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Winemaker's Corner

Jim Brown – winemaker and co-owner of Sierra Oak Estates
Over 30 years of winemaking experience.

You asked and he answered. If you do not find the answer to your question below, please feel free to Ask Jim.

What is the difference between a varietal and a blend?
  • Varietals reflect the name of the grape that the wine was produced from. Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel are grape varietals. Go to your favorite tasting room and buy a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and you get a bottle of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, right? Well mostly right. The U.S. labeling laws require that a wine with a varietal name be made form 75% of that grape. 25% can be from any other grape and it does not have to appear on the label.

    Fanciful names are given to a wine when it is a blend that does not contain at least 75% of a given variety of grape, or when the winemaker chooses not to call it by the varietal name. Grand Trios and Zinzabar examples for Sierra Oaks Estates wines with Fanciful names. In the case of our Grand Trios the highest percentage is 60% of a single grape varietal.

    European blends are named after the region the grapes are grown in. Bordeaux and Rhone are blends from the French regions of Bordeaux and Rhone. The laws within those regions specify what grape varieties can be grown there. The wine can contain any percentage of the specified grape varieties. An example is the Bordeaux region of France where the grape varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petite Verdot, and Malbec (at least that is all that come to my mind, there could be more). So when you buy a bottle of Bordeaux wine it can be any combination of those grape varieties, including 100% of any one.

    Did you know that one of the most popular Bordeaux wines is 100% Merlot?
Why blend wines?
  • • When we talk about a complete wine we mean a wine that has an appealing aroma, smooth pleasant entry, nice fruity and complex mid palate, and a lingering pleasant finish. To get all of this from a single grape type is almost impossible. Yes, it does sometimes happen or we are close enough to accept what we get from a single grape type, but it is well known that the best wines usually contain some other grape to fill in a void or to add complexity. This is true in varietal named wines and it is true in the fanciful names. We have produced very few of our varietal named wines that don’t have at least a little something else in them. Many of you have told us that our wines have gotten better since we opened, this is one of the principal reasons; we have more wines to blend with and are getting better at it. An example is our 2003 Zinfandel has 2.5% Petite Sirah in it. 2.5% is not a lot but sometimes it is all you need to fill in that void. Would 5% or even the full 25% have been better? n our tasting trials we often find that more starts to take the wine in a whole other direction and it might start to lose its Zinfandel character. That is why we test dozens of different combinations in the tasting lab to determine what works the best.

    In some cases, such as the fanciful named wines, you are creating a wine that can go away from a single varietal character and become an interesting new wine. That is true of our Grand Trios and or Zinzabar. The Zinzabar does not taste like a Zinfandel or a Barbera but you can taste elements of both in the wine but it has complexity and interest not often found in the varietal mix (75% of one varietal).
How do I know when to decant wine?
  • California red wines in the 4-10 year range are generally excellent served from the bottle. Wines younger and older than this may benefit from decanting, but for different reasons. Please read the follow-up questions as to why you may want to decant younger and older wines.
Why decant young wines?
  • Have you ever tasted a young red wine in a tasting room, loved the wine and purchased a bottle (or even maybe a case). Then in the next few days or weeks opened it up and was disappointed that the wine seemed to be less than it was. So why did the wine taste more ‘open’ in the tasting room? The answer is fairly simple; the wine had been opened earlier in the day and it aerated as we poured samples. For newly bottled wines, this aeration will slowly take place in the bottle if you are patient enough, maybe a few more weeks or months. But what if you want to share this wine that was so good in the tasting room with friends at dinner?

    But what can you do with a full bottle? The answer is to decant and aerate the wine. I heard you – you thought decanting was only for older wines. We’ll get to why you decant older wines in the next quetion. But for younger wines under 3-4 years old, decanting can help ‘open’ them up.

    There are funnels designed to help you aerate your wine; they flow the wine down the sides of decanter giving the wine maximum exposure to air. You can achieve the same effect by tilting the decanter and pouring down the side. Let the wine sit an hour or so before serving. Don’t have a decanter or want to sever the wine in the bottle with the pretty label? Decant the wine into a pitcher, aerating it as you go and then just before your guest arrive pour it back into the bottle. There are many very nice crystal decanters on the market as well as various funnels; we carry a selection of these in our gift shop.

    Ready to drink the wine and found it ‘closed up’, don’t have an hour or so to let it breath. Put the cork part way back in, put your thumb over the cork to keep it from coming out and shake the bottle like you did a soda bottle as a kid. Watch out for the table clothes and carpet until you get the knack of this. (You might want to get some ‘Wine-away’ from the tasting room to have on hand.)

    Tip: If you have been storing your red wine at a cool temperature, let it come up to room temp before severing. This will also help open a wine up.
Why decant older wines?
  • Older wines (10 plus years) sometimes need decanting. There are several reasons why an older wine might need decanting. The first is it has developed ‘off odors’ in the bottle. By decanting these will often blow off fairly quickly - do this the same way you aerate a young wine. But don’t leave an older wine open for a long period as it can actually start to deteriorate in a few hours. The other reason to decant an older wine is that the wine may have developed sediment that you want to avoid pouring into your guest glass. When decanting to remove sediment be sure the bottle is handled carefully so as not to stir up the sediment. If the bottle was upright keep it that way, if it was on its side upright it gently for an hour or more before removing the cork. Pour slowly while monitoring the sediment with a light or candle. Stop as soon as you see sediment in the neck of the bottle. Some of the decanter funnels have a small mess filter screen in them to trap the larger sediment particles.

    But why have you traditionally heard all wines need decanting? Because decanting is more needed in older wines, and European reds generally need 10+ years to become drinkable. So for European wines, decanting is more of the rule than the exception. With our longer California growing season our grapes mature more completely, and therefore our wines have less tannins, allowing our wines to reach maturity much earlier than Europeans reds. Therefore we drinking our wines before the need to decant onsets.

What are the rules to wine pairing?
  • • First there really are no hard and fast rules - more like a few guidelines. The wine and the food need to complement each other. That does not mean ‘white meat’ = ‘white wine’ and ‘red meat’ = ‘red wine’. You have to consider the whole meal and how the dishes are made, that is spices, sauces etc. An example: Chicken with a mild white cream sauce should not be served with a big bold red but would be better with a nice white wine. Chicken with a nice tangy barbeque sauce would not do well with most white wines but would be better with a red wine.

    Second the wine should be considered as food. Just as you choose a main course and matching side dishes you need to put the wine into play as a dish. The flavor, boldness, and balance of the wine should be complementary to food. Taste buds get fatigued just as your sense of smell does. Eat one food item, take a bite and you get all of the flavors of that item. Keep eating it without any other food or drink and pretty soon you do not taste the food or not as much as you did with that first bite. Now take that food item and enjoy a bite, then take a sip of your wine. If you have chosen the right wine then it will have complementary flavors and will cleanse the palate. The next bite of food will taste like the first bite all over again. Food taste better, wine taste better, back and forth for an enjoyable meal.

    The first thing you have to consider is how the food is prepared and the spices you will use (remember the chicken). The second is how was the wine prepared (made). I can make a red wine from the same grapes in a number if styles. It can be light and fruity, or heavy and tannic, or structured in a range of acidities. So how do you know which wine to buy?

    This is the pleasant part. You have to drink some wine. If you have been drinking wine for a while and have built up a selection in your wine cellar then you probably know the characteristics of the wine you have and might only need to open a bottle to confirm that it is a good match to you meal. If you don’t have a bottle or two in the cellar then go wine tasting at your favorite winery (Sierra Oaks Estates of course) and see what they have as a match for your meal. We would be glad to make a recommendation.

    And it works both ways. In the process of picking the wine, you might find you want to tune your spices to complement the wine (remember to treat the wine as a food).

    So there are only a few guidelines and no hard and fast rules. Plan ahead and have a wine or wines on hand that you have tasted in advance and know will pair well with your meal. Don’t get locked into only drinking one type of wine or style of wine, experiment and broaden your wine knowledge.
What is extended maceration?
  • If you have enjoyed our 2002 Reserve Merlot or tasted our 2003 Reserve Merlot that is available for barrel tasting you have tasted an extended maceration wine. Most wines are pressed at or near the end of fermentation. The process of extended maceration is to leave the wine on the skins for a period after the fermentation process is complete. The wine is left in contact with the skins until the flavors and most importantly the tannins are where we want them. Does this mean a more tannic wine; no it often means a less tannic wine with more of the fruit flavor extracted. The tannins do build up as the maceration goes forward but we are waiting for a little chemistry magic. At a critical point the tannins start to chain together, they get heavy and fall out of the wine. The result is a wine of greater flavors, a nice balanced structure and smooth tannins.
Are all tannins bad? Harsh? Bitter?
  • No there are good tannins and bad tannins. The tannins from the seeds are often bitter or harsh. One of our measures of grape ripeness we use is the maturity of the seeds. Green seeds are very bitter and sharp, brown seeds produce tannins that are smoother and even a little nutty in flavor. Tannins from the skins often have a smooth chalky flavor (some people call this a dry taste but dryness is normally a term indicating a lack of sweetness). Then there are the tannins that come from the oak barrels. These are friendly tannins that often have a mocha or vanilla flavor.

    Tannins are an anti-oxidant and they protect the wine from the damaging oxidation that spoils the wine. They are what allow a red wine to be aged. Tannins are missing for the most part in white wines and that is what prevents them from being kept for more than a few years. Excessive tannins are also the reason that some wines need to be aged to improve the wine. It takes time to oxidize some of the tannins to sort of smooth out the wine.

    Most consumers do not want to take the time or do not have the proper storage to age wines. That is why we spend so much time making sure the grapes have smooth tannins and the wine making process does not draw out excessive tannins or we go the expense and time to reduce them with the extended maceration we mentioned above.