Sweet Wine Flashcards
At a high level, what are the three ways of making sweet wine?
- Interrupting the fermentation
- Adding a sweet component to the wine
- Concentrating sugars in the grapes
What are two ways to interrupt fermentation and what types of wines are they used on?
- Removing yeasts using a fine filter
(off-dry and medium sweet wines) - Poison yeasts with sulfur dioxide or alcohol
e.g. fortify (add alcohol) part way through fermentation
(Port, fortified Muscat wines)
Sweet Fortified Muscat Wine Characteristics (Mediterranean)
- -Greece
- -Portugal
- interrupted fermentation
- released unaged
- best consumed soon after production
- intensely fruity (grape, peach, perfume)
- medium-to-full body
- high alcohol
- medium-to-low acidity
Vin Doux Naturels
- Muscat de Beaumes de Venise
- Muscat de Rivesaltes (southern France)
Sweet Fortified Muscat Wine Characteristics (Australia)
-Rutherglen (hot region in northern Victoria)
- interrupted fermentation
- aged for long period in oak
- oxidized
- dried fruit (raisin, prune, fig, dried apricot)
- kernel (coffee, toffee)
- sweet
- full body
- high alcohol
- medium-to-low acid
What can not be used to sweeten wines?
sugar
What can be used to sweeten wines?
- unfermented grape juice (suss reserve)
- Pedro Ximenez Sherry
- mixes of grape juice and alcohol
What is used to sweeten Medium, Cream, and Pale Cream Sherries?
- Pedro Ximenez Sherry
- mixes of grape juice and alcohol
Which method is used to sweeten the greatest sweet wines?
Concentrating sugars in the grapes
At what abv do yeasts die?
~15%
Name three methods for concentrating sugar levels in grapes.
- Drying out the grapes
- Noble rot
- Freeze the grapes
How does one dry out grapes? What wines are in made in this way?
- Naturally on the vine with late-harvested grapes
- Laying healthy harvested grapes out in a well-ventilated, dry condition to encourage evaporation
- Recioto (Italy)
- Pedro Ximenez Sherry - PX
What is noble rot? What does it do to wine? What conditions are needed for successful noble rot?
A mold (botrytis cinerea) that attacks healthy, ripe grapes and weakens skins, speeding up the evaporation of water from the flesh of the grapes, causing them to shrivel.
What does noble rot do to wine?
- concentrates sugars and acids
- adds unique flavors
What conditions are needed for successful noble rot?
- problem-free ripening period (fully ripe, healthy grapes)
- damp, misty mornings (encourage growth and spread of mold)
- warm dry afternoons (speed up drying out of grapes)
-handpicking is essentially (not all grapes rot evenly, several passes)
What varieties are particularly susceptible to noble rot?
- Riesling
- Semillon
- Chenin Blanc
