Veuve trials techniques to strip earthy flavours from finished wines

While the commentary continues to centre on another perfect vintage in Bordeaux, grey rot in Champagne’s 2010 harvest was severe enough in some plots to encourage Veuve Clicquot to begin a trial into the removal of botrytis-sourced flavours in finished wines.

Veuve Clicquot winemaker Cyril Brun told db that the investigation has so far involved isolating a few batches of wine made from botrytis-infected grapes to, “check and monitor the evolution of these earthy and sometimes mushroomy flavours which mask the typical aromas in Champagne…. and then start trials on ways to get rid of them.”

The experiments have already shown that the intensity of the unwanted flavours “varies a lot” over time, although it is currently not possible to remove these flavours without stripping the wine of all its character.

“One technique is linked to filtration,” he explained, “and we can use a membrane that is very selective to collect one size of molecule, but there is not one single size of molecule that is responsible for the taint, and when we absorb one bad molecule, we also absorb one that is good.”

Speaking of last year’s vintage, he said there were two main issues, both linked to heavy rainfall in mid-August. The “biggest issue” for 2010 was “the dilution effect because we had heavy rain on from 13 August with one month’s rain in three days,” he explained, while the other was the resulting botrytis, particularly on Pinot Meunier, which he described as “very severe in some cases.”

He also said that due to these conditions, Veuve Clicquot would not declare a vintage from 2010 and that the house had not many any red wines from the harvest for use in its rosés. “Usually we use 40% reserve wines for the NV rosé but this year it will be 100%, mostly from 2009 and 2008.”

For 2011 he said that Veuve Clicquot have invested in a vibrating sorting table for red winemaking. “We are putting all resources behind red winemaking for this year,” he stated, although he added, “If we don’t have the conditions to make reds this year we have the capacity to make rosé again – we have sufficient red wines.”

Veuve Clicquot is also experimenting with the use of oak ageing on a small proportion of its white reserve wines in 51 and 75-hectolitre foudres for its Yellow Label. This development was started, Brun stressed, for the beneficial effects of an early microxygenation in the wine from the porous material, and not for the addition of any oak flavours to the wine – the casks are only used for the Chardonnay in their third year.

“It is an option to elevate the complexity of some of the reserves wines,” he said, explaining that the effect of oxygen early on in the wine’s development could increase its ageing capacity by six months to one year.

The maturation technique could also help reduce the impact of disgorgement on the Champagne. “When you disgorge you get a big shock of oxygen, but the regular injection of oxygen through an oak barrel will increase the resistance to oxygen during disgorging,” he said.

The first Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label to incorporate a proportion of wine aged in oak will be from 2009’s blend, which will not make it onto shelves until 2014. He said that less than 1% of the reserve wine has been aged in the foudres and that because the reserve wines make up 35-40% of the Yellow Label blend, “it’s just a drop”. However, he concluded, “But one drop in the blend can be sufficient to say the wine is more complex.”

Patrick Schmitt, 14.04.2011