When Good Grapes Go Red

Probably the most important event in the calendar of a grapevine is the point at which the grapes start to turn from green to red and begin to ripen and sweeten. This process is known, in French, as veraison. Veraison happens in white grapes as well, but instead of turning red, they tend to become more translucent instead. This process starts to happen in late July in the Northern Hemisphere and late January in the Southern Hemisphere.

What does it mean?

Veraison is when the grape stops producing and accumulating its various acids and starts to work on accumulating sugars instead, making the grapes sweeter and softer. The color changes help to protect the grapes against the effects of sun and wind – anthocyanin and polyphenols are good for plants too! Once veraison has started, the grapes will be ready to harvest from 30 to 70 days afterwards.

Before veraison starts, wine grapes are small and acidic, green and hard; the green color comes from the pigment chlorophyll. Once ripening starts, the vine moves its energy stores from its roots into its grapes and the chlorophyll is replaced by anthocyanins in the case of red grapes and carotenoids in white grapes, as well as by sugars and other compounds. The grapes also grow – sometimes doubling in size – and develop their aroma compounds, while the acid levels drop. Sugars rise, acids drop and it’s down to the skill of the producer to decide when the perfect balance is struck.

Regional differences

In cooler areas of the world, growers sometimes trim some bunches away from each vine so the bunches left behind get more of the sugars and nutrients.

In warmer regions, some growers trim off leaves to slow down the ripening process so that it occurs later in the year when it’s not so hot.

Some grapes ripen unevenly

There are some varieties of grape that ripen unevenly. Some varieties will have bunches that sport ripe and unripe grapes, not just vines! This uneven ripening is called millerandage and it can make for sweet-smelling but unbalanced and “green” wines. The most commonly-known uneven grapes are Malbec, Zinfandel and Pinot Noir, which is why these are considered to be tricky grapes to grow.


Which Red Wines Are Good for You?

It was great news for wine fans when we found out that their favourite drink has some beneficial compounds in. Even committed white drinkers were persuaded to try reds as there are more health benefits to be had there. Not all reds are the same, though, with some having more of the good stuff than others.

Of course, all the polyphenols in the world won’t help you if you drink too much, but a moderate intake of some reds has a measurably positive effect on health. Moderate drinkers have fewer heart attacks, lower rates of diabetes and even live longer – it’s not an old wives’ tale, it’s scientific fact after hundreds of studies.

What are the healthy reds, then?

When you’re looking for healthy reds, you should look for the drier varieties, as well as the ones that are lower in alcohol – 12.5% ABV or lower – and wines with higher levels of polyphenols, especially procyanidins.

Pro-what, now?

When it comes to wine, if it’s not water and it’s not alcohol either, there’s a good chance it’s a polyphenol – aromas, resveratrol, color and around 5,000 other compounds that the labcoats have isolated. The biggest group of polyphenols is the procyanidins, which prevent cholesterol plaques from forming on blood vessel walls – hence the good effect on heart health.

Which wines have the most polyphenols?

Merlot, Tannat, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sagrantino, as well as Marselan and Durif. Polyphenols are found mostly in the grape skins and seeds, so reds and rosés have higher levels than whites.

Can you tell by taste alone?

Yes. High-polyphenol wines will have stronger fruit flavors, more acidity and a noticeably tannic finish. Many will also be very dark, so watch out for ones that you can’t see through. Bitter is better, too.

The bitterness in wine shows that there’s a lot of procyanidin, so even if you’re not a fan, try to bring some bitterness into your life.

Look for challenging wines

With some wines, you find they just magically slip down your throat and sometimes you don’t really notice. With others, you find you can only take small sips – you like it, but it’s a sipper, not a quaffer. This is good, because you’ll drink a lot less but still feel like you’ve had an experience.


Are Unfiltered Wines Better?

Wine does tend to invite and divide opinion, among both producers and drinkers. Trends come and go (although some actually stay…), and one recent topic of discussion is unfiltered wines.

Some producers and oenophiles see unfiltered as the purest expression of the grape, whereas others can’t get past the dodgy homebrew images that haunt them (maybe after some dodgy homebrew). Lots of producers are turning out unfiltered wines in greater quantities, so are unfiltered wines better?

Why is wine filtered?

Filtration and fining are processes that have been used in winemaking for centuries (at least). Both procedures do the same thing – they clarify and stabilize the wine by removing contaminants, excess yeasts and bacteria so that the wine doesn’t go off or even re-ferment down the line. With finings, agents like bentonite clay are added to the wine, where they attract contaminants and fall to the bottom. Filtration involves passing the wine through very fine membranes to remove bugs and unwanted substances; filtration is, however, seen as more aggressive than fining.

If filtration improves the stability of the wine, why do so many people not do it or even dislike it? Well, filtration has coincided with the rise of natural and organic wine production and so many believe that filtration takes out the character and the subtler tastes. Drinkers looking for nuanced expressions of terroir and grape are turning to unfiltered.

What’s wrong with it?

Natural and unfiltered wine making isn’t like leaving it and forgetting about it for months; it demands a lot of attention and monitoring, even if the wine isn’t touched or moved much. However, critics of unfiltered wines claim that the “character” and “expression” are actually faults that could have been remedied by fining or filtering.

Unfiltered wine isn’t always dodgy or poor quality, though; far from it. Wine producers have a much deeper understanding of the biological processes that go on in fermentation and aging and so can control and monitor it more. For example, with unfiltered wines that are aged in oak barrels, the sediments fall to the bottom over time, which means the wines can be racked (separated from the solid sediments).

To return to the original question of whether unfiltered wine is better, though, the answer seems to be sometimes yes, sometimes no. This is probably why the debate will go on for quite some time. It’s probably the case that people will be advised to look at the producer and its processes before deciding on a wine-by-wine basis.


Study Shows (Wine) Words Matter

What does it take to make the average (and even above average) wine lover drink swill? And pay more for it?

Not as much as you may think.

According to a study done by Australia’s University of Adelaide, it might be as little as a cleverly (and floridly) written label. The study, conducted by the university’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, took 136 wine drinkers and put them through three blind tastings of chardonnay, riesling and sauvignon blanc, each a week apart.

At the first tasting, participants were given no information about the wines. At the second, they received only a cursory description. At the third tasting, however, they were given a longer and more evocative description. The result—surprise!—was that the third tasting’s more elaborate and evocative description substantially increased the participants’ expectations of the wines, also their higher ratings, greater satisfaction, not to mention their willingness to pay a higher price.

“These findings have important implications for wine producers and the hospitality industry in that descriptions require more than just wine tasting notes,” says Dr Lukas Danner, a co-author on the study. “Companies could even consider involving consumers in label description optimization.”

It remains to be seen if describing a wine as “really good shit” will drive higher sales and profits. But, hey, stranger things have happened.


Grape Harvesting Is Becoming Woman’s Work

Citing increased competition from newly legal marijuana farms and stricter immigration enforcement by the federal government, California grape growers are increasingly complaining about the difficulty of finding workers willing to take on the hot, sweaty, backbreaking and often-dangerous job of harvesting grapes.

Some growers, though, have found a secret weapon. Women.

Yes, the so-called “weaker sex” (hah!) is more and more making its presence felt in the formerly virtually all-male world of harvesting those precious cabernet and chardonnay and pinot noir grapes that wind up in your pricy bottle of California wine.

Harvesting teams comprised 50 percent or more of women are now not uncommon, nor are all-female teams, according to a report in the Napa Valley Register. Many of these women, and their male counterparts, are not the migrant workers of days yore, following the harvests from farm to farm and season to season. Whether legal or not, they’re full-time state residents, albeit not residing in the uber-expensive communities where most wineries make their homes.

After initial trepidations about whether women could handle the hard physical labor of hand-picking grapes, most growers and the firms that contract for their workers acknowledge that women can handle the rigors of the job just fine, and while they may not pick quite as quickly as men, they make up for it by being more careful and precise. So much so that some growers actually request all-female crews come harvest time.

Of course, like in any field whose gender composition is undergoing drastic change, there can be problems integrating men and women. Though reports of sexual harassment vary, female farmworkers now have access to organizations dedicated to fighting abuse, and are increasingly likely to report such incidents rather than stay silent for fear of losing their jobs.


Millennials Choosing Grapes Over Hops

It’s been an article of faith - or at least marketing - that Millennials were born not only with a smartphone in their hands but a bottle of craft beer in their mouths.

Studies have indicated that almost two-thirds of weekly craft beer drinkers are members of the Millennial generation, typically defined as Americans born between 1980 and 2000. Then, of course, are the ads, in which designer suds have been portrayed as exclusively the adult beverage of choice of twenty- and thirtysomethings.

Today, however, perhaps not so much.

In fact, financial giant Goldman Sachs (the firm dubbed by Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity”) says its research indicates that the older cohort of Millennials is shifting their alcoholic preferences from beer to wine and spirits, which has led the company to downgrade the stocks of two major beermakers: Boston Beer Co. (makers of Sam Adams) and Constellation Brands (the third-largest beer company in the U.S. and the importers of Corona and Modelo, as well as partners with the crafty brewers of Tocayo and Ballast Point).

Goldman Squid. . . er, Sachs is also predicting an overall decline in beer sales in the U.S. this year, a prediction bucked up by a report by the International Wine and Spirits Record that cites a worldwide decrease in beer sales.

And it’s not just wine that is stealing younger customers from Haute hops. Mary Jane is doing it too. As a recent report by the Wall Street financial services firm the Cowen Group put it, “Coming out of the recession, alcohol's recovery has been uneven, while cannabis incidence (and legal sales) have both risen markedly. We believe this sets up the alcoholic beverage category for another cycle of falling per capita consumption.”

Don’t bogart that IPA, my friend.