Ok, I'm up to speed that, in wine terminology, brix is a measurement of
the sugar in grapes. So far, so good. If we are talking a grape with
great potential for making a classic wine ,say a Cab, what would the
appropriate brix range be? What happens if the brix is too low? Too
high? Any help would be appreciated.

Da' Bear

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 19:34:42 -0700, Da' Bear
wrote:

Ok, I'm up to speed that, in wine terminology, brix is a measurement of
the sugar in grapes. So far, so good. If we are talking a grape with
great potential for making a classic wine ,say a Cab, what would the
appropriate brix range be? What happens if the brix is too low? Too
high? Any help would be appreciated.

Da' Bear

As a friend of mine, who happens to be a Master of Wine (M.W.), said
in a seminar a few nights ago, ask three winemakers this kind of
question and you're likely to get four different answers.

Vino

Vino wrote:

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 19:34:42 -0700, Da' Bear
wrote:


Ok, I'm up to speed that, in wine terminology, brix is a measurement of
the sugar in grapes. So far, so good. If we are talking a grape with
great potential for making a classic wine ,say a Cab, what would the
appropriate brix range be? What happens if the brix is too low? Too
high? Any help would be appreciated.

Da' Bear


As a friend of mine, who happens to be a Master of Wine (M.W.), said
in a seminar a few nights ago, ask three winemakers this kind of
question and you're likely to get four different answers.

Vino

Ah! Something like my sig line, substituting "Wine" for "Zen"?

Thanks,

--
Bear Graves
"The Secret of Zen lies in two words only: Not Always So..."
-Shunryu Suzuki

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 20:33:11 -0700, Da' Bear
wrote:

Vino wrote:

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 19:34:42 -0700, Da' Bear
wrote:


Ok, I'm up to speed that, in wine terminology, brix is a measurement of
the sugar in grapes. So far, so good. If we are talking a grape with
great potential for making a classic wine ,say a Cab, what would the
appropriate brix range be? What happens if the brix is too low? Too
high? Any help would be appreciated.

Da' Bear


As a friend of mine, who happens to be a Master of Wine (M.W.), said
in a seminar a few nights ago, ask three winemakers this kind of
question and you're likely to get four different answers.

Vino

Ah! Something like my sig line, substituting "Wine" for "Zen"?

Thanks,

Good analogy!

Vino

Vino wrote in message . ..
On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 20:33:11 -0700, Da' Bear
wrote:

Vino wrote:

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 19:34:42 -0700, Da' Bear
wrote:


Ok, I'm up to speed that, in wine terminology, brix is a measurement of
the sugar in grapes. So far, so good. If we are talking a grape with
great potential for making a classic wine ,say a Cab, what would the
appropriate brix range be? What happens if the brix is too low? Too
high? Any help would be appreciated.

Da' Bear



As others have said, it depends on what type of wine, but typical
ranges for reds are brix 20 to 25, giving a potential alcohol range of
approximately 11% to 14%.

If the brix is too low, there may not be enough alcohol produced to
make the wine feel full bodied and the wine will not be as
biologically stable. It can also be a warning sign that the grapes
were not physiologically ripe when harvested.

If the brix is too high, too much alcohol could be produced making the
wine "hot" and the yeast may not be able to convert all of the sugar
to alcohol leaving residual sugar in the finished wine. It can also be
a warning sign that the grapes were not physiologically ripe when
harvested.

Andy

"JEP" wrote in message
om...
If the brix is too high, too much alcohol could be produced making the
wine "hot" and the yeast may not be able to convert all of the sugar
to alcohol leaving residual sugar in the finished wine. It can also be
a warning sign that the grapes were not physiologically ripe when
harvested.

Grapes that are at too high a Brix are certainly ripe - in fact they are
possibly overripe. Such fruit may produce plummy or raisiny flavors in the
finished wine, which as you mentioned may have residual sugar. Also, since
the grape acids decline as the sugar increases, the fruit will usually be
low in acid and high in pH - thus not possessing proper balance for table
wine production.

Tom S

"Tom S" wrote in message . com...

Grapes that are at too high a Brix are certainly ripe - in fact they are
possibly overripe. Such fruit may produce plummy or raisiny flavors in the
finished wine, which as you mentioned may have residual sugar. Also, since
the grape acids decline as the sugar increases, the fruit will usually be
low in acid and high in pH - thus not possessing proper balance for table
wine production.

Tom S

I think we had a similar discussion in another forum.

It really depends on how one defines ripe. Many farmers rely on brix
and/or acid measurements and by that definition, obviously, a high
brix indicates the grapes are overripe.

Other farmers rely more on the taste profile and the maturity of seeds
and stems to indicate ripeness. Using this definition (a better one,
IMHO), grapes can certainly be (and in hot climates, many time are)
unripe but have a high sugar content.

It is not uncommon for a lot of wine grapes comming out of California
to have high brix but be physiologically unripe. Rare in the best
growing areas of California, but that represents a small percentage of
the wine grapes grown in the state.

Andy