Seriously. Respecting privacy since it was a personal e-mail, but it was a winemaker from an old-guard CA producer revered on this forum. Just passing on the information. I have no idea as to its veracity.
Water addition is legal in the US, too. Strange but true.
I thought it is was only permissible if the wines were dehydrated. (In other words, there’s a loophole through which many tank trucks have driven.) Is it now permitted at the winemaker’s discretion?
There was a thread on that a few years back, on eBob, I think. Some winemakers said it was murky but the practice is widespread.
Well, that was flatly illegal.
I imagine you could define dehydrated grapes as those requiring the addition of water…
Sounds a bit like the old saw attributed to a Burgundy producer ‘in Burgundy, we only chaptalize when it is necessary. It is always necessary.’
The high-points red wine recipe in CA for some years now has been grapes picked at very high Brix, hosing back to allow the wine to finish fermentation, then de-alcoholisation as necessary. (Addition of acid is assumed, I think.)
First off let me apologize for my tone, in reading my post it came across kinda rough and I didn’t mean to come across that way. Sorry.
Second, the information you posted is incorrect.
Those additions especially tannins are more common in areas that have poor ripening, especially in regions where it rains during the summer and fall, i.e. typically some of the historic wine regions of Europe.
My tone arises because of how these regions where the winemaker’s decision to harvest is not made based on physiological ripeness, but rather on the exigency of the crop basically rotting on the vine, creates a definition of typicity and the requirement of marketing that typicity.
You can’t tell consumers or market the fact, that the grapes were picked because they were rotting on the vine, so you have to say they were picked ripe and create a standard.
These regions where it rains in fall are contrasted with regions that are arid. Arid means that there is no rain.
In arid regions where it does not rain during the summer or at harvest, the grapes are not picked because of the fact that due to fungal disease caused by wetness they are rotting on the vine.
But there is this entire school of thought in terms of flavor and balance, that is the result of marketing by wine regions that pick based on the fact that the fruit is going to otherwise rot due to fungal disease caused by rainfall.
They have created a standard or claim of the definition of typicity that is the result of an exigency, (rain) rather than a voluntary choice of when the grapes are physiologically mature.
There is an entire list of claims derived from marketing wines from wet growing regions, to cover the reality of poor climate and poor grape growing conditions. Including the claim that these additives which were invented in those regions and primarily used in those regions, actually are from California. Its pure bullshit. Just like the claim I mentioned, that you still hear, that European wines have no sulfites, the list goes on and on and on.
Another myth is that California is hotter. Despite the fact that these regions at more northerly latitudes and in inland continental climates are in fact, due to latitude and inland location, under short, hot growing seasons because of latitude and resulting longer, hotter summer days, but with short spring and fall daylength due to latitude.
But the opposite perception has been marketed because of the exigency cause by having to pick due to the fruit rotting, not because of voluntary choices made based on organoleptic considerations. So a false mythology is spawned that ignores the reality because of marketing perceptions.
California wines are typically riper because the wines are grown in arid regions (dry) and the fruit is not rotting on the vine. Not because it is hotter, but because the choice is made based on the ability to wait for physiological ripeness. To wait for green, herbal and vegetal flavors (pyrazines) to develop into fruit flavors (terpenes.) The winemaker’s hand is not forced by rainfall, rapidly shortening daylength and cold, inclement weather.
Picking because the fruit is rotting on the vine vs. letting it hang because that option is available, are two completely different winemaking standards.
Let me guess, the person that told you that information probably markets the fact that they have “a sophisticated, European palate”?