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AP - US - FX10 -57.1x250.8 - 04.12:X16 WINEMAKING in selecting their grapes, better at blending and wiser about which forms of processing work and which don't. We can expect not only a flood of inexpensive wines beamed at this market, but also the emergence of "super-premium" sweet wines with more impressive pedigrees that just happen to contain some sugar, too. "They don't want to hear the word 'complex,' but they do want the word 'sweet' on the label." —Master of wine Tim Hanni Wine, an importing and marketing company located in Napa, Calif., brings in a pair of wines called Robin Redbreast (a Riesling) and a bottle called Sweet Red from Germany, where they are custom-made by a large wine operation, Binderer St. Ursula Weinkellerei. The Sweet Red is a blend of Portugieser, Dornfelder and Regent (a hybrid variety val- ued for its color) from the Pfalz and Rhein- hessen regions; the alcohol is down at 8.5%, and the residual sugar up at 5%. Again, there's plenty of attention to detail in the winemaking. According to represen- tative Johannes Rumpf, the starting point is using varieties that do not contain much skin tannin in the first place; employing ther- movinification methods to extract color but not much tannin and shorter skin contact, and conducting fermentation of the juice in temperature-controlled tanks. Since the grapes are picked at a very low sugar level (65º Oechsle, around 16º Brix), their juice is fermented dry, the acidity is softened to just under 6 grams per liter by going through malolactic, and the sweetness is reintroduced through the addition of grape must. In short, these wines are everywhere. As- suming consumer demand stays strong— and there is no reason to assume other- wise—producers will get more and more sophisticated in their methods, more careful Tim hanni's revenge For several years Tim Hanni, master of wine and master provocateur, has been tell- ing anyone who would listen—and some audiences that have wished they didn't have to—that there's a huge untapped market out there for sweet wines. The reason for this potential commerce, he's said, is not that these people are sub-literate, or unedu- cated about wine, or too cheap to spring for a First Growth, but that their sensory ap- paratus is built that way. Some taste buds— particularly among those people who have a super-abundance of them—just can't han- dle bitterness and astringency or elevated levels of funkiness. But make a wine sweet, and they will come. So when I called Hanni about the vin doux nouveau trend, I expected him to say, "I told you so." He has, in fact, spent a great deal of time hectoring major wineries about how it would be in their financial self-interests to cater to the sweeties, even predicting that Moscato would be the best bet. On the winemaking, Hanni agreed that it is and has to be "impeccable." The sweet "vinotype"—Hanni's term for the four groupings of wine drinker preferences his research has found—is, he says, "touchy; a slight off odor sends them off. They don't want to hear the word 'complex,' but they do want the word 'sweet' on the label. And don't tell them this might go with Asian food; they want it with steak." The days of big, dry reds aren't over, but there are some new kids in town that promise to show staying power. Me? I've got that old-school palate; the idea of too much acidity makes little sense to me; the presence of some drying tannin just makes me want another forkful of food. I have trouble respecting a wine that tastes only like fruit the next morning. But I am going to pay another visit to that Valero Exxon station, just to make sure I know what the other half drinks. Tim Patterson is the author of "Home Wine- making for Dummies." He writes about wine and makes his own in Berkeley, Calif. Years of experience as a journalist, combined with a con- trarian streak, make him interested in getting to the bottom of wine stories, casting a critical eye on conventional wisdom in the process. ZYMAFLORE FX10® : the elegance of heritage Yeast for Bordeaux- style red wines, tested and approved by many US winemakers! • Silky structure (tannin intensity but low astringency). • Masks the perception of green character. • Terroir expression. • High alcohol tolerance. • Fermentation security. LAFFORT U.S.A. 1460 Cader Lane, Suite C Petaluma, CA 94954 laffortusa@laffort.com - (707) 775-4530 www.laffortusa.com Wines & Vines JUne 2012 51