News from the Laboratory
I love science. I grew up reading Isaac Asimov essays, and I lap up the latest scientific papers about wine. I came across a few nuggets in recent weeks; they both got me thinking. Maybe they will for you too.
Buried in a report on how to detect brettanomyces in wine was one revelation that helps explain why some bottles taste great when you buy them but can reek of brett after a few years of cellaring. Though physically harmless, brett yeasts can multiply and an individual wine can end up picking up (depending on concentration and the type of the responsible cells) leather, spoiled meat, barnyard, Band-Aid, garbage or fecal aromas. Some people love it. I don't.
I have more than a few bottles of big-name Bordeaux from the 1980s and 1990s that were delicious when released, but opening them now is a roll of the dice. Some are fine, many reek. Now at least I have an explanation for how this can happen.
Winemakers routinely add sulphur dioxide to wines to ward off bacterial contaminations, including brett. The organisms can't grow while there's plenty of SO2 in the wine, but as the SO2 dissipates, they can proliferate. Responsible winemakers routinely test for the presence of brett before bottling, and can respond to its presence by filtering or other treatments. But the little beasts could still be lurking, undetected, waiting to awaken from their slumber.
A new method for brett detection developed by scientists in Italy, detailed in a study published in the Journal of Food Science, uses quantitative polymerase chain reactions to detect brettanomyces DNA. The new process, using the same technology that doctors use to quickly confirm the presence of an infectious disease, can reveal the presence of brett even while lying dormant under a blanket of sulphur dioxide. I lift a glass of (brett-free) wine to those who developed this testing method and to those who can use it to bring me yummier wine.
Micro-oxygenation is a winemaking technique in which trickles of oxygen are released into fermenting wine. It's long been known that this stabilizes color, softens texture and, in general, makes a wine more drinkable sooner. A study from Australia, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, tested preferences for Mornington Peninsula Cabernet Sauvignon made with two levels of micro-ox (25ml of oxygen per liter and 50ml oxygen per liter) and a control sample with no micro-ox.
Lab tests showed that the micro-ox samples had deeper color and less tannins to roughen up the texture. Although the control wine was deemed fruitier by a panel of 30 enology students, four professional winemakers and one critic, they found the micro-ox samples to be more complex and round. Most interesting, to me, was that almost half of the expert tasters liked the control sample best, while 71 percent of consumers (a group of 51 winery visitors and non-expert staff members) preferred some level of micro-ox, with 40 percent preferring the mid-range 25ml sample.
These results fall in line with the notion that consumers love softer, rounder, more approachable textures. So do I, usually.
