I recently came across a tasting note that alluded to the taste of chaptalization in a young red Burg.
I know they do it there, but can you taste it? If so, what are the markers on the palate?
I don’t recall the wine I was reading about, but knowing me it probably started with an “F” and ended with “ourrier”. I also sampled a 22 Gevrey vv recently that almost had a little burnt Barolo-like bite on the finish that got me wondering (fyi: it was still delicious, just young).
Not a lot on the taste of chaptalization, but the article says “ Alcohol accounts for much of a wine’s body: the sense of weight and depth in the mouth. It also helps volatilize the fruit character to convey more richness and an impression of sweetness.”
So this suggests a fuller mouth feel and sense of fruit sweetness, two things I tend to enjoy when a wine is in balance. If the wine works, I’m not judging the winemaking for ethical purity so to speak. The @Mike_Evans dictum of Dujac applies, “Historically the wines have been more expressive of the winemaking than of the terroir, which would normally be a strike against them for me, but the style is so seductive and appealing that I don’t care. ”
The implication (I guess?) is that you CAN detect it on the palate if a wine is over-chaptalized/out-of-balance/compensating for poor fruit/ripeness.
So what does that mismatch taste like?
Fun fact: named after Napoleon’s minister of Agriculture, Jean-Antoine Chaptal, who popularized the age-old practice.
I was at a Domaine this past summer where the winemaker said that he chaptalizes when necessary. If you can’t taste it, he said, I’ve done my job. A tool like many others.
I can certainly taste what I think of as excessive alcohol on the finish, but I don’t think I can ascribe it to chaptalization rather than a warm vintage/late picking. I don’t know to what extent Fourrier would have chaptalized in 22, which was not a cool vintage.
I’m curious to hear from others . . . but there should be no way you can ‘taste’ chaptalization at all… The idea here is that the grapes are not ripe enough, and therefore sugar is added pre-fermentation to increase the overall alcohol content of the wine. As was stated above, alcohol certainly adds body to a wine - and can add a ‘perceived sweetness’ at higher levels.
Really curious to hear what folks like @William_Kelley have to say on this.
To me, the only way you might KNOW that a wine is chaptalized is if a certain vineyard or region had very cool temperatures and therefore most fruit was underripe - but a domaine or three had wines with alcohol levels tht exceeded what one might expect.
Firstly, the timing of the addition can vary: if chaptalization is late in fermentation (around 1-0 brix), it prolongs the fermentation, prolonging maceration and also encouraging glycerol production. This changes the style of the wine, more or less subtly.
Secondly, chaptalization changes the alcoholic degree, so of course you can “taste” it. The question is if you perceive it as chaptalization per se. A very light, marginally ripe wine that is nonetheless quite heady, alcoholic and soft, for example, is indicative of heavy chaptalization.
Broadbent’s vintage wine books had plenty of tasting notes where he’d reference chaptalisation, so he certainly felt it was something that could often be identified. I’m sure the degree of chaptalisation is very relevant to this, as I also have a vague recollection that it was surprisingly commonly used by DRC, but subtly so.
I think this is a really interesting discussion. Occasionally, I will perceive a trait in red burgundy which might be described as “candied”. It has a lengthy, slightly saccharine character, often in a wine with more red fruited traits. Perhaps that is the glycerol referenced above? For example, this has been present in just about every Rousseau I’ve tasted (and has allowed me to identify them blinded a couple times), but is not exclusive to that producer.
I’ve read that chaptalization has been needed far less since 2014, but the problem with the original question (Is there some signature you can reliably taste?) is that there really isn’t a way to verify it for the vast majority of modern wines.
As you know, it is NOT legal in CA whatsoever - but is in other parts of the US.
And as you know, we legally CAN use grape concentrate at various stages - and I do know wineries that use it pre-fermentation to increase potential alcohol levels. Would you be able to tell in that case? My guess is no . . .
But using RS later on in the process - grape concentrate and other products - definitely adds a ‘sweetness’ to the process.
And I know you were somewhat tongue in cheek but what the hey . . .
A lot of people used it, a lot, in Bordeaux and Burgundy (e.g. many 1990 Bordeaux were chaptalized). In many cases, the natural degrees were only around 10-10.5%, yet phenolics were more or less ripe…
Like sulfites, yeast, and acidification, chaptalization has often been seized upon by commentators as something to be decried, whereas in reality (in my opinion) interventions such as use of enzymes, enological tannins, heavy sulfite use at crush, aggressive temperature control (especially for post-fermentation maceration) and approaches to malolactic fermentation are far more “manipulative” than most of the aforementioned practices. Because they are more complex/better hidden, however, they tend to fly under the radar.
What is clear is that moderate chaptalization has done more good than harm to the wines of France over the last 100+ years.
I don’t think candied flavors per se are a failsafe indicator of chaptalization, though it does bring a certain sucrosity to the wine. Alcohol has a sweetening effect, so you are tipping the equilibrium point of the wine in a sweeter direction. For me, the real interest of a tiny chaptalization (0.1-0.3%) is that it enables a winemaker to better integrate any sort of structural asperity that one sometimes perceives towards the end of maceration. Those are the sorts of things that time tends to round out, but a 0.1% chaptalization may essentially make the wine drinkable 5 years earlier, without any loss of potential longevity (and perhaps some advantages in terms of microbial stability, as a saccharose addition can help a ferment to consume all available fructose).
I think many on this board would be surprised to learn about some Domaines who chaptalize, even in riper years. Some believe it adds to mouthfeel. I bet you can’t taste it.
