Contributed by Dan Berger
 

Exemplary wines ideally should smell like grapes, or flowers, fruits, and other pleasurable scents including fresh or dried herbs, lilac, lavender, berries, lemons, apples, and pears.

Not swamp gas, burnt asparagus, compost bins, smoldering leaves, baby diapers, or moldy dishrags.

Good wines provide pleasure. People usually don’t seek out strange aromas, austere tastes, or strangeness. When a wine elicits a taster’s response, “What’s that?!” chances are it’s a wine that the British call “off” – a gracious term for spoiled.

Winemakers try to avoid spoilage. Occasionally they cannot. Every winemaker has encountered unsolvable problems. When that occurs, solutions are either to pour it out or blend it with something that dilutes the spoilage, so it can be sold in bulk for someone else’s inexpensive blend.

Most wine writers ferret out spoiled wines –- and eschew writing about them. Early in my wine writing career, I realized that there was an unspoken courtesy some writers used to refer to spoiled wine: euphemism, creatively speaking positively of bad wines!

When a wine is what Brits would call “off,” some U.S. wine writers used the word “complex,” a synonym for, “This stuff is weird; I don’t know what it is.” So, it was obvious I had to identify what, precisely, the bizarre smells and tastes were, and how they developed.

Technical wine books often have chapters on wine spoilage and how to avoid it. Early in my wine education, I went to wineries to get data on spoilage and to smell bad wines. Yeah, some of it was off-putting.

(I once asked a lab tech for a vial of acetaldehyde, to show wine-collector friends. The lab tech complied, but the cap came off in the glove box. The rental car smelled awful for days!)

I never realized how many elements of ruination existed in the wine world. The more I experienced, the more I saw winemakers’ challenges. There are aromas that seem so awful that even a trace is enough to discard the wine. And yet, interestingly, here we reach a conundrum: some of the world’s finest red wines are technically spoiled.

Take the aroma often described as “sweaty saddle,” Band-Aid, wet wool, horsey, or (as a friend once said), “wet dog in a phone booth.” Yes, unappealing – but it’s what I occasionally find in some of the most highly praised wines in history. It’s the aroma of spoilage called Brettanomyces (or in winemaker lingo, Brett). This volatile rascal is found in many wineries and it is hard to eradicate. It’s a reason winery sanitation is one of the industry’s most vital tasks.

But there also is a “good Brett” variant, which we’ll mention later.

Brett is found mostly in reds and is more common in Europe than here, where winemakers fear it. Winemaker Clark Smith says Brett is an astonishingly difficult subject, which he learned decades ago while earning a master’s degree in the subject at UC Davis. Smith says Brett isn’t one thing, it’s a series of things and it appears to exist in different forms in different countries! Australia has found six different versions. The Brett versions found in Burgundy and Bordeaux, he says, are radically different strains.

Brett can rob some red wines of the fruit that consumers desire. It produces at least two elements. One, called 4-ethylphenol, or 4-EP, increases astringency and can create odd aromas. Another, 4-ethyl guaiacol, or 4-EG, smells like smoked meat.

Brett appears in some French red wines including some expensive and highly praised wines that sell for outrageously high prices. But in some French wines, it can be appealing! It’s the “good Brett.”

When exalted red wines have a little bit of Brett aroma, some buyers accept it as part of the wine’s persona. They see it as complexity. Yet others detest it in any amount.

Some wineries believe Brett can develop if a wine is aged in older barrels, so they use only new oak barrels for aging. But Smith has shown that trace sugars from new oak are perfect for Brett to develop!

Since there are so many forms of Brett, it’s impossible to say how a young red wine with it will develop over time. As these wines age in cool cellars, the “spoilage” element can be subsumed by the complexities created by age, and many such wines turn out to be fabulous after decades.

By then, the Brett is merely a part of the wine’s nuances. One of Brett’s mysteries is the temperature of the wine in storage. If a Brett-infected red wine is held at 59° or less, Smith showed in his master thesis, the spoilage aroma may remain so low that the Bretty aroma will be invisible.

That same exact bottle stored at, say, 65° for the same length of time might display some slight Brett aromas. At 75°, the same wine may be a barnyard complete with chicken droppings.

Another mystery is that bottles often develop independently. In 1990, I opened two identical bottles of a 1977 Merlot. The two bottles were stored in adjacent spots in the same case. One was Bretty, the other was free of it.

Brett so fascinated me 30 years ago that I drove four hours each way to Fresno State University for a seminar staged by the late Dr. Ken Fugelsang, enology professor emeritus and co-author of the acclaimed textbook Wine Microbiology.

At the seminar, Fugelsang served attendees four glasses of wine, two each with Brett and its cousin Dekkera. (Smith says the two are basically the same.) Fugelsang infected French Colombard juice with both spoilage elements. (With white wines, we could more easily distinguish one from the other.)

I rarely see Dekkera in wine these days because it’s alcohol-sensitive; when a wine gets to 12% alcohol, Dekkera generally is gone. (It may be found in some beers.) At a seminar, it smelled like powdered concrete mixed with water. With U.S. wines, you rarely see Brett. Almost every U.S. winemaker is so sensitive to spoilage that they’re almost all fanatically committed to sanitation. Some are so obsessed they own expensive ozone machines. Some winemakers are so proud of their sanitation they say I could eat off their floor. I prefer ceramic plates.

If you’re buying a long-aging red wine and fear Brett becoming an issue, and your storage conditions are 60° or higher, I would buy one bottle and try it, preferably with someone who has made wine for many years. If he or she detects Brett, buy more of the wine, cautiously. Smith says some wine industry techy types “think that if you can detect Brett at all [in a young wine], it’s going to get worse in the bottle, and that’s just not true.” It all depends, he said, on how the wine was treated at the winery.

And then there are examples of wines in which a trace of Brett poses no problem at all, especially for those who understand what’s really going on.  Some of the finest wines I’ve tasted from the Rhône Valley have low levels of “good Brett,” which seems to work in the context of what the wine offers – a kind of rustic, tree bark, earthy scent that’s wonderful when paired with wild game. Some of these wines age phenomenally.

Unlike those who might discard any wine with a trace of Brett, I appreciate the complexity and accept small levels of Brett when it’s compatible with the fruit and other elements of the wine’s intricacies.

As for wet dogs, leave them outside the dining room.
 

 

Contributed by BMJ
 

Sticking closely to a Mediterranean diet cuts a woman’s risks of cardiovascular disease and death by nearly 25% finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence—the first of its kind—published online in the journal Heart.

The findings prompt the researchers to call for more sex-specific research to guide clinical practice in heart health.

Cardiovascular disease accounts for more than a third of all deaths in women around the world. While a healthy diet is a key plank of prevention, most relevant clinical trials have included relatively few women or haven’t reported the results by sex, say the researchers.

And current guidelines on how best to lower cardiovascular disease risk don’t differentiate by sex.

To build on the evidence base to inform sex-specific guidance and clinical practice, the researchers trawled research databases for studies looking at the potential impact of eating a Mediterranean diet on women’s cardiovascular health and their risk of death.

The Mediterranean diet is rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, and extra virgin olive oil; moderate in fish/shellfish; low to moderate in wine; and low in red/processed meats, dairy products, animal fat, and processed foods.

From an initial haul of 190 relevant studies, the researchers included 16 published between 2003 and 2021 in their pooled data analysis.

The studies, which were mostly carried out in the US and Europe, involved more than 700,000 women aged 18 and above whose cardiovascular health was monitored for an average of 12.5 years.

The results of the analysis showed that sticking closely to a Mediterranean diet was associated with a 24% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, and a 23% lower risk of death from any cause in women. 

The risk of coronary heart disease was 25% lower, while that of stroke was also lower, although not statistically significant, in those who most closely followed this diet compared with those who did so the least.

Excluding each of the studies one at a time from the analysis didn’t materially affect the findings, “further supporting a strong inverse relationship for incident [cardiovascular disease] and total mortality with higher Mediterranean diet adherence in women,” write the researchers.

They nevertheless acknowledge various limitations to their findings, including that all the studies analyzed were observational and relied on self-reported food frequency questionnaires. And adjustments for potentially influential factors varied across the included studies. 

But the Mediterranean diet’s antioxidant and gut microbiome effects on inflammation and cardiovascular risk factors are among the possible explanations for the observed associations, say the researchers. 

And the diet’s various components, such as polyphenols, nitrates, omega-3 fatty acids, increased fiber intake, and reduced glycaemic load, may all separately contribute to a better cardiovascular risk profile, they suggest. 

“However, mechanisms explaining the sex-specific effect of the Mediterranean diet on [cardiovascular disease] and death remain unclear,” they note, adding that the findings reinforce the need for more sex-specific research in cardiology.

“Female-specific cardiovascular risk factors, including premature menopause, pre-eclampsia, and gestational diabetes, or female predominant risk factors, such as systemic lupus, can all independently increase [cardiovascular disease] risk,” they write.

“It is possible that preventative measures, such as a Mediterranean diet, that targets inflammation and [cardiovascular disease] risk factors, impose differing effects in women compared with men,” they add.
 

Courtesy of the California Wine Institute
 

California vintners are celebrating the 2023 vintage as exceptional, following a late start to harvest. Plentiful winter rains revitalized the soils and encouraged healthy canopies while cooler temperatures across California in spring and summer allowed grapes to develop gradually, enjoying extra ripening time. Many vintners predict that the 2023 vintage will be one of the finest in years, producing wines with beautiful flavors, vibrant acidity and remarkable balance.

Harvest began late throughout California, running anywhere from two weeks to a full month behind normal timing. Many varieties reached maturity simultaneously, leading to a compressed harvest. Some vintners expected to continue picking grapes into late November.

California produces about 80% of the nation’s wine, making it the world’s fourth-largest wine producing region. More than 80% of California wine is made in a Certified Sustainable California Winery and over half of the state’s roughly 615,000 vineyard acres are certified to one of California’s sustainability programs (Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing, Fish Friendly Farming, LODI RULES, Napa Green and SIP Certified).
Winemaker and Winery Owner Comments on California’s Growing Season and Harvest

“The winter was unusually cold and wet, and we even got a rare 10 inches of snow,” said Christian Ahlmann, vice president at Six Sigma Ranch in Lower Lake, Lake County. “The soil moisture was restored while the vines were dormant, and they loved every minute of it when they woke up in spring.”

Despite the later start to harvest, Ahlmann said he was confident that the grapes would reach full maturity before the start of the rainy season. Best of all, he added, quality looks excellent — especially for Tempranillo and Syrah. “We feel great about vintage 2023,” he said.

For Renée Ary, vice president of winemaking at Duckhorn Vineyards, patience was key this year with grapes from Napa and Sonoma. “This is one of the coolest and latest vintages I’ve seen in the last two decades,” she said. “The rain was much needed and helped replenish the reservoirs and nourish the vines.”

The precipitation also brought extra canopy growth and led to 5% to 15% higher yields for most varieties. “The viticulture teams were diligent in thinning and doing crop adjustments where necessary,” she said. “This was key to achieving a balanced crop and promoting ripening in a very late year.”

This year’s Sauvignon Blanc shows bright and clean character, Ary noted, and Merlot is displaying early flavor development, balanced sugars and bright acids. Hearty tannins and complex flavors are hallmarks of this year’s Cabernet Sauvignon. “Our 2023 reds reflect the cooler vintage,” she said. “The wines are elegant and pure, with balanced alcohols and precise flavors.”

Alpha Omega in St. Helena experienced a similarly wet winter and spring, with cool to moderate temperatures.

“We did drop some fruit and got a bit more aggressive with leafing to expose the fruit to the sun to help counter the cool temperatures and promote ripening and green-character degradation,” said winemaker Matt Brain.

Fruit is showing deep color, complex flavors and aromas and good acidity levels, according to Brain. Yields varied from average-to-heavy in some areas. “I love the complexity of the vintage,” he said. “I think that the sub-AVAs will be quite distinct this year, truly revealing the appellation and soil type.”

At Benziger Family Winery in Glen Ellen, Sonoma County, grapes also matured at a slow and steady pace.