BU - Bruliam

What do winemakers do in the off season? Mainly boring grunt work. Topping barrels ranks among the most important of these recurring chores. Since oak barrels are porous, we are constantly battling evaporation. Wine imperceptibly disappears, leaving room for oxygen at the top of the barrel. Regular topping displaces this space with wine, preventing unwanted oxidation. You can view this monthly exercise below. And no, I don’t do bathrooms.

If you can’t see the video below, click here.

Dr. Mark Greenspan, the viticulturalist who writes the monthly column for Wine Business Monthly summarized the 2011 harvest like this, “one of the most difficult growing seasons in memory…cold, wet, and moldy would be the best descriptors” (WBM January 2012, 104-6). Here in Healdsburg, it rained in early October. Not so good. Luckily for me, I’d harvested 3 of 4 vineyards before the rains hit. Luckily for me, the outlying vineyard is in Anderson Valley, farmed by Rich Savoy, a veteran in the biz. And luckily for me, imperfect harvest scenarios are always excellent learning opportunities. Unfortunately, I too combated a rot problem.

Botrytis, the intractable, fluffy, filamentous beast hiding between grapes, can be problematic for many reasons. First of all, the fungus thrives in wet, warm conditions. The October rains were notable not only for heartbreaking timing- smack dab in the midst of harvest- but also for subsequent warmth. I remember sweating though my shirt during punch downs; the weather was more sauna than sleet. This is incubator weather. The stuff just multiplied. Secondly, heavily infected fruit tastes funky. Ripe berry fruit flavors are replaced with dingy, moldy, earthy notes. Finally, botrytis courts a troublemaking enzyme called laccase. This sulfur-resistant enzyme oxidizes grape juice and persists in the finished wine. There are techniques and protocols to combat laccase, including the use of exogenous tannins, reductive winemaking, and limiting skin contact. I took advice to heart. Rich sorted like crazy in the vineyard, dropping any infected cluster in the days leading up to harvest. At harvest, the picking crew sorted aggressively in the fields, inspecting the fruit before sending it down to me in bins. And I obsessively examined each cluster by hand before the crusher. But sometimes even fastidious sorting is not enough.

I curtailed my cold soak to limit skin contact, warmed the bin to ignite a fast, hot fermentation, and added exogenous tannins to provide a compound for the laccase enzyme to chew. Or at least that’s the thinking. Provide a substitute substrate for the laccase activity and salvage the grape tannins. Try to preserve what nature provides. On 10/18/11, I had 11 units/mL of laccase in my juice. After following the fermentation protocol, I measured 28 until/mL of laccase (tested 11/8/11). I was deflated. Wine making pals offered all kinds of sound advice and suggested a number of products I might try. But I didn’t want to act under duress. Once you add something to wine, you can’t get it out. I needed time to reflect.

So last week I conducted a host of tannin trials. Obviously this is not a first choice plan of action. Nobody pays all kinds of money for premium, top notch grapes so that they can add more oak later. Just ask Brian. He pays my bills. But I am open to experimentation and exploring any avenue that might improve my wine. Plus, I was willing to play with a judicious wood tannin addition since I’d opted against 100% new oak for the Anderson Valley vineyard. The fruit is so delicate and pretty that I felt new oak barrels might clobber the crap out of the aromatics. In other words, I had some wiggle room.

Here is how it works. Laboratories provide winemakers with all sorts of tannin substitutes. Sometimes the product derives from wood tannins, the same stuff in an oak barrel. Imagine powdered wood chips or reddish sand that smells like a cozy fireplace. Every labs has their own secret combination of “proprietary wood” blends. Other times, the tannins are 100% grape tannins, culled from grape skins and seeds. Or it can be a blend of wood and grape tannins. You just grab a bunch to try and see how they taste. The labs provide guidelines for the amount you can add to your wine, ranging from low levels to quite a hefty dose. I tested 6 different tannins and tannin combinations from two different sources. I tried small, medium, and large doses. In the end, I found two winners. The first elevated the red fruit aromatics. The second added a more robust, ripe berry component. The two products yielded very different results. I decided to go with the first choice, a more restrained and subtle enhancement. I didn’t want to exchange big fruit for terroir. In the end, the wine still needs to taste like the vineyard where the grapes were born.

I’ve posted some pictures of the tannin trials below.

 I ended up adding 11 grams of tannin to each barrel – a laughably minute dose (especially since I had to buy the whole $125 bag; sorry Brian).

I also conducted a decidedly less high tech experiment. I poured a glass and left it on my counter overnight. Even without a tannin addition, it wasn’t brown in the morning (cost- $0).

According to many epidemiological studies, folks who drink lightly to moderately live longer and suffer fewer cardiovascular events than nondrinkers. But these studies are tricky, because of sloppy, interconnected confounding factors and self-reported data. Consider 10 kids who get chicken pox and eat ice cream everyday versus 10 pox-free kids deprived of a delectable, icy, summer treat. Does that mean that ice cream causes chicken pox? Of course not, but ice cream is a confounding factor. Most pro-wine studies also reveal that light to moderate drinkers are simply healthier overall- drinking with meals, consuming a higher proportion of wine than other spirits, sporting healthy BMI’s, exercising regularly, non-smoking…you get the idea. So now you are granting a life longevity boost to a population who already demonstrates a healthy trajectory. What gives? Is it the wine or the healthy lifestyle or both? That’s the macro picture. Today we are going micro. Strap on your scuba gear as we dive right into your bloodstream to observe your blood vessels firsthand. Much of this story is test tube data (“in vitro”) and may or may not be exactly what goes down in your body (“in vivo”). But researchers need to start at the beginning, which means bench trials in a lab.

Your blood vessels are lined by very special cells, called endothelial cells. They are extremely sensitive. Endothelial cells are bothered by all sorts of stuff, including hormones, chemical signals from neighboring cells, inflammation, and even blood cells themselves. Sometimes red blood cells gang up in a cluster and attach themselves to an endothelial cell. It’s Occupy Wall Street on a cellular scale. The siren song of the microscopic mosh pit beckons, rounding up a tour bus of sticky platelets to adhere to their buddies. The endothelial cell, rightly upset, recruits angry inflammatory cells to sequester the mess and scratch the itch. Once the inflammatory cells and some cholesterol fragments jump into the fray, you’re on your way to a serious clot. The inflamed mob of cells clogs your blood vessel and obstructs traffic; your liquid blood struggles to flow past. Cardiologists have a fancy name for this, “plaque.” It’s a road sign screaming “heart attack risk factor.” Luckily, alcohol may be able to help.

Current scientific evidence suggests that chemical compounds found in red wine may curb this process at different steps along the way. First of all, wine compounds called flavonoids can decrease inflammation. Inflammation cells and their chemical signatures (called “an inflammatory milieu”) are recognized features of blood vessel disease and court plaque formation. Next, wine flavonoids make endothelial cells less sticky. The wine chemicals stop endothelial cells from poking and jabbing at the red blood cells rolling by. When the endothelial cells keep their Velcro fingers to themselves, red blood cells are less likely to congregate there in the first place. Why instigate a red blood cell riot when you can just be chill? The same wine chemicals also tell the platelets to stop hanging around and to attach someplace else, like to a paper cut or something. This is called “inhibiting platelet aggregation.” And this all happens on a microscopic level (Lotito, Anter).

So what is this miracle compound found in red wine, you ask expectantly? If you guessed resveratrol, you guessed wrong. It seems you’d have to drink some 5000-6000 bottles of wine a day to replicate the 5 gram/day of resveratrol fed to some very lucky rats. In fact, when you’re down at the cellular level, a minute concentration of a specific chemical is enough to nudge a gene or turn on a protein in a neighboring cell. Cells talk to one another with whispers; they don’t shout. And this makes sense physiologically. When you slug a gulp of vino, the tannins and phenols are pulverized and degraded in your stomach anyway. Then your liver gets involved cleaning up what’s left, and suddenly what’s coursing through your bloodstream doesn’t look like it did back in the glass (biochemically speaking). Despite the shape shifting, it appears that wine chemicals help your body not by doing the heavy lifting themselves but instead by altering inter and intra cellular communication (Williams, Qin). What I mean is that flavonoids might slink up to an endothelial cell and dock at a reserved parking spot. The very act of parking triggers a sequence of events that turn on genes which either crank up or dampen down protein production. Those proteins for example, may control the “pheromones” that attract inflammatory cells or grow the sticky fingers that trap red blood cells and/or platelets. They may even tell the blood vessel cells to just reeeeeelax, which in turn decreases your blood pressure. We docs call it “endothelial dependent vasodilatation (Corder).” In fact, we know which wine chemical is the most potent endothelial cell effector- the oligomeric procyanidin. Try that tongue twister at your local wine bar.

Works Cited

You can trust my unbiased summations or peruse the literature yourself. Many mechanisms have been drastically simplified.

Lotito SB, Frei B, Dietary flavonoids attenuate tumor necrosis factor alpha-induced adhesion molecule expression in human aortic endothelial cells. Structure-function relationships and activity after first pass metabolism., J Biol Chem. 2006 Dec 1;281(48):37102-10.

Lotito SB, Frei B., Consumption of flavonoid-rich foods and increased plasma antioxidant capacity in humans: cause, consequence, or epiphenomenon?, Free Radic Biol Med. 2006 Dec 15;41(12):1727-46. Review

Williams RJ, Spencer JP, Rice-Evans C., Flavonoids: antioxidants or signalling molecules?, Free Radic Biol Med. 2004 Apr 1;36(7):838-49. Review

Qin CX, Chen X, Hughes RA, Williams SJ, Woodman OL, Understanding the cardioprotective effects of flavonols: discovery of relaxant flavonols without antioxidant activity., J Med Chem. 2008 Mar 27;51(6):1874-84.

Corder R, Mullen W, Khan NQ, Marks SC, Wood EG, Carrier MJ, Crozier A., Oenology: red wine procyanidins and vascular health., Nature. 2006 Nov 30;444(7119):566.

Corder R., Red wine, chocolate and vascular health: developing the evidence base., Heart. 2008 Jul;94(7):821-3

Caton PW, Pothecary MR, Lees DM, Khan NQ, Wood EG, Shoji T, Kanda T, Rull G, Corder R., Regulation of vascular endothelial function by procyanidin-rich foods and beverages., J Agric Food Chem. 2010 Apr 14;58(7):4008-13.

A growing body of credible medical literature now offers irrefutable evidence of what we winos already took for granted – wine is a health food. In fact, daily imbibers of light-to-moderate alcohol consumption gain a statistically significant reduction in both overall mortality and cardiovascular mortality compared to those joyless, non-drinking abstainers (Gaziano et al 1999). Emerging data suggests that moderate alcohol consumers lower their risk for cardiovascular disease, ischemic stroke, congestive heart failure, MS, diabetes, dementia, and obesity (R. Curtis Ellison 2011). And guess what, moderate drinkers have the lowest incidence of NAFLD- Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (Dunn 2008). Of course alcohol abuse decimates your liver, but it’s still amusing to sneer at teetotalers for having fattier livers than we pinot hounds. And we still haven’t even mentioned the brain.

Wine makes you smarter! OK, not true; consider the coed cohorts enacting the well documented “beer goggles” phenomenon. But it certainly makes you less dumb. Wine compounds called polyphenols are known to be neuroprotective (Vauzour 2008). That means the stuff found in red wine helps brain cells. Remember that crackling fried egg in Nancy Reagan’s “This is Your Brain on Drugs” campaign? Now imagine a happy, smiling, youthful little neuron (brain cell) quaffing cab. That’s more like it. Wine polyphenols protect against dementia and boost cognitive functions like memory and fluency. We aren’t sure exactly how just yet, but they appear to help by affecting the ways brain cells talk to one another (“neuronal signaling pathways”) and dampening inflammation. And this just in: flavonoids “have been shown to be highly effective in preventing age-related cognitive decline and neurodegeneration in both animals and humans” (Spencer 2012). And you thought getting your dog drunk was debased animal cruelty. Sorry PETA.

And now for the sobering part – “light-to-moderate” consumption means 1-2 glasses/day for men and around one/day for the ladies. Drinking patterns are paramount, too. Drink your wine with food, a little bit every night. Reserving your weekly 14 glass allocation for Saturday night negates the health benefits entirely. Maximizing that heart healthy boost appears to be varietal-dependent. You see, your blood vessels require around 300-500 mg of procyanidins/day to optimize function and reduce cardiovascular risk (Corder 2006 & oral communication). Not every bottle of vino hits the mark. Around 1/3 of randomly tested bottles contained <200 mg, about half clocked in at 200-500 mg, but <10% packed in more than 500 mg per half bottle. The procyanidin heavyweights, you ask? Tannat and anything from Sardinia (groan). No offense to the good people of Sardinia, but I gotta a lot of pinot and zin to offload here. Finally, all wine consumption, however limited, appears to increase the risk for breast cancer (Li 2009). But even with an increased risk of breast cancer, lady lushes still lower their overall death risk by drinking 1-2 glasses/wine per day. After all, the American Heart Association tells us 1 in 3 adults suffer from some incarnation of heart disease (data from 2004). You’re more likely to drop dead from a heart attack than breast cancer, so ladies, play your odds.

Over the next few weeks, we will dissect how wine benefits your body in greater detail. Salut! So this 2012, make a resolution you’re sure to keep. Drink more wine. Drink wine every day. [Drink Bruliam. This is not a subliminal message]. Have a glass with lunch and another with dinner. After all, it just might save your life.

Disclaimer:  I cannot believe I am reduced to this but should add the following. Bruliam does not endorse alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse is a serious and deadly illness. Light-to-moderate daily alcohol consumption does not equal alcohol abuse nor does it cause alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse negates all of the aforementioned health benefits detailed above- excepting Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, whereby consuming >3 drink/day appears to decrease risk for this blood tumor (Klatsky 2009). Bruliam Wines does not support excessive alcohol consumption to reduce risk of this hematological malignancy. Many of these aforementioned epidemiological studies rely on self-reported data. It is entirely possible that the 89,299 male doctors in the Physicians’ Health Study cohort are liars who dramatically under report their actual alcohol consumption. If your surgeon reeks of a cheap martini, seek a second opinion. Many studies do not distinguish between types of alcoholic beverages. But intrinsically we unbiased winemakers know that wine is better than beer or liquor. The phenols founds in wine are also present in tea, cocoa, and fruit.

Check out this copyrighted figure I have reproduced without permission. The red circles indicate the relative risk of non-drinkers, the total abstainers. They have a relative risk of 1 in each category. The yellow stars represent the light-to-moderate drinkers. Across all categories, men who consume 1 drink/day have a lower risk of death, heart related death, cancer death, and “other” death. From Gaziano et al, 2000**

WORKS CITED:

**Gaziano JM, Gaziano TA, Glynn RJ, Sesso HD, Ajani UA, Stampfer MJ, Manson JE, Hennekens CH, Buring JE., Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption and mortality in the Physicians’ Health Study enrollment cohort., J Am Coll Cardiol. 2000 Jan;35(1):96-105.

R. Curtis Ellison, lecture, Wine Summit IV: 6th International Wine & Heart Health Summit, Oregon, 2011.

Dunn W, Xu R, Schwimmer JB., Modest wine drinking and decreased prevalence of suspected nonalcoholic fatty liver disease., Hepatology. 2008 Jun;47(6):1947-54.

Vauzour D, Vafeiadou K, Rodriguez-Mateos A, Rendeiro C, Spencer JP., The neuroprotective potential of flavonoids: a multiplicity of effects., Genes Nutr. 2008 Dec;3(3-4):115-26.

Spencer JP, Vafeiadou K, Williams RJ, Vauzour D., Neuroinflammation: Modulation by flavonoids and mechanisms of action., Mol Aspects Med. 2012 Feb;33(1):83-97.

Corder R, Mullen W, Khan NQ, Marks SC, Wood EG, Carrier MJ, Crozier A., Oenology: red wine procyanidins and vascular health, Nature. 2006 Nov 30;444(7119):566.

Li Y, Baer D, Friedman GD, Udaltsova N, Shim V, Klatsky AL., Wine, liquor, beer and risk of breast cancer in a large population., Eur J Cancer. 2009 Mar;45(5):843-50.

Klatsky AL, Li Y, Baer D, Armstrong MA, Udaltsova N, Friedman GD., Alcohol consumption and risk of hematologic malignancies. Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Oct;19(10):746-53.

If October is to be remembered for the incessant slog of harvest, then November’s notable for my unrelenting and freakish bad luck.  First we stared down a major sewage catastrophe, like we peered into the crawl space with a flashlight and stared into a murky pool of raw sewage.  Four plumbers declined the job before the fifth called in a Hazmat crew to suck out the liquid poop and excavate the top 8 inches of dirt saturated by the raw dump.  For weeks I’d blamed my kid.  His room smelled wretched.  I kept thinking, he’s only 8 years old, but he already stinks up the whole house.  Turns out his room sits atop the lowest point in the crawl space, and a five person family’s worth of sewage output had accumulated in a fetid pool under his bedroom.  Sometime after our enforced 3 night sojourn at the Hampton Inn while plumbers worked overtime, the first kid succumbed to a school scavenged viral affliction.  It was the same fever/ sore throat constellation as his table partner, who’d been out sick from school mere days before.  During the ensuing weeks, each of my three kids proffered the same weary “Mom, my throat hurts,” while never actually overlapping with a sibling.  It’s an algorithmic anomaly not to be reproduced until spring fever 2012. 

And oh yeah, my kid broke his arm at school.  I’d been in a lunch meeting and forgotten my cell phone in the car.  While I was nibbling chevre, the school was leaving frantic messages as my son writhed in pain and apologized to the school nurse for crying.  My shame was wrenching.  For penitence, I’d schlepped him down to the ER at Oakland Children’s Hospital.  That’s right.  We walked into an Oakland ER.  Need I elaborate?  After that, I thought I was in the clear.  With only 48 hours to go until the calendar flipped from November to December, we squeezed in a well visit peds appointment that had been ignored and punted during October harvest.    At precisely 3:17 pm, the doc assured me my son was the pinnacle of 8 year old health and shooed us home.   Then faster than you can say “shadenfreude,” my son awakened at midnight with a high pitched, barky croup cough.  Not twelve hours had elapsed between our “well” visit and a brand new bronchitis.  We are blessed to wrestle two distinct viruses in the same month.  Is this winning?

Of course of all my self-blathering pity is just a front to sequester my real anxieties in some remote, impenetrable cortical recess.  December 11 is pinot judgment day.   

I’ve been sluggish about composing tasting notes and dragged my feet on the 2010 tech sheets.  Each bottle opened and analyzed has made me retch a little in my mouth.  The 2010 pinots are my first big test, my first solo vintage.  Last year, I implemented winemaking decisions that others may not have made.  Every step in the journey from grape to bottle has been on my watch, my call.  And now I’m sending out mass market e-blasts inviting you to judge me.  Angst does not sit well with me.  Don’t you remember what happened to Britney Spears or LiLo?  Serious melt down material. 

My hope is that all three pinots show brilliantly, or at least there’s something for every palate.  I made three different pinots as distinct as my three kids.  None of them overlapped with their viral hiccups.  Why should all three wines taste simply like “cherry?” 

(The aforementioned blog title was optioned to Garth Brooks for an upcoming album.  He declined since you don’t need no stinkin’ French wood to make moonshine.)