Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/66135
CO VER S T OR Y "It's best to not fight nature. Work with what you have—make lemonade with lemons." — Dr. Jim Harbertson, WSU sort of filler has been added to the tannin to help dissolve them. Tannins are notoriously difficult to dissolve. I don't really advise adding tannins to make up for deficiencies in the fruit, I think they are better for tweaking the wine." Wade Wolfe, owner and winemaker of 6,000-case Thurston Wolfe Winery, Prosser, Wash., noted the standard qualities of leafroll as delayed maturity, reduced yields, reduced color and flavor intensity in reds. His primary solution for dealing with leafroll (mostly type three seen in some of the older vineyards in the Yakima Valley) is to avoid sourcing affected fruit entirely. "I use a limited amount of old vine fruit, but it's not a major part of my Cabernet blend. I've never seen any benefits to leafroll fruit. With early ripening Chardonnay, the effects aren't as great as they are in late-ripening red." "The wine has less color density, more acidity, and the fruit stays in a less-developed flavor state." — Joel Peterson, Ravenswood Winery For the small amount of leafroll-affected wine Wolfe has used for blending, he suggested, "Delay harvest until the very last min- ute, which usually means late October in the Washington Yakima Valley." In an attempt to reduce tannins, Wolfe targets shorter fermentation times—about five or six days. The resulting wine is lighter in style with diminished complexity. "If you treat it like unaffected fruit and try to extract more color, you end up with more tannin." VintnersSupply_Immer_Dir11.qxd 11/19/10 1:41 PM Page 1 Harbertson added, "It's really vintage specific. One year we had significantly more tannin in the leafroll wine as compared to the ones made with control grapes from vines that didn't have leafroll. The next year, it was a cold year, we had less tannin in the leafroll wine." SpecTrellising_July10.qxp 5/13/10 9:25 AM Page 1 A DIVISION OF MOECKLY ENTERPRISES, INC. ™ FILTRATION & SEPARATION • Reliable depth filter sheets ◆ for successful filtration ◆ from pre-clarification ◆ to bottling VINTNERS SUPPLY COMPANY P.O. Box 153, St. Helena, CA 94574 Toll Free 800.366.6809 • Fax 707.584.7955 www.vintnerssupply.com 34 Wines & Vines JUne 2011 EILEEN HARBERTSON