Carbon Dioxide in Wine: It’s a Gas! Too much, trouble,just enough,perfect !!!
A very enjoyable read below form a man I hold in reverence for his most excellent work that he has given us all and a touch of his passion that leaps from the pages of his work…
The reference text for understanding the sensory impact of dissolved carbon dioxide in wine is French enologist Emile Peynaud’s 1983 classic, “The Taste of Wine.” In one context after another, he presents CO2 as a double-edged component capable of making wine sing or making wine bite. In the proper balance, Peynaud argues, CO2 can lift the aromatics and add freshness and verve, especially to whites; in big reds, on the other hand, even much lower levels of CO2 can make a wine hard, acidic and overly tannic. If dry white wines are too low in CO2, they start life dull and quickly get duller; but for sweet whites, lower levels of CO2 enhance richness. In all these cases, the presence of CO2 ups the perception of acidity
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Following Peynaud and other researchers, the ballpark numbers are pretty well known. Wine emerges from fermentation with about two grams per liter of dissolved CO2, and it declines from there. At 500 milligrams per liter, the presence of CO2 is noticeable; at 1,000 mg/L, there is a slight perception of prickliness. The textbook recommendation is that age-worthy reds should be bottled with no more than 100-200 mg/L; light, fruity reds could benefit from about 500 mg/L, and whites, depending on stylistic intent, might range anywhere from 500 mg/L to 1,800 mg/L, from slightly punched up to noticeably spritzy. And oh, yes, at a tad under 4 grams per liter, which makes the wine officially sparkling, the U.S. tax rate goes up.