Chaptalization In Calif.....Let It Be...

The thought occurred to me driving into work today:
Chaptalization is forbidden in Calif. This is a very old law that dates back to the old days (by crackey) when growers were paid bonus points for higher-sugar levels in their grapes. They got the law passed so that wineries couldn't rip them off by taking lower-sugar grapes (at cheaper $$'s) and adding sugar to boost the alcohol.
Even though "every year's a vintage year in Calif", there have been yrs when there have been brisk sales of Holly's and C&H up in the wine country.
Now that the latest "in" thing is to produce Pinots and Syrahs "of balance", which is often nothing more than a code-word for wines of lower alcohol; wines that appeal to the AFWE; let's free Calif winemakers from their shackles. Let's let them make their Pinots & Syrahs the "right/old-world style". Let's let them chaptalize.
It boggles the mind how truly great Calif Pinot (and Syrah) could be. Forget all this "physiological maturity" crap to decide picking date. Growers could harvest at 18-19 Brix, the winemaker could chaptalize it up to 12%-13% alcohol.....truly in an "old world" style. It would be a new day for Calif Pinot.
Who's with me on this one...to get the law repealed. Screw "Free The Grapes"...let's free the winemakers.
Tom

Not too bad a premise for a troll, Tom; but you tip your hand a bit there at the end.

If you could have kept a straight face (in a manner of speaking), you might well have gotten someone to bite the hook on the slightly disguised obtuse thinking.

Long week, or did you just start the weekend early?

Not too bad a premise for a troll, Tom; but you tip your hand a bit there at the end.
If you could have kept a straight face (in a manner of speaking), you might well have gotten someone to bite the hook on the slightly disguised obtuse thinking.
Long week, or did you just start the weekend early?

Awwww...Hoke. It was only slightly/partly TIC. I'm semi-seriously tossing it out as an idea. We're not talking Lodi wine here.
They could plant in even colder areas...like PointReyes or Bolinas...let the grape hang until late-Oct. Now we're talking serious hang-time.
Just a thought.
Tom

Yeah, like Marin has been such an incredible area for winegrowing, what with all the spectacular wines coming out of there.

And the battle of getting vast vineyard expansion into the state and national preserves would be neat, wouldn't it?

People actually drink Pinot Noir from CA?

They don't talk about it much, but Pinot Noir might be why there's a water shortage in California these days.

[David M. Bueker]

People actually drink Pinot Noir from CA?

Rhys & Anthill Farms - both outstanding & well worth drinking.

As for Tom Hill's issues, he just had too much Smoot-Hawley White Zin.

People actually drink Pinot Noir from CA?

Schug Cellars from Sonoma.

-Paul W.

I'm all for chaptalization. Everyone should wear chaps.

Growers could harvest at 18-19 Brix, the winemaker could chaptalize it up to 12%-13% alcohol...truly in an "old world" style.

Why not just wait until “22 Brix”?

Salute

I'd be all in favor of letting winemakers do whatever they wanted if that whatever were disclosed on the label. Then let the consumer decide. But that's so outrageously unlikely that I prefer protection.

I'd be all in favor of letting winemakers do whatever they wanted if that whatever were disclosed on the label. Then let the consumer decide. But that's so outrageously unlikely that I prefer protection.

Disclosing all on the label

That would be a very large label.

I guess the labels would be the same size, but the print much finer.

I guess the labels would be the same size, but the print much finer.

And a microscope to read it?

The longer the list of interventions, the smaller the font size would have to be for it all to fit the label. That would be your cue! If you see a label whose type is too small to read with anything less than 3.00, you may decide that it's simply not worth reading...

[David M. Bueker]

Ok, let's start listing the interventions:

planting the grapes
oops...missed one, grafting the vines
pruning
green harvest
actual harvest
crush
oops...missed another one, destemming


you get my point

I believe that most practices, particularly those that I consider undesirable (e.g., irrigation, non-organic fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides; chaptalizing, acidifying, high levels of SO2, reverse osmosis, etc.) should be disclosed, ideally on the labels themselves, like the FDA mandates for food, but the industrial-scale winemaker lobbies will never stand for that (I don't know about the US, but I know that to be a fact in France). If you want to include planting the grapes, grafting the vines, pruning, green harvest, actual harvest, and destemming, be my guest! Since it's impossible to define "intervention" satisfactorily, this kind of specious excess might be necessary, but I prefere excess information to practically none, which is the norm now.

And some more...

Ok, let's start listing the interventions:
choosing the varieties
choosing the clones
choosing rootstock variation in different soils
preparing the soil
figuring the spacing
choosing irrigation or non-irrigation
choosing type of irrigation
planting the grapes
oops...missed one, grafting the vines
pruning
green harvest
actual harvest
crush (or press, whole berry, punch the cap, add water, acidify, long or short ferm, ad infinitum)
oops...missed another one, destemming


you get my point

Not enough label in the world...

[David M. Bueker]

And some more...

Ok, let's start listing the interventions:
choosing the varieties
choosing the clones
choosing rootstock variation in different soils
preparing the soil
figuring the spacing
choosing irrigation or non-irrigation
choosing type of irrigation
planting the grapes
oops...missed one, grafting the vines
pruning
green harvest
actual harvest
crush (or press, whole berry, punch the cap, add water, acidify, long or short ferm, ad infinitum)
oops...missed another one, destemming


you get my point

Not enough label in the world...

Apparently we can shorten the list if we just stick to the ones Oswaldo considers undesirable.

Okay, okay, I'd be content to see on the label anything that is added to the grape must. That would already tell us a lot, because it would cover yeasts, acid, sugar, SO2, CO2, artificial color, oak chips...

Wouldn't it be easier for all winemakers to submit a sample of the wine to you prior to bottling with a listing (oh, akin to an average Ayn Rand novel in size) of all the things you might conceivably object to, and then have them put an official "Oswaldo Certified" sticker on the bottle? Of course, you'd only charge a modest amount per bottle for such a seal of oswaldoverification...

Think of the competition among winemakers for that seal!!!!

In Tom Hill’s example (growers could harvest at 18-19 Brix, the winemaker could chaptalize it up to 12%-13% alcohol...), the sugar added to the must is not going to be “carried over” to the finished wine per say. The object here was getting the yeast to produce another 2-2.5% alcohol. (I could see it now, 10.1% alcohol by volume from naturally occurring grape sugars and 2% alcohol by volume from “added sugar”).

Salute