On the verge of the harvest season, it’s out with the old and in with the new! Wine, that is. As we make way for the incoming 2015 grapes to be pressed and cellared, the remaining 2014 wines need to be bottled. Wine makers work all year to grow the grapes, and at minimum they spend a year in the cellar. Clarifying agents have been added. Wine varietals mixed. Acid levels, temperature, residual sugar, and alcohol levels all closely monitored. These two long years result in one final product. So it makes sense that the final moments before sealing the golden juice into bottles are crucial.
First off, how do you know what last minute alternations need to be made? Sulfur levels are easy to determine. You fill the test tube up to the “0” level with the wine, add a sulfur detecting solution seen in the photo below until the wine turns blue, and presto you know how much sulfur you have and therefore how much more needs to be added. Ideally you want to end up with about 35g/L. You lose some in the bottle, so you want to have about 40(ish)g/L just before bottling.
What about the nuances of taste and feeling that scientific instruments can’t detect? For that you need good old fashion taste buds! For example, adding sweet wine reserve or grape juice can help balance overly acidic wines. Say you have a dry wine with no residual sugar and you know you want to end up with somewhere between 4g-8g residual sugar per litre to enhance the flavour. You take 96ml, 97ml, and 98ml of wine in 3 separate glasses, and add 4ml, 3ml, and 2ml of grape juice to each glass, respectively. Now comes the tasting. What tastes the best? Are flavours and aromas lost or enhanced with different sugar levels? It’s the winemaker’s decision.
There are other last minute additions as well, including adding Arabic Gum (a stabilizing agent found in more products than you would believe). This wonder-product can create a smoother, rounder, fuller mouth feel in wines. And yes, all these alternations have laws guiding quantities, and proper paperwork must always be in order.
Into the tanks and barrels with the wine these last minute additions go.
Next stop – bottling!
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