Three Questions About French & Australian Riesling

"Vacuum evaporation" ("évaporation sous vide") is the other type of concentrateur in commercial use in Europe. Unlike reverse osmosis, it can only be done on the must (to evaporate water), never on finished wine, where it would evaporate alcohol first. It is used, however, to produce alcohol free wine (called "vacuum destillation"). So that's definitely not a technique to remove VA in standard winemaking.

M.

Salut/Hi Mike,

le/on Mon, 07 Mar 2005 07:20:41 +0100, tu disais/you said:-

Martin said

Mart's Tin shed?

That's in France, Mike. In the UK, wines like Yarra Yering are available - at a price.

Absolutely true. It's astonishing.

per year, yet high

Well, in NW USA, there's a lot of talk about wide diurnal variations in temperature being very important, together with long bunch hang time.

You should, because for a European, used to European viticultural methods and results, what they do in the Antipodes seems to fly in the face of everything obvious,and yet work!

One thing I've learnt in my visits to many various places, is that wonderful wine can be made in far more places than any one region considers possible, by using viticultural and vinicultural techniques found abhorrent in other regions! So in Oz, they can't chaptalise, but they can irrigate, while its the opposite in Europe, and so on.

"don't know whether 600 machines in the thousands of estates counts as a significant "

Ian, while many (most? pretty sure all of the 1sts except maybe Margaux) of the larger more prestigous estates own their own RO machines, my understanding many of the machines are owned by consultants/specialists who are contracted by wineries (just as many chateaux contract out bottling) , so they might service dozens of estates. So I'd say that 600 machines is pretty significant (especially since when most of us refer to Bordeaux, we're not referring to the petit chateaux that produce 2,000 cases per annum).

Salut/Hi DaleW,

le/on 7 Mar 2005 05:47:18 -0800, tu disais/you said:-

Well, firstly that was 600 in TWO areas, (proportion unknown).

Secondly, although it may be true that the most prestigious places have one, I'd have thought that in a rather paradoxical way, they'd be least in need. Their prices are so high that they can afford to hire many pickers and therefore get the first choice, so can hand pick quickly. It's the ones down the pecking (picking?) order who may find themselves with must that's more dilute.

And although their called "Petit Châteaux" that doesn't necessarily relate to their production, (sadly) they are the thousands of lesser properties who produce the great mass of fair to wretched Bordeaux, and who may well need the benefits most.

But if you feel it's a significant presence, then I'd not want to argue.

There is an excellent interview dating back to 1996, when Alain Laliberté, a jounalist from Quebec (iirc), met Bruno Prats of Chateau Cos d'Estournel. A google search will reveal traces of this interview, but not the text itself.

Ian, I will mail you the text which is extremely interesting; your English being much better than mine, maybe you could sum it up in five lines for a.f.w.

If anybody whishes to have the text (it's in French) just mail me via the reply button.

M.

Noted, Mark. Thanks. This process (VA reduction using RO and ion exchange) was done last week on a wine that I helped make at school. (I'm a student of Enology and Viticulture in Walla Walla, WA USA.) I tasted the result this morning and the wine was much improved. The VA had been about 1.5 ppm if I recall correctly, and the treatment brought it down to 0.6 ppm, with no loss of flavor or other desirable components. It's a syrah-based blend.

Andy

Salut/Hi Michael Pronay,

le/on Mon, 07 Mar 2005 17:23:35 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

Ah... one of my favourite places.

Thanks very much. I'll have a noble try, though my ability to say _anything_ in five lines is doubtful.