New barrels unlikely source of Brett

From an article on Decanter.com, we have a theory that new oak barrels are the source of Brett infections in wineries...that "infected wood" has been harvested, and that...

“[Consultant winemaker Matt] Thomson believes that the incidence of brettanomyces has increased in recent years. 'I think it's a relatively new thing in many Old and New World regions,' he said, adding that he thinks the increase is, 'partly down to new wine styles that are low in acidity and relatively high in residual sugar, but also due to increased demand for new oak barrels.' ”

Should this be a concern?
Doesn't nearly everyone use some new barrels somewhere in their production - so, potentially this is a huge issue, right?

For decades wine makers have noticed that Brett infections tend to be caught in wines from new oak barrels - but does that mean the infective yeast was already in the barrel to start with?

I don't think so....

This theory has been in the "folklore" of winemaking for quite a while - it's nothing new (weird that wine makers would employ the "it-can't-possibly-be-MY-fault" type of argument, but I guess that's just human nature...). In fact I ‘ve posted before upon the research work done which showed that 2/3 to 3/4 of wines produced in the EU were contaminated with Brett, and a healthy 50% of all wines were above 425 ppb (the generally accepted threshold for 4-ethylphenol detection for the "average" person), which shows that this is not a “new” problem. But let's delve a little deeper into this subject, and see what we come up with...

• barrels are toasted to temperatures of roughly 200~400°F, and usually this is done with an open flame (though electric heating elements are also used)
• the barrels are likely held at toasting temperatures for 10 to 45 minutes depending on the "house style" toast, or specific toast level requested by the winery, which should be plenty long and hot enough to incinerate any beasties on the wood
• some toasting techniques DO release and/or create sugars from breaking down the wood, some of which may be caramelized by the toasting "style" employed
• the process of toasting can also create low levels of 4-ethylphenol and 4-ehtylguaiacol which are two of the signature compounds of a Brett infection
• these aromas are released in the highest concentrations during the "death phase" (decline) of the population, so detection of the aroma by tasting usually means it is too late in the cycle for prevention - rather you are finding it at the "corrective action" stage
• Brett yeast does seem to like sweeter wines, and lower acidity levels, so there is a viticultural aspect to this problem if fruit is “overly ripe”
• the offending aromas are linked to the presence of caffeic, ferulic and caftaric acids which are at higher levels in less ripe fruit
• contaminated cooperage and other equipment can transfer the dreaded organism from one wine to another undetected, until a later date when the wines "stink"
• vineyards can have a "natural" population of Brett, and equipment used to pick those blocks can bring it into your winery, as well as be a source for cross-contamination of other fruit picked with the same equipment if it has not been properly sanitized beforehand
• infected, but yet undetected, wines can also contaminate larger blends when combined with otherwise uninfected wines

Having seen my share of Brett problems, I can testify to their variable nature (some wines are more noticeably “afflicted” by the yeast, and there is a vintage-to-vintage variation for vineyards as well – though my experience is that past offending vineyards tend to remain infected at some level, that is when the infection can be traced back to a single vineyard or block of fruit). Some varieties like syrah are much more prone to the infection, possibly due to levels of the precursor acids available, and the presence of more sugars attached to the tannins & cyanidins (color compounds). Certainly white varietals are almost never infected (detrimentally) as they don’t really contain those acids, tannins and cyanidins, and therefore can’t be used to produce the offending aromas by Brett.

While true that Brett is noticed more in newer cooperage, this may be two-fold: first, there are already produced compounds of the same nature that Brett produces which may help more people to detect the problem by raising the overall level, and second, there are as previously noted more sugars available for the yeasts to live on (these leach into the wine in the first year of use), which may help larger populations grow – and subsequently generate more of the offending aromas as those larger populations die off. Some varietals have higher levels of the base acids that Brett uses to form the aromas, so are more likely to produce noticeable “faults” later on, and also younger wines still have some sugars attached to their tannin and color complexes (called glycones) which also may be an energy source for Brett when they detach from said complexes as young wines age.

The overall likelihood that the yeast is traveling into the wineries via new cooperage is –at best- doubtful. While it cannot be discounted entirely, it would be surprising since it’d be likely that specific coopers would get reputations as producing those infections, which hasn’t happened to date (I would note that some coopers do have a rep for producing barrels with a Brett aroma from their house toasting styles, but that those barrels are not then always linked to wines which show Brett character or infections later on). Also extremely doubtful is the possible survival of yeast organisms through the toasting process – though that does not mean the barrels couldn’t be contaminated when they were being handled after the toasting as the heads were being put onto them, or during the inspection phase. Important to note that only the interior of the barrels are toasted, and while the entire barrel heats up, only the interior could be considered “heat sterilized” in my mind. The Brett yeasts conceivably could still be on the exterior of the barrel and be introduced by accident when the barrels are handled later. Again, we’d likely see a string of problems all consistently pointing back to a particular cooperage, which isn’t my experience.

Lastly, there is cellar sanitation and “traditional practices”…this is yet another of those modernity vs folklore conflicts…

There is a noted high-end winery in Napa which uses spent lees from their red wines to “paint” the bilges and bungholes of their new barrels red on arrival. Ostensibly, this is used to make an even covering of the barrels, and add a little visual character to their cellar (I have one report that tourists were told the practice “illustrated the winery’s commitment to pay attention to each and every barrel in its care”, whatever that means…). Unfortunately it results in each and every barrel so treated to be twice risked for further infections: once by the fact that other wines which were contaminated but not detected with Brett may now be literally spread all over the new cooperage, and twice by the fact that even if clean wines were applied to the new cooperage, the barrels would now have a food source available for any mold/rogue yeast/what-have-you organism to colonize the barrel and possibly get transferred not only into that barrel itself, but also across to other barrels and blends, etc, as Providence might desire…

It would also not come as a surprise to regular readers that this same winery in the example has been panned by me before, due to the high levels of Brett and other organisms which consistently run through their products.

Wine country in November

This is why I live here...

No matter where I've been, I just can't seem to get these images out of my mind, and always get drawn back to Northern California....
And to be fair, there ARE plenty of beautiful places in the states and in the world with plenty of local color, but this place is just the supreme magnet in that sense for me.
As always, I'll be giving thanks tomorrow for a wonderful family, strong local economy, and of course the fantastic scenery...which magically alleviates all the hard work of harvesting grapes and making wine...
Incidentally, we'll be opening at least "some" of my cached "best" bottles, as it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without sharing!
Though I reserve the right to "hold" some bottles for other holidays....

I must confess, I'll also be giving thanks for the wine buffs and consumers out there...without all of you consumers - regardless of level of interest in wine...well, I'd probably be raising sheep or cattle here instead...and it wouldn't be so damned beautiful!
Cheers to all of you wine lovers out there - wherever you may find yourself this weekend, my glass is raised to you!

Trophy hunting season opens: rumor mill

With Beam sold off, acquisitions are now (again) the hot topic of conversation...
(In reality, they're always a hot topic, just usually invisible to those outside the industry.)

Rumors have persisted for the past few months that higher-end producers in Sonoma and Napa counties are eyeing deals that would have been heresy just a few years ago.

Apparently, the high prices paid for Screaming Eagle, Duckhorn, and Stag's Leap are being used as a precedent for the new round of sales, much like A-Rod's next contract (or that of any professional baseball player worth their salt) seems to keep skyrocketing on the news of the previous "record deal" set only moments prior...

Persistent and multi-source rumors are circulating about Pahlmeyer, Phelps, and Kistler...though how close to completion any of them are if true, what astronomical prices they're asking for, or who exactly the buyers might be is uncertain at this time...
I'd bet we'll see plenty of money change hands with the sale of any of those...
It's almost feels like it's opening day of trophy hunting season...

Heating and cooling your wine

The past two weeks have seen rather low temps at night, which have slowed my ML fermentations down quite a bit.

Harvest is when my energy usage is at its peak, most of it going into cooling during the early part of harvest, which then turns to a need for heating at the end of harvest. A winery’s heating and cooling is generally the lion’s share of the total energy usage of any winery.

Because of the amounts of CO₂ that are generated by fermentation, remote operated fans are constantly flipping on and off drawing out the invisible gas and replacing it with breathable air from outside the winery. At the start of harvest, that outside air is usually pretty warm due to our Indian summers, and that has a tendency to cause the ferments to spike temps upwards…which of course, speeds up the fermentation, releasing more CO₂, thereby needing more exhaust, etc…

It’s a vicious circle: on the hottest days, you pump out your coolest air (replacing it with hot air from outside) to make the cellar a safe place to work while simultaneously causing the ferments to pump more CO₂ into the cellar. Nighttime temps are still relatively warm at the start of harvest, but cool enough to moderate the ferment speeds, so much of the cooling is attempted by drawing in air at night – a great strategy in cool coastal areas, or an area where fog is common.

In the cooler harvests, we see the opposite with exhaust fans drawing in a large amount of cooler air and retarding the ferment speeds, and that might keep us from extracting as much flavor and color from our red fruit as possible. Warming is our task here, and the need for exhausting gasses puts all our warmed air out into the environment instead of keeping our ferments going strong. But higher spikes can cause problems for both yeasts and bacteria and may cause “off” flavors to be formed in your wine. Usually, we’re looking for our white ferments to stay in the mid 60’s (°F) and our reds to be mid 80’s - the higher temps for red are needed to extract the cooler and tannins properly. The Primary ferment (the conversion of sugar to CO₂ and alcohol) causes much more heat to be released than the Secondary (ML) fermentation does, and that’s reversed from our needs for heating, as the Primary happens when its warmer, and the secondary when the weather has cooled quite a bit.

Most times we need the wines to finish with the ML ferment before we can add SO₂ and stabilize the wines…and that is sometimes delayed due to the ML bacteria needing higher temps to work to completion. Since this fermentation happens when the nighttime air we draw in is quite a bit cooler, we generally need to heat at this point.

Ways to create wineries which are more energy efficient are well known, and include the above mentioned passive cooling of night air, insulation for any tanks which are outside – as well as the buildings, and possibly using a cave to keep the wines cool.

Many more wineries are exploring solar panels to help them offset the energy needed for production, and that is buoyed by the wineries which have already installed them and have good results. It’s a good time for creating a new winery since technology has progressed, and even for retro-fitting an older winery to make them more efficient. And the press for "greening up" your operation has never been better...

A true win-win situation for all.

BioD and Ghosts

I know....Halloween is over.
But I came across this just today...a report on CNN by AP/IPSOS: Ghost poll finds that 1/3 of the population believes in ghosts...

Weird, but that's roughly the same percentage of the respondents in the recent Demeter poll who believed that seeing "biodynamic" on a wine label conferred some higher level of quality than a wine without that branding.
The revealing part of the article is the link to what to do if your house has ghosts...

And as hokey as all that is, there are several items in the news this past week which help illustrate why some people see or believe when others (and science) don't. Mainly the reports center on the ability of the brain to see patterns in all that we do - whether they exist or not. In some people those subliminal desires to see patterns are so strong they produce "something" to satisfy that need. This may reveal why some people can "see ghosts", or get into the esoteric-etheric side of BioD. And by that explain how the majority of us cannot understand what the hell they're doing or how they can believe in astral spirits looking over their fields, the dynamization of water, etc...

Certainly having this "extra desire" to see patterns would be a big help when trying to establish some sort of "reading" when looking at the dubious plates produced by "sensitive crystallization"...like it means anything at all...

...but then again, perhaps I'm just exposing my inability to the non-existent patterns they imagine...

Got barrels? Halloween project email...

I get quite a few emails...well, OK, I get a few sporadic emails - most of which involve Ministers of Finance of small despotic African governments with large sums of money...

But every once in a while I get something pretty cool. Like the following one from Jon, who had an old barrel on hand, a sawsall, and some time....
Ok! That's pretty cool, and I'm gonna bestow the first ever Zinquisition Household Seal of Approval on this one for it's originality...

"...next year I may have to get a dozen and have different lights in each one..."
But maybe you'll want to check with the wife before you go whole-hog....
Still, it looks pretty good, and is a nice alternative to the "normal" sorts of things you see barrels made into, and the bunghole nose was a good choice.
Something tells me your wife's going to want it out of the yard by Thanksgiving, with that pumpkin face on it now....