Wine and Your Health: Getting Real

 Here are two articles on wine and our health:

1. First article: Grapes are a superfood that lower bad chloresterol. Many of their healthy nutrients are also found in wine made from grapes. There are many studies linking moderate wine drinking with better heart health. (There are also many studies linking wine consumption with various other adverse health impacts, and every researcher agrees that wine drinkers should always drink only in moderation.)

2. Second article: How you drink, and how often you drink,  and what your biological gender is, all greatly affects how your liver processes alcohol. Moderate wine consumption (1 to 2 glasses per day, for a man) seems to allow the liver (in most people) to "keep up" in processing the alcohol, whereas weekend drinkers are slamming their livers with alcohol when the liver isn't prepared to receive it. Interesting. So it's not clear that a "dry January" is helpful. Also, due to the effects of estrogen, most women can't process alcohol as well as men can, so more of the alcohol they drink passes into the bloodstream (whereas with men, more of it is "disabled" in the stomach). If the average man and the average woman (even if they weigh the same) drink the same amount of wine, it's likely the woman will have far more blood alcohol than the man. So "moderate consumption" for women is less than what it is for men.

To get real about it: It's important, especially as we get older, to know what "moderate" wine consumption is, for yourself. I've learned how to nurse a single glass of wine through an entire dinner, though I don't do that very often. Also, I believe that hard liquor is much more dangerous for our health than are wine and beer (hard liquor doesn't have the healthy ingredients that grapes do, and with its super-high alcohol levels, it's very important to watch our dosage with hard liquor). I think that, with wine, it's better to consider wines with lower alcohol. Consider a German Riesling from a cool year, where the alcohol might be just 9%, or a Prosecco at 9 to 11%. We should drink less of that 16% Zinfandel at a meal, compared to the amount of a Prosecco that we could drink. Ports should be enjoyed only in small glasses, obviously.

However you decide to proceed, be careful and stay informed!

Finally, some clear progress for modern grapes in Europe?

 Such a simple idea, and yet it's been illegal for what seems like forever in Europe: use grapes that have both European and American/Asian heritage! This gives you no-spray disease resistance, and better adaptation to climate change. It will, in fact, save the world of wine.

See article here. (Photo is of Epona Vineyard's Labelle grapes)

Modern grape thrives in Brazil's hot, humid valleys, and is a huge hit in Europe!

 Even most of us who grow modern grapes are surprised that it's possible to breed a grape that can avoid fungal diseases in Brazil! But this new grape, Vitoria, apparently (like my modern grapes here in the 46 degrees North temperate zone) doesn't need antifungal sprays. And the consumers love the flavor.

Here's an article about them.

Renewable race car fuel made from grapes!

 Seems too perfect to be true ;)  Here's the article: 

Six colors of 2021 wine! Bubbling away. Let the rains come!

 

Best Grapes Ever! What a great year for modern grapes in SW WA!

 Update: Harvest is complete. Only our Delicatessen hung through the 2 days of rain we just got (and desperately needed). Everything else was picked before the rains, with near-perfect wine chemistry and almost no bird loss. 

This is what I just wrote to a friend who's making a Leon Millot red wine from our grapes:

My 2021 Estate Red Batch #2 (75% Leon at 24.5 Brix field test; 25% Mindon at 26 Brix field test) is proceeding exactly according to form. So this might help you expect what you may see:

1. Commingled the fruit and crushed. Added a quart of frozen black currants from our garden (the primary flavor of Cab Sauv). Added pectic enzyme and sulfited for a day. The must showed 24.2 Brix (I was glad it wasn't as high as the field test), and pH = 3.28 (temp-adjusted). These are normal, and that pH is not a concern. It's high enough not to inhibit commercial yeast, and it will rise a lot, as you'll see. I also add a bit of tannin to this variety.

2. I used BDX yeast on this batch (I also often use RC212 as I think you did--I used it on another batch and will blend the finished wine). Punched down twice a day. Three days after pitch, SG = 1030 and pH was 3.65! All that pH rise, from the fermentation. I think some acid precipitates even at room temp, and I think the yeast action uses up other acids. 

3. I pitch MLF before others in this area do, but as I noted y'day, I have my reasons. 

4. After 6 days on skins, I pressed. The skins were looking depleted. I didn't test SG but based on poorly the cap was rising, I bet it was about 1005.

5. The ferm finished in tanks. I started watching for evidence of MLF (rush of tiny bubbles when you suddenly twist the carboy; pH rise).

6. 12 days after harvest, SG is 994, so the wine's totally dry. Temp-adjusted pH is now 3.78. I see tiny bubbles when I twist the carboy. So I know MLF is ongoing. Will watch for it to end, probably in just a few days, as the garage is hanging at about 70F and MLF can finish fast in that temp, if it has good conditions.  In a few days I'll test pH again and once pH rise seems to have stopped, I'll test for ML (I use test strips--a good kit and spendy; Kim uses (I think) chromatography).  I'm guessing the pH might stop at about 3.85.

7. Once that's done, then I'll rack off the lees onto oak, and sulfite, and add tartaric for about pH 3.6, and age through the winter. (Always add tartaric in quarter-doses, as we never know the buffering capacity of a particular wine, and if you over-acidify the wine, then you have to add K-Carb and that requires Cold Stabilization--a PITA, and it's horsing around the wine unnecessarily. I've learned that the hard way. Ditto with K-Carb--always add it in quarter-doses (25% of what the formula says you need).

This red is easy to make (once you understand how to manage its pH), and it takes oak well, and ages well for at least 5 years. In warm years with light crop, you get purple fruits, forest floor, chocolate. In cooler years, or in warmer years with heavy load (as my vines were this year, despite my dropping about 1/3 of the fruit this year) you get more cherry flavors with some purple fruit. That is what I'm tasting now, but it might change with age.

Update on what is looking to be a very great grape harvest

 We had two huge heat events this summer, so our GDDs are pretty high. Spring was a bit early also. Our earlier modern grapes are really proving their worth. Our Blattner Labelle is fully ripe (24 Brix; great flavors) and it is such an early grape that the birds are still eating our wild blackberries, so we didn't have to net and we're at only about 1% bird loss.  Also ripe are Jupiter (ranging from 21-22) and Monastery Muscat (20-21). Golubok is very close--some clusters (23 Brix) are already picked, but most (20-21 Brix) need another week. Leon Millot, which I used to think of as very early, is also close (ranging from 21-23). This all seems crazy early, but it's great. And the rumors of wine's demise in western WA were premature--we haven't had one whiff of smoke all summer, despite major wildfires all around our S, E, and N--the onshore winds from the Pacific have been consistent, and saved us. However, the later grapes are at risk of both voracious birds and smoke, and everything is affected by our drought--we're seeing some shriveling and had to do some supplemental irrigation during the summer, which is unusual. So we will see. Due to climate change I think, yields are way above average this year.