Tong No. 6: Ripeness
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Ripeness is a controversial concept. These days, it evokes hang time and over-alcoholic red wines. But there’s a lot more going on. This issue reveals the factors at play when trying to define the best time to pick the grapes and the resulting wine styles. Do we want a heavy or a lightweight wine? Red-winemaking has always focussed on concentration. Bordeaux is the textbook example. But the traditional approach is changing. All over the world, winemakers are focussing on finesse. They do this by harvesting earlier and allowing more “greenness” in their wines – higher acidity and slightly juicier tannins that stress fruitiness – and/or by using softer vinification methods. In most cases, Burgundy has become the model. These softer techniques are also being applied to lesser-known grape varieties, or grape varieties that do not perform well when made according to the “concentration” method. Stress is both on fruit and structure, based on a more "holistic" view of things.
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