Natural Wine Corks Help a Wine to Age but Can Also Lead to Oxidation

Over the years, I’ve had my share of wines go bad even with proper storage in a wine refrigerator that’s in a dark location. These were medium-bodied California red wines that were 7-10 years old and I had expected them to hold up well. But, upon pulling the cork and pouring a glass, it was immediately obvious by the brown-orange hue and the nutty smell and taste that they were oxidized.

It’s always greatly disappointing to have a bottle go bad and have to dump it. But why?

During some recent reading, I was again reminded that natural corks in wine bottles allow a tiny fraction of oxygen through them - this actually helps a wine age. But, what I hadn’t appreciated was that a natural wine cork can actually allow enough oxygen through it in two to three years to breakdown the sulfites that are added to wines to prevent a wine from oxidizing!

It’s often said, and I’ll repeat it again, most wines are not meant for aging. And, I’ve proved that to myself several times. So, when you purchase nice bottle of red wine, my recommendation is to enjoy it within a year or two if properly stored in a wine refrigerator that’s in a dark location. Beyond that you can run into trouble. Cheers!

Ever Wonder? Why Do the Colors of Red Wines Differ?

I was recently asked about the color of wine. Specifically, why does the color of a red wine vary, especially within the same variety. So, let’s take a look at the factors that affect a red wine’s color.

As the grapes are harvested, they are piled into containers. And, under their own weight, some of the grapes get squeezed to the point of releasing their juice. This is referred to as ‘free-run’ juice. The color of this juice is generally pretty light and transparent, as shown in the photo.

But, the colors of finished and bottled red wines can range from pale pink (rosé wines), to purple (Syrah), to ruby (Cabernet Sauvignon) and to deep garnet (Borolo).

This range of color in red wines comes from the pigment from the skins of grapes. By soaking the grape skins in the juice, the pigment ends up “staining” the juice and producing the various colors. Rosé wine spend very little, if any, time in contact with the grape skins while other wines will spend as much as two weeks in contact with the skins. And, different red varieties (i.e., Gamay vs Cabernet Sauvignon) just naturally produce different levels of pigment.

Thus, deeply opaque red wines simply have more pigment in them. And, it should be noted that wines generally lose pigment as they age. So an older wine will actually have less intensity of color (and likely a bunch of sediment in the bottom of the bottle!).

So, there’s a quick overview of how the colors of red wines differ. Cheers!

Wine Fun Fact: What is Élevage?

There are a lot of fancy terms used when describing wine and many of them get thrown around like everyone should know what they mean.

The other day I was reading through some material and came across the term “élevage” and had to stop. What does this mean?

It turns out it is a French word that literally means rearing or raising. It is the process of nurturing wine from its fermentation, to the barrel, to final bottling. And, proper élevage makes all the difference between making superb, rather than merely ordinary wines. Cheers!

A high-level summary of the winemaking steps and factors included in élevage:

Ever Wonder? How is Wine Made? Part 3

As discussed in the first two parts of this series, the wine making process begins with harvesting the grapes and then proceeds into fermentation. But, once the natural sugars in the grapes are converted to alcohol, the process isn’t over. The aging process is the third and final stage of wine making. And, it takes place in the winery and in the bottle.

Following fermentation, wines go into barrels, bottles, or storage tanks. Some wines will age for a few years before being released while others may age just a few weeks.

During this time, wines may undergo several processes. Sediment in the wine such as dead yeast cells, grape seeds, stems, pulp and tartrates (harmless tartaric acid crystals) may remain in a barrel or tank during and after fermentation. Immediately following fermentation, wine may be "racked" to remove this sediment or “lees.” Or, the wine may be aged for an extended period on the fine lees in what's called "sur lie" aging. Fine lees can enhance an aging wine with added richness, flavor and aroma complexity, and can also bind with excess tannins.

Fining is another technique used for clarifying wine using agents such as bentonite (powdered clay), isinglass (fish bladder), casein (milk protein), gelatin or egg whites, which combine with sediment particles and cause them to settle to the bottom, where they can be easily removed.

White wines are generally aged in vessels that preserve the grapes natural fruit flavors as much as possible. This is done by using stainless steel tanks, concrete tanks or neutral barrels (barrels than have been used for more than three vintages) which do not add oak flavors. But, Chardonnay is sometimes aged in new oak (up to three years old) to impart flavor and give it that “buttery” flavor.

Most red wines (and some white wines – especially Chardonnay) go through Malolactic conversion where sour acids (malic acid) are converted to less harsh, smoother acids (lactic acid).

Red wines are then typically aged in oak barrels. These may be new oak barrels (never before used) to impart bold oak flavors, a combination of new and neutral oak to add moderate oak flavors, or completely in neutral oak to impart no oak flavor.

Once the wines are through the aging process at the winery, the wine is bottled. Sometimes the wines are immediately sent to market while other wineries may choose to let their wines (usually reds) spend another year or two in the bottle before going to market.

So, wine making may seem easy, but to make a really good wine is quite difficult and involves multiple time-consuming processes.

The three parts of this series are meant as an overview of the winemaking process. Future blogs will deal with specifics in greater detail.

So, here to the wine makers who make it all possible. Cheers!

Ever Wonder? How is Wine Made? Part 2

Last time we began looking at the wine making process, starting with the grapes. While the grapes certainly are the most important ingredient in wine making, there is another very important ingredient - yeast. So, let’s take a look at the fermentation process.

Once the grapes are harvested and prepared for the wine making process, it time to turn the grape juice to wine. Large tanks are used in this process and here is where yeast is added.  It's the natural sugar in the juice of the grape that gets consumed by the live yeast. The bi-product of the yeast's consumption of sugar is alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2).  Remember that red wines have the juice and skins together in the fermentation tank and the production of CO2 causes all the skins to float to the top of the tank.  So winemaker's have to periodically 'punch down' the skins to intermix them with the juice or 'pump over' the juice as another means of keeping the skins mixed in with the juice. But regardless of the grape type, the fermentation process is relative quick, lasting typically from ten days to two weeks. And, another factor limiting the fermentation time is the life of the yeast. Depending on the strain of yeast, the fermentation process will stop once the alcohol level reaches levels of 16-18% when the yeast dies or after all the sugar is consumed.

Once fermentation is complete, white wines will be transferred to stainless steel tanks or oak barrels for aging. Red wine will then be separated from the skins and moved to vessels for aging. And, that’s where we’ll pick up next time - aging of wine. Cheers!