The Other Aromas of Winemaking

Yearly it occurs and it all the time makes me smile.

I do know it’s coming however it nonetheless by some means feels serendipitous, a seasonal pleasure, one thing of the miracle of existence: the primary scent of fermenting grapes.

This yr – and to be trustworthy, like most years – it was Chardonnnay. However, to be trustworthy, the variability does not matter a lot; the bouquet is fairly comparable throughout all of them – candy, heady, instantly recognizable. I scent it and it makes me completely happy. However not all fermentation is pleasant. It usually begins that means (though not all the time) however, because the sugars drop, issues can go, effectively, uncommon.

I have not labored loads with Riesling however when I’ve, it appears to scent deeply disagreeable via ferment (had I not been warned on the time, I’d have proposed remedial motion). With ferment via, the aroma appears to endure a metamorphosis of types and, whereas the attractive butterfly reveals hints of the as soon as vulgar caterpillar it was, it’s a new beast. Since beginning out making wine, I by no means felt the winemaker had a lot of a declare over how their wine needs to be perceived (in the identical means because the writer or the artist can’t dictate the “which means” of a piece) however we, the individuals who shepherded it alongside, had been privileged, in a way, to behold the evolution. I do not need to stir up Riesling adoration (equal elements true, righteous, boring and futile) however it felt a bit like that watching it endure the change. However there are parts of that throughout all wines.

Struggling or reductive ferments are notably disagreeable to behold. Their contribution to the aromas of a cellar mid-harvest appears to far outweigh their dimension. It does not take a lot of the burning rubbery, oniony affront to pollute the air. Like opening a jar of recent kimchi, you do not even have to be paying a lot consideration in your nostrils to register. And, in a cellar scenario, the emergency gentle comes on: smelly ferment. I’ve as soon as confused the scent of a very smelly Syrah ferment for the scent of a burning rubber pump impeller. That is fairly one thing. In order for you a comparability, the scent of a burned-out pump is a bit like that of burning plastic. It is what occurs when a pump has nothing to pump however retains pumping nonetheless, it will get progressively hotter and the rubber impeller begins to soften. Typically it is unhealthy sufficient to see the smoke curling out of the tip of the pipe on the finish of the road. It is greater than sufficient to spoil a tank of juice or wine – that is why winemakers scent every thing on a regular basis.

Anecdotally, that’s typically how they die. Crouched on the prime of a fermenter, checking a ferment earlier than going house or on arrival to the vineyard (the 2 occasions when few individuals are round), they carry the lid to scent how issues are going, the hit of carbon dioxide is so violent, they recoil, they journey or hit the again of their head, and the remainder is especially terrible. I do not know that carbon dioxide has an aroma as such – up shut and outdoors of the common ferment smells, it definitely appears to have a particular, acrid notice – however you rapidly get a sense for it. It could lend an urgency to at least one’s need to exit (cellar, room, fermenter) that’s terrifyingly primordial. That concern and hurry can be, clearly, the route of accidents. Do not ask me how I do know, however in excessive sufficient concentrations it makes your eyes burn and water. This entire paragraph is a basic of cellartalk: equal elements pontification, brag, and a name for well being and security oversight, and a reminder that the majority dialog is based on unhealthy information.

Damp and drains

Exterior of classic, the smells of the cellar are usually unremarkable. Which is accurately. Anything is likely to be trigger for concern. Dampness – the odor of water on concrete or water within the drains – is sporadic, though I’ve labored in a cellar the place there was a peculiarly damp/moldy scent that you just’d get in sure areas and, irrespective of the place you appeared and cleaned, it will return sometimes. I’’m undecided if it was a mixture of scorching water washing and residual wine or lees. I believe it was the drains.

© NSW DPI
| Grape marc decomposes and rapidly takes on a vinegary scent.

Drains. Prolonged intervals spent in wineries lend an appreciation for the hitherto mundane facets of winemaking. Cooling methods is one, the effectivity of drainage is one other. A mixture of lees, static water, and the heat of spring/summer season is a mixture I can solely describe as completely gopping. (I owe my undesirable data of the hardy, rat-tailed maggot to my dealings with vineyard drainage methods.) The truth is, lees is a daily supply of fragrant horror. The French distinguish gross lees (the solids from juice, or “bourbes”) from wine lees (the post-ferment solids on the backside of a tank or barrel, or “lies”, as in “sur lie”). Gross lees rapidly develop into gross. Numerous wineries will mix them in a tank both to filter or to ship out for distillation and the probabilities that they begin fermenting are excessive, irrespective of how chilly your tank, or how a lot sulfur you chuck in – actually. I’ve sat on the prime of a fermenting lees tank (essentially the most vile, fetid odor – successfully an uber-reductive ferment, smelling of the worst natural drain – you may think about), emptying baggage of sulfur into the highest in an effort to gradual the beast.

Different unhealthy smells embody these of decomposing marc. By-and-large, most wineries will guarantee this will get cleaned out – grapes (pressed or in any other case) and stems rapidly flip acetic and scent like vinegar. Not solely does it scent fairly excessive fairly rapidly, it is also a vector for fruit flies – the bane of winemakers year-round, however particularly in autumn. Whereas it needs to be a uncommon scent in a vineyard, it’s arduous to keep away from discovering it someplace throughout harvest.

One other cellar set off for me, aromatically, is the exhaust of an LPG forklift. The truth is, I reckon that, on a perennial foundation, that is one essentially the most evocative smells round a vineyard. Forklifts are used on a regular basis, even in a whole lot of small outfits: transferring barrels, tipping fruit, transporting dry items, carrying folks to make repairs, and so forth. That scent of an LPG forklift exhaust is a selected mercaptan, instantly recognizable and ubiquitous (one thing like rotten eggs or cabbage or fart however it’s considerably distinctive to LPG – I nearly prefer it).

I prefer it in the identical means I “like” the scent of welded or floor chrome steel. That was presumably my first main vineyard aroma: I would turned up for harvest at a brand new vineyard in Spain and welders had been nonetheless fixing the cooling jackets on the chrome steel tanks. It smells like, effectively, like burning metallic. It is burnt and never fairly candy, it is metallic – clearly – however in case you’ve been round a sawed a little bit of metallic earlier than, you will get the thought. It is industrial. Earlier than lengthy, you are round folks doing all types of issues to chrome steel fittings: grinding, welding and so forth.

Wood it’s good?

From the ridiculous to elegant, among the best harvest odors in a vineyard is that of recent oak. Yearly, it’s irresistible. There’s certainly a primordial set off to our love of the scent of smoke, however that mixture of heat, nearly candy, oak and toast is elegant. Like grandad’s woodwork bench and a handful of roasted espresso beans. All of us lose ourselves a bit bit within the scent of recent oak. Mix that with the candy, creamy, citrus scent of fermenting Chardonnay – in actual fact, a clear ferment of virtually something – and also you’d be forgiven for questioning why anybody would go up on the ensuing wine. Screw all of it, you’d drink the cellar dry.

Certainly, oak or no, most ferments scent incredible. They often go a bit awkward within the final stage however they’re nonetheless fairly beautiful (the aromas of gauche, freshly fermented wine are usually tempered by its stunning dryness on the palate). Then it involves urgent and the smells of marc. If pressed white grapes scent inexperienced (a kind of fruity, natural, recent “inexperienced” scent), then pressed crimson ferments are heady, autumnal. They’ve a sure excessive, fruity-resin mixture; it is neither disagreeable nor notably engaging. Some folks save marc and prepare dinner sausages in it and, as a dish, it is very like the fundamental medium: particular person, distinctive, however not precisely we-should-do-this-all-the-time. It’s extremely evocative, although. Grappa offers you a little bit of an thought.

Final yr, I wrote a chunk concerning the sounds of the vineyard. As I walked into the vineyard this yr and smelled that first ferment I knew the follow-up could be straightforward sufficient. What’’ arduous is discovering descriptors. However that is half of tasting anyway.