Will an unusually cool California summer result in more balanced, lower-alcohol wines?

“If conditions continue, we'll be harvesting into November”, recently declared David Beckstoffer, president of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers.

While many parts of the U.S. experienced a scorching summer season this year, Napa and Sonoma had the second coldest July in 50 years. Wine growers like to use degree days, measuring accumulated degrees above 50 degrees during the summer season, and so Oakville, at the heart of Napa Valley, has typically 2,700 degree days. But this year, until the recent heat wave, it was at 2,300. In Paso Robles, it's at 2,200, compared to a typical value of 3,000.

Harvesting so late is going to be risky for winegrowers because any rain in October may worsen the threat of mildew that already exists due to persistent caostal fog and cool temperatures. However, more time on the vine can result in better fruit quality.

“The fruit flavors are very strong,” says Larry Hyde of Hyde Vineyards in the Carneros region. “The stuff that makes fruit taste fruity, compounds like esters and ketones, are sensitive to hot weather and tend to be vaporized in the heat of a warm season. But we're finding great fruit flavors in all varieties, and high acidity.”

“2005 was an odd year like this with a late harvest,” explains Andy Peay, winemaker at Peay Vineyards in this article, “It was kind of a lesson to winemakers. People who were used to making these big, bold, high-alcohol wines ended up producing some of the most elegant, balanced, beautiful wines they'd ever made. You just have to take care. Some of our best vintages came out of years like this.”

Grapes should be less ripe this year, which means that less sugar will be converted into alcohol. I think this is good news: we should see more wines with lower alcohol levels as well as higher acidity. I am also looking forward to finding those that are going to show additional balance and elegance.

More on the 2010 California harvest:
•  California's late grape harvest of 2010: What it could mean
•  Grapegrowers anticipate a late - but great - 2010 harvest
•  Three California Winemakers Discuss the Difficult, Possibly Disastrous 2010 Vintage

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If our wine is too bold, too alcoholic, there is hope: just add water

Maybe you knew it already, and like me, have in several occasions surreptitiously dropped an ice cube in your glass of 14%+ alcohol Merlot and found the resulting drink more palatable.

I thought that the wine tasted better because it was a few degrees cooler but according to Harold McGee's latest Curious Cook column, water is actually an ingredient that can enhance flavors.

That may seem counterintuitive: water has no flavor and by adding water, you dilute instead of concentrate flavors. But what McGee found out is that water, by diluting the other ingredients, can change their balance for the better.

This is how it works in high-alcoholic drinks:

“Both alcohol and aroma molecules are volatile,” explains McGee, “meaning they evaporate from foods and drinks and are carried by the air to the odor receptors high up in the nasal cavity. Aroma molecules are also more chemically similar to alcohol molecules than they are to water, so they tend to cling to alcohol, and are quicker to evaporate out of a drink when there's less alcohol to cling to. This means that the more alcoholic a drink is, the more it cloisters its aroma molecules, and the less aroma it releases into the air. Add water and there's less alcohol to irritate and burn, and more aroma release.”

In case of high-alcohol wines, “flavor chemists have found that high alcohol levels accentuate a wine's bitterness, reduce its apparent acidity and diminish the release of most aroma molecules. Alcohol particularly holds down fruity and floral aromas, so the aroma that's left is mainly woody, herbaceous and vegetal.”

So next time your glass is filled with some big, bold Zinfandel, don't worry about what others will think. Add water, the wine will taste more fruity, more balanced, more pleasant, and you will know why.

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US palate on the light side

In the last supplement to Decanter Magazine on California wines, Sonoma based wine columnist Dan Berger investigates how California winemakers are adapting to the evolution of American wine lovers: they want less oak, less alcohol, less ridiculously high prices, and more elegance and balance.

“The US consumer wants a lighter, more drinkable wine, one that has the dinner table in mind, and California winemakers are slowly catching on.” explains Dan Berger in his article.

One of his interviews is with Steve Cornwell, operation manager for MacArthur Beverages in Washington DC. “Consumers are developing their own palate, which is quite a bit apart from what the press and magazines are saying. Also, there is the influence of bloggers, and consumers looking for different styles” says Cornwell.

Many wine lovers are definitively backing off from the expensive bigger style of wine, the “Parker wines”, and they find plenty of imported wines that offer balance and good fruit at a modest price.

So how are California wineries adjusting to the evolving American palate?

According to Rod Berglund, winemaker for Joseph Swan Vineyards, his winery has already made the shift: “In the past, when we talked about Pinot Noir with subtlety and elegance, you'd get a blank stare. But now that consumers are exposed to it, they prefer this style of wine, which offers better balance and a highter level of compatibility with food. Those are the styles that we are selling now.” says Berglund.

For David Munksgard, winemaker for Iron Horse Vineyards, his Pinot Noir wines are actually showing better when their alcohol levels are closer to 13.5% then 14.5%.

In a related article in the Los Angeles Times featuring Adam Tolmach of The Ojai Vineyard, the winemaker confesses: “We got the scores we wanted, but we went away from what I personally like. We lost our rudder when we went for ever bolder, riper flavors.”

He believes that the alcohol levels of his wines, at 15% and higher, are too high but with careful vineyard management, he says, it is possible to retain rich flavors without sending alcohols soaring. It's a matter of spending more time in the vineyard and it's about picking at the right time and from cooler climate vineyards. In the end, Tolmach's goal is to find the balance between California ripeness and European elegance.

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A new trend in France: low alcohol and reduced alcohol wines

In reaction to stricter driving regulations and the decline of alcohol consumption in France, some producers have recently released new brands of low alcohol/reduced alcohol wines. These wines are also aimed at female drinkers who don't like to feel heady after just one glass of wine and also appreciate the reduced amount of calories.

Winemakers have different ways to produce low alcohol wines. This can be done naturally by using varietals such as Grenache and Cinsault that can reach maturity without accumulating too much sugar. They can also use yeasts that do not completely transform sugar into alcohol, leaving a certain amount of residual sugar in the wine. Other methods are more technology-based. Some remove the sugar from the must (Redux procedure). Others remove the alcohol from the fermented wine (reverse osmosis).

Now, do these high tech reduced alcohol wines still taste like wine? According to the French wine magazine La Revue du Vin de France, only few are successful, most are disappointing.

The magazine tasted 13 wines with an alcohol content ranging from 9% to 11.5%. The best rated brand was the Plume (means feather) range from Domaine La Colombette in the Languedoc. The domaine offers a white, rosé and red with an alcohol level reduced to 9% using reverse osmosis. The magazine gave the Chardonnay a 15.5/20 rating and noted that the wine was fresh and tonic with a vivid nose of citrus and stone fruits and a well balanced palate. They also found the Plume Grenache Rosé and Grenache-Syrah Rouge pleasing and well-crafted. But many were lower than average, including the Dix Vin Blanc and Dix Vin Rouge (alcohol limited to 10%), also from the Languedoc and produced by the Vignerons de Calvisson. They didn't have much structure and flavors and were both rated 9.5/20.

Now I am curious to try some of these Plume wines. Unfortunately, I don't think they are imported in the US yet. So maybe next time I go to France, I'll let you know...

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