Tannin in White Wine

I have to admit, I never think about tannin when tasting white wine. However, a conversation with winemaker Steve Matthiasson the other night at our Thursday tasting got me thinking about just that. Tannins in wine come from the grape seeds, stems, and skins, as well as from the wooden barrels used for ageing. If overdone or unbalanced, tannins can cause a drying feeling or bitter sensation in your mouth (think over-steeped tea) but they have their purpose; they give a wine color, structure, and texture and help preserve the wine for age ability.

White wine juice spends significantly less time comingling with the seeds, skins, and stems because after the grapes are crushed (crushing, or cracking the grapes, releases the juice), grapes for white wine are pressed, leaving the skins behind before the juice is fermented in to wine. In fact, the main difference between making red and white wine is that fermentation for red wine takes place before the grapes are pressed (skins on) while for white wine fermentation beings after the grapes have been pressed (skins off.) Although white wine can be made from red grapes (think white Zin – if you must – or Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, two red grapes used to make Champagne), many white wines are made from grapes with white skins (well, actually kinda greenish but you get the picture.)

It is possible to leave the juice of white grapes in contact with the skins for a longer period of time to add some dimension to the wine. However, if left too long, or fermented with the skins on, which is rare, the result will most likely be a harsh, bitter white wine. Acidity, not tannin, is generally the component that adds dimension to white wines, preventing them from being too soft and giving them that sense of freshness.

Oak barrels, which are used for ageing most red, and some white, wines, also impart tannins to wine. There are tannins present in wood that can add structure, as well as flavors, to the finished wine. These ‘wood tannins’ tend to be softer than ‘fruit tannins’ -- from the skins, stems, and seeds – and generally wear down over time. Because wooden barrels are the most significant source of tannin for white wines, such as Chardonnay, the tannins are more subtle and therefore difficult to detect. In the end, it is pretty rare to be able to detect tannin in white wines, which is why wine tasters hardly discuss. I will, however, keep it in the back of my mind and know that it may be in there -- somewhere. Cheers!

Steve Matthiasson is in NYC and Lovin' the Weather

Tonight (rain, sleet, or snow!) we have San Francisco Chronicle 'Winemaker to Watch' Steve Matthiasson coming to the store to pour his amazing white and red wines from Napa. We discovered the Matthiasson wines years ago on a trip to CA Wine Country. Steve and his wife, Jill Klein Matthiasson, hosted us for a bottle and barrel tasting in their ‘winery’ which is actually a tiny garage in an industrial park in Napa. Awesome! This was the first literal ‘garage wine’ we had ever tasted and we were immediately impressed with the wines and the story behind them.

Steve’s first talent in the wine industry is as a viticulturist and vineyard consultant, a livelihood in which he boasts an impressive list of clients including Stag's Leap, Araujo, Spottswoode, David Arthur, and Chappellet -- uh, WOW! This gives him the distinct advantage of identifying special areas within his clients' and his own vineyards from which he is able to secure the fruit for the MATTHIASSON wines. The couple made wine together for years before becoming inspired (by a trip to Italy) to produce wines commercially under their own label.

Tonight from 5 to 7:30pm Steve, a veritable wine virtuoso, will be at the shop pouring his Bordeaux-style red, the 2005 Matthiasson Napa Valley Red Wine (120 cases made), as well as his highly praised French & Italian inspired white blend - the 2007 Matthiasson Napa Valley White Wine (240 cases made). The wines will be 20% OFF regular prices tonight only. We may not get many people stopping by in this weather, but Steve is determined to brave the NYC subway system and make his way down. You should too!!

More about the wines:

2007 Matthiasson Proprietary White Oak Knoll

BOLD: Citrusy, weighty, spicy, complex

This wine was inspired by the wines of Graves, France and Friuli, Italy and is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Ribolla Gialla, Semillon, and Tocai Friulano. The grapes are from three vineyards in the cool southern part of the Napa valley. The wine was inspired by a trip to Italy where viticulturist and winemaker Steve Matthiasson recognized that he could make a white wine in California that boasted great acidity but was also rich and textured. To that end the wine is fermented in 50% texture-enhancing Boutes barrels. Only 240 cases were made.

$38.99 Regularly

$31.19 -- 20% OFF – tonight only.

2005 Matthiasson Napa Valley Red Wine

JUICY: Fresh berry, black plum, herbs, mint, chocolate

This wine is a blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon. The fruit is from two vineyards, Red Hen Merlot Vineyard and Meadowbrook Vineyard, both located in the Oak Knoll area of Napa. The wine is made to show off the fruit versus highlighting a particular vineyard and aims to balance freshness and richness with weight, but not heaviness. Only 120 cases were made.

$76.99 Regularly

$61.59 -- 20% OFF – tonight only.

Bloggers, and Twitter, and Website Integration - Oh My!

If you see some silly posts from us, it's just because we are trying to be all "20-10" and integrate our online presence. Thanks for your patience while we figure it out all! Cheers...

Redirect Your Bookmarks!

Exciting news! We're hitching Drink The Good Stuff to our retail website for California Wine Merchants. Now you can catch up on what's going on out there in the wacky world of wine -- as well as have access to awesome wines, from California and across the globe.

If you don't want to miss a beat (and we know you don't) kindly click the link and change your bookmark to http://blog.cawinemerchants.com/. That way, you can keep up with us, tell us what you think, drink better wine, you know, all that good stuff!

Cheers.

Merlot's Death Hoax

The thrillingly named study, “Merlot Today: The State of the U.S. Merlot Market, Consumer Attitudes and Trends” (insert big yawn here) commissioned by California-based Blackstone Winery and The Nielson Company, finds that Merlot has the largest consumer base of any grape varietal in the U.S. The study also shows that Merlot is the varietal most closely associated with high quality at an affordable price, an increasingly important feature in these economic times.

Huh. I realize that New York City does not offer an accurate depiction of what goes on in the rest of the country, but poor Merlot is treated with nothing short of disdain around here. Mostly attributed to “the Sideways effect” based on the 2004 movie “Sideways” and its outwardly challenging depiction of Merlot, consumers seem to think that drinking Merlot is somehow shameful and that all Merlot based wines are loathsome. As Miles says in the movie, “… if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any f****ing Merlot!” For shame.

The Nielson research, released this month, fails to back up the so called “Sideways effect”, finding that, since the movie, Merlot sales have actually grown steadily in both dollars and volume. According to the study, the number of U.S. households purchasing Merlot is more than double those purchasing Pinot Noir, a grape the movie extols. Merlot, in fact, is still the third most popular grape variety, after Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. This is definitely not the case in our little shop in NYC, where not only does Pinot Noir outsell Merlot, but so do lesser known varietals such as Petite Sirah and Malbec.

Will it help Merlot’s image for people to hear it was thought dead but is, in fact, alive and well in America? If the effect is anything like celebrity death hoaxes, which have become increasingly popular in our social media driven society, it may do just that. The celebrity death hoax today is actually a mark of status and a boon to popularity. One would think, then, that it can only help Merlot. Perhaps people will come in to the store, head held high, asking for Merlot ― and snickering at those who snicker at them. Ahhh, we can only hope!

[As a side note, I had a hard time finding out exactly who was surveyed for this study. Nielson is certainly a reputable research company, but given the study was done on behalf of Blackstone, a winery whose self-proclaimed foundation is Merlot, I can’t imagine the press release would have been so widely distributed if the results had shown differently.]