Enhancing Minerality, Vegetal, Earthy & Chalky Components in Red Wine

[cocroach]

I am by no means a wine expert and have always struggled with trying to identify the flavours of any wines, however; I recently tasted two commercial red wines, which had flavours so pronounced that even a newbie like me could taste them.

These two wines were a 2009 Duoro from Portugal and a 2004 Cabernet Franc from France, which seemed to have had strong minerality (earthy wet rock/slate), green vegetable (broccoli/green pepper), earthy (soil) and chalky (literally like eating a piece of chalk) components. These were a complete departure from the big bold fruity wines I have typically gone for.

Does anyone know if there are any red wine kits out there that would have any of these components, or are there any tweaks that I can do to produce/enhance these flavours (using different yeast strains, additives, etc.) with any of the kits I currently have.

I tend to prefer the higher-end kits with a lot of body and mouth-feel like RJS Winery Series, CellarCraft Showcase and Mosti Mondiale. I’m still pretty new to wine-making and have not tried any other brands, yet, but would be open to.

So far I’ve made: CC Amarone, MM Barolo, RJS Rosso Excellente. In primary: RJS RQ Italy Nero D’Avola, RJS WS Amarone. Not yet started: RJS Winery Series Spanish Tempranillo, RJS En Primeur Super Tuscan, RJS RQ Monastrell-Petit Verdot.

Any thoughts/advice would be helpful.

 

[sour_grapes]

I have a few disjointed thoughts.

Lalvin suggests that RP15 may enhance minerality. I can't say that I know this to be the case.

I have always thought that commercial wines from Washington State and Chile's Central Valley had a pleasant degree of minerality. There are lots of kits available from Washington (see the SS Showcase series, for example) and from Chile. You could give either of those a try.

Your question made me search for what is believed to confer the mineral taste to wines. Of course, it was long thought you were quasi-directly tasting the soil that the grapes were grown in. The new school of thought is that this proposition is scientifically impossible. Instead, the thought is that, believe it or not, trace amount of thiols (AKA mercaptans) in wine are responsible. Now, thiols (sulfur-bearing compounds, R-SH) are generally a wine fault, but evidently small amounts of some of them confer a "gunflint" aroma.

Where do the thiols (i.e., mercaptans) come from? From having a must that is somewhat poor in nutrients, specifically, low in yeast-assimilable nitrogen, as I explained here:

From my reading of the primary and secondary literature, this is my understanding of H2S production and its relation to N deficiency. Proteins are made of amino acids, and two important amino acids contain sulfur. The yeast has to provide the sulfur to form these compounds to the proper organelle during protein synthesis. It does so in the form of H2S, which it extracts from more complex sulfur-containing compounds. One organelle passes the H2S off to the organelle responsible for protein synthesis.

However, nitrogen is a major component of amino acids (hence the root amine, from ammonia.) If there is a dearth of N, the organelle responsible for synthesizing the sulfur-containing amino acid cannot do its job; this results in a surfeit of H2S, which the yeast then excretes.

As John points out, we are extraordinarily sensitive to H2S and thiols (larger SH-containing molecules). That is why they add a tiny (ppm) amount of methane thiol to your natural gas supply, so that you can smell when you have a gas leak. This is good for gas-leak detection, but the unfortunate result for winemaking is that we cannot tolerate very much H2S excretion by our pet yeasts.

Note that soils that are very high in minerals, very chalky, limestone-y, slate-y, ALSO tend to be low in nitrogen. That could explain why wines from mineral-dominated soils themselves taste of minerality, although the link is surprisingly indirect.

Now, of course, I am not suggesting that you should use poor nutrient management. However, it may be that you really do want a must that is moderately low in YAN to emphasize mineral notes.

 

[Deezil]

As Sour Grapes mentioned, you can buy kits from particular areas; and keep your eyes peeled on those 'limited release' kits as sometimes they contain mixed variety / blended kits from Spain and such..

But what you're tasting is the 'terroir', the 'sense of the place, where the grapes were grown'.. The soil, the environment, the way the weather affected the grapes..

There are some additives you can add, that will enhance the perception of minerality, but it has to 'be there' in the first place - I cant remember if it was Booster Rouge/Blanc or Opti-Red/-White, that did it..

 

[cocroach]

Paul/Manley, wow... thanks for this! Lots of food for thought here.

I think I might take a shot at some of the Washington Wines and possibly Chilean, or other European varietals suggested in combination with some of the additives you mentioned.

I am not at all familiar with YAN. Just so I understand this correctly, would not adding nutrient when I should create a must low in YAN? I assume doing something like this would result in a longer primary fermentation process?

 

[the_rayway]

I've heard the Red Mountain Cabernet has a chalky/candied orange peel flavour. CC Showcase.

 

[Kraffty]

Hey guys, no laughing at this one BUT I've often wondered if certain rocks in the secondary might impart some of those flavors.
Mike

 

[sour_grapes]

I am not at all familiar with YAN. Just so I understand this correctly, would not adding nutrient when I should create a must low in YAN? I assume doing something like this would result in a longer primary fermentation process?

Hey, I am no expert. Without a way to test for YAN, I think you will never know if it is low or not. That is, a random kit may have plenty of YAN, and a random juice bucket may be deficient.

I have read that "kits have all the nutrients they need," but (A) I don't know that for sure, and (B) I err on the side of caution and add nutrients if I am using a yeast strain that necessitates it.

I would be remiss to advise you to refrain from adding nutrients, without knowing the YAN level, in hopes of getting the minerality you want!

 

[cocroach]

Rayway, thanks for the suggestion! This sounds like what I`m looking for. I also read that tannins can impart a chalky texture. I do remember the Cabernet Franc I drank being very gritty and totally drying out my mouth.

Mike, not sure I`d want to put rocks in, unless you like a hint of `fish` in your wine. Here`s a funny video.

http://winefolly.com/episode/minerality-in-wine/

 

[cocroach]

Paul, thanks for the advice. I see your point. For now, I might just stick to trying some of the suggested kits.