Makers of ice wine probably don't sleep very soundly in the autumn, waiting for the turn of the weather. In the eyes of most ordinary folk in Canada and northern Europe, they must seem absolutely nuts: they actually look forward to the night of the first frost after a warm summer and autumn. And when that frost comes, they leap early out of bed, instead of burrowing under the covers, bursting into frantic activity as though their livelihood depends on it.

Of course, it actually does. Making ice wine adds some crazy-specific weather conditions on top of usual winemaking procedures. To create this wine successfully depends on certain weather and on harvesting grapes within a narrowly defined time frame. That's why just a few parts of the world are known for ice wine excellence.

“I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.” - Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

“All things must pass.” - George Harrison

“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.” (1 Timothy 5:23)

Note: I'm not a doctor--I don't even pretend to be one to pick up girls--so this is not medical advice or a recommendation to use alcohol in anything other than a reasonable and moderate way, conducive to a healthy lifestyle embracing a good diet, exercise and a circle of friends to share it with.

If even the Bible backs up the health benefits of wine, is it really true that wine isn't just harmless, but might actually do your health some good? That's a common suggestion among wine-lovers, and there appear to be some studies that back up the idea. And for a while at least, wine was suspected as a primary cause of the French Paradox.

Those lucky French people, despite a diet that features a high amount of saturated fats, are known to have a lower prevalence of coronary disease than people in other places. When scientists first realized that, one of the most popular suggested explanations for this health benefit was all the red wine the French drink. You can imagine how sales of red wine increased in North America after that theory came out. But despite the known good effects of certain ingredients in the wine, there just didn't seem to be enough of those ingredients to create such a drastic health effect. And when you realize that on average, a French person drinks only a couple of bottles more per year than a North American, well, there goes that theory. Darnit anyway.

But don't throw the health effects out with the wine bottle! All is not yet lost. Because despite the crash and burn of red wine as a theoretical cause of the French Paradox, there is still some evidence suggesting health benefits to moderate alcohol intake. And yes, those benefits relate to cardiovascular health. So red wine may be back on the menu after all.

In the studies done so far, even taking into account the possibility of moderate drinkers having a better income and healthier lifestyle, and factoring out non-drinkers who had quit because they had already ruined their health with alcoholism, there seems to be a correlation. Moderate drinkers are less prone to heart disease. There doesn't seem to be a distinction between wine, beer, or distilled spirits when it comes to this benefit, but it's certainly good news for wine drinkers.

Pay attention to that word, “moderate,” though, and don't rush out and buy or make an excess of wine or other alcohol “for your health.” Too much of a good thing can reverse all those good effects. And we all know that excessive drinking leads to liver disease, heart failure, and even certain cancers, not to mention accidents and injuries caused by drunkenness. When the biblical writer says “a little wine” rather than “jugs and jugs of the stuff,” he knows what he's talking about. It's fine to have a large, well-stocked cellar; you just don't have to drink the whole thing by next Wednesday.

The effects of moderate amounts of alcohol on the body are many: it helps reduce blood pressure and reduces insulin levels. It increases the levels of good cholesterol (HDL) while reducing the levels of the bad kind (LDL). It contains antioxidants that fight cancer, and it helps prevent blood clotting. But what about that reference to the stomach in the Bible verse? Does wine help the digestive system too?

Studies seem to support that idea also. Wine apparently combats certain food-borne pathogens quite well, either because of the acidity or because of the alcohol itself going to work directly on the bacteria. It even works against the bugs that cause ulcers. But the funny thing is, this doesn't apply to white wine at all, but only to the reds. It seems the French may really be onto something, after all.

Yeast cells: the smaller ones are daughter cells, recently budded off from the larger ones,
which display budding scars

There are some questions I consistently get asked, year after year. For instance, it's a pretty good bet that few men get asked about yeast quite as much as I do. Come to think of it, it's probably not a distinction anyone would aspire to, unless they were a preeminent baker, or a microbiologist specialising in fungi.

However, if a winemaker doesn't eventually get a fair understanding of yeast and how it works, they're not going to be able to consistently produce drinkable wine, much less deliciously wonderful wine.

By far the two most common questions about wine in kits are in regards to substitution and rehydrating. First, people often wonder if they can exchange different yeasts for the ones we include. The answer is, “Probably--but it depends.”

This isn't as unhelpful as it sounds. We do a lot of testing of different strains of yeast with different kit formulations. So kit makers do need to keep in mind that we choose one strain rather than another, for each kit, for specific reasons. Some of the factors in each choice include whether the yeast allows quick and complete fermentation before bottling, and whether or not it will settle out afterwards. And the primary consideration is whether the yeast will be able to handle pasteurized juice, which has sugar bonds that are harder to break. If the yeast can't “crack” the death grip of these bonds your wine is going to have a distinct 'candy' taste that won't age out or improve with time.
So anyone wanting to substitute their preferred yeast strain in a kit can feel free to experiment, especially if they're confident it will meet all those conditions. But a yeast that allows a beautiful expression of varietal character in wine made straight from grapes may perform less well in a kit. So this substitution should follow a lot of research into the yeast manufacturer's literature.

And speaking of literature, another common question is prompted by the yeast packages we put into the kits. Many include instructions from the manufacturer, recommending that the yeast be rehydrated before it's put into the fermenter. But we tell you just to sprinkle it on without doing that. So who's right?

Another unhelpful answer: Both. To rehydrate, you'd need a very precise amount of water per grams of yeast, and it would need to be in a precise, quite narrow temperature range. Mistakes in either of those would ruin the rehydration. While it's true that using that method technically gives the largest number of live yeast cells, yeast used with the sprinkling method never seems to suffer from a lack. There are more than sufficient live cells to accomplish a complete fermentation.

There's some room for variation in the kinds of yeast used in kits, and in how you prepare and introduce it to the juice. But you might want to wait until you've had experience with a few kits first, and then make small changes and write down the results. It's hard to imagine that something so small and apparently simple could have such drastic effects on how a wine turns out, but yeast has the most significant effect of any ingredient in our kits.

Note: Winemaker Magazine and the author do not endorse the operation of any
vehicle, motorized or self-propelled after the consumption of alcohol. They
advocate sitting quietly, or at most dancing without looking goofy.

A year or so ago I was commenting in a different blog on the wisdom of Tour de France cycle racers who were clever enough to bring along bottles of wine on their rides, to dull the pain of turning an innocent pastime into a grueling sport. I joked that I wanted '. . . a bottle rack that will hold a magnum of Champagne'.

Ask and ye shall receive. A particularly astute reader let me know that there was already a product to fill this need. Jesse Herbert is a pretty cool cat, and his design company makes a variety of nifty stuff, holders, holsters and phone cases. In this case he was inspired to design a proper wine caddy for a bicycle (the one in the picture above is charming, but from an engineering standpoint a scarf wrapped around a frame tube is about as useful as a chocolate hammer).

When it came to branding and marketing, the producers of Champagne from the seventeenth century onward were so ahead of their time that they could give lessons to today's marketing gurus. The makers of this type of wine have always been wily protectors of its name as well as its reputation. When you get your product associated with royalty and nobility, you're going to benefit. But you're also going to fight tooth and nail to keep your brand exclusive, and protect the reputation you've built up.

That's why in today's world of sparkling wine, the name “Champagne” only technically applies to wine made in the actual Champagne region of France. The name is legally protected by French law, and there are specific rules about how the wine is made and with what sort of grapes. As far back as 1891, the Madrid Agreement concerning the International Registration of Marks gave legal protection of the name to France, and today most countries have granted similar rights.
Practically speaking, that means that the bubbly you drink or make yourself, having been created somewhere other than the Champagne region, must be given a different name. We usually call it “sparkling wine,” but other places use different designations. In Germany, it’s “Sekt;” in Spain, it’s “Cava;”and in Italy, “Spumante.”

But even if one primary goal of the name restriction is protecting profits, there are concerns involving a long previous history and methods of production too. The character of the wine developed over centuries of cultivation and experimentation, taking into account the soil, weather conditions, and grapes that grew best in the area. Even the original method of production – bottling before the fermentation was finished – was gradually replaced by what is now known as the “method champenoise” – adding sugar to the finished wine in the bottle, to induce a secondary fermentation. Take the wine's association with the crowning of kings, add a rigid set of rules and regulations for its production, and you have today's official Champagne.

Does any of this affect the general world of sparkling wine? It preserves Champagne in a special category, but probably doesn’t make an immense amount of difference to how sparkling wine itself is made and marketed elsewhere. In fact, other winemakers, free from so many of the rules, can use different methods to create that “sparkle,” and even have the luxury of trying out different grapes. Many people serve sparkling wine at special occasions, and much of it is less expensive than the original with the name.

This is where Champagne, on the one hand a shining example to modern marketers, could possibly morph into a cautionary tale. Being made in such a defined region, which can only produce so many grapes, genuine Champagne continues rising in price. While this makes believers in the sacred nature of Supply and Demand squeal in delight, the winemaking houses themselves now fear a potential consumer backlash that could seriously hurt their industry. So for the first time since 1927, France's governing body for such things is considering an expansion of the region's legal boundaries. This would allow new areas to produce Champagne, and ease some of the economic pressures, yet scientific review must also ensure that the quality of the wine remains the same. The regulators must walk a fine line here, between collapse and compromise.

Since the Romans first planted vineyards in what is now the Champagne region in the fifth century BC, we've come a long, long way. The next time you raise a glass of sparkling wine, whichever name it bears, think of the history, economics, and even politics involved in putting that glass in your hand. And remember that no matter how great your marketing is, there may finally be such a thing as too much exclusivity.

If you've become a maker of wine kits in the past few years, you may have noticed something pretty significant in today's environmental climate: there are no 100% organic wine kits! That's probably a big surprise, when you think that you can get an organic version of almost everything else, from tomatoes to toothpaste to drain cleaner. So what's up with the kits?

One of the nifty things about my job is that I get to talk to a lot of folks who are genuinely enthusiastic about winemaking, and everything that goes with it, and they're almost always eager to share everything they know and have.

I've never met a miserly winemaker, nor one who was reticent to talk about their triumphs or rue their less-than-successful batches. It took me years to really figure out why this was--I used to think that winemakers self-selected for pleasant, outgoing personality types, but since I'm included in the group, that can't really be true.

When you've got special guests coming for dinner, it might be the perfect chance to use that lovely decanter someone gave you as a wedding or birthday present. In fact, decanting your wine before serving may seem simply like the normal thing everyone does. For red wine especially, as the theory goes, decanting gives it a good chance to breathe and “open up”, expressing itself more fully as it comes into contact with the air. But be careful about decanting every wine willy-nilly. As it turns out, there are do's and don'ts even for something that may initially seem pretty straightforward.

Does Wine Need Oxygen Like We Do?

The question of whether or not to let your wine “breathe” partly depends on whether a wine benefits from exposure to oxygen. Many claim that letting a wine out after being cooped up for so long will bring out its aroma let it stretch its legs. But is this really the case? Remember that when making wine, there are reasons why containers are sealed as airtight as possible, and why extra sulphite is added if the wine has had more handling than usual.

Airtight containers are meant specifically to prevent oxygen transfer into the wine. And sulphite is added to prevent oxidation. In fact, if sulphites were completely left out of wine, it would oxidize and spoil within a month. Many wine experts will tell you that oxygen is almost always detrimental to a finished wine. So in theory, decanting should be taken right off the table at all times. Well, except for the exceptions...

Can't We Ever Decant? Yes We Can!

We can, and maybe even should decant in certain circumstances, so don't go selling that decanter on eBay just yet. For older wines, it's true that exposure to the air can actually drive off delicate aromas and numb the bouquet. The wine's character can dissipate very quickly, putting to waste all that beautiful development as it aged. But most wines we drink, and certainly wines we make, tend to be drunk slightly before they've aged well enough. While some wines do fine when they're quite young, most could use a little extra help if they're opened a bit too soon.

For example, decanting can help heavily tannic wines to lose their harsh bite, enhancing the fruitier side of their flavor. That's where the idea comes from that decanting red wines is especially helpful. Decanting can also dissipate any last traces of trapped carbon dioxide, not to mention a leftover “burnt match” aroma of sulphite. The same would apply to heavily oaked wines, as the oak flavor would give way to the fruit quality of the wine. And if you've got a wine that has thrown some sediment, decanting will make sure your guests never know.

What and When to Decant

Despite the arguments about age, it's still probably not a good idea to decant a delicate Sauvignon Blanc or a Beaujolais-style wine, unless you detect an aroma of sulphite or a trace of fizz. Those that will benefit most, though, will be the Chardonnay-based wines that have been oaked, or heavier, darker reds. A rich Australian Chardonnay, for example, or an Italian Amarone-style wine, will air out and open up, displaying its character in a fuller way.

When you do decant, do it thirty minutes in advance, and then serve the wine to your guests. Try if you can to use a decanter with a wide base that exposes a large surface of wine to the air. Of course, that might depend on just what shape you got for that wedding or birthday present. But use it whatever the case, and decanting can help your wine display to its best advantage.

Fine perfumes and wines have a lot more in common than just being very aromatic. Of course you don't drink perfume, and wine has better uses than being dabbed behind your ear. But the way they are constructed follows similar principles, so that the way perfume reacts in your nostrils resembles the way wine reacts in your mouth.

Building Blocks:

Well-made perfumes have three “notes,” a top, a middle, and a base. The top note is formed by quickly evaporating molecules that create a first impression. The compounds making up the middle notes form the primary fragrance, dissipating slowly as they combine with the deeper scents of the base notes. The bass notes might not be fully perceived for up to half an hour after the perfume is applied, but they complete the theme of the perfume and cement the final impression.

Wine, too, has a structure with several components, each of which works with the others to create the full impression and taste. While there are small amounts of other things, the main elements in the structure of most wines are acid, tannin, sugar, and alcohol, and often oak, in red wines. The presence, amount and influence of each of these will vary depending on whether you're dealing with whites or reds, but in each case, they combine to create the full taste.

Balancing Fruitiness:

Wine is made from grapes, so naturally it could get awfully sweet and fruity. But two things balance the fruitiness so it doesn't become overwhelming: acid or tannin. Acid is a particular element of white wine, helping to make it sweeter or more tart, depending on the style and the desired taste effect.

Acid plays less of a role in red wines, but the tannins take up the job of balancing fruitiness and sugar. You know that kind of astringent, puckering sensation you sometimes get when drinking a red wine? That's from the tannins, and their astringency is what counteracts the sweetness of the fruit. In oaked red wines, some of the tannins derive from the oak itself, while it adds yet another distinctive flavor. Being so tannic, though, it tends to make white wines much too tart and unpleasant.

Oh, You Sweet Thing!

Both sugar and alcohol contribute to how sweet a wine tastes. The first rush of sweetness tends to occur as the tip of the tongue perceives the sugar, and then the alcohol comes in behind, expanding the sweetness along the sides, middle, and back of the tongue. These elements, too, will need to be in proper balance to create a harmonious taste for each particular type of wine.

The sweetness of white wine, particularly dry whites, will be almost entirely due to the sugar. And again, it will be the acid that makes sure the sweetness doesn't become cloying. On the other hand, red wines have much less sugar, with alcohol content supplying most of their sweetness, and tannins providing the balance to it.

The Complete Package:

In the same way that the three “notes” of a perfume combine, one after the other, to create a complete scent, the different components of red and white wines work with and balance each other. The underlying fruit character of a wine derives from the type of grape used to make it, but then the other elements interact with and against that base. Acids and tannins complement or balance the sugars and alcohol, and their combinations will determine whether the wine seems sweet or tart, crisp or cloying. The best, most delicious wines are masterpieces of balance among all the component elements.