Amazing way to save Brett contaminated barrels.
Now I see why I’m getting traffic on my blog post about my visit to reWine a while back. They’re doing really interesting work beyond the brett angle. Nice to see them get some attention for it.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned ozonated water. You buy a machine that creates ozone and mixes it with water, which is forcefully sprayed on the interior of barrels. Very effective, I’m told. One Santa Barbara winery had a problem with brett which they were able to eliminate in subsequent years by using ozonated water. Not expensive. Best not to breathe the ozone.
Ozonaters only work so well. And it’s nasty stuff.
Ozone is a superficial treatment only. Two limitations: it is infused in cold water and every ozonator I’ve used has fairly low pressure. Not sure, there may be high pressure ozone, but regardless, it still wouldn’t be a treatment to kill Brett. It does work to sanitize surfaces. Brett has been found 8mm deep in staves and Ozone doesn’t get anywhere close to that. It is necessary to use the combination of heat + steam + time to kill Brett in barrels.
The problem with refurbished barrels is they tend to be leaky.
We use steam and have good results. And ozone.
If the shaving and toasting process is supposed to eliminate Brettanomyces, I wonder why they didn’t test for Brettanomyces. Yes, I understand that the elimination of bacteria almost certainly means yeasts were eliminated as well - but why use a proxy?
Same here.
Best, Jim
Two things to note here . . .
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If you do not have a massive brett problem, steam and an ozone soak certainly seems to keep things at bay.
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If you do have a bretty barrel, ozone and steam will usually not kill it off completely - and therefore you play ‘russian roulette’ with any subsequent wines that go into that barrel.
Has anyone had ‘absolute’ success killing off a really bretty barrel or two with ozone and steam? I’d love to hear about it . . .
The procedure in the article seems to be a nice ‘last resort’ for barrels that are destined to become planters . . . and there’s nothing more aggravating than having a new barrel with a lot of brett that you can’t use again for wine . . .
Cheers!
I agree with Larry. You can get great knock down, and I have done so to single digits from triple digits (4 ep,4 eg) in a winery I worked at, but eradication is improbable.
Todd,
As you and I both know, even single digit colonies of brett can still wreak havoc on wines. That’s one of my favorite topics to discuss - the fact that wineries will send out samples for testing, and the results will be ‘below detection levels’. What does this mean - NOT that there are NO colonies, but that there MAY be some, but too few to be detected by their standards. And therefore there are wineries and winemakers who ‘claim’ that there wines ‘cannot have brett because they were tested’ when in fact they certainly still CAN have brett if the wines are unfiltered and subjected to the right conditions . .
Off my soapbox - for now (-:
Cheers!
Bingo, problem still not fixed. There is always the chance that it blows up in your face. I feel that sometimes folks feel that their free SO2 will keep it at bay long enough, but it’s like being pregnant. You are or you aren’t, and the end result is quite probable.
Velcorin when bottling?
Effective only when populations are within limits. Above limits, brett persists.
Best, Jim
Jim,
Not sure I understand what you mean by the last comment. Is there a point at which Velcorin doesn’t kill off active yeast cells? If so, I hadn’t read that (though I am hardly an expert on the subject…but have read some). Certainly if brett exists in a wine, velcorin simply kills the cells, the 4ep/4eg that you taste remains…but same could be said for sterile filtering.
Thanks for helping me out.
Adam Lee
Siduri Wines
I have heard the same as Adam -that Velcorin does kill off all ACTIVE yeast cells in treated wines (and this includes any sacc yeast cells ta boot). But as Adam pointed out, it does NOT affect the brett ‘aftermath’ that may already exist in said wines - just as high levels of SO2 won’t kill off the affects in a wine - just keep them at bay. Sterile filtration will stop the spread of brett for sure and ensure that you will not have FURTHER blooms in these wines post bottling . . .
Cheers
I’m sure that a few of you are familiar with Clark Smith and his columns on Post-Modern Winemaking in Wines & Vines. If not, start out reading this quick piece on Integrated Brett Management Integrated Brett Management - Wines Vines Analytics. I found it to be stellar with this thread in mind. Also interested to hear what others think of this approach?
Cheers!
Seth,
I’m very familiar with Clark and he is an excellent ‘wordsmith’. The problem with the piece that you linked to is that it appears to be all ‘dogma’ and not much else. Yes, he rails against cellars and winemakers who are ‘too clean’ and rails against those that have a knee jerk reaction to brett at any level. He also goes on to talk about ‘building structure’ in wines to help ‘balance’ brett aromas by means of micro oxygenation . . . He’s somewhat all over the place here - which is one of the problems and challenges with discussing brett and determining where to go with it . . .
Many of us will agree that a little brett in certain varieties can add nuances and intrigue to a wine that possibly make the wine more interesting than it would have been. But even here, you have some consumers and knowledgable folks who will dismiss these wines as not acceptable (their perogative). You have others who feel that even a whole bunch of brett is okay because it shows ‘terroir’ (quoted from others on this board and elsewhere).
The real issue is whether people understand that winemakers and wineries CAN control brett IF THEY WANT TO. If you have a wine that has any RS at bottling and and live brett cells, even at levels ‘undetected’ by lab tests, and if the wine is not sterile filtered (or Velconin’ed, which I’m personally not a fan of) and if this wine hits elevated temps during its life post bottling, you may end up with a bloom that the winemaker probably did not intend on having.
So how do you get a wine that has a touch of brett and stays that way? If the wine has brett during elevage, one can sterile filter or Velcorin a wine at that point, killing off any live cells but leaving ‘the remnants’ of what the wine has already been exposed to. One thing that I’ve noticed even with this technique, though, is that brett seems to sometimes fly just below aromatic thresholds at times and sometimes just above . . . very strange indeed . . .
Carry on.
Can you remember who said that? I don’t think Ive ever come accross that. its certainly a misguided notion. Brett covers and hides terroir signature.
Berry,
Sorry that I can’t remember the specifics, but this is a notion that I’ve seen on this board and others over the past 7 years, as well as heard from knowledgeable wine folks in conversations. Yes, it is a misguided notion - but it is one that exists . . .