Good Morning!

First of all, thank you for all your notes asking where have I been! I took a couple weeks off from blogging to focus on a project and I finished up last week and I now I have all new stories to share with you. I hope you all have been trying some new wines and I will start addressing your questions tomorrow in my “daily” blogs.

I meet a lot of people via the internet, I try to meet them for all different reasons, mostly because I think we all have so much in common and I’d like to hear everyone’s story. But a few weeks ago, I met a Texas winemaker and he and I hit it off and I said if you ever need a hand let me know, I’d be glad to give you a hand. He was blending and bottling and I went to help him.

When I found his place it was part warehouse/barn and he makes about 4000 cases a year and he grows his own vineyard and is growing his own grapes, which is quite ambishish. It is hot in Texas and the type of wine grapes that should be grown here are not the normal Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay. They have really long, humid days and the sun can be so intense, the grapes get ripe quickly but the sugars do not mature like they really should to make a smooth (meaning mouthfeel) in the wine. The wine can taste “thin” and almost rough in texture/mouthfeel.

So as we were working and setting things up to bottle, we tasted the wine. I was a little taken back by the almost abrasive feeling in my mouth. The wine had a nice aroma and the finish was a decent length. I said to him, this might be the most unique mouthfeel I have ever tried. He said we need to add Glycerine. I said, I have never added it, what will it do. He said it will make the wine feel like velvet. He goes and gets this clear liquid and he dumps it in the vat and stirs and hands me a sample. It was 100% smoother, I was taken aback.

When I make wine, I try to never add anything…I even mostly use natural yeast and as we were discussing the things he adds to his wines, he had an entire list. He said, the weather here can produce grapes in certain years that you do not need to add a thing, last year was a terrible drought and I can just about throw in everything but the kitchen sink.

So, I had to do some research and teach myself all about glycerine it is also known as glycerol, what is might remind you of is in cooking there is simple syrup (combo of equal ratios of water and sugar, boiled together and after it cools, it’s a sort of sugar water) But glycerine is actually a byproduct of the fermentation process. Some grape varietals will create more glycerine than others. If you think about super velvety wines like Pinot Noir it creates a very smooth texture.

Glycerine is a clear and odorless product that as a winemaker you can buy to add to your wines to adjust the overall mouthfeel of the wines. It will give the wine more body and taste richer and more viscous in general.

So, I learned a few things that day and I wanted to share with you my newly acquired knowledge!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi