The Evolution of a Wedding Venue: From Six Penny Farm to Brix & Columns Vineyards

What’s in a name?  When you come to visit us here at Brix & Columns Vineyards, you will find out that we put a lot of thought into the naming of each step of our journey.  When we first built our house in 2007, we named our farm Six Penny Farm as a nod to the fact that we are the Pences and there are 6 of us: Mom, Dad, and four children.  Our friends and family loved the property and the views from our house, and several folks asked us if we would be open to the option of becoming a wedding venue.  

Our original farm sign.

Since we were juggling our careers, parenting, and farming, the option seemed a little daunting at the time. Fast forward 8 years and our eldest child, Taylor, was ready to get married.  As he was taking his big step into another chapter of life, we decided to take a big step into our own next chapter, and our wedding venue The Columns at Six Penny Farms was born! The name referenced both our farm and the stately columns at the front of our home. 

Taylor and Laura celebrating on their special day!

We purchased a large event tent that we set up out back, and we planned on hosting cocktail hour on our back porch. All we were really missing was the perfect ceremony site.  We thought about which side of the house had the best views, and we quickly chose the view from our side porch. The panoramic views available there of rolling fields and blue-hued mountains are hard to beat.  We had the pergola built just in time for Taylor and Laura’s wedding (our inaugural ceremony), and we love the fact that their names and wedding date are signed in the concrete under the brick. Tune in to our next blog to hear the cutest story about the construction of the pergola!

Things went great for a few years, but it was hard to get a good night sleep anytime the tent was up and the night was windy.  All it took was a well-placed gust, and we would be scrambling the next morning to get everything set back in place for the day’s festivities.  

The event tent set up behind our house.

In the meantime, we were contacted by a local vineyard approached us about leasing land to grow grapes.  After coming to look, the vineyard owners said that the land was ideal for growing vines, but those vineyard owners eventually found some land closer to home. Once we realized our land had vineyard potential, we invited several other vineyard consultants out to look at our land, and we also began taking viticulture classes at Piedmont Valley Community College.  In the spring of 2016, we planted their first grapes (Petit Verdot and Viognier) and in the fall of that year we broke ground on the Brix & Columns Vineyard building. Since Brix is a wine term and Columns references both our original venue name and the columns that are a prominent feature of our Jeffersonian architecture, the name Brix & Columns combines both the wine and wedding elements of our operation!

A photo of the Brix & Columns building, the house, and the pergola.

Every step of our journey has helped us grow into the space we are now!

Minerality?! What Does This New Term Mean?

Now, I know I am no expert in this world of wine. My specialty is more along the lines of being able to sniff out who has the good food stashed in their coolers, but I have done a lot of research and a lot of listening around the tasting room.  One term that seems to have everyone scratching their heads – including me – is minerality. Even after all my research, I don’t have any real conclusive information to share with you.

A lot of people think that minerality comes from the vines soaking up the minerals in the soil in which they grow.  From my understanding, that would technically be impossible since the trace amounts of minerals present in the grapes are so small that they could never be detected by human taste buds.  Besides that, many minerals are added to and taken from the wine during the wine-making process. What is curious about this theory is that some regions produce more wines with noticeable minerality than other regions.    

Although sometimes described as a taste, minerality really describes an experience, instead.  The term helps describe the combination of the smell, taste, and mouthfeel of the wine. One article I read called minerality the umami aspect of wine.  When I read that, I knew I had heard the term before, and I quickly recalled that it was mentioned during a meeting with Mikey from Mashita, he explained the umami taste and why it is important to lend savory qualities to foods.  

Minerality works in the same way with wine.  It helps the wine drinker notice all of the other characteristics of the wine by activating the salt receptors in the taste buds.  While it is difficult to put this experience into words, some words that you might hear used to describe a wine that has a minerality quality present are chalk, graphite, oyster shell, wet sidewalk, or crushed rock.  When you are tasting wine at Brix & Columns, you may notice the quality or minerality in our rosé and cabernet franc wines.  

Even though it hasn’t made its way onto the Davis Wine Aroma Wheel, minerality is a term making rounds more and more frequently in the wine world, so you are sure to hear it as you make your rounds to all the great vineyards in Virginia and beyond.  While not everyone understands completely what it means, I hope this blog gave you a bit more grasp of it next time you hear it in the tasting room. I’ll keep nosing around for more information, and hopefully I will find some tasty treats my mom has stashed away for me along the way!

What Makes a Wine Considered Sweet?

If you’ve stopped by the vineyard and met me, I don’t think there is any denying that I am the sweetest thing all around, but after me, there are a few other sweet items in our tasting room.  Our name itself gives you a hint of the sweetness that can be found in some of our wines. Brix & Columns is named, in part, after the unit of measurement in which sugar is measured in wine. I actually wrote my first blog about brix (read “What are These Brix, Anyway?” here) and we named our first semi-sweet wine, White Brix, as a nod to those brix.  

We get a lot of questions about what constitutes a sweet wine, specifically what is the particular point where a wine goes from dry to sweet. There is not a black and white answer (a Winston, if you will) to that question, but there are several well-defined gray areas to follow:

If a wine is 0% residual sugar, it is considered “bone dry”.  Our Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, and McGahey all fall into this category.  

If a wine has between .1% and 1.7% residual sugar, it is considered “dry”.  Our Viognier, Petit Manseng, Rosé, and Cabernet Franc fall into this category.   

If a wine has between 1.8% and 3.5% residual sugar, it is considered “off-dry”.  These wines often start sweet and finish dry. Both our White Brix and Kerus fall into this category.  

If a wine has between 3.6% and 12% residual sugar, it is considered “sweet”.  Our Lil Em falls into this category.

Finally, if a wine has more than 12% residual sugar, it is considered “dessert”.  We don’t currently have any wines that fall into this category.

Inevitably, the question will lead to what determines the level of sugar in wine.  That is actually determined by the quality and ripeness of the grapes when harvested and the goals of the winemaker.   During the fermentation process, the yeast in the pressed juice eats the sugar (fructose and glucose) and turns it into alcohol.  In dry wines, all of the sugar was eaten which is why dry wines have a slightly higher alcohol level than sweet wines. In sweet wines, the winemaker stopped the fermentation process in order to have a sweeter wine.  

Sometimes wines can taste sweeter than their residual sugar suggests they would taste.  This is because humans (much like dogs) rely on their sense of smell to influence their taste.  If a wine smells sweet, it is perceived as sweeter by the drinker. This happened frequently with our 2016 Viognier.  Also, the more tannins a wine has in it, the less sweet it appears to be. This can be seen when you taste our White Brix and Kerus side by side.  The White Brix tastes sweeter even though it has less residual sugar than the Kerus.

Speaking of tannins – did you know that you can reduce the presence of tannins by drinking the wine with food that is salty and/or fatty (you know, every cheese board my mom has NEVER let me eat)?  You know what would be really sweet? If you talked my mom into letting me have a hunk of cheddar with some slices of salami, but since we know that will never happen, continue happily drinking your wines every time you come to see the sweetest aspect of Brix & Columns Vineyards: ME!

 

A Spring in my Step, and Clusters on my Vines!

I may be an old fellow and slowing down a bit, but there is one thing I will never get tired of: springtime! Sure, I let those bunnies hop through my yard without barking at them as much, and I haven’t chased too many skunks this year (Mom is really appreciative of this change), but I am still sure to take her on a walk every morning through the vines, so she can get her exercise, and I can sniff out the new changes in my vineyard.

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I’m not the only one to perk up in the springtime; this is also the time of year that vines start waking up from their winter slumber.  A few weeks ago, I wrote about how we prune at the start of the season, but that is just one of many changes that is happening around here.  When the spring sunshine starts to hit the vines, the starches that were stored over the winter are converted into sugars and sap starts moving through the vines.  This wakes all of the sleeping parts of the grapevine, and the dormant buds become noticeably larger. The buds swell and eventually break open to unfurl the beautiful gold-green leaves that have been forming since last year’s growing season.  The shoots that grow from these newly broken buds grow quickly, and vineyard managers strip the vines of their excess leafage at this time in order to focus the energy of growth into the two shoots that have been selected to cultivate this year.   

After a few weeks, clusters of inflorescence develop.  These look like miniature grape clusters on the vine, but if you look closely, they are actually tightly formed flower buds.  After opening, the flowers will last for as short a time as two days in warm sunny weather or as long as a month in cool, damp areas.  If the weather is cool and damp during the flowering period, the number of berries per bunch will be fewer, and each grape will have less seeds – resulting in smaller fruit at full ripeness. After this self-pollination period is over, the flowers fall off and the berries start to form.  At the same time that these visual changes are happening, the buds that will vine and fruit next year are beginning to form beneath the surface of the grapevines. Sunny days now will result in more fruit-bearing next year.

Anywhere from a month to two months after the flowers have dropped off and the fruit has appeared on the vines, the berries will begin the veraison process.  During this stage, the red grapes change color from green to red and other signs of maturity begin to surface. For the next month and a half, the grapes will continue to increase in sugar, color, and flavor compounds.  As veraison slows to a halt, the green outer coverings on the vines will turn brown and bark-like (called lignification), and harvesting will begin as soon as the grapes have reached their desired brix and acidity levels.  

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The leaves will stay on the vine collecting energy to be stored over the winter in order to start the whole process again next spring.

Stay tuned on our social media pages for pictures of the grape flowers as they come into bloom, and keep your fingers crossed for dry and sunny days ahead!  

Wine Tasting 102

Tasting sheet. Photo taken by E Baugher

It’s that time of year again for lazy sunny days spent cruising the countryside, driving from one vineyard to another, drinking delicious wine, and petting incredibly handsome dogs (ahem!).   Sometimes people are visiting a winery for their first time and don’t know all the steps of the tasting process, and sometimes they just forget to take time for one of the most important steps: the sniffing.  Not us dogs! We never forget to sniff!

I actually wrote a blog on the 5 S’s of the tasting process last year (read that here), and a quick recap is that the 5 S’s are See, Swirl, Smell, Sip, and Savor.  Today, I wanted to make sure you focus on my area of expertise next time you come in.

The third S of the process is the smelling.  When you smell the wine, you should be taking both small sips of air through your nose and long deep breaths.  Doing this will help you experience the three layers of smells that you encounter. The first layer tells you the characteristics of the grape, the second layer tells you about the winemaking process, and the third layer tells you about any aging that occurs.  Knowing about these three layers of smelling are especially helpful if you are a sommelier doing a blind tasting, but the tasting room associates already tell you quite a bit of these details during the actual tasting process.

All of those wonderful smells that you smell when you stick your nose in a glass of wine are there because of some key compounds that impact the aroma.  I want to tell you about the six most common compounds, so you can see if you can sniff them out of that glass of wine you are drinking.

Pyrazines:  Think of those herbaceous notes you sometimes smell in wine, you know, the hints of green pepper and grass.  Sometimes this compound can even provide smells that are reminiscent of bitter chocolate. Even though they are off-putting to some people now, these smells will actually mellow out and morph into notes of cherry and chocolate as they age.  These compounds are most usually found in wines like Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot.

Rotundone: Think of those spicy notes like black pepper, old leather, and earthiness.  This compound exists mainly in the skins of grapes, so winemakers can choose to increase or decrease the presence by adjusting maceration times.  (Remember: Maceration is the term that refers to soaking the juice on the skins). This compound is most often found in wines known for their spiciness such as Syrah, Zinfandel, and Grüner Veltliner.

Monotrepenes: Think of those floral and sweet fruit smells that so many people love.  The really neat thing about these particular compounds is that they are the only one that you can actually taste in the grape prior to processing.  These are commonly found in wines like Gewürztraminer, Traminette, Viognier, and Riesling.

Sotolon: Think of the sweet, nutty smells you encounter like maple syrup, walnut, and tobacco.  These smells come about as a byproduct of oxidation, so they are typically found in wines that are fortified or whites that have been aged for a long time.  You might encounter them in an aged Chardonnay, a sherry, or a port style wine.

TDN (Trimethyl Dihydronapthalene):  As terrible as it might sound, and it makes my nose hurt just thinking about it, think about how common fuels smell.  Do you know what I’m talking about? Kerosene, diesel, gasoline? Yep! Those smells are usually found in wines that are grown in warmer climates.  You might find them in Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, or Riesling.

Diacetyl:  As a cream cheese head, this compound might be my favorite.  Think about dairy smells like cream and butter. These smells tell you that the wine has undergone malolactic fermentation (when malic acid is converted into lactic acid) and this process and the resulting compound actually make the wine creamier and more velvety.  This is most common in red wines and whites that undergo malolactic such as Chardonnay, Viognier, and our Petit Manseng.

All of our sniffing abilities are different and all wines are different, so don’t get down on yourself if you can’t smell any of these.  If anything, it would just make me feel better to know you were trying to sniff out the wine world like I am!

View of back patio. Photo taken by E Baugher

P.S.  The 6th S that I added (as your resident wine expert) is “sitting” and there is not better time than now to do it!  We recently added a back patio and a picnic table, and the views are incredible, so come sit, SNIFF, sip, and enjoy!

Springtime in the Vineyard!

Oh boy, oh boy!  Spring is my favorite time of year.  The country air is always full of good smells: flowers, freshly cut grass, manure being spread over the fields, and burger being grilled for dinner.  I could tell you which one of those is my favorite, but you probably already know! What more could a dog ask for then a freshly grilled burger to be followed by a good nap in the freshly mowed grass?  Phew. Tell that to my Mom. Please! Luckily for me, fun in the vineyard doesn’t just end with delicious smells; instead, it is a time of excitement when the vines are coming back to life and plans are being put into place for the next year.

Buds forming on dormant vines at Brix & Columns Vineyards. Photo by Erin Baugher

Gene, along with Felix’s crew, has been working hard the last month to prune all of our vines back from last year and train them to the trellis for this year’s crop.  Pruning grape vines should be done pretty aggressively by cutting up to 90% of the previous year’s growth off. Then, adequate pruning is imperative to ensure a bountiful harvest. Grapes only grow on new growth, and the new growth comes from the previous year’s vine that has been wired onto the trellis.  Each plant, when finished being pruned, should have about 20-30 buds remaining on the entire plant.

Close up of cane pruning at Brix & Columns Vineyards. Photo by Erin Baugher

Achieving the proper balance of buds is so important to having a large crop.  Too many buds and there will be too much canopy and not enough sunlight reaching the vines; too few buds and the crop load will be less than desired projections. The lack of fruit can encourage excessive greenery growth that also leads to too much canopy.  It is a delicate balance that can only be achieved with foresight, intuition, and a knowledge of growth patterns of the different vinifera and hybrids. Vineyard managers are a huge asset to the winemaking process and their work often goes unnoticed if you aren’t looking closely.

Gene, our vineyard manager, in the Vidal vines. Photo taken by Erin Baugher

Luckily for us, we appreciate Gene and all of the work he does: Thank you, Gene, for looking out for our vines and for giving me ear rubs whenever you come around. As you all come into the vineyard over the next few weeks, keep your eyes peeled for bud break.  This exciting day is when the growing buds bust through their winter blankets and start to show their green-gold selves to this world! We will share that breaking news when it happens!

Contains Sulfites?! What does this mean?

Wine labels from Brix & Columns wine.

Photo by E Baugher

Last week I heard someone asking Mom why there were sulfites in our wine.  They were lamenting that the European wine they had recently enjoyed on vacation said nothing about sulfites on that label, but all American wines list “contains sulfites” on their labels.  Now, I know I’m just a dog, and there may be one or two things about the wine world that I don’t know yet, so I figured this opportunity was ripe for me learning more.

It turns out that sulfites appear in wine one of two ways.  They are a natural byproduct of the yeast fermentation process, and winemakers often add them to the wine to stop further fermentation and to prevent the wine from spoiling while it is in the bottle waiting for you to drink it.  The reason they help with both of these issues is because sulfites (otherwise known as sulfur dioxide or SO2) are both antimicrobial and antioxidant, so they help keep the wine from receiving too much exposure to spoilants or oxygen.

They are used in higher quantities in wines that are sweet, that are low in acidity, or that are white.  If you are looking for a wine that is lowest in sulfites, your best bet is to grab a bottle of dry red wine since white wines typically have twice as many sulfites than reds.  Sulfites don’t just help preserve wine, though, they are also present in foods like dried fruits, soda, candy, french fries, potato chips, and so many others. If sulfites equal french fries or potato chips, you can count me in – just don’t tell Mom you invited me to join the junk food party!

It turns out that the only difference in sulfites in wines between here in the US and in Europe is in the labeling. In the United States, wines that contain more than 10 ppm (parts per million) require the label “contains sulfites”, whereas European standards don’t have the same requirement.  The upper limit allowed in the United States (350 ppm) and Europe (210 ppm) do differ, but you can expect most dry red wines to have about 50 ppm no matter where you are in the world!

Sulfites have been used in the wine world since the Romans first discovered their preservation benefits, and now that “added sulfite”-free wines are making their way to the wine markets, it is easy to see why winemakers over the past few centuries have decided to continue adding them – they allow wine to keep and age well. Now that I think about it, I must have plenty of sulfites floating around inside me, because I think everyone can agree that I am aging like a fine wine!

No Corkscrew? No Problem!

Emma with friends Gabby, Grace, and Kerong.

P.C. Stephanie Pence

Last month my mom left me for over 2 weeks!  Can you imagine that? 14 long days without her to follow around and wait for her to give me the best ear rubs anyone can give?  I was morose. I did nothing but mope while my dad tried to love me back to my normal self. Thinking back about it now, I suppose she did leave me for a very important reason. You see, my sister Emma is serving in the Peace Corps in Rwanda, and my mom misses her terribly.  I try to keep her lots of company, but I know it doesn’t completely take the place of Emma.

Mom had a really great time and got to see lots of fun things besides just Emma.  She even took some of our Brix & Columns wine with her to enjoy with Emma and her friends.  The wine sharing evening had all the trappings of perfection – until they realized there was no bottle opener in sight.  Grace came to the rescue with the old pen and rock trick and saved the day! She simply stood a ballpoint pen up on the cork, and then used a rock to bang down on the pen and push the cork in the bottle.  It was genius!

Grace working her millenial magic on our Chardonnay.

P.C. Stephanie Pence

Let’s all give Grace a round of applause.  She is a long ways from her home in California, so we will have to clap extra loud for her to hear! It took a millennial from a West Coast wine state to teach this East Coast winery mom from Virginia a few tricks.

I figured there had to be more ideas out there to uncork a bottle of wine that were nearly as brilliant, so I looked around and got my paws on some to share with you! Please keep in mind that these are just some fun discoveries, we aren’t recommending that you try any method other than the tried and true corkscrew.

One of the easiest methods is to screw a LONG screw into the cork, then use the claw side of the hammer to pull it out.  

Another pretty simple, and mind-blowing approach, is to use a bike pump.  This method, of course, needs you to have access to something that might not be available to everyone, but if you are a cyclist reading this, I am giving you pure gold here.  You insert the needle all the way into the cork (until the hole of the needle is below the cork) and pump air into the bottle. Eventually, the cork will work its way out.

If you only have your keys on hand, you are in luck as I found a method for you.  Push your key into the cork at a 45 degree angle, and twist it in a circle until it pulls the cork out enough for you to remove it the rest of the way by hand.

If you happen to have a machete on hand, you can always try the “chop the neck of the bottle” off method, but that one sounds a little scary to me.  You might lose a toe, not to mention the bottle could shatter and you would lose all of the wine you were trying to drink!

Two of the approaches I found require heat to work.  The first one uses a blowtorch because who DOESN’T have one of those sitting around?  On a room temperature bottle of wine, you can aim the torch directly below the cork line of the bottle, and the heat will push the cork out of the bottle.  

The other heat-based method employs a big pot of boiling water.  After the water has come to boiling, remove from heat and place the wine bottle inside.  Eventually, the heat will push the cork out, and your wine will be ready to drink. This would be perfect if you were already planning to heat your wine for mulled wine.

The final method is the one to go for when you have none of these other supplies on your hand.  You basically just bang the cork right out of the bottle by hitting the bottom of the bottle with your shoe or by wrapping the bottle in thick padding and hitting the base against a tree.  Theory says that it works eventually; just make sure you keep a close eye on it and stop before the cork comes all the way out. You wouldn’t want to spill any of that hard-earned wine on the ground!

Our Petit Verdot pictured with our favorite style of wine opener.

P.C Erin Baugher

These all sound really fun and interesting, but some of them also sound pretty dangerous.  I personally wouldn’t recommend trying any of these at home, and the best solution to always having a way to open your bottle is to carry a handy double-hinged corkscrew around with you.  You can check out our favorite kind next time you come to the winery, but only after you have a time to love on me!

2019 Governor’s Cup Gala

In the Virginia wine world, February means something very exciting. No, it is not my birthday month.  That is August, just in case you are wondering, and I wear a size yummy in treats. What February is known for is that it is the month when the Virginia Governor’s Cup announces all of the award winning wines AND it is the month when the Governor’s Cup Gala is held.  This fantastic event gives wine lovers around the state the perfect opportunity to taste all of the gold medal winning wines.

Sherry Williamson, tasting room attendant at B&C. Photo by S Pence

When I say wine lovers, I should make it clear that invitations to the gala were not extended to me, Winston the Wine Dog!  Hummmppph. I suppose someone had to work the tasting room, and it was up to Sherry and me to do just that while everyone else headed to Richmond to celebrate the night away.  

Mom and Dad were too exhausted to talk to me much about it when they got home, but Erin made sure to give me a ring and fill me in on all of the details before they got back.  

Viognier, my mom’s favorite, surprisingly made very few appearances in the gold medal category, but the judges said that it was a great year for Chardonnay, Petit Manseng, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Tannat. Sparklings also made a good show in this year’s competition.  

510 wines were entered from 102 different vineyards from around the state, over 100 bottles of Meritage were entered, and more than 50 bottles of Petit Verdot (Taylor’s favorite) were entered as well.  Of these 510 wines, 13% won gold medals (60+). As always, 12 wines were selected for the Governor’s Case. If you want to learn more about the judging process, click here for my prior blog about it.

Barboursville Vineyards had an excellent 2017 Vermentino Reserve that was dry and citrusy with a lingering minerality. Early Mountain Vineyards’ 2016 Eluvium was a Merlot and Petit Verdot blend that was aged in new French oak for 18 months and full of dark fruits.  Glen Manor Vineyards had a 2015 Cabernet Franc that was fierce and delicious. They don’t filter any of their red wines.

King Family Vineyards made an impressive show this year with their 2016 Meritage and their 2016 Mountain Plains.   Both blends were aged for 18+ months in French barrels (one in new, and one in 45% French). Paradise Springs Winery made a strong showing with their 2015 Meritage.  It was full-bodied and brimming with possibility.

Our very own Michael Shaps absolutely stole the show with five of his wines placing in the Governor’s Case.  His 2016 Eltham for Hamlet Vineyards is a Merlot and Petit Verdot blend that was aged in 50% new French oak and bold and flavorful.  Michael’s 2014 Zachariah for Upper Shirley was a blend aged for 18 months with a well-rounded palate. Three of Michael Shaps own brand made the case, as well.  His 2016 Petit Manseng was dry and delicious with pleasant acidity and tropicality. Michael’s 2015 Tannat had great structure and fruity notes. It is definitely one to pick up for the cellar.  To finish it off, the 2016 Michael Shaps Raisin d’Etre is the perfect dessert for your evening. Full of peach flavors, this late harvest Petit Manseng expands your view on how versatile this grape can be!  

Horton Vineyards‘ 2016 Petit Manseng won the coveted Governor’s Cup this year.  At 0% residual sugar, it is deliciously dry and has a wonderful lingering acidity.  We especially appreciated this awarding because Horton Vineyards has done so much to advance the Virginia wine world.  Just over a year ago, Dennis Horton passed away and left a legacy in his wake. What a fitting honor for his vineyard to be awarded this year.

Erin also made sure to tell me about the food spread – she knows the way to my heart.  The event was hosted by Mosaic again this year, and it had another delectable spread of nouveau Southern cuisine.  Platters full of pimiento cheese, smoked shallot and gorgonzola spreads, roasted veggies, hearty Italian deli meats, and sweet potato biscuits stuffed with country ham were scattered throughout the tasting hall.  There were also stations with delightful treats such as she-crab soup and prime rib with roasted and mashed red potatoes. Yumm! Dessert was an array of tarts filled with nutella, sweet potato, key lime, and pecan.  I think this spread alone is why Mom and Dad never invite me along.

They think I don’t know how to control myself, but the only thing I don’t know to control is my love for them!

The Making of Dessert Wines

It’s hard to believe that our vineyard finally has something on the menu that is as sweet as I am.  When we released our dessert style Petit Manseng, Lil Em, last week, I have to admit that I didn’t know a lot about dessert style wines.  Over the past week, I have undergone an investigation, and I have sniffed out enough information to share a basic understanding with you. Much like me, dessert style wines are highly sought after and popular with most palates.

Petit Manseng is an ideal grape for making dessert wine: it has a longer than average ripening season, it is high in acid, it is thick-skinned, and it grows in loose bunches on the vine.  All of these elements combine to make a grape that is perfect for late-harvesting. When grapes are harvested past the ideal picking season, they begin to shrivel on the vine. A process called passerillage by French grape growers, this drying on the vine helps to concentrate all of the flavors, aromas, and sugars. Because the grapes are so loosely bunched, Petit Manseng is able to escape fungus infestation better than other varieties.  When the climate doesn’t allow a late harvest, vineyards can also choose to pick grapes at their prime harvest time and dry them before pressing them for juice. You can learn more about this grape by clicking here.

Another option for producing dessert style wines is to do an ice harvest.  In this method, grapes hang on the vine past harvest time waiting for the first frost of the season.  When the frost hits, the grapes are picked before dawn and pressed before they can thaw. The lower moisture content of these grapes helps to concentrate the flavors even more than typical late harvest grapes, and ice wines are often some of the sweetest dessert wines on the market.  

The final and most prestigious method of making dessert style wines is by hoping/allowing your grapes to get Noble Rot.  In this method, the Botrytis Cinere bacteria infects the grapes and thins the skins until they are porous. The water evaporates through the holes in the skin, and the remaining fruit has more concentrated aromas, acids, and sugars.  Characterized by tastes of ginger and honey, wines that are made via this method are typically higher in cost since the risk factor is large, and the vines produce less juice this way than normal. On average a vine might produce one glass of wine via this method versus 2-3 bottles of dry wine using typical methods.  

Dessert wines are sweeter not just because of the harvesting methods, but also because the fermentation of sugar into alcohol is stopped before the majority of sugar is changed over.  This process can be halted in one of two ways: the wine can be fortified with brandy or it can undergo a super-cooling. Both of these methods produce an environment in which yeast can’t survive.  The actual term dessert wine can be used to refer to any wine that has an alcohol percentage of 14% or higher and it is typically used to describe fortified wines such as our Six Penny Postscript Port Style.  Because our Lil Em is 11.5% alcohol, we call it a dessert style instead.

All dessert and dessert-style wines pair best with foods that are as sweet or even sweeter than the wines themselves. They also pair well with foods that are salty enough to combat the sweetness of the wine. Me, on the other hand, I pair well with anything, but especially with those two chairs by the fireplace!