Bordeaux EP 2024

WINE TALK
625

Well, absolutely agree with Brian on disliking adding sugar and disliking the downplaying, I guess its prohibited generally for a reason

In Bordeaux, several unnamed wineries have applied for official permission to chaptalize their wines. In several appellations in southern France, including Bordeaux, chaptalization, which is the process of adding sugar to the must to increase the potential alcohol content, has been prohibited since 2019. However, it can be approved by the French government through an application to the appellation authority INAO.

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626

Interesting and quite different takes actually

From

At Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Guillaume Pouthier highlighted the balance needed with the year’s acidity levels. 
. With this in mind, he felt that chaptalisation could lead to wines feeling “flat” – but it wasn’t a necessity for him, given he managed to reach 13.5% natural alcohol thanks to the property’s warmer, suburban microclimate. These producers weren’t alone – Beychevelle, LĂ©oville-PoyferrĂ© and Lafite-Rothschild all opted to work with what nature gave them.

To

Ch. Margaux was notable for highlighting that, at least for them, chaptalisation wasn’t abnormal. They also used it on a couple of plots in 2017, 2019 and 2020.

627

It’s not as simple as you’re making it. Different terroirs, clones, vine age, varietals, climatic conditions and methods of farming, organic, etc., which can all vary quite widely from appellation to appellation, and vineyard to vineyard. And as many vineyards have non contiguous parcels with different soil types, that is something that can vary widely in individual vineyards as well.

Depending on the vintage, with strict limits, controls, and dates of adding water, irrigation is now allowed in Bordeaux as well. Producers need to declare the parcels that were irrigated .

628

Thank you for the 2014 link, Jeff. I’ll peruse that later with a glass in my hand. :slight_smile:

On chaptalization not being secretive. Respectfully, I’m calling b.s. on that one. I just spent some time trying to find that information for 2021, 2023, and 2024 online. I was only able to find bits and pieces; certainly no 2021/23/24 Bordeaux Chaptalization report, or something of that kind.

The authors of this article about 2021 Bordeaux said, “Producers can seem keen to gloss over or shy away from discussing the tricks of their trade. 
 We asked about the potentially contentious topic at every property we visited, receiving only a small handful of slightly wary responses on the topic (“We did what we had to do,” one winemaker said, with a smile).” That doesn’t sound like producers are being terribly forthcoming on the topic.

Some producers were somewhat more forthcoming:
" At [Ch. Cheval Blanc Pierre-Olivier Clouet firmly stated, “We never touch the natural balance of the wine.” That said, they did chaptalise three plots in the end, but none of them made it into the Grand Vin. Delphine Kolasa of Margaux’s Marquis d’Alesme believes that you can almost always feel a warmness from the additional, unnatural alcohol – although she noted a few properties who had managed it so well you could barely tell.

At Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Guillaume Pouthier highlighted the balance needed with the year’s acidity levels. The relative lack of sunshine resulted in grapes high in malic acid, meaning that the malolactic fermentation (where hard, green-apple malic acid is converted into softer lactic acid) had a greater impact in the wines, reducing the overall acidity. With this in mind, he felt that chaptalisation could lead to wines feeling “flat” – but it wasn’t a necessity for him, given he managed to reach 13.5% natural alcohol thanks to the property’s warmer, suburban microclimate. 


*But there were plenty of outstanding estates which felt it was an essential element to success in the year. At Le Pin, Jacques Thienpont remarked how they had to employ “forgotten methods”, noting that it was more than 20 years since he’d had cause to chaptalise in Pomerol. He used it on a couple of vats. *

JosĂ©phine Duffau-Lagarrosse– the young vigneronne who has taken over her family’s estate – joked about having to learn how to do it, so alien is the process to a millennial winemaker.

Similarly, Christian Moueix – another of the Right Bank’s old guard – noted how he used it almost every year in the 1970s, but hadn’t needed to for a long time. For him the key was not to overdo it, enough to add a maximum 1% alcohol. There was a clear consensus on this among proponents – adding half or one degree (of alcohol) was beneficial, but if you pushed things too far, you’d lose balance in the wines.

https://www.frw.co.uk/editorial/chaptalisation-a-spoonful-of-sugar

I could keep searching and post many more similar comments/passages from other articles. While conducting my fruitless search for this non-secretive, yet oh-so-elusive Bordeaux Chaptalization report, I learned the practice has been banned in Bordeaux since 2019, and can now only be done by and through an application and approval process. Why ban something if it’s not “bad”?

I’m sorry, Jeff, but you simply saying this information is not secretive does not make it so. If you can find this report/information, please direct our attention to it — I am genuinely curious to know the facts. Even many of the “forthcoming” producers did not apparently divulge detailed information about their chaptalization usage.

And as for people asking you about blends, alc. levels, and readiness to drink — yeah, sure – those things are important, too. But interest in those aspects does not mean chaptalization information is unimportant or that there is a lack of interest about it. Some of the passages I quoted, above, mention the impact that chaptalization can have on the finished wines, both good and bad; that sounds like something important to me. YMMV.

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629

Thanks for posting that article. That’s one that I came across in my search for information regarding which producers chaptalized, and to what extent.

630

You are very welcome Brian and thanks for bringing the subject up.

I am living in the southern-most german wine region actually, here the concept on chaptalization seems rather well thought out to me. Chaptalization is allowed only at a lower level than more northern german regions and only upto the so called quality level, for all higher levels (Kabinet, Auslese etc) chaptalization is not allowed at all. Makes sense to me.

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631

Like everything else in winemaking, there is an art to chaptalization, and I have never figured what is the right way. I have heard different theories and practices. As it is less common than it used to be, some winemakers have had to learn from scratch, and the more they have to do it in any vintage, the more critical it is to get it right. I have tasted wines where it is pretty obvious something went wrong, and that is usually found in the finish, when flavors stop abruptly, but the structural elements remain.

To Jeff’s point that we haven’t tasted the wines, it seems to be that much more critical to know what has been added to the must. Many of the critics who go to Bordeaux, taste, score and sell their opinions are probably less experienced than some of the winemakers, who at least have an older generation to turn to, and ask the questions. I have never been particularly comfortable with some of the people scoring, and here they are dealing with stuff they have never had to before.

So yes, if the scores are to make any sense at all, questions about if and how much wines underwent chaptalization are totally relevant.

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632

Jeff, I am not making it appear easy, why not read that linked arcticle.

That said, I feel its not rocket science actually and taking the approach in Baden as a guideline the plots at Margaux in need of chaptalization even in riper vintages like 19/20 (go figure) probably should not be included in the first wine of a 1st growth at all, n‘est pas?

633

You can find vintage summaries dating back to 1900 on my site. Though more recent years offer the most details on a vintage/harvest.

Not sure what info is online, or not. But I cannot recall any producer that was not forthcoming when asked about chaptalization, spraying, bleeding the vats, irrigation, yields, etc. Most of that, is reported by law.

Because you, or I do not where to look on the net, or if it’s online, or not, does not mean it’s not reported by law.

634

I did. I found it generic in its information.

635

This says it all, and Jeff, that its by law necessary to report and actually request it - but so far no wine critic or any known website / publication is reporting on it does make it pretty obvious hidden to the public. If you are so keen to repeatedly point out that its answered when asked I would like to ask you and other wine critics to start asking and reporting on it.

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636

I asked a lot of wineries when tasting the 24s. Almost everyone replied yes, in specific parcels, between .5 & 1 degree. With 2024, it’s extremely wide/soread. This is mostly for Cabernet.

That should paint a very clear picture for you.

Because I don’t think it matters, and as with very few exceptions, most readers do not care, I do not take the time to write it up.

As for what other writers/critics say or do, I don’t know, and I don’t care.

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637

Thank you Jeff

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638

If the information is reported to the appropriate authorities, but not made available to the consumer, then from a consumer’s perspective that information is being held in secret. It would appear, based on some published articles, that when wine publications come asking about it, they often get non-specific “answer” answers. “Holding something in secret” does not mean that information doesn’t exist, or that it has not been disseminated to any audience whatsoever; rather, it means there is some audience(s) from whom the information is kept. Some wineries post tech sheets online, in emails, or in physical marketing materials. I have never seen one include information about the use of chaptalization, or Mega Purple, or acid additions, or or or 
. It is quite clear that wineries generally do not want to divulge this information, and they don’t, except to the extent they must disclose to certain government agencies.

Furthermore, if acquiring this information requires going from producer to producer, and asking the winemaker directly, then that simply is impractical for nearly every consumer, and — given access constraints — likely impossible for all but the privileged few. I am respectfully calling b.s. on the contention that wineries are not secretive about chaptalization, including Bdx specifically. Next time I go wine tasting in Bdx (I’ve only had the privilege once in my life), I’ll ask directly about chaptalization and see what kinds of answers I get. I’m betting I’ll get very few producers saying, “Yes, we chaptalized this much in this particular vintage.” Nonetheless, I will go with a willingness to be surprised and proven wrong. :sunglasses:

Again, this is one point on which wine critics could be helpful to their audiences.

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639

Except it doesn’t. Is it 0.5 or 0.8 or 1.0? What percentage of the final blend does wine from that parcel represent? These questions are obvious, Jeff.

The “answers” it sounds like you received from the producers are non-answers without this additional information; they must think you’re stupid, or don’t care enough to press them for meaningful answers if that’s all they gave you.

And I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that most readers don’t care. I bet many consumers aren’t even aware of the practice —- kinda hard to ask about something when you’re not even aware of its existence.

640

@Chris_Kissack, over at Winedoctor, discusses chaptalisation and he does ask winemakers if they used it, sharing that info in his reports.

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641

I am sorry but it’s not obvious to me. With 24, you should consider that most producers with Cabernet needed chaptalization to varying degrees and percentages.

A bit of history for you, chaptalization was discovered in the early 1800s. I’m not sure when it became wide spread, but as a guess, it was used in the 19th and 20th century, especially in cooler vintages.

It was legalized in Bordeaux in 1951. I’m betting it was used in some degree in a lot of vintages. Even on the top years. As to how much, it would depend on the vintage. But as it was cooler in those days, and the search for phenolic ripeness was not equal to today, I’m guessing it was used to some degree in almost every vintage.

Keep in mind, until recently, Bordeaux was historically not high in alcohol. Climatic conditions and consumer taste are quite different than they were just a few decades ago.

Today, the practice is highly regulated by the INAO. It’s on a vintage by vintage basis and producers must ask before chaptalization.

There are very heavy fines for not following the rules. I’ve forgotten the specifics on the rules. But I’ll try asking tomorrow.

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642

For what it’s worth, I don’t think anyone is saying capitalization is inherently bad- just that because it’s been secret (not talked about, whatever you want to call it) makes people more interested in it, and people want to know what goes into their wines. Don’t see why that’s an issue.

Winemakers are perfectly willing to talk about not spraying copper, using optical sorting/exactly what percentage of the blend has stems, etc etc etc, but for some reason aren’t as forthcoming on this topic. It’s the Streisand effect

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643

Chaptalization is/was very common in Burgundy, DRC chaptalized almost every vintage until the late 90’s. Yet all the Burgundy bois ooh and aah about terroir.
It’s a tool to adjust the end product to be as good as is can be, given what nature gave them in a given year. So perhaps we could think that chaptalization IS part of certain vintages.

As an example of secretive, chaptalization is not allowed in California, yet famously during colder years you can’t find a bag of sugar anywhere within a 50mi radius from Napa.

644

I don’t see what this current storm in a teacup is about. Chaptalisation used to be ubiquitous. Since climate change has affected vineyards it is far less common. Acidification is it’s counterpart. It used to be unheard of, but maybe it will become routine. The end result is a better balanced wine.

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