Chapter Seven: Taking back some wine words!
Terroir
Oh sod that, I’m not starting with bloody terroir.
Malolactic fermentation
In English this sounds horrid, I far prefer the French abbreviation, ‘le malo’. It’s a chemical process that occurs after a wine has gone through its initial alcoholic fermentation. Stronger Malic Acid is converted into Lactic acid. This is desirable in wines that have excessive acidity after fermentation. If a winemaker feels she doesn’t want to reduce the acidity by this process she will have to protect the wine from going through it naturally later in bottle. If you find a wine that is bubbly when it shouldn’t be, most likely it’s le malo. This is a fault and the wine should be sent back from whence it came.
Biodynamics
A somewhat controversial farming technique. Based on the writings of Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925) biodynamic farmers emphasize the importance of working with the movements of the planets and cosmic forces to achieve balance in the soils and vines. The viticulture is pretty much organic, but also employs natural herbal, mineral and organic preparations in the soil. An example of one of these consists of burying a cow horn filled with dung in the vineyard over winter. While many mock and assume these winemakers are high, have dreadlocks and enjoy trance parties, the results are out there. Locally, Reyneke is the best-known biodynamic producer, and they make ridiculously good wine.
Acidification (if you think it’s bad)
Acid Adjustment (if you think it’s OK)
Simply, this is the adding of acid (generally tartaric or citric acid) to grape juice, must or wine. It will usually happen in warmer climates where there is not enough natural acidity in the grapes to achieve a balanced final product. A healthy amount of acid in wine is good; it promotes freshness and fruitness, as well as protecting against bacteria, and improving colour. Depending on your tasting ability – and the heavy-handedness of acidification – you can taste the difference. The acidity in acidified wine seems to stand apart from the rest of wine, as opposed to wines with only natural acidity, where everything feels integrated. If anyone tells you South African wines have to have acid added, they are lying. And you can tell them they should try out Biodynamics.
Balling
Despite its look and sound, this is not a South African word used by ruby playing winemakers to describe a really good wine. “Flip Jan, this wine is fokken balling!”
In fact it is a term used to denote a measurement of ripeness in grapes. Basically, 16.5 grams of sugar is needed to produce 1 percent of alcohol by fermentation. A balling reading indicates the percentage of solids in grape juice (remember 90% are sugars) by weight. So, if a winemaker is prattling on about a balling reading of 22 degrees, she means that the potential alcohol in the wine made from this juice will be around 12%, and a balling reading of 27 degrees will produce a wine with around 15% alcohol. Simple. You will most hear this term talking to winemakers who will tell you, “Ja, it was a lekker harvest, the grapes taste great, and we picked at around 24 balling.”
Champagne/Methode Cap Classique
Here is a hard and fast wine rule for you. If your sparkling wine is not made in Champagne, don’t call it champagne, because it is not. Simple.
We use the term Methode Cap Classique to indicate wine that’s been made in the traditional method (a secondary fermentation in bottle which produces all the lovely bubbles) rather than a soda stream method, which, just as it sounds, means injecting a still wine full of CO2. If you see Methode Cap Classique on a bottle you know it has been produced in the same method as the wines from Champagne, but is not, and never will be, Champagne.
Barrique
A French term for small oak barrels with a volume of 225l. First designed and used in Bordeaux, these are the most famous and most used oak barrels for wine production. South African wine marketers prefer this term over ‘small oak barrels’ because it makes their wines sound more French and sophisticated. The joke is on them, however, as they are more than likely producing over oaked, over-ripe wines that will last about as long as a Sunday afternoon.
Blind Tasting
Simply, tasting wines without knowing anything about them and then trying to guess what they are. A favourite game among wine nerds the world over. Much is said about sighted and blind tastings and the merits of both with relation to competitions and guidebooks. It is perhaps the most boring, stale, and over thought wine discussion in South Africa.
Blind tastings are a fun game to try with your friends, and can be vigorously educational if you care about such things. It is good for some competitions, and not as good for others. Case closed.
Phylloxera
A small yellow root-feeding aphid that devastated the world’s vineyards in the late 1800s. It came from North America, and like most other unwanted American exports, spread rapidly. Thankfully, native American vine species have evolved with resistance to this little bastard. Today, by using American rootstocks – these resistant roots are grafted on to whatever variety of vine is needed – we are able to make wine without having to worry about this pest.
Clones
Grape vines are rather prone to mutations. This means that you may have different vines of the same variety that are genetically different. Clones are cuttings taken from a mother vine – whose genetics are known – and sold to growers from a nursery. If you want to plant Chenin Blanc, you still have to choose which clone, as some will have shown to be better suited to your particular environment, or produce grapes with a desired characteristic.
Old Vines
You can spot how old a vine is by looking at its trunk, the wider the trunk the older the vine. Much is said about better quality wines being made from old-vines. Marketers love to drop ‘old vines’ into their pitch if they can, as if the age of the vine somehow magically imbues the wine with greatness. It doesn’t. Evidence seems to suggest that older vines do make better wines, but that just could be because it was always a good vine and there has been no reason to uproot it. Know one knows for certain yet, and there are no rules about having ‘old vines’ on a label.
Terroir
Oh dear, we are back here. Can’t avoid this bloody word. Like ‘old vines’ it’s used more to sell wines than to educate people about them. So be wary. That tomb of vinous knowledge, The Oxford Companion To Wine, succinctly describes terroir as “the total natural environment of any viticultural site”. It’s a quintessentially French term that suggests the complex interplay of soil, macroclimate, mesoclimate, vine microclimate and topography will be reflected in wines to some degree vintage to vintage, regardless of changing methods of viticulture and winemaking. Despite the fact the French had not conceived of anything so barbarous as coffee Pinotage when they coined the phrase, it is an immediately attractive idea.
Wine nerds are not satisfied with a great wine simply tasting fantastic, oh no, they want it to be able to taste where it’s from. It takes a very long time to work all this out – what should be planted where, and what the results are – it took the Burgundians (French folk, make a lot of Pinot Noir) 800 years, so if South African wine people start babbling at you about terroir, be careful, they are probably just trying to sell you something.
It is an important concept, one that should remain central to fine wine forever, but it is also woefully overused, and as such runs the risk of turning into one of those marvelous modern phrases like “genuine imitation” or “Money back guaranteed.”
Harry.
