Ok, I'm up to speed that, in wine terminology, brix is a measurement of the sugar in grapes. So far, so good. If we are talking a grape with great potential for making a classic wine ,say a Cab, what would the appropriate brix range be? What happens if the brix is too low? Too high? Any help would be appreciated.
Da' Bear
As a friend of mine, who happens to be a Master of Wine (M.W.), said in a seminar a few nights ago, ask three winemakers this kind of question and you're likely to get four different answers.
Vino
Ah! Something like my sig line, substituting "Wine" for "Zen"?
Thanks,
Good analogy!
Vino
As others have said, it depends on what type of wine, but typical ranges for reds are brix 20 to 25, giving a potential alcohol range of approximately 11% to 14%.
If the brix is too low, there may not be enough alcohol produced to make the wine feel full bodied and the wine will not be as biologically stable. It can also be a warning sign that the grapes were not physiologically ripe when harvested.
If the brix is too high, too much alcohol could be produced making the wine "hot" and the yeast may not be able to convert all of the sugar to alcohol leaving residual sugar in the finished wine. It can also be a warning sign that the grapes were not physiologically ripe when harvested.
Andy
Grapes that are at too high a Brix are certainly ripe - in fact they are possibly overripe. Such fruit may produce plummy or raisiny flavors in the finished wine, which as you mentioned may have residual sugar. Also, since the grape acids decline as the sugar increases, the fruit will usually be low in acid and high in pH - thus not possessing proper balance for table wine production.
Tom S
I think we had a similar discussion in another forum.
It really depends on how one defines ripe. Many farmers rely on brix and/or acid measurements and by that definition, obviously, a high brix indicates the grapes are overripe.
Other farmers rely more on the taste profile and the maturity of seeds and stems to indicate ripeness. Using this definition (a better one, IMHO), grapes can certainly be (and in hot climates, many time are) unripe but have a high sugar content.
It is not uncommon for a lot of wine grapes comming out of California to have high brix but be physiologically unripe. Rare in the best growing areas of California, but that represents a small percentage of the wine grapes grown in the state.
Andy
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