Tutored Wine Tasting Thursday 13th July 2017 SWEET WINES “The various ways winemakers can achieve sweetness in their wines” Speaker: Eric LAGRE Head Sommelier SWEET WINE TASTING Speaker: Eric LAGRE, EIC Head Sommelier Thursday 13th July 2017 Tasting notes by Eric LAGRE and Magda KOTLARCZYK, WSET Diploma graduates (with the participation of Nora ESPINOSA CORONEL, WSET Diploma student) (1) 2016, Vin Cuit Selon la Vieille Tradition Provençale, Domaine les Bastides (Carole Salen) Produced in Puy-Sainte-Réparade near Aix-en-Provence, Provence, France (2) 2014, Ben Ryé, Passito di Pantelleria DOC, Donnafugata (Stefano Valla) Produced on the island of Pantelleria then bottled in Sicily, Italy (3) NV, Pineau des Charentes AC, Domaine Gardrat (Lionel Gardrat) Produced in Cozes near Roan in the Cognac-producing region of the Charentes, France (4) 2016, Moscato d’Asti di Strevi DOCG, Contero (Patrizia Marenco) Produced in Strevi, in the Asti-producing region of Piedmont, Italy (5) NV, Champagne Veuve Clicquot Rich, LVMH Group (Dominique Demarville) Produced in Reims from grapes grown in the Champagne-producing region, France (6) 2010, Grünlack Riesling Spätlese, Schloss Johannisberg (Hans Kessler) Produced in the Rheingau, Germany (7) 2014, Grand Constance, Groot Constantia (Boela gerber) Produced in the winegrowing region of Constantia, Western Cape, South Africa (8) 2014, Gold Vidal Icewine, Inniskillin (Bruce Nicholson) Produced in the Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada (9) 2007, Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos, Dobogó (Attila Domokos) Produced in Tokaj from grapes grown in the sub-regions of Mád and Tállya, North-eastern Hungary (10) NV, Grand Rutherglen Topaque (Andrew Drumm) Produced in Rutherglen, North-eastern Victoria, Australia HOW DO WINEMAKERS ACHIEVE SWEETNESS IN THEIR WINES? * The history of the wine trade in the Ancient World could easily be summed up into a history of sweet wines, for only wine with a high alcohol and sugar content was stable enough to travel in those days. Making wine is straightforward; simply let the yeast metabolise the grape sugars into alcohol until it runs out of nourishment and dies. But since that process always results into dry wines, one had to demonstrate sophisticated levels of human ingenuity to achieve sweetness in their wines. It was discovered that, by concentrating the sugars in the fermenting juice, the relentlessly sugar-rich environment would eventually mix with the increasing level of alcohol into a poisonous cocktail fatal to the ferment. Two techniques were used to concentrate the sugars in grape juice and make the first sweet wines; either that juice was simmered down in a process known as inspissation , as in the cooked wines of the French region of Provence, or grapes were picked early then air-dried in a process known as appassimento in Italy or soleo in Spain, as in the raisin wines of the Italian island of Pantelleria off the Tunisian coast. Until distillation was developed to commercial scale in the 17 th century, the sweet wines of the Mediterranean dominated the international market. By artificially elevating the alcohol level in wine at any stage of the fermentation process through mutage , an addition of raw brandy, fortified wines such as Port, Sherry and Madeira came to light. Mutage is the most potent way to stabilise wine, as demonstrated by Pineau des Charentes, which is no more than fortified unfermented grape juice. Then, in the turn of the 20 th century, filtration became so fine that the yeast could be taken out of the equation altogether. Hardly has Moscato d'Asti had time to develop bubbles and alcohol that it is filtered clean then bottled, free of any risk of secondary fermentation. Mutage and filtration achieve levels of aromatic freshness virtually unseen in sweet wines before. But one issue is balance. The former style is often dominated by the fiery potency of brandy whilst the latter can prove sickly. If sugary sweetness isn’t an issue, why not add sugar? Because regulations prohibit it! Only Champagne can legally be finished with a dosage of rectified grape must and cane syrup today. The most terroir-driven way to achieve sweetness in wine is to leave the grapes hanging on the vine and let nature do the concentrating job. The resulting wines truly reflect vintage variations, but never to the expense of balance. A late-harvest wine like German Sp ätlese is the primordial expression of the internal bio-chemical transformations which occur within the slightly translucent and shrivelled golden berries when the vine enters dormancy. As the weather then externally impacts on the physiology of those berries, three derivative styles will take shape. Cool and breezy conditions will turn the over-matured grapes into raisins without compromising their acidity in a process known as passerillage , as in South Africa’s legendary Constantia Wyn. By naturally freezing their water content, deep frost will yield Eiswein or Icewine, which won’t be produced commercially before the advent of the pneumatic press in the 1950s. A combination of humidity and marked diurnal temperature variations will ultimately trigger the botrytisation process that was exploited for the first time in Ottoman Hungary to make Tokaji. Trying to speed these processes up in the comfort of a winery will always result in simpler wines with more dried-fruit aromas and less tartaric freshness of acidity! And since the risk and cost of leaving the grapes exposed to the whim of the elements, diseases and voracity of wildlife with longer hang times means that late-harvested wines never come cheap, be suspicious of sweet wines with a low price tag! As for extended maturation in wood, the process can alter sweetness levels either way. An unfortified sweet wine like Vin Santo from northern Italy will become drier and drier each time fermentation resumes with every new warm season over the many years the cask sits in the loft of the winery, whereas Rutherglen wines and PX Sherry, which are stabilised through mutage, will concentrate their sugars through ageing . Five methods to achieve sweetness from fresh grapes : + = 1- INSPISSATION + = 2-APPASSIMENTO = SOLEO + = 3-MUTAGE + = 4-FILTRATION + = 5-DOSAGE Five methods to achieve sweetness from late -harvested grapes : = 6-LATE HARVEST = 7-PASSERILLAGE = 8-FREEZING = 9-BOTRYTISATION + + = 10-AGEING Wine Name: Vin Cuit Selon La Vieille Tradition Provençale Vintage: 2016 Vin Cuit sometimes comes in the shape of a non-vintage (NV) blend Producer: Domaine Les Bastides (Est. 1967 certified organic since 1976 ) www.carole.salen.free.fr Winemaker: Carole Salen [email protected] Indication of origin: Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade near Aix-en-Provence, Provence, France Style: Cooked wine by the inspissation process in the style of the Carenum of Antiquity In early October, the tradition in Provence is to heat the juice of the last crop of the vintage in huge copper cauldrons over the open flame of an oak fire to make Vin Cuit. Even though copper helps heat the must evenly, one must keep the grape juice under boiling point and stir it constantly to avoid burnt flavours. The scum that rises to the surface must be removed regularly to avoid bitterness. After up to two days of gentle simmering, the juice becomes reduced by 1/3. If the smoke from the wood fire departs its own character to the wine, Vin Cuit is not a mulled wine, nor is it a fortified wine. No sugar, grape spirit or flavouring is added at any stage. Once cool, the reduction is naturally fermented in stainless steel vats. It is so rich in natural sugars that fermentation is slow; it took one month in this instance, but it can take up to one year. Fermentation eventually stops by itself when the level of residual sugars is still high. Malolactic fermentation soon follows. Here, the wine is filtered then bottled just in time for Christmas, but many producers will age Vin Cuit in used oak barrels for up to 5 years. Assemblage: 100% Grenache Vin Cuit is usually a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Cinsault and Rolle Alcohol: 12%abv Vin Cuit reaches 14%abv on average as the wine is usually fermented for longer Residual Sugar: 180 g/l Vin Cuit usually retains 90 g/l of residual sugars as one allows more sugars to turn into alcohol Total Acidity: 4.25 g/l PH: 3.66 Stopper: Natural cork Capacity: 75cl Retail price: £30 inc. VAT The wine is not available in the UK and had to be bought direct hence the price is a guesstimate The grape vine was domesticated in the Caucasus around 4,000 BC. From that time onwards, wine culture spread throughout the Ancient World, starting with the Fertile Crescent then Classical Greece and the Balkans, before reaching every corner of the empire during the Roman conquest. If most dry wines were very prone to spoilage in those days, sweet wines achieved such a high alcohol and sugar content that they proved stable-enough to travel hence the history of the wine trade in the Ancient World could easily be summed up to a history of sweet wines. Italy was and still remains the stronghold of an ancient tradition that gave winemakers two ways to concentrate sugars in wine; either grape juice was simmered down over an open flame to evaporate its water contend in a process known as inspissation to make a style of cooked wine called Carenum, now known as Vino Cotto, or the grape clusters were air-dried in sunshine in a process known as appassimento in Italy (or Soleo in Spain) to make a style of raisin wine called Passum, now known as Passito. Carenum was obtained by fermenting a grape juice reduction by 1/3. Since a reduction by half was too sugar-rich to ferment, the Romans would only use such Defructum to force dry wines.