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French Wine Explorers Wine e-Newsletter
www.wine-tours-france.com - February, 2004

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This month's wine explorations:

Answering Your Wine Questions: Sugar in French Wine
Update on 2004 Tours
Wine Tasting Lingo: Making Sense of Confusing Terminology
Upcoming wine events in France: Some major shows this month

Answering Your Wine Questions: Sugar in French Wine

Got a question about French wine or wine in general? Just send your question to me at info@wine-tours-france.com. If I pick your question to answer in the e- newsletter, you'll get a $100 gift certificate for the tour of your choice.

Martin W. from Calabasas, CA asks: "When reading about French dessert wines, I see two different words used: one is "moelleux", and the other is "liquoreux". What do these terms mean?"

There are four terms used to describe the amount of sugar in French wines: Sec (Dry: less than 4g of residual sugar per litre), Demi-Sec (Off-Dry: 4-20g/litre), Moelleux (Sweet: 20-45g/litre) and Liquoreux (Very Sweet, or "like a Liqueur": more than 45g/litre). The Germans also have a system they use to describe the amount of sugar in their sweet wines (from slightly sweet to very sweet): Spatlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, and Trockenbeerenauslese. When we speak about sugar, we're not talking about table sugar that has been added into the wine; we're talking about residual sugar, that is, the grape sugar that is naturally left in the wine after the fermentation process is completed. During fermentation, grape sugars are converted by yeast into alcohol. If the fermentation process is stopped by the winemaker before all the grape sugar is converted into alcohol, or if the fermentation stops by itself (if the grapes are over-ripe and have so much sugar that the yeast die before they can convert it all to alcohol), the sugar that has not been converted into alcohol remains in the wine - we call that remaining sugar the "residual" sugar. The "Noble Rot" (botrytis cinerea) that attacks grapes under certain specific climactic conditions and concentrates the sugars, produces wines with a great deal of residual sugar.

Sweet wines in France area almost always white wines, although there are some sweet red wines; for example, Maury, Rivesaltes, and Banyuls. The best known sweet wines in France come from the Sauternes appellation in the Bordeaux region, an area with a microclimate that favorises the development of the Noble Rot, producing wines that can be extremely rich and sweet (although balanced by a huge level of acidity - Sauternes wines are, in fact, among the most acidic wines in France!). Another region well known for its sweet wines is Alsace, where grapes left to overripen on the vine produce a moelleux wine called Vendanges Tardives (late harvest), and those attacked by the Noble Rot produce a liquoreux called Selection Grains Nobles (selection of "noble" grapes) or SGN. The Loire Valley also produces its share of sweet wines: in Vouvray, for example, the Chenin Blanc grape is vinified to produce three different classifications of wine: sec, demi-sec, moelleux. The Southwest has a similar situation in the appellation Jurançon.

The notion of vintage is at the heart of sweet wine production. In a good year (i.e., with a hot and sunny growing season), the grapes will become riper than in a less-good year, and winemakers will have the option of creating sweeter wines if they choose to do so. If the weather stays sunny, they can allow the grapes to stay on the vine and shrivel as the water inside the grapes evaporates, concentrating the grape sugars. In a rainy year, those grapes would simply rot away (bad, destructive rot rather than Noble Rot). In Alsace, for example, a given winemaker will only make Vendanges Tardives or SGN wines in excellent vintages, when the weather was hot and sunny enough to allow him to leave the grapes on the vine long enough for the sugars to become concentrated. One year he'll make both types of wine; the next, he may only make Vendanges Tardives, because the conditions weren't right that year to produce the Noble Rot necessary to make an SGN. Regions or appellations that experience the right climactic conditions to produce overripe grapes or grapes with concentrated sugars developed traditions of sweet wine production over the centuries, while other regions had climates that were more propicious to dry wine production did not produce sweet wines.

When speaking about wines with an elevated level of residual sugar, I prefer the use of the term "sweet wine" rather than "dessert wine". Demi-sec and moelleux wines can match very well with appetizers, cheese and main dishes, and even liquoreux's like Sauternes can be served outside of dessert, for instance, with Foie Gras. Try a Vouvray demi-sec with a quiche made with goat cheese and apples, or a Sainte Croix du Mont (a liquoreux from Bordeaux, across the Garonne river from Sauternes) with roquefort cheese - delicious!

Here are some demi-sec, moelleux and liquoreux wines to try at home:

Hugel et Fils: Gewurztraminer Vendanges Tardives 2000
Domaine Cauhapé: Jurançon Moelleux Noblesse du Temps 2001
Domaine du Clos Naudin: Vouvray demi-sec 2002
Chateau La Tour Blanche: Sauternes 1996

Join us for any of the following tours to experience the sweet wines of the Loire Valley or Bordeaux for yourself!

Best of Bordeaux: Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 2004 (only 5 spaces left)
Bordeaux Prestige: June 1-5, 2004 (only 8 spaces left)
Paris, Champagne & Loire Valley: Sept. 12-18, 2004

Tours Update

We still have room on all of our 2004 tours, but some, like Bordeaux Prestige and Burgundy & Champagne with Robin Garr (two absolute must-do tours) are filling up fast. Others are wide open, so if you can get 8-14 people together, consider "chartering" one of our scheduled tours that still have full availability. Not only will you have the tour all to yourself, the person who contacts us to make the reservation will get a tour at no cost! Hurry to take advantage of this terrific opportunity.

As always, if you cannot make the dates of our scheduled tours, we're happy to give you a proposal and price quote for a private, customized tour in the region(s) of your choice. See our 2004 scheduled tour calendar here.

Wine Tasting Lingo: Making Sense of Confusing Terminology

Wine is a fascinating, multi-faceted subject that lends itself to eloquent descriptions. As a result, much of the terminology used to describe wine during tastings is more poetic than descriptive, more subjective than objective, and leads to a great deal of confusion. Even a wine professional like myself can have a hard time understanding what a journalist means when he talks about a "convincing" wine which is "racy" and "nervous". Even terms that are commonly used to describe technical aspects of wine tasting, like "complexity" and "finish", are so often misused that many people are unsure of what they really mean. There's certainly nothing wrong with trying to be artistic in describing a beverage that has inspired poets for centuries. But when it gets to the point that no one really understands what you're trying to convey (perhaps not even you), it's time to stop and redefine terms. For example:

"Balance" : When we talk about balance, we're talking about something that's going on in the mouth - aromas don't have anything to do with balance. When talking about balance, we're talking about the relative levels of acidity, alcohol, tannins and moelleux (roundness or unctuousness) in the wine (skip the tanins if it's a white wine). In a wine that is well-balanced, all of those elements give the impression of being fairly equal - no element sticks out or dominates, they all exist harmoniously together. Relative is the operative word here: certainly in a Chablis, acidity will seem somewhat more present because that's the character of that wine; however, that acidity should be balanced by the alcohol and moelleux of the wine. Why do we speak so much about balance? Because balance is a sign of quality in a wine - if there were one taste component that dominated, you'd get less pleasure from drinking that wine. By the way, balance is either present from the very beginning, or not - an unbalanced wine will never become a balanced wine, no matter how much you age it.

"Complexity" : We now leave the realm of the mouth and move upward to the nose. "Complexity" is actually not the entire term; the entire term is "Aromatic Complexity". So we're talking about aromas here, only aromas. We group aromas that have similar origins or similar smells into families of aromas. Some of the families of aromas we find in wine are fruits (cherry, raspberry, currants, etc.), flowers (acacia, rose, peony, etc.), forrest floor (pine needles, fern, mushrooms, etc.), spices (pepper, nutmeg, clove, etc.), and more. Sometimes you can find several different fruit aromas in a wine, but that's NOT what makes the wine complex. We talk about a wine being complex when you can find several FAMILIES of aromas in the wine. The more families you find, the more complex the wine is. Complexity, like balance, is a sign of quality in wine.

"Attack" : this is one of those terms that is used in such a vague way that it practically cries out to be abused. I remember once reading tasting notes of a wine tasting club member, who said that a certain wine had an attack that was "frank and lively". Darned if I know what he meant by that. In strictly technical terms, the attack is the first sensation you experience as the wine enters your mouth. In wine tasting, there is a progression of mouth sensations over time, as the wine passes from the tip of your tongue along the length of your tongue until it arrives at the back of your mouth and you swallow it (or spit it out). The attack is the first step in that progression. At the tip of your tongue are the sensors for sweetness; as you move backward, the acidity sensors are next, and finally bitterness is at the very back of the tongue where it joins your throat. A sweet wine will have a sweet attack; an acidic wine will have a "lively" (along with "nervous", words often used to indicate acidity) attack, etc.

"Finish": another very vague term that is over (and badly) used. We often read "the wine had a long and fresh finish". There are actually two kinds of "finishes": aromatic, and gustative. The aromatic finish is also referred to as the persistence of the wine (how long the AROMAS last on the palate once you swallow or spit out the wine, measured in seconds). So a "long finish" means the aromas lasted a long time. The gustative finish refers to which of the "tastes" (acidity, tannins, roundness or alcohol) leaves the most lasting impression on your palate. So we could say that a Grand Cru Chablis had a long persistence with a final impression of freshness (a word used to describe refreshing acidity).

"Aftertaste" : in the progression of the tasting of a wine, you have the Attack, then the Finish, and then the Aftertaste, if any. The Aftertaste and the Finish are NOT the same thing, although they're often used interchangeably. Aftertaste almost always refers to a bitter taste, and comes "after" the rest of the tasting because the bitterness taste receptors are located at the very back of your tongue. Some other aftertastes include a metallic taste, or a taste of sulfur. Aftertaste is always a defect in a wine.

For more information about wine tasting techniques and terminology, check out our Introduction to Wine Tasting article. Experienced tasters will also enjoy our Advanced Wine Tasting Topics article.

To put your tasting skills into action, join us on one of our Burgundy tours or Bordeaux tours this year.

Upcoming Wine Events in France: Some major shows coming up

February 28-March 7, 2004 - Paris Agricultural Show, Porte de Versailles, Paris - French version of a state fair, with judging of cattle and other farm animals, wine tasting, and artisanal food producers. A must-see if you're in town! For more info: http://www.salon-agriculture.com, +33 (0)1 49 09 60 00.
March 5-7, 2004 - Salon des vins et de la gastronomie du Lion's Club, Saint Germain en Laye (near Paris): wine tasting and sale of artisanal food products. For more info: +33 (0)1 30 87 20 83, http://www.pidf.com/
March 13, 2004 - Olive Festival, Cagnes sur Mer in the center of town (Côte d'Azur-Provence): conferences and tastings about olives and olive oil. For tickets: +33 (0)4 93 20 61 64.
March 12-14, 2004 - Salon des vignerons et de la gastronomie, Aubagne (Provence): 50 wine producers from all over France present their wines, and artisanal food producers sell their fare. For more info: www.aubagne.com, or + 33 (0)4 42 18 08 08
March 12-14, 2004 - Salon des Vins et de la Gastronomie, Bourges (Central Loire):
tastings and artisanal food products from all over France. For more info: monika.riefer@wanadoo.fr, +33 (0)2 48 23 02 60.
March 13-14, 2004 - Salon bio vins, Beaune (Burgundy): taste organic wines from throughout France, plus wine tasting instruction and seminars. For more info: http://www.ot-beaune.fr, +33 (0)3 80 26 21 30.
April 2-5, 2004 - Salon des vins des vignerons indépendants (independent winery fair), Paris (ESPACE CHAMPERRET, Place de la Porte de Champerret, 17th arrondisement). Top artisanal wine producers from all over France - one of the biggest and best wine fairs in France. For more info: http://www.paris-expo.fr, infos@espace-champerret.fr, http://www.vigneron-independant.com, or +33 (0)1 43 95 37 00.

Don't hesitate to visit the vineyards of France during the winter. The wineries are open and happy to welcome you, and the vineyards are quite beautiful when covered with frost and snow! And spring is just around the corner . . . We'll be happy to design a customized, private tour for you this winter or spring in the region of your choice.

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Contact Us

I'm always available to answer your questions about our wine and culinary programs, our company, and wine in France in general. Don't hesitate to contact me at info@wine-tours-france.com, or toll free at 1-877-261-1500.

Best regards,

Lauriann Greene-Sollin, Sommelier-Conseil
President/Founder

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