Daniel Pambianchi 10 WINEMAKING TECHNIQUES YOU NEED TO KNOW MAY 20-21, 2011 SANTA BARBARA, CA 1
Founder/President of Cadenza Wines Inc. GM of Maleta Winery in Niagara-on-the- Lake, Ontario (Canada) Contributing Author to & Technical Editor of WineMaker magazine since 2000 Author of Techniques in Home Winemaking (Véhicule Press, 2008) & Kit Winemaking (Véhicule Press, 2009) Electrical Engineer 20 years in telecom 2
Pambianchi, Daniel. 10 WINEMAKING TECHNIQUES YOU NEED TO KNOW. WineMaker, June-July 2008, VOL. 11, NO.3. Pambianchi, Daniel. TECHNIQUES IN HOME WINEMAKING: The Comprehensive Guide to Making Château-Style Wines. Newly-Revised & Expanded Edition. Montréal: Véhicule Press. 2008. 3
Wine is made in the vineyard Applies to fresh juice & concentrates Quality = f (price) of the raw material Do your homework & become familiar with cultivar properties Know your supplier 4
Concentrates extractable phenolics More intense aromas & flavors Use to make richer, fuller-bodied style Bonus: make some rosé Guideline: run off 10% of the juice 5
Split into batches & ferment each with a different yeast strain Taste each batch, try various combinations & permutations of blends Decide on final blend 6
Nutrients = source of food for yeast and MLB Use for nutrient-deficient must, juice, or wine o o o Fruit is moldy or does not look healthy Where you expect a difficult fermentation, e.g. high Brix Yeast rehydration nutrients vs. nutrient additives 7
Enzymes = proteins that catalyze reactions Use pectolytic enzymes in reds to breakdown pectin, which can cause wine to become cloudy, and to improve filterability, and to release bound aromas Use macerating enzymes to improve phenolic extraction 8
Also known as rack-and-return Applies to winemaking from grapes Allows for removal of seeds (bittertasting tannins) during alcoholic fermentation Makes young wine more approachable by softening tannins and with more fruit character (esters) Often used in making Pinot Noir 9
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Use oak barrels or oak adjuncts Try micro-oxygenation Try new things, e.g. add an oak nuance to a Pinot Grigio, blend varieties not traditionally blended Try gum arabic to add mouthfeel & reduce astringency in reds, improve aromatic intensity and complexity Try Tanethyl for young reds and rosé or where there is little tannin extraction 11
To soften a wine s acidity by converting malic acid into lactic acid Adds complexity; more flavors Usually always recommended in reds; only certain white varietals Carry out in barrel with lees stirring Partial vs. complete how much of the malic acid do you want to reduce? Alternative: double-acid precipitation 12
Known as bâtonnage in Burgundy To add aroma & flavor complexities, and richness Autolysis: release beneficial compounds from dead yeast cells in the fine lees 13
Taste and taste often, esp. right after AF, MLF, any processing operation, during/after bulk aging, AND before bottling Take new TA, ph, SO 2 readings Assess each wine s evolution (and look for any faults or spoilage) Remember: a wine in two different carboys/barrels can be very different Be patient; don t rush to bottle 14
Try different combinations and permutations of batch samples; leave out inferior wines Objective is to achieve balance Decide on the final blend Address & fix faults immediately 15
A wine tolerates acidity better when its alcoholic degree is higher; acid, bitter and astringent tastes reinforce each other; the hardest wines are those which are at the same time acid and also rich in tannins; a considerable amount of tannin is more acceptable if acidity is low and alcohol is high. The less tannic a red wine is, the more acidity it can support (necessary for its freshness); the richer a red wine is in tannins (necessary for its development and for its longevity) the lower should be its acidity; a high tannin content allied to a pronounced acidity produces the hardest and most astringent wines. Peynaud, Émile. The Taste of Wine: The Art and Science of Wine Appreciation. Translated by Michael Schuster. London, England: Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd, 1987. 16
To protect wine from: a) physical & chemical changes o o o Fining/filtering to remove colloidal matter that may affect clarity Cold stabilization to prevent tartrate crystals in the bottle if subjected to colder temperatures Protein stabilization to prevent wine going cloudy if subjected to warmer temperatures 17
To protect wine from: b) microbiological spoilage o o o Preservatives & stabilizing agents to reduce the risk of spoilage by inhibiting latent yeasts and bacteria, e.g. prevent renewed AF/MLF, Brett, etc. Sterile filtration to remove latent spoilage yeasts and bacteria using membrane filtration technology Maintain a nominal FSO 2 level based on ph; use Sulfite Calculator at http://www.winemakermag.com/guide/sulfite 18
YES Stabilization filtration possible? NO YES Residual sugar? NO YES Residual sugar? NO YES 100% MLF? NO Add sorbate YES 100% MLF? NO Add sulfite (and lysozyme) Optional but recommended Stabilization filtration Microbiologically unstable wine Bottle 19
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