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Will Bordeaux wine taste “smoky” this year? The first “reassuring” results

2022-08-31T07:13:13.002Z


The Gironde was affected this summer by two major fires, in La Teste-de Buch and Landiras. The first results concerning the presence of molecules that can give a "smoky taste" to wine are "reassuring" for the Bordeaux vineyards, after the fires that burned more than 28,000 hectares of forest in Gironde, we learned on Tuesday during a conference at the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences in Villenave-d'Ornon. The Gironde was affected this summer by two major fires, in La Teste-de Buch (


The first results concerning the presence of molecules that can give a "smoky taste" to wine are "reassuring" for the Bordeaux vineyards, after the fires that burned more than 28,000 hectares of forest in Gironde, we learned on Tuesday during a conference at the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences in Villenave-d'Ornon.

The Gironde was affected this summer by two major fires, in La Teste-de Buch (7,000 ha) and Landiras (13,800 ha then 7,400 ha after a recovery).

This last sector, in southern Gironde, is close to the Bordeaux appellations of Graves, Pessac-Léognan, Sauternes, Barsac and Loupiac.

Read alsoFires in Gironde: the region still under close surveillance

"At this stage, the first analytical results are reassuring", indicated Vincent Renouf, general manager of the Excell laboratory, during this conference organized by the Union of Oenologists of France (UOF), explaining that 400 analyzes had been carried out.

Bitterness on the finish

On known compounds that contribute to the "smoky taste" in wine, "we remain at levels below the thresholds of theoretical perception", he added.

He explained this in particular by the fact that the fires had struck "very early" before the harvest, unlike the fires in California in 2020 or in Provence in 2021. The grapes did not yet have a lot of sugar and did not been able to "glycolize" the molecules resulting from the combustion of wood (volatile phenols) a lot: "If the grape does not have enough sugar, that (these molecules, editor's note) does not fit", he explained.

VIDEO.

Gironde: residents at the front facing the flames

The “smoky taste” is characterized by a “bitterness at the end of the mouth”, a “pungency”, but is odorless, explained the speakers.

It is generally revealed at the time of fermentation with the action of sugars which will have fixed compounds resulting from combustion.

"No worries"

"In the vineyard (Bordeaux), there is no concern," assured Dominique Guignard, boss of the Graves union and winegrower in Mazères, near Landiras.

“In 1949, there was a monster fire near Graves and the vintage was exceptional.

This year, we are going to make a great vintage!

»

But for the national president of the UOF Didier Fages, this problem is "called to return" and to arise for "other fruit harvests".

According to Vincent Bouazza, Dubernet laboratories, "all the compounds responsible for the taste of smoke have not yet been identified".

Source: leparis

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