Misplaced Pages

#335664

29-611: Ramandolo is a sweet white Italian wine from the village of the same name which is situated in the hills near Nimis in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia wine region of northeast Italy. It is made from a local variety of the Verduzzo grape. Since 2001, Ramandolo has been produced as a DOCG wine. Prior to this it was a subzone of the Colli Orientali del Friuli DOC . Verduzzo grapes destined for DOCG wine production are limited to

58-453: A copper sheen to its deep yellow color with herbal notes . Sweet (wine) Vintage: The Story of Wine , a book authored by British wine writer Hugh Johnson , presents several methods that have been used throughout history to sweeten wine. The most common way was to harvest the grapes as late as possible. This method was advocated by Virgil and Martial in Roman times. In contrast,

87-542: A harvest yield no greater than 10 tonnes /ha with the grapes allowed to hang on the vine late in the season and may even receive extra drying after picking. This allows for a greater concentration of sugar which leaves a wine with noticeable residual sweetness even with the high minimum alcohol level of 14% required. Wine expert Peter Saunders describes well made examples of Ramandolo from favorable vintages as fragrant, full-bodied , slightly tannic and not too sweet. Karen MacNeil describes Ramandolo as having

116-646: A faster rate than fructose. Thus, arresting fermentation after a significant portion of the sugars have fermented results in a wine where the residual sugar consists mainly of fructose, while the use of Süssreserve will result in a wine where the sweetness comes from a mixture of glucose and fructose. According to EU regulation 753/2002, the following terms may be used on the labels of table wines and quality wines . Sparkling wines have ratings according to Commission Regulation (EC) No 607/2009 of 14 July 2009. Article 58 points out "the sugar content may not differ by more than 3 grams per litre from what appears on

145-454: A single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine , where Port houses make and declare vintage Port in their best years. From this tradition, a common, though not strictly correct, usage applies the term to any wine that is perceived to be particularly old or of a particularly high quality. Most countries allow a vintage wine to include a portion of wine that is not from

174-455: A sweetening component. This technique was developed in Germany and is used with German-style wines such as semi-sweet Riesling or Müller–Thurgau . The technique not only raises the sugar level of the wine, but also lowers the amount of alcohol . Under German law, no more than fifteen percent of the final wine's volume may be the reserved juice. This practice is allowed also for Prädikatswein ,

203-467: A wine that would not be expected to improve with age and could be past its best, such as with Beaujolais nouveau , a wine style made to be consumed within months of its bottling. The importance of vintage may sometimes be exaggerated. For example, New York Times wine columnist Frank J. Prial declared the vintage chart to be dead, writing that "winemakers of the world have rendered the vintage chart obsolete"; Bill Marsano wrote that "winemakers now have

232-421: Is also controlled by factors such as the acidity and alcohol levels, the amount of tannin present, and whether the wine is sparkling or not. A sweet wine such as a Vouvray can actually taste dry due to the high level of acidity. A dry wine can taste sweet if the alcohol level is elevated. Medium and sweet wines have a perception among many consumers of being of lower quality than dry wines. However, many of

261-401: Is especially the case if wines are likely to improve further with some age in the bottle. Some wines are only labeled with a vintage in better-than-average years, to maintain their quality and reputation, while the vast majority of wines are produced to be drunk young and fresh. In such cases, a vintage is usually considered less important. However, it can serve to protect consumers against buying

290-420: Is made by late harvesting grapes after they have frozen on the vine and not necessarily affected by noble rot, botrytis, which is the case with Beerenauslese) Trockenbeerenauslese – 150–154 °Oe (affected by botrytis) In Hungary, Tokaj wine region (also Tokaj-Hegyalja wine region or Tokaj–Hegyalja ) has a more graduated terminology to describe Tokaji Aszú dessert wines: In Spain, the rules applicable to

319-450: The Latin vindemia ( ' grape-gathering ' ), in turn coming from vinum ( ' wine ' ) and demere ( ' to remove ' ). The importance assigned to vintage is both varied and disputed. For wine produced in regions at the colder climatic limits of wine production, vintage can be very important, because some seasons will be much warmer and produce riper grapes and better wine. On

SECTION 10

#1733084963336

348-561: The Normalizovaný Moštoměr (°NM) scale is used. The scale measures kg of sugar in 100 L of must. In France, the Baumé scale is occasionally used. Sélection de Grains Nobles (SGN) is French for "selection of noble berries" and refers to wines made from grapes affected by noble rot . SGN wines are sweet dessert wines with rich, concentrated flavours. Alsace wines were the first to be described as Sélection de Grains Nobles , with

377-508: The Tokaji , the Eszencia, contains over 450 g/L, with exceptional vintages registering 900 g/L. Such wines are balanced, keeping them from becoming cloyingly sweet, by carefully developed use of acidity . This means that the finest sweet wines are made with grape varieties that keep their acidity even at very high ripeness levels , such as Riesling and Chenin blanc . How sweet a wine will taste

406-411: The ancient Greeks would harvest the grapes early, to preserve some of their acidity, and then leave them in the sun for a few days to allow them to shrivel and concentrate the sugar. In Crete , a similar effect was achieved by twisting the stalks of the grape to deprive them of sap and letting them dry on the vine—a method that produced passum and the modern Italian equivalent, passito . Stopping

435-584: The Klosterneuburger Mostwaage (KMW) scale is used. The scale is divided into Klosterneuburger Zuckergrade (°KMW), and very similar to the Oechsle scale (1 °KMW =~ 5 °Oe). However, the KMW measures the exact sugar content of the must. In Canada, the wine industry measures wine sweetness as grams of sucrose in 100 grams of grape juice or grape must at 20 °C in degrees Brix . In Czech Republic and Slovakia,

464-415: The driest wines, it is rare to find wines with a level of less than 1 g/L, due to the unfermentability of certain types of sugars, such as pentose . By contrast, any wine with over 45 g/L would be considered sweet, though many of the great sweet wines have levels much higher than this. For example, the great vintages of Château d'Yquem contain between 100 and 150 g/L of residual sugar. The sweetest form of

493-546: The fermentation also enhanced a wine's potential sweetness. In ancient times, this was achieved by submerging the amphorae in cold water till winter. Wine can also be sweetened by the addition of sugar in some form, after fermentation is completed – the German method like the Süssreserve . In Roman times, this was done in preparing mulsum , wine freshly sweetened with honey and flavored with spices, used as an apéritif, and also in

522-554: The harmful nature of lead was demonstrated in the 17th century. Among the components influencing how sweet a wine will taste is residual sugar. It is usually measured in grams of sugar per litre of wine, often abbreviated to g/L or g/L. Residual sugar typically refers to the sugar remaining after fermentation stops, or is stopped, but it can also result from the addition of unfermented must (a technique practiced in Germany and known as Süssreserve ) or ordinary table sugar. Even among

551-455: The highest level in the German wine classification . It is often used for semi-sweet Kabinett and Spätlese , but more rarely for Auslese and upward. The use of Süssreserve results in a different composition of sugars in the wine in comparison to residual sugar from arrested fermentation. Grape must contains mainly the sugars glucose and fructose . When wine ferments, glucose is fermented at

580-452: The legal definition introduced in 1984. The term is also used in some other wine regions of France, such as Loire . In Germany, sweetness of must and wine is measured with the Oechsle scale , and below are ranges of minimum must weights for Riesling, depending on the region. Kabinett – 67–82 °Oe Spätlese – 76–90 °Oe Auslese – 83–100 °Oe Beerenauslese and Eiswein – 110–128 °Oe (Eiswein

609-411: The manufacture of conditum , which had similar ingredients but was matured and stored before drinking. It was also common from the Roman era until quite recently to sweeten wine with sugar of lead , a toxic substance that increases the apparent sweetness of wines and other beverages. The practice continued well into the 19th century, although the leading was mostly restricted to very cheap wines after

SECTION 20

#1733084963336

638-684: The other hand, a poor growing season can lead to grapes failing to reach optimal ripeness, resulting in grape juice that is higher in acid and lower in sugar, which affects the quality of the resulting wine. In many wine regions, especially in the New World , growing seasons are much more uniform. In dry regions, the systematic and controlled use of irrigation also contributes to uniform vintages. However, such wines are regularly labeled by vintage because of consumer demand. Wines of superior vintages from prestigious producers and regions will often command much higher prices than those from average vintages. This

667-437: The product label", so there is some leeway. For example, a sparkling wine with 9 grams per litre of residual sugar may be labelled as either the drier, less sweet, classification of Extra Brut (because 9 - 3 = 6 grams per litre), or the slightly sweeter classification of Brut or even Extra Dry/Extra Sec/Extra Seco (because 9 + 3 = 12 grams per litre). The rules applicable to labellings before 14 July 2009 were: In Austria,

696-469: The regulation. The opposite of a vintage wine is a nonvintage wine (often seen on a wine list as 'NV'), which is usually a blend from the produce of two or more years. This is a common practice for winemakers seeking a consistent style of wine, year on year. The word vintage was first used in the early 15th century. It was adapted from the Old French vendange ( ' wine harvest ' ) deriving from

725-472: The sweet and fortified Denominations of Origen Montilla-Moriles and Jerez-Xérès- Sherry are: In the United States, the wine industry measures the sweetness of must and wine in degrees Brix . Vintage Vintage , in winemaking , is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product— wine . A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in

754-569: The technology and skills to make good and even very good wines in undistinguished years". James Laube of Wine Spectator has asserted that "even an average vintage can yield some grand wines". Roman Weil , co-chairman of the Oenonomy Society of the US and professor at the University of Chicago , tested the controversial hypothesis that experienced wine drinkers "cannot distinguish in blind tastings

783-402: The wine of years rated high from those of years rated low, or, if they can, they do not agree with the vintage chart's preferences". Weil used wines ranging from four to 17 years beyond their vintage with 240 wine drinkers and found that the tasters could not distinguish between wines of good and bad vintages except for Bordeaux wines . Even when they could make a distinction, the match between

812-421: The world's great wines, such as those from Sauternes (including Barsac ) or Tokaj , have a high level of residual sugar, which is carefully balanced with additional acidity to produce a harmonious result. Süssreserve ( German : Süßreserve ; lit.   ' sweet reserve ' ) is a wine term referring to a portion of selected unfermented grape must , free of microorganisms, to be added to wine as

841-532: The year denoted on the label. In Chile and South Africa, the requirement is 75% same-year content for vintage-dated wine. In Australia, New Zealand, and the member states of the European Union, the requirement is 85%. In the United States, the requirement is 85%, unless the wine is designated with an AVA , (e.g., Napa Valley), in which case it is 95%. Technically, the 85% rule in the United States applies equally to imports, but there are difficulties in enforcing

#335664