It’s my Vineyard

We visited the Bel Air Lycee,just outside Belleville. It was their open weekend when students have the opportunity to advertise the courses on offer here and show off wines made as a result of their studies in viticulture and vinification. The surrounding vines are the practical learning ground where all aspects of vine cultivation are taught.

The Lycees all over France, running courses in viticulture, are represented here. We tasted several white, rose and red wines from many regions. The 2006 Beaujolais from Bel Air tasted of ripe bananas, the ubiquitous flavour that does not appeal to me. We asked the students what they had been taught about thermovinification. It seems that a blend of ‘thermo’ and ‘nonthermo’ is the common practice,still we struggle to understand why it is such a common practice,what are the advantages and disadvantages?

If the grapes are heated,usually to a temperature of between 60 and 70 degrees centigrade, more colour is extracted from the skins of the fruit and the wine will have a deeper, more vivid hue. The fruity flavours are initially more powerful, the ‘cassis’ or blackcurrant taste being the most predominant. The down side is that firstly the floral flavours tend to be lost,and secondly the wine will not keep its robust flavour for longer than a year. A high price in my view for deep colour and cassis taste! I think the ripe banana flavour is more to do with the type of yeast used rather than,as I first thought,this thermo treatment…. WE continue to learn the intricacies of this fascinating art.