Who knows about grapes for wine? (1 Viewer)

laneside

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Early in the week we spent a couple of nights on the aire at Sauternes, which is well recommended if you get into this corner of France. We were in the midst of acres and acres of grapevines but just look at the picture of a bunch of grapes which were nothing like what I imagined them to be as they were all shrivelled and mancky. They were just commencing picking them so do they normally look like this before wine making or were there acres upon acres of poor grapes
 
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Yellow belly

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This is for making the very special sweet wine of the area, the mildew type grown is needed and they are left for it to form so the grapes have the extra sugar needed.
As far as I know it's the only area of France where they do this.
James
 

haganap

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No mate. I've studied the photo, I think there being packed for Asda:winky:

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MikeandCarolyn

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This is for making the very special sweet wine of the area, the mildew type grown is needed and they are left for it to form so the grapes have the extra sugar needed.
As far as I know it's the only area of France where they do this.
James

This encourages 'Botritis' or 'Noble Rot' which,as said increases the sugar level for making desert wines. In certain areas of Germany and Canada the grapes are left until the frosts start and then are harevested to make 'Ice Wine' which is expensive but just out of this world ::bigsmile:

Mike
 
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Sauternes

Early in the week we spent a couple of nights on the aire at Sauternes, which is well recommended if you get into this corner of France. We were in the midst of acres and acres of grapevines but just look at the picture of a bunch of grapes which were nothing like what I imagined them to be as they were all shrivelled and mancky. They were just commencing picking them so do they normally look like this before wine making or were there acres upon acres of poor grapes

Snap. We were there earlier this week same aire, same grapes. Nice little aire and a nice little town. We were surprised that it was such a small town, a little village really when the wine is world famous.

Little wizened grapes are whats needed to make the sweet wine, that's why they leave them on the vine for so long. You may have noticed on your journey away from Sauternes that the vines get larger and taller with the red grapes which were just being picked as we left on Wednesday.
 

Snowbird

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This is for making the very special sweet wine of the area, the mildew type grown is needed and they are left for it to form so the grapes have the extra sugar needed.
As far as I know it's the only area of France where they do this.
James

There are several areas that do this. The muscat grapes used in the production of Muscat de Rivasalts produced just north of Perpignan and several vineyards around Banyules also pick late. This is a good friend who is the head boy at Rivasalts.

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MikeandCarolyn

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There are several areas that do this. The muscat grapes used in the production of Muscat de Rivasalts produced just north of Perpignan and several vineyards around Banyules also pick late. This is a good friend who is the head boy at Rivasalts.

Banyuls is slightly different as it is a fortified wine made in the same way as port-the grapes are picked late but then alcohol is added to the 'must' and there is a long 'maturation' period.

The sweet wines of France are an absolute joy to discover,Rivesaltes,Beaume de Venise,Montbassillac,Barsac,plus many local wines produced in small quantities-they go well with deserts,but also with blue cheeses and sometimes with chocolat.
Do try them-you will be pleasantly surprised.:thumb:

Mike
 

Snowbird

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Banyuls is slightly different as it is a fortified wine made in the same way as port-the grapes are picked late but then alcohol is added to the 'must' and there is a long 'maturation' period.

The sweet wines of France are an absolute joy to discover,Rivesaltes,Beaume de Venise,Montbassillac,Barsac,plus many local wines produced in small quantities-they go well with deserts,but also with blue cheeses and sometimes with chocolat.
Do try them-you will be pleasantly surprised.:thumb:

Mike

Having lived in the Languedoc Roussillon area of France many years ago, believe me I have tried plenty of em :Smile:.

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In Germany they produce an Eiswein (ice wine), where the grapes aren't picked until there's been heavy frost, the water in the grape freezes leaving a much concentrated sugar and flavour in the grape producing a very unique wine (so I've been told)!!
 

Bailey58

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Snowbird has just been telling us of his tour through the Rhine Valley where he will have been near my wine supplier, Jakob Gerhardt at Nierstein.

I don't know too much about wines/grapes but we've been buying from them for some 20 years since a sampling at the Ideal Home. As has been said about Ice Wines the longer the grapes are left on the vine the sweeter they become, Kabinett, Spatlese and Auslese are the German classifications with maybe as little as 2 weeks between the picking. I always thought of Chardonnay as a dry wine but didn't realise my mistake until we bought a fruity version.

Another story, but trying to find the storage facility at Dexheim where we were shown round, we got lost in Oppenheim, a medieval town with streets to match, the wife had to do a red flag job in front of the van to get us out of there. :whatthe:
 
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The reason why the dessert wines are so expensive is that each grape is picked individually (as opposed to machine bunch picking). If the grape has insufficient noble rot it isn't picked for the dessert wine. :thumb:

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Ice wine is also made in the Canadian vineyards by the same method of leaving on the vine to ice up. This method also helps sloes and damsons to make the perfect liqueur,it can be created by washing and putting them in the freezer.
 

old-mo

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Cannot really comment on the original post... :Sad:

But I am an authority on the end result... :thumb:
 

Wildman

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As life long grape grower, wine producer (Picture below is this years entire crop of grapes, oh and of Blue berries)
I can honestly say it will be a while before I can produce sufficient for a dribble of wine, hee hee

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