Lees flavors and oxygen

WINE TALK
1

Hi everyone,

For whatever reason, I’ve never been very good at picking up the flavors of lees contact. I’ve read all the descriptors- yeasty, creamy, cheesy, fuller body, etc, but I’ve honestly never had a wine that I knew had lees contact (Muscadet for example), and detected any of these flavors.

But recently, I tried a Riesling that had a lot of lees contact, and I noticed that it was decidedly fuller bodied, a bit more creamy on day 2. Could that be the flavor of lees?

So, the question is, do flavors derived from lees contact become more prominent with oxygen exposure? Was it all in my head? Was I tasting something else?

Thanks,
Noah

2

I think creamy is more of a product of malolactic fermentation than autolytic aka lees contact. In my experience, more air soften the acid and maybe that’s why you perceive it as creamy.

For lees flavor easiest way to identify them is getting some sparkling wine made with solera + traditional method. The lees in the base wine + the en tirage time really gives it a strong bready/croissanty notes.

2 Likes