The French Menu Cookbook: The Food and Wine of France - Season by Delicious Season. Richard Olney
to cool in the vat, then drawn off and put into barrels. In the earlier part of this century, it was standard practice to leave the wine and pulp together in the vat for as long as three weeks to a month, producing a wine richer in tannin. Today, the average length of time is more likely to be from five to ten days. The pulp remaining in the vat is then pressed and the resulting liquid (vin de presse) is, in most instances, mixed with the wine that has been drawn off, but sometimes it is kept apart to make an inferior wine. Certain great wines may gain by not receiving the addition of the pressed wine, but most wines depend on this addition to give them more body. Red wines remain in kegs for from six months (Beaujolais, for instance) to three years (certain of the great Bordeaux), one and one-half or two years representing the average. During this period the kegs must be regularly refilled to compensate for evaporation and protect the wine from contact with air, the wine must be regularly drawn from one keg to another (soutirage) to separate the clear wine from the deposits at the bottom of the keg, and most wines are clarified just before the last soutirage or two by the addition of egg white or another albuminous substance.
A secondary fermentation—once thought to have been the tail end of the alcoholic fermentation, thrust back into action by the presence in the air of the pollen from the grape flowers in the spring following the harvest—has in recent years been identified as a completely separate process, which, however, rarely takes place until the alcoholic fermentation is finished, and because of the cold winter months, without the interference of the technician, waits until spring to go into action. It is known as the “malo-lactic” fermentation and produces a de-acidification essential to the quality of the wine. Nowadays, vinification techniques often permit the rapid termination of the malolactic fermentation immediately after the alcoholic fermentation (by drawing the still warm wine from the vat directly into another vat and keeping the vinification cellar—chais—heated, for instance).
WHITE WINE
The white grapes, used in making white wines, are pressed immediately after having been picked, and the unfermented juice is put directly into kegs where the fermentation takes place—much more slowly and over a longer period than with red wines because of the smaller size of the kegs. Many experiments have been made with rapid fermentation of the juice in large vats, but the quality of the wine always suffers; however, this is the way in which cheaper white wines are made. White wines, with a few exceptions (such as the great Sauternes, for instance, and Château-Chalon, which is discussed further on), never remain in kegs more than a year and a half, and, more often than not, are put into bottles after six months. They receive the same kind of care in kegs as the reds, and, being more susceptible to disease, are treated with sulphur, often, unfortunately, to excess.
ROSÉ WINE
Rosé wines are made from red grapes or a combination of red and white and are vinified like white wines. A few start out their career in a vat like the red wines, which lends them a deeper color, but then are pressed after a few hours and run off into barrels or other vats to finish their fermentation. The bulk of them are treated like cheap white wines—pressed immediately, fermented in large vats, and stored in vats, as well.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
Since World War II, a great deal of experimentation in techniques of vinification has taken place, and most, although not all, winegrowers have altered their methods in order to produce less tannic wines that mature more rapidly both in kegs and in bottle. On the whole, the results are satisfactory, the general level of quality, year after year, bad or good, being higher than before, but it is to be feared that the sublime peaks of the past may never again be reached, and that thirty or forty years hence, the wines of great recent years will bear no comparison with the ’26s, ’28s, ’29s, and ’34s, whose beauty at present is often so astonishing.
The world has changed, and economic pressures force the winegrower to change his methods in order to satisfy a wine-buying public far larger, and far more modest in income and wine knowledge, than their predecessors. Few have cellars and fewer still are willing to invest in wines that must be put to rest for ten or twenty years. Even with “improved” methods that bring rapid maturing, most of the great wines are drunk before they are ready, engendering disappointment in those consumers who had hoped to find more than a famous label and who do not understand the reasons for their disappointment. More than once, friends have told me apologetically that perhaps they are wrong, but they prefer a Beaujolais to one wine or another of prestigious reputation; this is not astonishing, even though Beaujolais are nearly always drunk too old in America!
The vintage, or year, counts for a great deal in the aging of a wine and constantly deals surprises even to the most accomplished of winegrowers. Different years develop more or less rapidly and often in an unpredictable way. At the moment of this writing, for instance, the, 61 Bordeaux are not ready to drink, nor are many, 57s (both in Bordeaux and Burgundy), whereas, most ‘58s and some, 59s are on the downward path, and the, 62s are at their peak, in many instances, with a few declining. Many, 37s remain young, but astringent (probably they never will develop), and, while most, 47s and, 49s have long since taken the fall, the, 45s remain generally solid, and many, 48s (which everyone thought to be a nasty, thankless vintage) have begun to open out beautifully.
Wines freshly bottled often suffer from “bottle sickness” (maladie de bouteille) and any shipment, as well, temporarily unsettles a wine’s equilibrium. Put to rest in a good cellar, these wines regain all their qualities after a few months and then continue to develop in a normal way.
Wines that have traveled, or that have been kept in a poor cellar, or that have been changed often from one cellar to another, age more rapidly and less perfectly. Thus a fine wine from a recent year, opened and drunk at the vineyard, may still have the cool, deep color of youth, retain a great deal of fruit, and remain tannic and jealous of its bouquet, whereas the same wine bought from an American dealer is apt to be lighter and warmer in color, suppler, with its bouquet in full bloom. Its qualities at this early peak, although characteristic, will lack the depth eventually to be achieved by the companion wine that has never left the home cellar.
A good cellar is not a luxury or a fantasy but an absolute necessity for anyone who loves wine. In city apartments, where such a cellar may be out of the question, one has no alternative but to buy wines in small quantities at a time from a dependable dealer who has a good cellar and store them in the darkest, coolest corner of the apartment. If the central heating equipment is in the cellar, an old-fashioned “cave,” like that in which our grandmothers kept preserves, may be the best solution. It is relatively simple of construction. Many Americans are experimenting with air-conditioned cellars. This, too, might be interesting for those who can afford such an installation. The ideal temperature is 50-55° F., but a cellar that is cooler is better than one that is too warm. Above all, the temperature should not vary more than a few degrees from one time of year to another. It should neither be too humid nor too dry, but an excess of humidity is less harmful than too little. There should be some ventilation. Foods that may lend an odor to the air should never be kept in a wine cellar, for the gentle development of a wine depends on a slow breathing process through the cork (it is for this reason that half-bottles, bottles and magnums—different capacities related to identical corks—age more or less rapidly, other circumstances remaining the same). Bottles must always be stored lying down. A cork that is not constantly in contact with the wine loses its resiliency and allows too much air to enter, and the wine spoils.
TEMPERATURE AND SERVICE
The myth that all red wines should be served at “room temperature” has ruined more great wines than any other single mistreatment. It dates from the nineteenth century, when, for venerable wines, it was a valid dictum, as central heating did not exist and room temperature was closer to 60° than to 80° Small red wines, drunk young, gain by being served slightly cooler than cellar temperature. Fairly young Burgundies are perfect drunk at cellar temperature. In general, Bordeaux should be served slightly warmer than Burgundies and older wines slightly warmer than young, but never should they be reduced to that horrible, tepid brew that wine stewards regularly blackmail their clients into