As with TCA and other wine flaws.
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I’’m not detecting much at all in more recent vintages. It may be safe to try the water again, perhaps.
Brett’s presentation in beer is (to me) so much different than it is in wine. I like it in both, but IMO tasting/smelling bretty beers is likely of minimal value in trying to understand Brett in wine.
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Older Coudelet de Beaucastel were certainties for high brett levels.
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This gets to an important point beyond bottle variation. Personal sensitivities vary really widely, as with a lot of things. Add to that the complexity of “bretty” characteristics. It’s not as simple as 4-EP and 4-EG. These compounds can come across very differently in different wines, and I suspect different people have varying sensitivities to various expressions.
Pegau is a great example. Brett is right at the forefront for me in the many bottles I’ve had across many vintages, including recent ones. Not everyone agrees, and of course, people who do not are probably correct for what they are tasting; it just isn’t what I am tasting.
Still, I can’t think of a wine that’s more consistently bretty than Pegau CdP. Even Musar, which shows brett very often, in some vintages and some bottles has very little to none that I can sense. None is rare, though; I usually get at least a little.
One last point on the complexity of what brett does to wine: some people at UC Davis put together an entire aroma wheel, just for brett.
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Hasn’t science decided exactly this with respect to TCA taint in wine? I know my best buddy and I seem really sensitive to TCA, but his wife routinely thinks we’re both nuts and insists the (tainted) wine is just fine to her.
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I absolutely saw widely different sensitivity levels to brett and TCA among those in a relatively large tasting group I was participating in. I’m only moderately sensitive to TCA and can take me a while to find it when it’s really low level while there were a few guys who picked it out right away in those wines.
But I think there’s another aspect to this in the case of brett but not for TCA. That is, for brett it’s not just sensitivity I think but I think there’s another element of appreciation vs. aversion to the aromas/flavors. I’ve never seen anyone view TCA as favorable in any way. Contrast this with brett where some, like me in the case of Pegau for example, perceive it as a positive enhancement. Same with oak too I think, some with an aversion to what others is simply another flavor. So not just the sensitivity to it matters but also whether or not it triggers something positive, neutral, or negative in the brain.
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Very much agree about the appreciation vs. aversion thing, regarding Brett vs. TCA. TCA absolutely ruins a wine for me, whereas I think I can handle some Brett pretty well.
Yes, ‘cordier funk/stink’ was definitely something you’d prepare people for.
Whichever you decide on keep it warm for a couple of months to juice the bloom.
It’s like cat nip, baby. Meow!
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With sensitivity, yes. TCA and many other compounds.
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I love Orval but don’t really conceive of it as a “bretty” beer. I have to work to find the brett character; it’s banana bread aromas and flavors which really stand out to me. Brettanomyces is a very secondary characteristic, at least for my palate, though I have never had a bottle that sat around for any length of time. When I think of beers with brett as a primary flavor note, I think immediately of beers like Fantome Saison(s) or any number of commercially available Lambics, fruity or gueuze style, which have an overt horse blanket aroma.
I have never experienced anything I recognize as Brett in Baudry’s wines, though I am certainly not discounting your experiences with Baudry wines, and my recognition of brett characteristics comes entirely from my many experiences with Belgian ales. Is it barnyard notes you get in Baudry’s wines or something else?
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You’ve hit on something I’m curious about … are there different tastes/aromas that we lump together as “Brett”?
I can take a wee bit of “saddle leather” but when the “Band-Aid” kicks in I start pouring wine down the drain …
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Fascinating! I had no idea so many flavors were associated with brett. Makes identifying brett extremely difficult, as most of these characteristics could be a result of other yeasts or wine making processes.
Brettanomyces can show in a wide variety of ways. The UC Davis Brett Aroma Wheel below (from the link @DougS shared above) is pretty interesting.
I’m glad I haven’t encountered most of these. I associate brett mostly with Band-aid or sweaty aromas, which are unpleasant enough (the Band-aid, at least). Some others overlap with reduction/sulfur aromas in ways which make me unsure how to identify a particular flaw. (Anyone have insight on this?)
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All good comments! I would suggest that it is better to think of Brett impacts as the complex result of fermentation than as more binary flaws or faults like cork taint or even VA. When we say a wine is “Bretty” we are referring to a range of specific sensory characters produced by Brettanomyces. These are metabolic or enzymatic products: Brettanomyces is converting one compound in wine into another. And it is doing this to a huge range of chemical compounds. So, just as we see “varietal character” in wines due to the variety-specific concentrations of chemical precursors in grapes that are transformed by Saccharomyces cerevisiae during fermentation, so too do we get “varietal Brett”. The Brett can only transform what is there, so it will produce things in different proportions in, say, Syrah vs. Pinot.
Take, for example, just 4-EP and 4-EG. 4-EP (band-aid, medicinal, barnyard-ish) is produced from coumaric acid, while 4-EG (spicy, smoky) is produced from ferulic acid. Wines vary a lot in their ratios of these two compounds, so a Syrah may end up more band-aid while a Pinot Noir may end up more leathery from a combination of the two. As Doug says, it’s not just 4-EP and 4-EG. Brettanomyces does all kinds of things and varies by strain and environment. We use 4-EP and 4-EG as an analytical tool because all strains of Brettanomyces produce them, because they are produced in high concentrations so they’re relatively easy to measure, and because they (especially 4-EP) tend to be some of the most sensorially objectionable products of Brett contamination.
In beer, the available pool of chemical precursors is very different from that of wine. For example, wines basically all have much more coumaric acid than ferulic acid, which is why medicinal/band-aid (4-EP, produced from coumaric acid) is such a common note in Bretty wines. But beers, to my knowledge (I’m not an expert on beer chemistry), have more ferulic acid than coumaric acid, so you’re more likely to get smoky-rich-spicy character from the 4-EG you get as a result. Aaaaand you’re almost certainly talking about different strains of Brett, too, and all the other precursors are different or in different proportions, so Bretty beers aren’t all that similar to Bretty wines.
I grew up drinking cider from the West Country of England, which can be profoundly Bretty - you find this in Basque ciders, too, and probably many more besides. Every now and then I’ve have a wine that smelled like “real apple cider” to me (a quick search through my old CT notes shows a 2018 Vermentino, a 2017 S African Chenin, a 2014 Virginian Merlot, a 2010 Super Tuscan, a 2011 Priorat, a 1970 Rioja, a 1967 Gevrey-Chambertin, a 2012 Coudoulet de Beaucastel, 1990 Pontet Canet, 2000 Prieuré-Lichine, 1995 Gloria). I have to thank @Otto_Forsberg for pointing me toward Brett as a suspect. It wasn’t until I started working in analytical labs and noticed that every “cidery” smelling wine I came across had elevated 4EP/4EG that I finally accepted this to be a product of Brett. Grapes have more in common with apples than with barley or wheat, so there’s more sensory overlap in terms of Brett impacts, but it’s still not 1:1.
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Great post.
For a few years, I had incredible access to British ciders. I grew to love the driest versions, and often found them as complex as many a red wine, having many characteristics in common. I miss them.
The brettiest bottle I have had would be '09 Pegau Cuveé Laurence. I have found brett in many of the Cuvée Réservée bottlings, especially '04. '10 seemed to be a much cleaner vintage though. Older wines that typically have brett include '89/'90 Beaucastel and '82 Gruaud/Talbot. I used to enjoy a little brett, but much less so nowadays.
As many have mentioned, you’ll have a tough time guaranteeing yourself of finding a bretty bottle. The strongest brett I’ve ever had in a wine is a 1999 Raphet Morey 1er of some kind. Basically a full baby diaper crammed in a bottle. I’m not averse to some brett, but this was next level. IIRC, two bottles from the same purchase equally affected.
The American brett beers I’ve had lean towards the band-aid scent, while I pick up more barnyard scents in wine and Belgian beers, though I have had band-aid scents in wine as well. Orval is a good shout. I had one recently which I think was rather old and it definitely showed brett.
Occhipinti wines can show brett (and VA). I haven’t found recent Baudry or Guion (or Pegau) particularly bretty. I wonder if riper vintages are masking what used to be more prevalent or if it is something else.
Ben’s mention of cider is also a very good call. I didn’t even think of it until he mentioned it but most of the Spanish ciders I have had showed some brett.
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