Behind the Cork™ - Domaine Bousquet Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

2021 Domaine Bousquet Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ($18)

The Domaine Bousquet winery is a family-owned estate in the Gualtallary Valley, a scenic, remote, arid terrain high in the Uco Valley (4000-plus-foot elevation) in Argentina’s Mendoza region, close to the border with Chile. Their wines are made from hand-picked, certified organic estate fruit.

This Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is produced from 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Malbec. It undergoes a 48-hour cold maceration followed by a 10-day fermentation using selected yeasts, and then is followed by another 10-day maceration. It then undergoes 100% malolactic conversion and is aged in contact with French oak 6-8 months.

It is deep ruby in color with aromas of black cherry, delicate herbs and a hint of earthiness. On the palate, this full-bodied wine has fruity, jammy flavors of black plum and black currant with a bit of oak on the easy finish.

This Domaine Bousquet Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is a great fit as the Behind the Cork™ Wine of the Week. And, at this price, is a great value too!

Alcohol: 14.5%, Total Acidity: 5.55 gm/L (pH: 3.67), Residual Sugar: 1.8 gm/L

Disclosure of Wine Sample Submission: I received this sample at no cost for review. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Samples Provided by Domaine Bousquet Winery and Creative Palate Communications

The Top Two Most Prominent Acids in Wine - Tartaric and Malic

Last time we looked at acidity levels in wine that are measured on the pH scale and in terms of grams of acid per liter (Total Acidity). While Total Acidity is a measure of the concentration of acids in a wine, the pH level tells you how intense those acids will be.

So, let’s now look a bit more into the acids in wines.

There are four primary types of acids in wines - tartaric acid, malic acid, citric acid, and lactic acid.

“Wine Diamonds” on a Cork

Tartaric acid is the primary acid in wine grapes. But, only about half the tartaric acid in a grape is soluble in wine. The rest tends to attach itself to pulp debris, tannins, and pigments during the fermentation and aging process. And, sometimes that undissolved tartaric acid crystallizes in the wine. That’s what “wine diamonds” are. Those little broken-glass-looking shards you sometimes find on a cork or in your wine. But, don’t worry, they’re completely harmless.

Now, let’s move on to Malic acid which is the second most prominent type of acid in wine grapes. It too is produced as part of the grape growing process. But, Malic acid in grape vines decreases as vines grow older and the grapes ripen.

If malic acid is too high, winemakers can initiate a process called malolactic “fermentation” (MLF) which converts some of the malic acid (like that of a tart green apple) to the more mild lactic acid. This conversion gives a wine a buttery, creamy mouthfeel. You may know lactic acid as the primary acid present in a lot of fermented products, like yogurt, kefir, and sourdough bread.

Malolactic Fermentation is not actually a fermentation. It’s just a chemical process that converts one type of acid to another type of acid. So, it is more correctly a Malolactic Conversion, not a fermentation.

And, while most red wines undergo malolactic conversion, only some white wines, notably Chardonnay, undergo this process.

If you don’t care for highly acidic flavors in wines, try a full-bodied red wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or a Syrah. But, if you love a crisp, refreshingly tart flavor, look for light-bodied white wines such as Albariño, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling or a brut sparkling wine.

Behind the Cork™ - Domaine Bousquet Reserve Chardonnay

The Domaine Bousquet winery is a family-owned estate in the Gualtallary Valley, a scenic, remote, arid terrain high in the Uco Valley in Argentina’s Mendoza region, close to the border with Chile. Their wines are made from hand-picked, certified organic estate fruit.

The Domaine Bousquet wines are:

Organic: The dry, low-humidity soil eliminates the need for pesticides and other chemicals to prevent disease, making organic farming easier. And, the dreaded phylloxera louse cannot survive in sandy soil!

Elegant: The harder the soil, the heavier and more powerful the wine. The lighter the soil, the more elegant the wine. The ability to produce elegant wines was so important from the start that Domaine Bousquet’s tagline is “Naturally Elegant Wines.”

Aromatic: Thanks to the sandy soil, the grapes thrive in an area with big differences between day/night temperatures, allowing the grapes to retain acidity and terpenes, those volatile compounds that result in wonderful aromas.

Complex: With riverbed and non-riverbed fruit available, the winemaker has more options, a bigger palate from which to blend.

2021 Domaine Bousquet Reserve Chardonnay ($18)
This wine is made from 100% Chardonnay that are grown by the foothills of the Andes at an altitude of 4000 feet. This high altitude yields cool nights that preserves the fresh fruit flavors and acidity in the grapes. This Reserve Chardonnay was fermented in oak for 15 days and aged for 6 months in contact with oak and lees.

It’s deep gold in color with aromas of pear and baked apple. Although it’s fermented and aged in oak, the oak influence is restrained resulting in a medium-bodied Chardonnay with fruit flavors that are not too bright and not overly oaked - just right.

Total Acidity: 5.09 gm/L ; pH = 3.40, Alcohol: 14%, Residual Sugar = 1.61 gm/L; Serve at 10°C/50°F.

Disclosure of Wine Sample Submission: I received this sample at no cost for review. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Samples Provided by Domaine Bousquet Winery and Creative Palate Communications

Acidity Levels in Wine

Acidity in wine is one of the four fundamental traits of a good wine (Acidity, Tannin, Alcohol and Sweetness). For a wine to be considered “good,” each of these traits must be in proper proportion or ‘balance’ to each another. If there’s too much of one part, the wine will be off. And, if there’s not enough of a specific component, the wine will be lacking.

So, the acidity of a wine must play its own fine balancing act. While there are no magic “right” numbers for the level of acidity in a wine, there are generally accepted ideals. But, as usual, personal taste is still the simplest determining factor.

As a quick review, pH is a measure of acidity and is a logarithmic scale. So, a pH of 3 is ten times more acidic than a pH of 4 (the lower the pH the more acidic).

Wines lie on the acidic side of the pH spectrum, and most range from 3 to about 4.5 pH. This is compared with water, which is neutral, with a pH of 7 (not acidic), milk at a pH of 6.7, coffee at 4.5-5.0, and lemonade at 2.6 (very acidic).

Acid is important in wine because it acts biologically as a preservative. A red wine with a pH of 3.5 to 4 protects against most spoilage bacteria allowing it to age over years rather than months and allows it to develop deeper more complex flavors. In white wines there is generally stronger acidity with the pH being between 3.0 to 3.5.

In addition to the pH level of a wine, its “Titratable Acidity” or “Total Acidity” (TA) is another way of measuring acidity. And, this is a measure that usually appears on a wine’s Tech Sheet that is generally available on-line from the winery.

Most red wines will have a total acidity of about 0.6 to 0.7% TA that converts to 6 to 7 grams/Liter (g/L) – that is 6 to 7 grams of acid per liter of wine. A white wine will have a higher TA between 6.5 to 7.5 g/L

  • Dry White Wines – 6.5 – 7.5g/L

  • Sweet White Wine – 7 – 8.5g/L

  • Dry Red Wine – 6 – 7g/L

  • Sweet Red Wines – 6.5 – 8g/L

  • Sherry – 5 – 6g/L

So, keep those taste buds perked up and see if you can detect an acidic wine (e.g., Sauvignon Blanc) over one that is not (e.g., Viognier), or a wine where the acidity is out of balance with its other components. Cheers!

Behind the Cork™ - Winter White Wines (Part 2)

In Part 1 of “Winter White Wines” we looked at a dry Riesling from Austria and a Verdejo from Spain. Here are two more nice “Winter Whites” involving Chardonnay:

2021 Chateau Domecq White Blend ($13.99)

Chateau Domecq is one of the leading brands in Mexico. The Chateau Domecq wines offer exceptional value in the growing category of Mexican wines from the Valle de Guadalupe which is located inland from Ensenada in Baja California. The Mediterranean climate, morning fog from the Pacific Ocean, and valley topography is similar to parts of California.

This Chateau Domecq White is 70% Chardonnay and 30% Viognier. The Chardonnay is fermented and aged in 2nd use French oak barrels for 6 months with periodic bâtonnage (stirring the lees or, dead yeast, during the aging and maturation of wine) to give body and smoothness. The Viognier adds some richness and a smooth mouth-feel. The Chardonnay and Viognier are blended just before bottling. It is deep gold in color with subtle aromas of pear. On the palate it has great richness and smoothness with flavors of peach and pineapple.

2019 Ritual Chardonnay ($20.99)

This wine is from the Casablanca Valley of Chile, a cool climate area on the northwestern side of Chile’s coastal range that is less than 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

This wine is produced from 100% Chardonnay grapes. A portion of the fruit is whole-cluster fermented in concrete eggs (20%) to increase the wine’s texture and fruit flavors. The rest is fermented in oak barrels (20% new/60% neutral) which delivers structure, complexity and silkiness. After fermentation, the wine is stirred on-lees regularly in order to achieve its maximum expression.

This Ritual Chardonnay is medium gold in color with aromas of baked apple, pear and citrus along with some earthiness. On the palate, this dry Chardonnay (1.3 G/L residual sugar) has bright citrus fruit flavors and bold acidity (7.79 G/L).

Remember, as we learned previously, to get the fullest and richest flavors from these wines, serve them a bit warmer, in the 50-55° F range. Cheers!

Disclosure of Wine Sample Submission: I received these samples at no cost for review. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Samples Provided by Gonzalez Byass via Donna White Communications