Traminette has become one of my new favorite wines. Honestly a few years ago when I first tasted it, I wasn't impressed. It has come a long way and the few wineries that produce Traminette do a nice job.
Benmarl's 2008 Traminette is their third vintage. It was very fresh with a lychee nose and flavor. Also had a little citrus as well. We purchased two bottles, admired the view and went home.
On Wednesday evening while preparing for Thanksgiving, Paul opened a bottle of the just purchased Traminette. POP - FIZZ went the bottle- oops, this bottle is going through a second fermentation. We now have a Traminette Sparkling Wine. We opened the second bottle and found the same. - POP-FIZZ.
Nothing went to waste, we did drink the new "Sparkling Wine," and used in to create a nice sparkling wine sauce for the chicken dinner we were cooking. It did lose some if it's lychee and citrus flavors as the carbonation took over.
Why did this happen? There was enough residual yeast and sugar left in the wine when it was bottled to cause it to go through this secondary fermentation. Secondary fermentation can be normal in the wine making process, but not to the degree of creating a sparkling wine when not intended.
One of the causes that might have produced this secondary fermentation is the racking of the wine, or lack of it. Racking of the wine is a term used when you siphon the wine off the lees (dead yeast cells) into a clean tank or barrel. You then clean the original tank or barrel and siphon back. This process helps in the clarification and stabilization of the wine.
6 comments:
Is it any wonder Hudson Valley wines have such a poor reputation when yet another grossly flawed wine makes its way to market?
Racking really has little to do with the problem. Refermentation in the bottle is more of a systemic quality control failure in how they have organized their means of production.
When you make sweet wines you have to be prepared to deal with the possibility of the sugar re-fermenting. There are a number of ways to accomplish this -- some chemical, some mechanical. All require an understanding of the process and high degree of attention to detail -- obviously they fell short somewhere along the way.
John,
It was a dry wine.
In your initial post you stated: "Why did this happen? There was enough residual yeast and sugar left in the wine when it was bottled to cause it to go through this secondary fermentation."
A wine with residual sugar is not a "dry" wine.
If it were a dry wine and it went through malolactic fermentation in the bottle my criticism would be exactly the same -- it is a failure in quality control -- a lack of knowledge and control of the chemistry of winemaking and the winemaking processes.
John,
Situations like this are found in any wine region. This is not indicative to this area.
Does it bother you that they served you one thing in the tasting room, and sent you home with something else?
It's not like you tasted it three months ago and then picked up a few more bottles in a liquor store which happened to be bad.
I think that is what raised my ire more than anything.
John,
What really pissed me off, is I text the winery manager and told him the wine was going through a second fermentation. He didn't respond and when I saw him in person on Monday, I mentioned it to him. He shrugged didn't look at me and said he has had that happen to a few bottles and changed the subject. HE NEVER OFFERED TO REPLACE THE BOTTLES. THAT PISSED ME OFF!
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