Q:What’s the difference between a bargain priced wine and expensive wine?
There are big differences in how they are made. A panel of winemakers at this year’s Unified Wine and Grape Symposium in Sacramento revealed all of the steps as they compared techniques for making Cabernet Sauvignon at three different price points.
In the bargain category, Francis Ford Coppola’s Ivory Label Cabernet is made mostly from grapes grown near Lodi. The winery gets about eight tons of grapes per acre from those vines, which are mechanically pruned and harvested.
This treatment can lead to uneven grape quality, but harvesting at a high level of ripeness smooths it out. Winemaker Evan Schiff applies sulfur dioxide to the grapes to kill stray bacteria before adding a commercial strain of yeast as the grapes are crushed.
During and after the relatively quick fermentation, the winemaker usually adds yeast nutrients and fining agents such as isinglass, a gelatin derived from fish. This wine will not see an actual barrel: It goes into large stainless steel tanks, which get small amounts of oxygen bubbled in, along with wood chips and submerged staves for oak flavors. The wine is filtered before sending to retail at about $12 a bottle in supermarkets.
Raising the price point to about $30 gets you more care in both the vineyard and the winery.
Ryan Decker makes Rodney Strong Knights Valley Cabernet from northern Sonoma County grapes. Contracted crews prune the vines by hand to yield about four-and-a-half tons per acre. Machine harvesting is done at night to keep the grapes cool.
After crushing, Decker cold soaks the must in stainless steel for five days to set flavors. Fermentation is spontaneous with ambient yeasts, and juice from various vineyard blocks are kept separate until final blending.
Then the wine is held for further extraction at 86 degrees for a couple of weeks before pressing to French oak barrels, half of which are new. After 18 months of aging, the wine gets a final filtration before bottling.
The most expensive Cabernets come from the Napa Valley, but Cliff Lede Family Cabernet at $78 is near the low end of that high-end region. Hand cultivation of two estate vineyards in the cool Stags Leap District limits grape yields to just two-and-a-half tons per acre.
The full-time resident vineyard crew also hand harvests the grapes in the predawn darkness, making several passes for optimum ripeness in each block. At the winery, the grapes are sorted both by hand and by an optical sorter, which resembles a computer scanner, to weed out any stray bad berries before crushing.
A week’s cold soak precedes the spontaneous fermentation. Forty days of tank aging on the skins gives tannins that contribute to aging potential. The wine then goes to French oak barrels—80 percent of them new—for 21 months before bottling. No fining agents or filtration are used.
These differences yield noticeable variations in flavors and texture in these wines. The Francis Coppola is smooth, easy to drink and uncomplicated, while the Cliff Lede is darker, more intense, fragrant with fruit and spice, and somewhat grippy, which means that it will gain complexity with a few more years in the bottle.
Each of these wines is probably just right for one occasion or another.
This Month’s Recommended Wines: Good Value Wines
2016 Alamos Malbec, Mendoza— Ever reliable, this Argentine red shows blackberry and toasty notes in a smooth texture. $8, in wide release
2017 Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare, Central Coast—Well-priced for a crowd, this rosé brings melon, citrus, and stony notes. $16 at Gelson’s
2016 Turonia Albariño, Rías Baixas, Spain— A versatile and crisp white that offers floral and herbal flavors along with apricot. $17, at Wine House
2015 District 7 Cabernet Sauvignon, Monterey — Deep garnet color foreshadows black cherry and smoky aromas, finishing with light tannins. $20, at Ralphs
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