Breaking rule #1 of writing: never sacrifice clarity just for the sake of a pithy title. Restated: Welcome to a post which will shortly discuss the chemistry of wine making, but in which we will first partake of a divergence to ponder the realities of surveying the local countryside within the aviary confines of a hot air balloon.
Better, right?
Being in Napa Valley, one of the busiest hot air balloon areas in the country, Chris and I decided on a masochistic-feeling, bleary-eyed early morning rise (read:4:30am) to join a hot air balloon ride. Any sensations of missing bed were long gone by the time we hit 3,000 ft altitude and were staring down at sweeping, gorgeous country below us.
Balloons inflating:
Most of the way, the lyrics to Come Josephine, In My Flying Machine were stuck in my head:
Oh! Say! Let us fly, dear
Where, kid? To the sky, dear
Oh you flying machine
Jump in, Miss Josephine
Ship ahoy! Oh joy, what a feeling
Where, boy? In the ceiling
Ho, High, Hoopla we fly
To the sky so high
Come Josephine in my flying machine
Going up she goes! Up she goes!
Balance yourself like a bird on a beam
In the air she goes! There she goes!
Up, up, a little bit higher
Oh! My! The moon is on fire
Come Josephine in my flying machine
Going up, all on, Goodbye!
We visited several wineries for tours/tastings after the hot air balloon ride, including Grgich Hills, Sequoia Grove, Beringer, and Hendry. By far the tour that blew the rest away was Hendry. We attended a 3 hour seminar given by the owner himself, George Hendry, a second generation farmer who is both smart in the chemistry and passionate in the art of growing grapes and creating wine. Adding an entirely new level of detail to the tour was the fact that Chris & I were joining 5 scientists from the Maryland area, a mix of soil/ecological specialists, so we got to benefit from answers to in-depth questions that made my inner science geek heart go a-pitter-patter. The seminar included a tour of the winery as well as a tasting of 8 wines and deep-dive into the science of wine palate.A few of the most interesting topics:
What wine grows where? And why?
Grapes depend on three main elements for success: sunshine, temperature, and soil moisture. The photosynthesis process through which plants create energy stops when sunlight is not available, so the less sunlight, the less activity from the grape plant (ditto a grape plant in warm vs. cold temperatures - plant organisms are wildly more active in warmer climates). Red grapes are much more (I borrow George's term) "lethargic" and require more sunlight and warmer temperatures to mature, so closer to the equator = red grapes, further = white grapes. Soil moisture also plays a significant role. One might assume, as my non-agriculturally-savvy-self did, that well-watered plants would be best for growing grapes. Not so. Well-watered plants do a lot of growing of the plant vine itself, which actually diverts energy and nutrients away from the grapes. Less moisture "stresses" the plant, keeping the vine tops from growing and allowing all of the plant's energy to divert to the grapes, making them sweeter. (There is a moral lesson in here somewhere about difficult conditions making our character sweeter, or something like that). Some of the lethargic wines further require that much of the fruit be pared away so that the nutrients remaining are concentrated in fewer grapes. This is less necessary in grapes like Zinfandel (meaning less fruit pruning = more fruit yield = more bottles per acre = lower price per bottle) and much more important for lethargic plants like Cabernet (more fruit pruning = less fruit yield = fewer bottles per acre = higher price per bottle).
What creates the flavor in vine?
Red grape juice is actually clear (not red) and basically flavorless. When red wine is processed, the skins, seeds, and juice are all included in the fermentation process (where sugar + yeast are converted into alcohol) - it is actually the skin being crushed that creates the red-colored juice and much of the flavor. Red wine then has to be barrel-aged to allow malic acid to convert to lactic acid, improving flavor. The skin and seeds for white grapes are not necessary in the wine making process, which means the wine does not have to be barrel-aged (though it can be to impart additional flavors).
The "and why?" part is what I loved, so I'm starting there. It all begins with our friend tannin. Tannin is a biomolecule heavily present in black tea and coffee. About 1 in 10 people have a taste sensitivity to tannin that makes it quite bitter tasting, and the barrel aging process imparts tannin (to varying degrees depending upon the grape/process) into wine. Regardless of whether tannin tastes bitter (the 1 in 10 thing), it binds to proteins. Since much of our taste bud receptors are protein-based, when tannin comes in contact it binds to taste-buds and renders them ineffective temporarily. Result:
Sip 1 of red wine: Mmm, this is a nice full-bodied taste
Sip 2 (tannin now blocking some taste buds): Hmm, I don't taste much
Sip 3 (tannin now blocking most taste buds): Huh, this is pretty boring wine
Tannins are least present in whites (to non-existent in some types) and most present in reds (particularly Cabernet Sauvignon). At this point it seems tannins are evil agents out to make us taste biterness or nothing at all. So why ever drink red wine?
Enter the counter-player: fat. Fat in food acts similarly to tannin, coating the taste buds and diminishing our ability to taste (so bite 1, 2, and 3 of ribeye are progressively less flavorful if eating back-to-back). We mentioned earlier that tannin binds, and in this case rather than binding to the protein of a tastebud (making the taste bud less effective), it binds instead to the fat coating the taste bud, acting as a sort of detergent and rendering the taste bud free and clear to enjoy flavor.
Result: Sip red wine, bite ribeye, sip red wine, bite ribeye = magic of flavor.
The nuance is that you have to balance the level of tannin (low to high) with the level of fat in the food (low to high).
Pinot Gris - a light white wine, grown in higher moisture soils (meaning more vine growth and less sweetness in the grape -- see the what grapes grow in what areas section). Basically no tannin, so it's great as a pre-dinner wine or with light fish (not salmon) and light cheese (not cheddar/brie/etc) and herbs.
Unoaked Chardonnay - stronger in flavor than Pinot Gris since it's grown in soil with less moisture
Barrel oaked Chardonnay - barrels impart tannin, but also give wine additional flavor/complexity. Typically pairs well with chicken, slightly "richer" seafoods like lobster, fattier cheese (like brie/goat/soft cheese).
Pinot Noir - Lowest tannin level in red wine,pairs with low-moderate fatty foods like chicken, proscuitto as well as earthier vegetables like mushrooms.
Primitivo/Zinfandel - Primitivo is genetically the same to Zinfandel (decended from a Croatian grape), both Primitivo and Zinfindel are "fruit forward" (a fruit flavor hits the front of the palate), and the tannin level pairs well with mid-level fat/acid foods like pasta sauce, chutney, pork, BBQ or pot roast.
Cabernet Sauvignon - the most expensive of the reds given its "lethargy" (see above) which means fewer bottles yielded per acre of grapes. Pairs well with heavy foods like ribeye.
There is much more to the science of food pairing, including sweetness, acidity, and more - but we only had three hours with George! We will just have to go back to Napa at some point - aw, shucks ;o)
A more detailed chart of precise wine pairing from Wine Folly:
