The growing and maturation conditions have been good, with little water stress in spring and during summer, and after ripening, temperatures have been high but with a good range between days and nights.

• Our Dyostem® monitoring system shows the key trends of red grape varieties in the North California region: 
• No maturation blockage;
• Medium to large-sized berries, fairly concentrated in sugar, but with low YAN content;
• An average precocity that leads to “normal” harvest dates;
• Good to great potential for fruity wines.

In these almost perfect conditions, there’s great temptation to push maturity as far as possible.

However, this decision could have consequences on the alcohol’s impact in terms of the balance in the palate, the color stability and the appearance of dry vegetal aromas.

Here are some tips for adjusting the techniques used to optimize 2016 red grape potential. 

Boost the fruit and bring vivacity to the wines 

As mentioned above, the weather in August and September will allow the ripe fruit aroma windows to be attained for most vineyards.

A “ripe fruit” harvest may have a significant impact on the level of alcohol, which may lead to aggressive end notes, particularly if there’s a high polyphenolic concentration. This may also include color instability.

Depending on the situation, several working areas may be implemented to preserve the color intensity and lower the tannin aggressiveness:

• limit extraction at the end of the AF to avoid an excess of astringency,
• for the ripest grapes, or those with a palate unbalanced by the alcohol, adding Boisé BF and AFR oak chips raises the fruit level and adds vivacity to reduce aggressive end notes linked to the alcohol (2g/l of AFR + 1 g/L of BF in AF or post-AF),
• micro-oxygenation during aging, with a moderate to average input, will help to stabilize the coloring matter and round up the tannin expression in the palate.

Lower the vegetal perception

On certain blocks, which have experienced slight water stress, choosing a later harvest date may lead to the evolution of fresh vegetal characters to dry vegetal aromas.

The perception of these dry vegetal traits can be lowered by the addition of wood, with or without micro-oxygenation.

Based on the kind of vegetal notes to be managed, we can work as follows:

• for fresh vegetal, add a moderate to large amount of oxygen between the AF and the MLF, as well as Boisé DC180 or SC180XL chips (1 to 2g/l of DC180 or SC180XL post AF, SC180XL to be reserved for wines lacking body),
• for dry vegetal, add wood via a mix of Boisé BF (1 g/L) + AFR (2 g/L) + DC180 or DC190 (1g/L) + DC310 (0.5 g/L) post AF.  

Our solutions for optimizing the 2016 Reds harvest

Preserving the fruit and the color of the wines

The slow and moderate input of oxygen fills the mid-palate, transforms the polyphenolic structure of the wines and makes them more resistant to oxidation. It’s the  perfect tool for preserving the fruit  and  color of the wines while lowering their tannin  aggressiveness in the palate. The Visio and Eco2+ range allow  the safe input of this oxygen.

Need Freshness? We’ve thought of that...

Boisé AFR comes from a wood selection with very low toasting, specially designed to bring freshness and vivacity to your wines by improving palate imbalances caused by the alcohol. Complemented by Boisé BF chips, whose main goal is to add volume to the mid-palate, you will bring back concentration and balance in the mouth.

G3 Enterprises is the U.S. Distributor for Boisé

Chris Hill - g3.Info@g3enterprises.com - 1-800-321-8747