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WINEMAKING "Wine tannin can be less than 20% 'grape' tannin." —Paul Smith, phenolics researcher, Australian Wine Research Institute intact and their tannins under wraps. If winemaking proceeds only with the liquid results, discarding the seeds and shards of skins for convenience, the result is once again a problematic mid-palate. A final testament to the usefulness of seed tannin is the flourish- ing market in winemaking additives based on them. AEB offers sev- eral products that contain seed tannin, including one based entirely on Malbec seeds—the reason, according to general manager Marco Bertaccini, being that AEB's supply of Malbec seeds are particularly ripe. He asserts that riper seeds contain more developed (longer- chain) tannins that add astringency, not bitterness, contributing what he describes as an "Old World edge." He observes that a number of wineries that use AEB's products do so because their strenuous seed removal has produced wines that need a boost put back in. Mark Simpson of Artisan Food and Beverage in Vancouver, British Columbia, distributes GrapEX, a seed additive produced by Tarac Technologies in South Australia. Simpson says that seed and skin tannin are both needed as part of a complete wine pack- age, with seed tannin particularly important for the mid-palate. He also thinks that seed tannin can help with co-pigmentation, a process in which pigment is held in solution in stacks of com- pounds, none of which has any color of its own. And like Bertac- cini, he has customers who are too vigilant about removing seeds and their tannins and need help building them back up. Russ Robbins of Laffort, an international supplier of tannin prod- ucts worldwide, says some of that company's tannin additive range includes a portion of seed tannin. He also cautions that the perfor- mance of any tannin product in any particular wine is highly variable. "You can take 25 parts per million, 50, 100 of six different tannins, put them into wine and never predict what will do what. Problems in wines aren't necessarily due to too much tannin, but too many of the wrong kind, all of which hit the mouth in different ways." If there is a consensus in this tangle of tannins, it is so obvious as to be almost boring: Quality wine needs balance. Some astrin- gency is a good idea, so are some seed tannins. Too much or too little of anything can get you in trouble. You can read and reread this column as many times as you want and still not have a road map to great wine structure. But hopefully, you can get past blaming everything on belligerent seed tannins. Let the healing begin. Tim Patterson is the author of the newly released "Home Winemaking for Dummies." He writes about wine and makes his own in Berkeley, Ca- lif. Years of experience as a journalist, combined with a contrarian streak, make him interested in getting to the bottom of wine stories, casting a critical eye on conventional wisdom in the process. Digital Edition Now Available To Subscribers LACTOENOS® LACTIC ACID BACTERIA: A successful ML fermentation LACTOENOS® 450 PreAc Red wine and high alcohol concentration A particularly robust Oenococcus oeni strain, combined with an exclu- sive production process. 450 PreAc is the ideal preparation for the efficient malolactic fermentation of premium wines. LACTOENOS® 350 PreAc White wine and extreme malic concentration Pre-acclimatisation Oenococcus oeni strain, selected for its resistance to low pH and very high tolerance to medium chain fatty acids (C8 and C10). This provides high efficiency even under the most extreme conditions. Read it, Search it, Share it, Download it! Call or visit our subscribe page to opt-in today. (866) 453-9701 • winesandvines.com LAFFORT U.S.A. - 1460 Cader Lane, Suite C Petaluma, CA 94954 laffortusa@laffort.com - (707) 775-4530 – www.laffortusa.com Wines & Vines OCTOBeR 2011 59 LACTOENOS® SB3 Instant Available in barrel dosage An Oenococcus oeni strain for direct inoculation, even in wines with undesirable physiochemical and microbiological characteristics. SB3 is also suitable for the co-inoculation technique and barrel fermentation. SB3 Instant