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

WINE TALK
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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Who’s with me on this one…to get the law repealed.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

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That would encourage manipulation and intervention. [stirthepothal.gif] Sacre Bleu.

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Tom, I like it! Problem is, this is what our Livermore Pinot looks like at 18-19 brix. I’m not sure we’d get much juice off it:

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[cheers.gif] [worship.gif] Aw… Tom…!

We still couldn’t make worthy, European style wines.

California has an arid climate. We don’t get the rain and humidity that they do in the traditional European growing regions. We don’t have enough rot and mold in our fruit to produce geosmin and other compounds that mask fruit flavor and aromatics. We should just give up now! Its futile to grow wine grapes in cool arid climates.

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Well i see Peter is still reeling, livid over his ‘pursuit of balance’ NSFW monkey pr0n thread rants

Come now Peter, you know how you want all the smelly, horsey shit in a Pinot like some of those NZ and reference standard Burgs, don’t you? Mask fruit? What has fruit got to do with it? We need sous bois, forest floor, the reek of dead leaves for complexity. And we must have boatloads of acidty to marry our chalky mouthed needs for the oblique minerality quality that absolutely defines a Burg wine’s very existence…don’t you know.

Fruit flavors and aromatics? We don’t need no stinkin fruit flavors, I mean what’s the point of that, you’re making wine for that taste of terrior and soil, not for the taste of grapes in wine [smileyvault-ban.gif]

What’s better, balance of fruit & texture; or structure and soil??? See, this Zin you had @Cote de Rhone a few years back in 375m has all you could ever want in a wine, unlike the Brogan version which had a stuck fermentation given the northern elevage and heat blankets did not help, nor the W-S Zin yeast; this one here finished dry @0.3%. It’s only 17.2% alc, did you not love it neener for all it’s cough perfect ‘balance’ cough?

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I think you are being sarcastic but I actually agree with you

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Thanks for the support, Berry. I was only being semi-sarcastic. I posed it as a legitimate question, but thru in
enough stuff to make it seem a troll.
I’ve actually had some Calif wines that were chaptalized…and they were darned good. I think it’s a tool that
Calif winemakers should be allowed to use.
Tom