthless of these terms because the factions involved will never agree on what it means. See my article on AppellationAmerica.com. I believe the best way to tell if something is natural is just to ask Alice Feiring. It’s her personal word, and like pornography, she knows it when she sees it, even if nobody else does. The nearest I can slice your guy is that he isn’t using anything banned from the organic certification but isn’t certified (he would say so) for some obscure reason. Perhaps he hasn’t made it through the three year waiting period, or the local certifier has a feud with his uncle. Maybe he hates paperwork. Or maybe, like most farmers, he is doing what he thinks is right; following the rules that make sense to him and ignoring the idiotic. That sounds uncompromising to me. ]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2009:/grapecrafter//1.102 2009-09-03T23:12:49Z 2009-09-03T23:46:07Z

Here at last is a two minute video which captures the essence of wine's distribution network in the U.S. as it malfunctions in a down economy. Also the funniest video I ever saw. The simple truth of this situation explains...

Clark Smith two minute video which captures the essence of wine's distribution network in the U.S. as it malfunctions in a down economy. Also the funniest video I ever saw. The simple truth of this situation explains why the channels of access for the 150,000+ wines on the market need to go beyond the 2,000 shelf positions in even a very large store. The system is choked with crap. No wonder pundits complain about sameness. But the enemy isn't technology -- it's the distribution system. These people simply aren't tasting what's out there. There are more great, distinctive American wines available to day than ever before in history; literally a hundred times as many as in 1975, But the internet is your only access to them. To provide guidance through that fascinating but daunting maze is why I started charting the AVA's at AppellationAmerica.com. Despite its problems, the Best-Of-Appellation process continues, now self-sustaining. Yours for a buck a week.]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2009:/grapecrafter//1.101 2009-08-09T23:45:26Z 2009-08-10T00:01:26Z

Dude, the smoke in that Faux Chablis just sends me. You say it's yeast autolysis. I've stirred a lot of yeast, but I never got THAT! Is there a secret combination of elements? Or maybe I didn't stir often enough...

Clark Smith Faux Chablis just sends me. You say it's yeast autolysis. I've stirred a lot of yeast, but I never got THAT! Is there a secret combination of elements? Or maybe I didn't stir often enough long enough? Mark: Thanks for the nice comments on the Faux. We're trying to show two things in this wine. One is that California Chardonnay doesn't need to be an oaky, toasty butterbomb -- blame the winemaker, not the terroir. This wine shows the distinctive lemon oil character because the alcohol isn't very high (12.9%), lowered from 14.8% original at dryness to a sweet spot. A high degree of ripeness is essential, just in Chablis, to get this character, but in CA wines it hides beneath the alcohol, and we have to adjust it. In Chablis, this isn't necessary. Instead they adjust the alcohol UP with beet sugar to make up for the dilution from rain.]]> maillard reaction products. I’ve never seen them in batonage wines until at least three years later. These wines are quite steely when they're young, and only open up after four or five years in the bottle. Worth the wait, though.]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2009:/grapecrafter//1.100 2009-08-06T08:18:38Z 2009-08-06T08:35:47Z

In my consulting work, I see all too often the all-powerful winemaker lording his position over the defenseless grower in order to impress his clueless owner-boss, forcing half the crop to be dropped from perfectly balanced vines and resulting in...

Clark Smith In my consulting work, I see all too often the all-powerful winemaker lording his position over the defenseless grower in order to impress his clueless owner-boss, forcing half the crop to be dropped from perfectly balanced vines and resulting in shitty quality. It's positively feudal! What's really missing is a spirit of cooperation between growers and wineries -- what's good for each is good for all. The grower is the guy who shows up in the vineyard every morning, thus a resource worth cultivating. This isn't 1970. More and more, the good growers are coming to understand wine quality concerns and to be in a better position to make the vine balance call than the winemaker, particularly if his experience is in another climate. great job of talking sense about this issue, and I can only suggest you run over and read it. Thanks, Jeff, for a very well articulated discussion which winemakers are willing to cop to far too seldom. More often than not, less is just less, both in yield and quality. As a simple example, a well-taken-care-of vineyard has a higher yield per acre simply because all the vines are alive and bearing. Growers shouldn't be penalized for this, nor rewarded for uneven and dilapidated stands by brain-dead critics and eno-geeks focused on a tons-per-acre number like some stockbroker reading tickertape. If this business isn't about team playing, about forging long-term relationships where each player has a stake and a role, then we should all just go sell insurance. Winemakers need to learn a little humility and quit hogging the ball. Every year a winery and a vineyard cooperate and get to know each other, the quality automatically goes up and the waste goes down. There's gold in them there relationships. The smart winemaker today will find sharp grower partners and give them the respect they deserve. ]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2009:/grapecrafter//1.99 2009-08-05T18:26:13Z 2009-08-05T18:58:27Z

Just returned from a very interesting day at the 7th annual symposium of PS I Love You, featuring a wide variety of interesting speakers including a presentation on the Petite Sirah Heritage Block which is being created as part of...

Clark Smith 7th annual symposium of PS I Love You, featuring a wide variety of interesting speakers including a presentation on the Petite Sirah Heritage Block which is being created as part of the extensive UC Davis Vit and Eno Dept. makeover, which will include eight clones of Petite Sirah, four of its mother Peloursin, and hopefully a clone or two of its father, Syrah. The PS’s will be referred to as Durif, paying homage to the French nurseryman who apparently made the original crosses by fertilizing Peloursin flowers with Syrah pollen, planting the seeds and making selections from the resulting plants. Sounds scientifically kosher, but there are problems. ]]> Wine Institute legal beagle Wendell Lee can convince them what every wine professional knows -- i.e. that the two are synonymous – our esteemed Federal Government will require that any wines made from vineyards propagated from cuttings taken from the Heritage Block will need to be labeled “Durif.” Oh, boy. Apart from the nerdy obscurity of the name, Durif is linked to the good doctor’s failed experiment. His aim (which was successful, for all anybody cares) was to instill Peloursin’s resistance to downy mildew into a syrah-like spawn. However, in the process he also transferred its hand grenade cluster tightness and thin skin as well, creating a variety which would do fine in Peloursin’s high altitude provenance but which was laughably susceptible to grey rot in the humid Rhone Valley floor. As a result, Durif has been a total flop in the Rhone, relegated to ignoble variety status in French eyes, demonstrably vastly inferior to its sire’s status as top grape, and hardly planted at all. But in California, the grape flourishes. In my explorations of the many North American AVAs for AppellationAmerica.com, I have encountered Rieslings, Merlots, Cabernet Francs, Viogniers and even Chardonnays that frankly put our North Coast offerings to shame. But because of its need for low humidity, Petite Sirah is very rarely planted outside the West Coast, a naturally exclusive California phenomenon more than any other grape. There is no question in my mind that in California conditions, Petite Sirah excels over its prestigious parent. Check out my articles on Petite Sirah's regional characteristics and my speculations on it sources of its diversity. Peloursin contributes a charming grapefruit-like brightness to the aroma which Syrah lacks. Time and again in competitions, flights of Petites receive as high as 50% gold medals while adjacent categories of Syrahs have to be content with 5 or 10%. Winegrowers, more than most any other enterprise, are well advised to take the long view. As awareness of emerging AVA’s grows in the coming decades, California will be well advised to concentrate on its natural strengths. The less association with the stigma of Dr. Durif’s catastrophe, the better. ]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2009:/grapecrafter//1.98 2009-07-25T18:19:45Z 2009-07-25T18:32:29Z

Clark Man, it was great to see you and to finally get the formal intro to Suzy. Here's the customer feedback on some of the wines I bought. When I opened the case, i was a little nonplussed to see...

Clark Smith the wines I bought. When I opened the case, i was a little nonplussed to see 03 and 05 Chard. i wasn't worried about the old (96?) CF, and I gave it to a friend, anyway. As a valued gift, not to dump it. 05 Penny Farthing CH; I am one of the few who drink old Chard, and understand it. The wine is still there, but on its last gasp. i don't think most people would understand it or like it. My advice is to quit shipping it, even though the 6-pak price is reasonable. Now, for the 03 Faux Chablis- fuck, it was wonderful. Certainly not a young wine, but totally alive. where does the smoke come from- heavy toast bbls? We had it with some very good Washington Blue Points, and it was superb! I don't remember having a Chablis with that smoky oak taste, it was more like a high end Graves in that respect, but it definitely had the cool mineral thing and the pure Chardonnay fruit of Chablis. Why did the Penny Farthing crapout but the older Faux maintain? ML? Vineyard (terroir)? Fuckin A, i want a case of that shit. 02 Syrah- dude, what can i say? When i was trying to figure out what to plant on my dad's lousy three acres in Coombsville, back in 1990, i drank a lot of Syrah, and decided to go with it. they were really consistently good, interesting, diverse. now, Syrah sucks. I remember the ojai, Edmunds St John, alban, Orion,Jade Mtn, and Qupe- captivating, idiosyncratic, unique, interesting. So, I planted Syrah. Now, the variety has expanded exponentially, but it's all banal, mediocre, boring shit. Even the good apellations make boring, overripe, jammy, hot, shit. And Monterey makes V8 cocktail. What happened? So, after my orgasmic moment with the Roman Syrah you brought to Long Beach ( or Riverside?) a coupla years ago, I felt bereft. The o2 Syrah renewed my faith. I want more. I am finally going to France, staying in Avignon for 2 weeks, and you bet I'm hitting Cote Roti and hermitage. I want to buy more of your Syrah, but it's not on the website. What are my options? sincerely, mark. PS thanks for being so nice to my buddy, Frank, at the Long Beach dinner at DaVinci's. He's not part of this wine geek world, and he really enjoyed being down our little rabbit hole for an evening. ]]> chips – not really intended for ageing, so it’s included in the selection exactly for this comparison. However it does show that good acidity can hold a wine together longer than the overblown styles. The Faux Chablis is grown by Steve Krebs at Napa College to prove that minerality and ageability are possible in Napa. There are no pesticides and only round-up on the berm, so we have a very healthy soil food web – lots of earthworms and mychorhizal fungi, so we are showing that we get good uptake (of what we don’t really know, but it’s clearly very minerally). That’s one leg of the ageability stool. We harvest at fully golden, which is why we have that nice lemon oil aroma typical of Chablis, and we lower the alcohol from around 14.8 so you can smell it and to prevent bitterness. Second, there is good ellagitannin extraction from untoasted chips, around 5 g/L, which brings gallic acid, a wonderful antioxidant, into the wine, but also some astringency. To counter that and provide additional longevity, we stir lees twice a week for about nine months. Same as in Graves (except we stay out of barrels to prevent ML), so you have a good palate. Think champagne – same yeastiness. The 2005 was provided so you can see what the wine looks like before this character emerges after four or five years In the bottle. You will find that the 2005 is currently still quite tight. It will in the end be a better wine, but right now has quite an edge. It’s not acid – both wines have about 6 g/L and pH’s around 3.5. I’ll check and see if we can find you some 02. I think there’s a case or two still around. This is also a very minerally wine, but also very tannic and closed, which we had to hold back and only released about a year ago. That’s why we decided to try using these grapes (Renaissance vineyard, all organic, 2200 feet, decomposed granite) for sulfite-free, and in 2003 changed to Roman Syrah. It’s been very successful, because the wine is its own preservative. The key to this wine is to form the tannins with lots of early micro-ox so they integrate the aromas and you get soulfulness instead of spoilage. Clark ]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2009:/grapecrafter//1.97 2009-07-13T03:25:40Z 2009-07-13T03:40:13Z

There is much discussion on the net concerning Appellation America's decision (really their only option) to go to a $50 per year subscription for the many services it has provided for free for the last six years -- free to...

Clark Smith There is much discussion on the net concerning Appellation America's decision (really their only option) to go to a $50 per year subscription for the many services it has provided for free for the last six years -- free to the public but extremely costly to its long-suffering investors. This amazing site, which contains many hundreds of articles and videos exploring the 300+ AVA's in North America, the grapes they grow, and as complete a reference as one could wish to the continent's 5,000 wineries and the wines they offer. Failing to find an alternative method to stay alive (advertising rates are hopeless in such a specialized area), the site is gambling that 10% of its monthly traffic will think enough of the site to help support it. I'd like to share below a correspondence which many readers may find reflects their own feelings on the subject. Clark I'll really miss you. The Santa Cruz Mtn articles were very informative. And the technical shit- no other place to get it. As for AA- Fuck 'em. I knew when they started selling wine they were OVER. I've defended the AA "mission" in many a wine geek circle. You're on your own, now. Like it matters. Cha Ching! I just want you to know that the things you've taught me and the technology you have given us all is making me money. Not your kind of money, not BIG money, but money, nonetheless. So I can make non-technology wine on the side. Thanks. Mark Dear Mark: Thank you for your kind acknowledgement. For what it’s worth, my enterprises have not worked out as you imagine, and the job at AA is really all I have left, while my winery hangs on by a thread. Shame on you. Surely you can scare up a dollar a week for the best American wine information source on the web. Clark Clark Oh, all right. You're right. What's a buck. You sold me. I should probably order some wine from you, too, maybe then your winery will be hanging on by two threads. Two threads are better than one. Ha! God knows I like your stuff. Damn, I'm really easy. Or, you're really good. Probably a little of both. Sincerely, Mark. tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2009:/grapecrafter//1.96 2009-02-02T05:30:21Z 2009-02-02T05:48:47Z

Clark, I am visiting burgundy and though my tastings have been limited I have observed that given comparable levels of 'new oak' and the same cooperage the red burgundies seem to show 'oaky' characters less than our Pinot's in Oregon....

Clark Smith Clark, I am visiting burgundy and though my tastings have been limited I have observed that given comparable levels of 'new oak' and the same cooperage the red burgundies seem to show 'oaky' characters less than our Pinot's in Oregon. I posted on my Blog ( www.vintnersvoice.com ) my initial thoughts: 1). The relationship between cooper and burgundian producers being 'closer' than that found with oregon producers leads to a 'closer matching' of the barrel to the wine 2). The coopers keep the better wood for the burgundian producers. However after some thinking inspired by Arthur at www.winesooth.com I began thinking about differences in tannic structure. My question: Is it possible that the tannic structure of the red burgundies, generally speaking, allow the 'oaky' characters to be better integrated? I arrived at this possible solution to the problem while considering some of your thoughts on aromatics being integrated into tannic structure. Given the close relationship of smell and taste I don't think it is a stretch to say that tannic structure could also integrate flavors as well. I have also observed that the producers I am and basing my observations on tend to be less extractive ( less manipulation of the cap during fermentation ) leading to my second question: Is difference in integration of 'oaky' characters and tannin structures the result of where the grapes are grown or how must/wine is handled? What aspects of winemaking ( extraction, elevage etc ) might be manipulated to alter tannic structure in a way that better integrates oak? I am very interested in your thoughts on this. Thanks, Jerry D. Murray Winemaker/Vineyard Manager Patton Valley Vineyards Dear Jerry: aromatic-integration-through-structure hypothesis, which clearly applies in big Cabernet and the like. Since, however, we see these effects even in the structured whites I make, I think the notion has merit. How you think about what you have may be more important than terroir. Begin with the notion of maximizing the reactive, structure-building portion of the tannin and color. This leads to precise practices regarding canopy management, maturity, and extraction which make a huge difference in flavor integration and depth. Co-pigmentation strategies (using as little polymer and as much monomer as possible) are among the Burgundian tricks of the trade which hardly seem to get a hearing here. Cap manipulation is going to be fruitless without adequate cofactor; in fact it just makes matters worse. The hangtime craze not only leaves Pinot without unpolymerized co-factor, but also the higher alcohol destabilizes the extractive colloids. An understanding of the timing complexities of Pinot is also critical, and here I fear we are perhaps two decades behind the French. As an example, so often I encounter the bonehead practice of lees stirring in young wines, destroying anthocyanins before structure has had a chance to form, and resulting in weak, dry wines with little staying power and poor aromatic integration. Foolish claims from Davis that different types of astringency relate exclusively to total tannin are a measure of how backward our thinking is. If one allows 6-8 months for structure to resolve, carefully conscious of temperature and oxygen availability (a cold cellar is death to Pinot), then lees stirring of the resulting structure will enhance oak integration. This is a lot like making a soufflé, where you must first make a meringue from the pure egg whites and only then fold in the yolks. Perhaps at the core of the dilemma is the way we think about oak as a flavorant rather than a variety of structural enhancement tools. Of it’s seven functions, the important uses (and abuses) of oak -- copigmentation, reductive strength. Structural building blocks for aromatic integration, sweetness and framing -- are largely ignored domestically. You are beginning to think and talk like a postmodernist. Welcome to GrapeCraft! Clark ]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2008:/grapecrafter//1.95 2008-12-15T16:50:16Z 2008-12-15T17:34:10Z

We have a mobile cross flow filtration business in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. We use a 2008 Koch machine with hollow fiber cartrdiges which will remove particles to .2 microns. I recently had a winemaker note that he thought...

Clark Smith The Crossflow Manifesto in 2001. This is a sequel to The Crossflow Comix which readers may also enjoy as a brief but hillarious history of membranes in the wine industry.]]> political quagmires these days from which it is unlikely to extricate itself for useful investigation any time soon, such as developing an actual language for tannins such as exists in France. You just need to do trials and taste. I'm eager to hear what you're learning. ]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2008:/grapecrafter//1.94 2008-11-29T03:40:45Z 2008-11-29T03:52:44Z

Dear Clark: I met a wino a few weeks ago who spouted a term at a lecture that described the color deficient qualities of Nebbiolo, Pinot noir and Grenache. He said that they were all "monosomething saccharides". Do you know...

Clark Smith PSs. -Patrick ]]> non-acylated monoglucoside anthocyanins.” I am not aware that Nebbiolo pigment lacks acylation, but it certainly accounts for some of the peculiar color difficulties of Pinot Noir. All Vitis Vinifera are monoglucosides (the di-saccharide pigments, illegal in Europe, mark American genera), so that part is no big deal. This means that unlike most other flavonoid phenolics (that’s the familiar three-ring circus of chicken wire you see in all the books), anthocyanins have a fragile structure which is stabilized in the grape somehow by enzymatically tacking on a glucose sugar molecule on the “C” ring, the one in the middle containing an oxygen molecule. This glucose protects the molecule from falling apart, but is itself a highly edible goodie which is vulnerable to attack by lots of enzymes from yeasts and other microbes. So the grape in most varieties tacks an acetic acid (vinegar) molecule onto the sugar to put a big bump on it which makes it fit poorly into the active site of the yeast enzymes which are trying to attack it. Tacking on a protective acetyl group is called acylation. Pinot lacks acylated pigments. The other way to stabilize pigment is to incorporate it into a polymer. This takes time, so the pigment is most vulnerable in the fresh wine. It’s important to get pinot to settle clear and let it see a tiny bit of oxygen when it’s young to stimulate oxidative polymerization. Unfortunately, unlike Cabernet and Petite Sirah, Pinot Noir doesn’t readily fall clear because it lakes tannin to fine down the yeast turbidity, so it’s doubly vulnerable. Another problem Pinot has is that it is deficient in copigmentation cofactor. Anthocyanins aren’t soluble in 13% alcohol, so they need to be extracted into little beads called copigmentation colloids. But they are positively charged, so they repel each other and won’t form beads. Thus there need to be other monomeric phenols which will help glue the bead together. Pinot Noir in most weather conditions (except, say, the Sonoma Coast) is very low in these cofactors, so its pigments won’t come out easily. This is also true for Nebbiolo in most regions, which is what makes Barolo so special. ]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2008:/grapecrafter//1.93 2008-11-18T01:38:55Z 2008-11-18T01:44:10Z

I am on the hot seat this week for Pamela Heiligenthal’s forum called Vino Exchange at Enobytes.com. It will be a free form, multi-topic discussion where I take questions on any subject. I’ll field questions on wine technology from my...

Clark Smith Vino Exchange at Enobytes.com. It will be a free form, multi-topic discussion where I take questions on any subject. I’ll field questions on wine technology from my usual shy perspective. I’ll also discuss my recent decision to license out the Vinovation service business and devote myself to characterizing and chronicling for Appellation America all 307 U.S. and Canadian appellations. Thus we will be able to discuss what regional diversity I’m encountering and the factors that cause wines to express themselves differently in different regions. Readers should feel free to log on and observe or contribute. Come help make it interesting! ]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2008:/grapecrafter//1.92 2008-11-13T09:46:47Z 2008-11-13T09:57:08Z

Now that I have sold off the high tech service business, I get to have true fun tasting through and characterizing the AVAs of North America for AppellationAmerica.com, my new day job. I recently worked closely with the folks at...

Clark Smith characterizing the varietal's diversity, and the other speculating on its sources. Please check them out.]]> tag:www.grapecrafter.com,2008:/grapecrafter//1.91 2008-11-12T08:14:27Z 2008-11-12T08:24:22Z

I apologize to those of you bored backwards out of your underpants with the previous technical discussion. Lest you imagine I spend all of my time on such technical matters, please check out my recent posts at Appellation America concerning...

Clark Smith Petite Sirah. There are two articles -- one popular, outlining the regional diversity we encountered in our tastings, and one more theoretical which speculates on the sources of regional diversity in the grape, and I believe offers useful framing of that discussion for other varietals.]]>