2016 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’Alba, Piemonte Italy
Tasting Notes
Bruno Giacosa crafts some of the most prestigious Barolo and Barbaresco single vineyard wines in Piedmont and is one of the world’s most respected wine producers. His winemaking philosophy combines a respect for tradition and conservative winemaking with the selected use of modern technology to obtain the best expression of each vineyard’s terroir. He is convinced that great wines begin in the vineyard with the production of grapes cultivated by experienced growers. This belief pushes him to improve the quality with every harvest. In the cellar, the goal is to produce a wine that maintains its identity from vine to bottle, so winemaking methods are therefore traditional and in full respect of the grape’s typical characteristics.
Sensory analysis: Intense and complex, with cherry, strawberry, and blackberry notes. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied and well-balanced, with good freshness.
Specs
Grape variety: Dolcetto
Vineyards: Select vineyards in the villages of Neive, Neviglie, Treiso, and Alba
Yield: 55 hl/ha
Vinification: Stainless steel vats
Exposure: Southeast/Southwest/East
Fermentation and maceration: 7 days in stainless steel vats; 5 days of maceration
Malolactic fermentation: completely developed
Refinement: 7 months in stainless steel vats
Bottling: April 2017
Alcohol: 13.5% vol.
Total Acidity: 5.55 g/L
pH: 3.56
Total extract: 29 g/L
What’s Included
3-bottles:
3x 2016 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’Alba, Piemonte Italy Case:
12x 2016 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’Alba, Piemonte Italy
Price Comparison
Not for sale on winery website, $504/case MSRP
About The Winery
Winery: Bruno Giacosa
Location: Neive, Italy
One of the legendary winemakers of the world, Bruno Giacosa, crafted the most prestigious single-vineyard Barolo and Barbaresco wines during a career that spanned nearly eight decades. He joined the family business at the age of 15, representing the third generation of his Langhe winemaking family. Giacosa’s unfailing pursuit of perfection, his unrivaled palate, and his intimate knowledge of vineyards in the Langhe quickly drew recognition and helped establish Piedmont as a leading wine region. In 1980, Giacosa began to acquire prime parcels in Serralunga d’Alba, La Morra, and Barbaresco to produce wines that are rightly regarded as the finest expressions of Nebbiolo. His legacy rests with daughter Bruna, who continues to uphold her father’s winemaking philosophy to respect traditional techniques while using the best of modern technology. The goal is for each distinguished site to produce articulate, unique wines.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
2016 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’Alba
3 bottles for $67.99 $22.66/bottle + $2.67/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $189.99 $15.83/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
Another email, another bottle, another “serious” tasting assignment. Tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. This one landed late Thursday for a Friday pour, so no leisurely decanting or slow build-up — straight to business with the Coravin so I could stretch it through the weekend.
Right away, I spotted a little cork seep under the foil — always a moment of suspense. Luckily, first sniff and sip gave me the all-clear. No funk, no fault. Just wine.
Nose: Big and lively. Jammy dark red fruit jumps out, backed by tobacco, leather, and a whiff of anise. Strong aromatics that almost tickle your nose with alcohol.
Sip: Bright acidity, lots of cherry and dark fruit, a little herbal kick of anise. Tannins grab hold like they don’t want to let go, then soften into a mix of spice and chocolate on a finish that’s tasty but a little short-lived.
Final thoughts: For a nine-year-old, this wine is still acting young. The flavors feel like they’re waiting for a few more years to calm down and play nicely together. Maybe a bit tight still, but with good potential to mellow into something more layered and elegant.
With the acitidy and tannins here, this is a style of red wine that I really like. As a 2016 vintage, I waz curious to find out what price point this will be offered at. It tastes like a well-made wine that could tolerate laying down for a long time, so I’d think that a sub $20/btl price would be a good deal.
Thanks to Casemates for the opportunity. Happy Cellar stocking, all!
I received this wine late in the afternoon yesterday.
I immediately opened the bottle for an initial taste though it was noticeably warm out of the package. Later, I had a glass with a dinner of bucatini, homemade sauce, parmigiano reggiano, and a homemade baguette roll.
The color wasn’t the bright hued purple, I was expecting. It has the beginnings of a slightly brown tone. All of which says to me that this wine is past its prime at 9 years old (acidity, color, etc.) such that in my opinion, it would not improve on cellaring.
That being said, it worked reasonably well with dinner, but would be better served slightly chilled, I think with a rich, fatty, meat based meal. It isn’t a sipping wine in my book.
I don’t like this wine. The acidity is so over whelming, I found it to be downright sour. It is a bit ironic that it is a Dolcetto (means “sweet”in the sense of “nice” in Italian), for this wine is anything but sweet or nice.
I did get some berry flavors, but owing to the high tartrate/citrate content, I really had to concentrate to detect them at all. I decanted the bottle and found only minimal tartrate lees. Frankly, I expected to find considerable more lees than I actually found.
I doubt if I will finish this bottle as a table wine, but will reserve it for cooking, where the acidity can be put to good use.
@Jackinga I seldom am so harsh on a wine, but this one, this one was at the edge of drinkability for me. YMMV.
I have hundreds of bottles of wine in my cellar. I don’t claim to be an enophile (and I don’t play one on TV). Nor am I especially blessed with an exquisitely tuned nose or palate. Just sayin’, here that I have had a fair number of bottles of vino in my time. I mention this, in passing, so that you know I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck yesterday so to speak.
Given the vagaries of shipping, especially in the summer months, it is possible that the bottle which I received and evaluated was subjected to some heat along the way. I noted that the bottle when removed from the foam packaging was noticeably warm to the touch, meaning that it was certainly at or above body temperature.
That might account for some of the slight ecru/tawny color notes in what would otherwise have been a bright to brilliant purple. But speaking as a chemist, I don’t know or see how heat would throw the pH so far off. Certainly, I would think that excessive temperature would accelerate oxidation, hence the slightly tawny color as the anthocyanins and other pigments in the wine are altered.
Wine is at once both simple, and extraordinarily complex as well as delightful (in moderation). Consisting of water (mostly) and ethanol, there are thousands of other organic compounds that may also be present albeit in minor to trace amounts. Fellow chemist, Dr. Andy Brunning, had a great diagram of this in his monthly “Compound Interest” series which appears in Chemical & Engineering News (an American Chemical Society publication) back in 2015.
If you look at the image (or go to the link), you can see the anthocyanins are glycosides containing flavanol moieties, which in turn are converted to polymeric tannins on aging and especially when subjected to heat accelerated aging.
But pH changes? Not so much.
The end result was I called it as I received it withholding speculation as to whether or not that particular bottle had been subject to thermal abuse during transit or not.
For what it’s worth, I did dig out some pH paper strips just for the heck of it to see what this wine would show. At best this is of questionable use as the intrinsic red color of the wine makes the pH color change of the paper harder to read. (I have an old pH meter somewhere, but it probably isn’t worth the time and effort to dig it up as the membrane glass electrodes have probably long since dried out.)
Here is what I got when I tested the Dolcetto D’Alba (center strip). [The strip on the left is the pH paper dry, and the strip on the right was wetted with a bit of CA Sessions Cab, which I happened to have opened and handy.)
![pH test of Dolcetto D’Alba][3]
As expected the pH of the Dolcetto is between 4 and 2 according to the pH paper strip vial chart. Curiously, the CA Sessions Cab shows a bit color shading towards a slightly higher pH.
@Jackinga For some reason, I can’t seem to be able to upload the pH test picture. So I’m trying again here.
For what it’s worth, I did dig out some pH paper strips just for the heck of it to see what this wine would show. At best this is of questionable use as the intrinsic red color of the wine makes the pH color change of the paper harder to read. (I have an old pH meter somewhere, but it probably isn’t worth the time and effort to dig it up as the membrane glass electrodes have probably long since dried out.)
Here is what I got when I tested the Dolcetto D’Alba (center strip). [The strip on the left is the pH paper dry, and the strip on the right was wetted with a bit of CA Sessions Cab, which I happened to have opened and handy.)
As expected the pH of the Dolcetto is between 4 and 2 according to the pH paper strip vial chart. Curiously, the CA Sessions Cab shows a bit color shading towards a slightly higher pH.
@Jackinga
This is an interesting discussion, and your efforts beyond ‘normal’ but i am curious why you would expect a nine year old vintage to still be a bright purple. Perhaps up to three or four, but nine?
@rjquillin Good point. On reflection, I think I picked up that description of the bright purple hue somewhere in my on-line review of the wine. OTH, I have wines in my cellar that are this old and older whose colors have stayed fairly well intact.
I have tried to be as specific as I could in my verbiage that the wine isn’t a fully developed tawny, but I can detect a slight ecru hue especially when pouring a wee quaft.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
2016 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’Alba - $82 = 30.14%
Wow, Labor Day Weekend, how’d that happen? Wellllll let’s see if any paid tasters labored over this wine…
Wine Spectator:
92 points. Pure, offering blackberry and black cherry aromas and flavors enhanced by violet and boysenberry notes. Firms up, with a hint of earth and dark chocolate gracing the lingering aftertaste. Drink now through 2022. 1,916 cases made, 600 cases imported. Bruce Sanderson. Published on November 15, 2017
JancisRobinson.com:
16+/20 Mid crimson. Inviting chalky blueberry nose. Blueberry fruit palate with brisk acidity and sandy tannins. Can and will improve over the next couple of years. Drink 2018 - 2022. Walter Speller 3/6/18
Wine Advocate:
88 points. The 2016 Dolcetto d’Alba opens to a vinous and foxy nose of black cherry and raw fruit. The wine reveals a saturated ruby color with blackish coloring at the edges. This vintage delivers an extraordinary sense of varietal purity. Grapes used to make this wine were purchased from outside farmers located in the Neive township. I tasted this wine less than a week after it was bottled, but the underlying potential of the fruit is apparent. Drink 2017 - 2020. Monica Larner 6/30/17
(just a note, not to be confused with the Falletto bottling)
Sure. Most specs are recorded in grams per liter. A liter is 1,000 ml. To convert this to %. % is always per 100 ml. So 29g/1,000ml is 2.9grams per 100mls or 2.9% total extract. That is high for most wines, but not Dolcetto.
@ScottHarveyWine Based on the Rat Review above, seems the high level of extraction didn’t seem to add much age-ability to this wine. I’m in anyway ‘cause I’m just so curious. Any tips on drinking a nice bottle of over-aged Dolcetto?
@InFrom@ScottHarveyWine
Still not really clear.
So what is actually being extracted?
Is this solid matter that is centrifuged out to get a mass or volume number?
I understand RS in the units concept of sugar/volume, but not “extract”.
@InFrom@rjquillin@ScottHarveyWine I think I’ve seen it referred to as “dry extract” also, so that sounds to me like the stuff remaining after the water and alcohol are evaporated away. That leaves flavour and aroma compounds, tannin, non-fermentable sugars, and I’m not sure what else. Given the number is so low it also must exclude the acids somehow.
@rjquillin
After reading the other rat’s report, I feel that I may have misinterpreted my initial response to this wine. I’ll admit that I’m no expert in identifying wines that are structured well for additional age. My reaction was that the flavor profiles felt tight and closed, with muted fruit and pronounced acitidy, which led me to the conclusion that it must still be young. After reading the other report, I tend to agree with their assessment. It may be that it’s in a “dumb” phase of its aging. I can’t tell if this means that it’s past it’s prime, or needs more time to rest. Just wanted to share some additional info for those on the fence. Cheers!
Extraction can be measured a number of different ways. It’s all the stuff in the wine basically. When I start with grapes it is my decision on how much of what is in them makes it to the finished product. I want to extract those things that help the wine tell its story of variety, place and vintage. I don’t want to extract so many things that the wines story gets covered up. The tools I use are ripeness at harvest, how delicately or harshly the grapes are crushed into the fermenter, any additives such as enzymes or tannins I add, fermentation temperature and style of fermentation, length of fermentation, type of yeast, M/L or no M/L, Surlees, stainless or oak aging, etc. Type and tightness of filtration. What level of SO2 I maintain throughout the aging process. The list goes on and on as to possibilities in guiding the wine to the finished bottle.
@ScottHarveyWine Thanks for taking the time to walk us through this. I knew there were a lot of levers you could pull, but didn’t know they fell under the overall concept of ‘extraction.’
I can take the same grapes and make them into two completely different styles of wine with opposite levels of extract. I get Riesling from my sister’s vineyard in the Yakama Valley in Washington state. If I pick the grapes at 19 brix I can make a low extract delicate dry style Riesling. If I wait two weeks and pick them at 24 brix and then freeze them solid, I can make a 22% residual sugar Eis wine at 8.5% alc. with lots of extract. We just bottled our Angel Eis Riesling this last Friday. Both wines are being sold side by side in our tasting rooms.
2016 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’Alba, Piemonte Italy
Tasting Notes
Specs
What’s Included
3-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not for sale on winery website, $504/case MSRP
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Sep 22 - Tuesday, Sep 23
2016 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’Alba
3 bottles for $67.99 $22.66/bottle + $2.67/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $189.99 $15.83/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2016 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’Alba, Neive, Italy
Another email, another bottle, another “serious” tasting assignment. Tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. This one landed late Thursday for a Friday pour, so no leisurely decanting or slow build-up — straight to business with the Coravin so I could stretch it through the weekend.
Right away, I spotted a little cork seep under the foil — always a moment of suspense. Luckily, first sniff and sip gave me the all-clear. No funk, no fault. Just wine.
Nose: Big and lively. Jammy dark red fruit jumps out, backed by tobacco, leather, and a whiff of anise. Strong aromatics that almost tickle your nose with alcohol.
Sip: Bright acidity, lots of cherry and dark fruit, a little herbal kick of anise. Tannins grab hold like they don’t want to let go, then soften into a mix of spice and chocolate on a finish that’s tasty but a little short-lived.
Final thoughts: For a nine-year-old, this wine is still acting young. The flavors feel like they’re waiting for a few more years to calm down and play nicely together. Maybe a bit tight still, but with good potential to mellow into something more layered and elegant.
With the acitidy and tannins here, this is a style of red wine that I really like. As a 2016 vintage, I waz curious to find out what price point this will be offered at. It tastes like a well-made wine that could tolerate laying down for a long time, so I’d think that a sub $20/btl price would be a good deal.
Thanks to Casemates for the opportunity. Happy Cellar stocking, all!
2016 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’Alba, Italy
I received this wine late in the afternoon yesterday.
I immediately opened the bottle for an initial taste though it was noticeably warm out of the package. Later, I had a glass with a dinner of bucatini, homemade sauce, parmigiano reggiano, and a homemade baguette roll.
The color wasn’t the bright hued purple, I was expecting. It has the beginnings of a slightly brown tone. All of which says to me that this wine is past its prime at 9 years old (acidity, color, etc.) such that in my opinion, it would not improve on cellaring.
That being said, it worked reasonably well with dinner, but would be better served slightly chilled, I think with a rich, fatty, meat based meal. It isn’t a sipping wine in my book.
I don’t like this wine. The acidity is so over whelming, I found it to be downright sour. It is a bit ironic that it is a Dolcetto (means “sweet”in the sense of “nice” in Italian), for this wine is anything but sweet or nice.
I did get some berry flavors, but owing to the high tartrate/citrate content, I really had to concentrate to detect them at all. I decanted the bottle and found only minimal tartrate lees. Frankly, I expected to find considerable more lees than I actually found.
I doubt if I will finish this bottle as a table wine, but will reserve it for cooking, where the acidity can be put to good use.
@Jackinga Well dinner looks awesome at least…ha!
VAN GOGH! MANGO! TANGO! AWESOME!
@Jackinga I seldom am so harsh on a wine, but this one, this one was at the edge of drinkability for me. YMMV.
I have hundreds of bottles of wine in my cellar. I don’t claim to be an enophile (and I don’t play one on TV). Nor am I especially blessed with an exquisitely tuned nose or palate. Just sayin’, here that I have had a fair number of bottles of vino in my time. I mention this, in passing, so that you know I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck yesterday so to speak.
Given the vagaries of shipping, especially in the summer months, it is possible that the bottle which I received and evaluated was subjected to some heat along the way. I noted that the bottle when removed from the foam packaging was noticeably warm to the touch, meaning that it was certainly at or above body temperature.
That might account for some of the slight ecru/tawny color notes in what would otherwise have been a bright to brilliant purple. But speaking as a chemist, I don’t know or see how heat would throw the pH so far off. Certainly, I would think that excessive temperature would accelerate oxidation, hence the slightly tawny color as the anthocyanins and other pigments in the wine are altered.
Wine is at once both simple, and extraordinarily complex as well as delightful (in moderation). Consisting of water (mostly) and ethanol, there are thousands of other organic compounds that may also be present albeit in minor to trace amounts. Fellow chemist, Dr. Andy Brunning, had a great diagram of this in his monthly “Compound Interest” series which appears in Chemical & Engineering News (an American Chemical Society publication) back in 2015.
If you look at the image (or go to the link), you can see the anthocyanins are glycosides containing flavanol moieties, which in turn are converted to polymeric tannins on aging and especially when subjected to heat accelerated aging.
But pH changes? Not so much.
The end result was I called it as I received it withholding speculation as to whether or not that particular bottle had been subject to thermal abuse during transit or not.
For what it’s worth, I did dig out some pH paper strips just for the heck of it to see what this wine would show. At best this is of questionable use as the intrinsic red color of the wine makes the pH color change of the paper harder to read. (I have an old pH meter somewhere, but it probably isn’t worth the time and effort to dig it up as the membrane glass electrodes have probably long since dried out.)
Here is what I got when I tested the Dolcetto D’Alba (center strip). [The strip on the left is the pH paper dry, and the strip on the right was wetted with a bit of CA Sessions Cab, which I happened to have opened and handy.)
![pH test of Dolcetto D’Alba][3]
As expected the pH of the Dolcetto is between 4 and 2 according to the pH paper strip vial chart. Curiously, the CA Sessions Cab shows a bit color shading towards a slightly higher pH.
@Jackinga For some reason, I can’t seem to be able to upload the pH test picture. So I’m trying again here.
For what it’s worth, I did dig out some pH paper strips just for the heck of it to see what this wine would show. At best this is of questionable use as the intrinsic red color of the wine makes the pH color change of the paper harder to read. (I have an old pH meter somewhere, but it probably isn’t worth the time and effort to dig it up as the membrane glass electrodes have probably long since dried out.)
Here is what I got when I tested the Dolcetto D’Alba (center strip). [The strip on the left is the pH paper dry, and the strip on the right was wetted with a bit of CA Sessions Cab, which I happened to have opened and handy.)
As expected the pH of the Dolcetto is between 4 and 2 according to the pH paper strip vial chart. Curiously, the CA Sessions Cab shows a bit color shading towards a slightly higher pH.
@Jackinga
This is an interesting discussion, and your efforts beyond ‘normal’ but i am curious why you would expect a nine year old vintage to still be a bright purple. Perhaps up to three or four, but nine?
@rjquillin Good point. On reflection, I think I picked up that description of the bright purple hue somewhere in my on-line review of the wine. OTH, I have wines in my cellar that are this old and older whose colors have stayed fairly well intact.
I have tried to be as specific as I could in my verbiage that the wine isn’t a fully developed tawny, but I can detect a slight ecru hue especially when pouring a wee quaft.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
2016 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto D’Alba - $82 = 30.14%
Wow, Labor Day Weekend, how’d that happen? Wellllll let’s see if any paid tasters labored over this wine…
Wine Spectator:
92 points. Pure, offering blackberry and black cherry aromas and flavors enhanced by violet and boysenberry notes. Firms up, with a hint of earth and dark chocolate gracing the lingering aftertaste. Drink now through 2022. 1,916 cases made, 600 cases imported. Bruce Sanderson. Published on November 15, 2017
JancisRobinson.com:
16+/20 Mid crimson. Inviting chalky blueberry nose. Blueberry fruit palate with brisk acidity and sandy tannins. Can and will improve over the next couple of years. Drink 2018 - 2022. Walter Speller 3/6/18
Wine Advocate:
88 points. The 2016 Dolcetto d’Alba opens to a vinous and foxy nose of black cherry and raw fruit. The wine reveals a saturated ruby color with blackish coloring at the edges. This vintage delivers an extraordinary sense of varietal purity. Grapes used to make this wine were purchased from outside farmers located in the Neive township. I tasted this wine less than a week after it was bottled, but the underlying potential of the fruit is apparent. Drink 2017 - 2020. Monica Larner 6/30/17
(just a note, not to be confused with the Falletto bottling)
fwiw
@kaolis It sounds like these are ‘drink now!’
@hscottk Agreed. Dolcetto typically meant to be drunk relatively young anyway, of course always exceptions.
I like the winemaking specs. Looks like an extractive style Docetto. I’m in. Cheers
@ScottHarveyWine
Scott, in the specs the phrase
is used. Could you help us understand what this actually means?
Sure. Most specs are recorded in grams per liter. A liter is 1,000 ml. To convert this to %. % is always per 100 ml. So 29g/1,000ml is 2.9grams per 100mls or 2.9% total extract. That is high for most wines, but not Dolcetto.
@ScottHarveyWine @rjquillin After reading your above comments, I realized I don’t even have an idea of what extraction is, vis-a-vis winemaking. I found an article in Wine Enthusiast that is helping a little.
@ScottHarveyWine Based on the Rat Review above, seems the high level of extraction didn’t seem to add much age-ability to this wine.
I’m in anyway ‘cause I’m just so curious. Any tips on drinking a nice bottle of over-aged Dolcetto?
@InFrom @ScottHarveyWine
Still not really clear.
So what is actually being extracted?
Is this solid matter that is centrifuged out to get a mass or volume number?
I understand RS in the units concept of sugar/volume, but not “extract”.
@InFrom @rjquillin @ScottHarveyWine I think I’ve seen it referred to as “dry extract” also, so that sounds to me like the stuff remaining after the water and alcohol are evaporated away. That leaves flavour and aroma compounds, tannin, non-fermentable sugars, and I’m not sure what else. Given the number is so low it also must exclude the acids somehow.
but there are two Rats, with near to opposite conclusions on age-ability.
@rjquillin
After reading the other rat’s report, I feel that I may have misinterpreted my initial response to this wine. I’ll admit that I’m no expert in identifying wines that are structured well for additional age. My reaction was that the flavor profiles felt tight and closed, with muted fruit and pronounced acitidy, which led me to the conclusion that it must still be young. After reading the other report, I tend to agree with their assessment. It may be that it’s in a “dumb” phase of its aging. I can’t tell if this means that it’s past it’s prime, or needs more time to rest. Just wanted to share some additional info for those on the fence. Cheers!
Extraction can be measured a number of different ways. It’s all the stuff in the wine basically. When I start with grapes it is my decision on how much of what is in them makes it to the finished product. I want to extract those things that help the wine tell its story of variety, place and vintage. I don’t want to extract so many things that the wines story gets covered up. The tools I use are ripeness at harvest, how delicately or harshly the grapes are crushed into the fermenter, any additives such as enzymes or tannins I add, fermentation temperature and style of fermentation, length of fermentation, type of yeast, M/L or no M/L, Surlees, stainless or oak aging, etc. Type and tightness of filtration. What level of SO2 I maintain throughout the aging process. The list goes on and on as to possibilities in guiding the wine to the finished bottle.
@ScottHarveyWine Thanks for taking the time to walk us through this. I knew there were a lot of levers you could pull, but didn’t know they fell under the overall concept of ‘extraction.’
I can take the same grapes and make them into two completely different styles of wine with opposite levels of extract. I get Riesling from my sister’s vineyard in the Yakama Valley in Washington state. If I pick the grapes at 19 brix I can make a low extract delicate dry style Riesling. If I wait two weeks and pick them at 24 brix and then freeze them solid, I can make a 22% residual sugar Eis wine at 8.5% alc. with lots of extract. We just bottled our Angel Eis Riesling this last Friday. Both wines are being sold side by side in our tasting rooms.
But how are they quantified, by the dry remainder as Klez has suggested? I just have no idea how that number is created.
And thanks again for hanging out with us!
@scottharveywine
a ping because Scott wasn’t tagged above