The White Wine Ou on The Book of Revelation - of dodgy wine practices, that is! | The Month May 2012
Ever heard of ‘The Jesus Unit’? You’ll find one in quite a few of our wine cellars, I am told by those who know about such matters. And what precisely, you ask, is a ‘Jesus Unit’?
Well, according to biblical legend, Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding in Cana Galilee (John 2:1-11). The Jesus Unit, is therefore something in the cellar that turns water into wine. It also has an Afrikaans equivalent: die swart slang teen die muur, which translates to ‘the black snake against the wall’, which you will by now have guessed, is a hosepipe.
Our climate makes it difficult to make well-balanced low-alcohol wines. High summer temperatures mean high sugar content in grapes, and high sugar content translates into high alcohol levels after fermentation. It is quite common in red wines to have alcohol levels of 15% or even 16% in South Africa. Since around 50% of wine production is exported, largely to Europe, this creates a bit of a problem. The trend worldwide is toward consuming less, rather than more alcohol. If the wine one drinks has a high level of alcohol, that translates into less wine.
Take for example, a German Riesling with an alcohol level of 9%, compared with a south African Riesling at 12% alcohol. No prizes for guessing which is likely to be better received in the European, and increasingly the local, market. European wine, on the other hand, has relatively low alcohol levels by comparison, because it is so much cooler during the growing season.
The easiest way to reduce the level of alcohol in wine, is by diluting it with water, hence ‘The Jesus Unit’. Granted, there are other methods, like reverse osmosis, but they tend to be expensive, and many
winemakers believe that they take more than alcohol out of wine.
What may (e.g. tartaric acid) and may not (e.g. water) be added to wine during production, is policed by a statutory body called South African Wine Industry Systems, or as it is fondly known, SAWIS.
It’s not as simple as adding water, mixing it well, and then bottling the wine. One must engage in a complex calculation immediately after the grapes are pressed, to determine how much water to add to get the desired alcohol level.
SAWIS also keeps a weather eye on what comes into each wine cellar, and how much wine each crop of grapes will produce. Simply adding enough water to dilute the sugar content of the pressed grape juice could elevate the final production quantity to suspicious levels, and the winemaker would have some uncomfortable questions to answer during the post-harvest SAWIS audit visit. Water added must be compensated for by removing some of the pressed grape juice. The volume of wine must, within reason, remain the same.
But it goes further than that. SAWIS also keeps an eagle eye on what grapes come from where, because what ends up on the bottle label must describe what’s in the bottle. A wine of origin, Coastal Region, must contain only wine from vineyards in that statutorily delimited region. If it were to include wine from say, Walker Bay, which is located in the Cape South Coast wine region, and would need to be classified as a wine of Origin, Western Cape. At a more granular level, a Sauvignon Blanc made from Stellenbosch grapes with a soupçon from the Elgin Valley, would also be similarly classified. It may not entirely suit the producer from a marketing perspective, which may well result in SAWIS returns being less than honestly completed.
Such practices (and a few others as well), I am told, are more widely spread than one would suppose, but since it all highly illegal, who would go on record?
I’m not suggesting that SAWIS is a bad thing. On the contrary, it plays a vital role in ensuring that the quality of wine we produce meets international standards, vital for our export markets. But if the regulations are such that they are regularly bent, then clearly the regulations are due for a critical review. Of hoe?
Well, according to biblical legend, Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding in Cana Galilee (John 2:1-11). The Jesus Unit, is therefore something in the cellar that turns water into wine. It also has an Afrikaans equivalent: die swart slang teen die muur, which translates to ‘the black snake against the wall’, which you will by now have guessed, is a hosepipe.
Our climate makes it difficult to make well-balanced low-alcohol wines. High summer temperatures mean high sugar content in grapes, and high sugar content translates into high alcohol levels after fermentation. It is quite common in red wines to have alcohol levels of 15% or even 16% in South Africa. Since around 50% of wine production is exported, largely to Europe, this creates a bit of a problem. The trend worldwide is toward consuming less, rather than more alcohol. If the wine one drinks has a high level of alcohol, that translates into less wine.
Take for example, a German Riesling with an alcohol level of 9%, compared with a south African Riesling at 12% alcohol. No prizes for guessing which is likely to be better received in the European, and increasingly the local, market. European wine, on the other hand, has relatively low alcohol levels by comparison, because it is so much cooler during the growing season.
The easiest way to reduce the level of alcohol in wine, is by diluting it with water, hence ‘The Jesus Unit’. Granted, there are other methods, like reverse osmosis, but they tend to be expensive, and many
winemakers believe that they take more than alcohol out of wine.
What may (e.g. tartaric acid) and may not (e.g. water) be added to wine during production, is policed by a statutory body called South African Wine Industry Systems, or as it is fondly known, SAWIS.
It’s not as simple as adding water, mixing it well, and then bottling the wine. One must engage in a complex calculation immediately after the grapes are pressed, to determine how much water to add to get the desired alcohol level.
SAWIS also keeps a weather eye on what comes into each wine cellar, and how much wine each crop of grapes will produce. Simply adding enough water to dilute the sugar content of the pressed grape juice could elevate the final production quantity to suspicious levels, and the winemaker would have some uncomfortable questions to answer during the post-harvest SAWIS audit visit. Water added must be compensated for by removing some of the pressed grape juice. The volume of wine must, within reason, remain the same.
But it goes further than that. SAWIS also keeps an eagle eye on what grapes come from where, because what ends up on the bottle label must describe what’s in the bottle. A wine of origin, Coastal Region, must contain only wine from vineyards in that statutorily delimited region. If it were to include wine from say, Walker Bay, which is located in the Cape South Coast wine region, and would need to be classified as a wine of Origin, Western Cape. At a more granular level, a Sauvignon Blanc made from Stellenbosch grapes with a soupçon from the Elgin Valley, would also be similarly classified. It may not entirely suit the producer from a marketing perspective, which may well result in SAWIS returns being less than honestly completed.
Such practices (and a few others as well), I am told, are more widely spread than one would suppose, but since it all highly illegal, who would go on record?
I’m not suggesting that SAWIS is a bad thing. On the contrary, it plays a vital role in ensuring that the quality of wine we produce meets international standards, vital for our export markets. But if the regulations are such that they are regularly bent, then clearly the regulations are due for a critical review. Of hoe?
