A question for those who’ve had more wines with significant bottle age than I have: in your experience, how does the perceived brettiness of a wine change over time in bottle?
I was drinking a 2016 Pibarnon (Bandol) over the weekend. I know, too young, but I wanted to track it over time. At first it was massively tight and Bretty. Dark fruit and woody-herbaceousness came out after an hour or two, still very Bretty. By the next day the band-aid/horse notes had all but disappeared and I was left with something supple, savory, woody-herbal, and with significantly brighter fruit than it had had the previous day.
I’m wondering the extent to which this kind of trajectory is what I might expect from bottle age, or if the massive oxygen exposure from decanting allows the culprit volatile compounds to evaporate in a way that time in bottle won’t?
And I don’t want to limit this to Bandol, either. I had a pretty Bretty bottle of Frog’s Leap’s 2016 cab recently and am wondering if time will alleviate that, or exacerbate it, or not affect it one way or another.
My only experience has been aged bottles of Olga raffault chinons. But that might have been due to bottle/barrel variation as some have been fantastic and others have been brett bombs. Same with olivier cousins anjou Cabernet francs.
Would the amount of fruit/tannin be vital to how that brett incorporates itself over time?
I will echo what others have said and mention that brett does not ‘blow off’. Based on your description, you understand what brett is - and if it seems to be taking a back seat as the wine opens up, it could just be that other elements are ‘hiding it’ better - but it is still there.
Some folks feel that brett worsens as a wine ages, but that has so much to do with how the wine is stored, whether it’s shipped anywhere, and how much brett the wine had to start with.
So there really does not seem to be any linear relationship between brett and aging - it’s a crapshoot.
Mourvedre often displays “bretty” nose, while not having any. As others have said brett does not dissipate, it actually gets worse with air exposure.
My first reaction to your thread header having “brett” in it and then seeing “Bandol” mentioned was a natural and automatic one, Mourvedre should display some notes that are similar to brett. I’d actually knock some points off from any Mourvedre based wine not presenting such notes.
Mourvèdre is certainly prone to reduction. And while Bandol has been the posterchild region for brett (along with Loire), I’ve yet to taste a Pibarnon with brett. Furthermore, brett normally doesn’t blow off. A wine that is obviously bretty upon opening can come to life with some air as the fruit kicks in on the backbeat. However, the bretty notes normally don’t dissipate - whereas reduction does.
I guess this really depends on how much there is stuff to eat for the brett in the bottle. A wine that hasn’t fermented to full dryness, but contains some 2-7 g/l of residual sugar (or even more) and is kept at room temperature for some time can gradually develop some pretty heavy brett character. However, a wine that initially has some brett but doesn’t have much for brett to feed on (ie. the wine’s residual sugar at or below 1 g/l) doesn’t normally get particularly bretty. Although brett can eat some other compounds from the wine when necessary, most of the brett cells will die of starvation at some point and only a negligible amount can survive for some time more. These wines might be bretty in their youth, but most likely they won’t become more bretty with age. When a wine is opened, the brett gets a healthy dose of oxygen and thus can continue to do its funky business, but it really can’t do much if there is nothing to eat in the wine. And dead brett cells won’t come back to life once they die.
On the perception of brett as wines age, I’ve no idea how 4-EP or 4-EG behave / possibly disappear with longer ageing. However, most of the obviously bretty wines tend to be those aged 0-30 years. Can’t remember having much wines from the 1950’s to 1970’s that would’ve been perceptibly bretty, even though I would expect especially Barolos, Barbarescos and Bordeaux from those decades being quite bretty.
Hmm, that makes sense. For sure the other aromatics we’re increasing over time and could have masked the Brett. I guess I’m surprised that it doesn’t blow off at all, even over a period of days, since the compounds involved are so volatile. Might a low concentration, say, just above the sensory threshold, ease off over time? Or do I have the chemistry wrong here?
I’m pretty sure it’s 4-EP I was smelling. Smelled exactly like the standards we make in the lab (at a relatively low concentration - they smell less band-aid and more medicinal to me at higher concentrations). Didn’t smell particularly reductive to me. I’ve only had one Pibarnon in the past but it didn’t smell particularly if at all bretty, so this was a stark contrast.
As you and Larry have pointed out I’m sure it has a lot to do with the specific wine and the bottle conditions. Hmm. No easy answer then, as always hah.
Interesting! Do you know if there are specific compounds found in Mourvèdre at higher concentrations that have an aromatic similarity to 4-EP/4-EG? Or otherwise what might cause this part of its profile? I’ll confess to having had very limited experience of Mourvèdre.
Mourvedre actually has the chemical markers for brett naturally, rather like Syrah has a lot of Guaiacol (smoke taint chemical). I know because we had a fight bringing into a custom crush facility a few barrels of Mourvedre that had tested “positive” for brett.
Paul, makes sense. I recall first time I tasted Tempier, eons ago, in a blind setting to boot, and being very sensitive to brett my first reaction was, “Oh, no!”. Let it sit in the glass a bit and it began dissipating, so that was my first lesson on Mourvedre when a few much more experienced palates at the tasting explained the grape’s built in traits. Now, in a blind format, if “brett” starts receding, or not expanding with air, I know there is Mourvedre in there.
Have some '98 Tempier left, may be time to pop one to see how they are doing.
A smoke taint test gives both 4-EG and straight Guaiacol. If a wine/grapes show any 4-EG, usually along with a very high Guaiacol (10ppb+), it is considered highly tainted. A minor/imperceptible taint shows no 4-EG but some Guaiacol, say 1-3ppb.
A typical (untainted) Syrah wine shows 20-40ppb Guaiacol but no 4-EG, as I understand it.
All this is why we use our Grenache for smoke taint testing rather than Syrah or Mourvedre.
Fascinating i know the 4-EP/4-EG ratio can vary significantly in Brett-contaminated wines, but do you know if there is a typical ratio (or presence of one but not the other) in clean Mourvèdre? Or is it environmentally dependent?
And yet, I’ve had a case of the same wine and had each bottle show differing levels of perceived Brett.
Sometimes, within days of each other, sometimes within years.
Strange critter.
Best, jim
Tempier is one of the producers having actual brett in their wines, though. Or at least I’ve had some Tempiers with obvious brett, not just that Mourvedre funk.
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