When the Brix Tells You to Pick Before the Grape is Fully Ripened

Brix is a measure of, essentially, the alcohol potential of a wine. Really, it's measuring the sugar content in the grape on the vine but when we consider that during fermentation, that sugar, at least in dry wines, is converted to alcohol, we are measuring alcoholic potential.

In comes 2021. In the western US, particularly in areas that are used to little warm weather in the case of the Pinot Noir vineyards and not too much truly hot weather in the case of many of the others, the brix in the grapes is going to rise more rapidly.

Many winemakers pick by brix. In other words, when the brix gets to a particular level, it is time to pick. Given that the temperatures in a particulaar vineyard do not vary tremendounsly significantly from year to year, when the brix in the grapes hits their target levels, the grapes will be well ripened and ready to make wine from.

Could we have a phenomenon in 2021 where the grapes accumulate sugar content at a faster rate than they ripen? Ordinarily, they move in tandem. But, many of the grapes grown in the Pacific Northwest have never seen weather extremes like this. There is a strong possibility that if a winemaker picks by brix, the harvest will need to very early and the grapes might be too young to produce quality wines. On the other hand, if they pick by overall ripeness, the brix might be so high as to be producing wines with alcohol content a full percentage point or more higher than usual. And, Old World purists might tell us that the alcohol content in many of the Pacific Northwest wines is already too high.

What will Pinot Noir with 15% ABV taste like? It will likely be very dark and have a consistency not at all like that grape normally does. Some people might like it better, particularly people who do gravitate toward the alcohol bombs, but purists will not be happy.

This is likely to be a challenging wine season on the US's Pacific Coast. Be ready for big wines even if you don't like big wines.

Comments

Post a Comment

I'd like your feedback and questions.

Popular posts from this blog

Gruner Veltliner

With some time to kill and wanting to see the countryside, but obviously not able to drive ourselves, we hailed an Uber to go from northern Italy to Wachau, Austria right on the Danube (little did I know that I would need an additional credit card for this trip). We're going to drink wine from the most widely planted grape in the country, Gruner Veltliner. As we arrive on the east bank of the river, we see a number of bottles set out for us. But, something is odd. None of them are the traditional 750 ml bottle that we are used to. No, the wine sometimes affectionately known as Gru-V is bottled in chubby, almost cylindrical with their short necks, 1 liter bottles with crown (you need a bottle opener, not a corkscrew) caps. In Wachau, most Gru-V wine is grown on steep, terraced slopes that have almost no ability to retain soil. Winemakers believe that the stress from lack of soil enhances the flavor profile of Gru-V. Our wines are white with a slight very pale green tinge to them
Read more

Wineries and Wine Clubs

Wineries treat their wine club members well. At least most of them do. And, they should.  Think about it. A wine club member is an automatically repeating customer. And, in being automatically repeating, these are not just any wines, these are the sought after, usually higher priced, limited production wines.  Wineries have three kinds of direct-to-consumer customers: those who come by the winery or buy through the winery website and buy once, those who are fairly frequent customers, but on their own schedules, and those wine club members who get multiple bottles of wine at scheduled times during the year and frequently buy more.  Frankly, it's a symbiotic relationship. The winery gets a group of loyal customers. It gets predictable purchases from a dedicated group. The wine club member gets access to wines that other might want and some other special perks. Some give occasional gifts, some give free shipping, almost all give discounts, and if you visit the winery, you likely get t
Read more

Mount Veeder

Bordering Los Carneros and almost directly to the north, what a difference a few miles makes. Today, we are in the Mount Veeder American Viticultural Area (AVA). The ride here takes only 15 minutes and if there were a raod that would take us directly, it might be only 5, but the terrain. climate, soil, and virtually everything else about Mount Veeder makes it unique. Likely the single most unique thing about Mount Veeder AVA among the Napa Valley appelations is the slope of the hillsides. When we visit the other mountain AVAs within the broader Napa Valley AVA, we see some pretty steep slopes that grapes are growing on -- 10 degree grades, 15 degree grades. In the Mount Veeder AVA, that would be looked at as perfectly flat. And, that is what makes Mount Veeder different. The typical 30 degree grades make access difficult. When we think about what a 30 degree slope really means, consider what it is like to get mechanical equipment into the vineyards. For the most part, it's just not
Read more