July 7, 2004
Birds Have Good Taste TooIn an earlier column I talked about "a year in the life of the grapevine," starting with bud break in winter or spring to flowering and set which usually happens in May, to veraison which usually occurs in July.
Typically happening in mid July, veraision marks the beginning of ripening, according to Jancis Robinson in her "Oxford Companion to Wine."
Birds and other critters become attracted to the baby fruit as the grapes change from the hard, green state to their, softened, colored form. During veraision, as the skin softens, sugars and size increase and acidity decreases.
Continuous heat and humidity are not good. Moderate heat, cool evenings and ocean breezes are a definite plus-some might say "perfect." This explains why our wine grapes grown in the coastal valleys of Santa Barbara County and the Central Coast produce better wines than the ones that come out of Texas Hill Country or the plains of central Nebraska.
(But with a nod of respect to the "Lone Star State," I have to say I have had some darn good wine from the Lubbock area-mostly sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon, and Ruby cabernet, a vinifera clone created at the University of California at Davis.)
What makes a wine interesting-especially a white wine-is acidity. So during veraision, the goal is not to eliminate the grape acids from the fruit. I learned years ago from such illustrious winemaking talent as Bob Lindquist of Qupe, that the benchmark ZD chardonnay fruit from the old Tepusquet Vineyard east of Santa Maria (vintages 1975 through 1978) was not acidulated-that all of the acidity in the wine was natural! This natural acidity made these wines complex, structurally sound, especially fresh, and fun to drink well after a decade or more in the bottle.
Wines lacking sufficient acidity are often called "flabby." Wines made from grapes grown in warm growing regions like the Central Valley of California (or places like Texas) often have to be acidulated. Usually acidulation is done with less expensive citric acid, rather than tartaric acid, the acid of wine grapes.
It is these early revelations that really began to set Santa Barbara County apart from the rest of the winegrowing world within California and in the United States, at least for me!
There is a tasting hint corollary too, I'd like to share. Years ago, at a Sunday brunch at the old Presidio Cafe in Santa Barbara, I learned from Ken Brown of Zaca Mesa, and later, the founding winemaker at Byron, that adding a squeeze of lemon to cheap sparkling wine or champagne makes the quaff taste a whole lot better. Turns out you are acidulating the wine as you are drinking it!
Bon appetit!
Wine lover and Santa Maria Times Wine columnist, Bob Senn, lives in the bucolic Los Alamos Valley and owns the Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium.
