Winemaker Alessio Carli has a problem: he’s got quite a bit of 2022 Mourvèdre that is missing a certain something that will change it from a pleasant light pink wine you would serve and then promptly forget into a deep and complex masterpiece.
“The thermostat on the tank stopped working,” he said. “Okay, so there was a fermentation spike and it went very high in temperature. The higher the temperature, the more color you get, but you also burn off the flavors and the aromatics of the wine. So the flavors and mouthfeel are weak. So is the color, but we can fix that easily. Everybody can fix color easily.”
The Mourvèdre is being triaged for the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, one of the many major wineries Carli has consulted with or worked for, beginning with the historic Lorenzo de’ Medici Winery in Chianti, Italy. He also made wine at Viansa Winery in Sonoma, Pietra Santa in the Cienega Valley, and Dorcich Family Vineyards in Gilroy. He also produces wine under his own labels, Alicats and Carli wines.
The wine he is working with is not bad if you just want something chilled to sip on a hot day. It has a nice aroma with a one-note fruitiness to the taste, and it finishes quickly and cleanly, but not memorably. It’s a good wine, but Carli said he’s going to make it better.
Sharpening the blandness of the wine is the first step. Mourvèdre has naturally high acidity, with a pH ranging from 3.8 to 3.9, roughly the same as tomato juice. But this wine is closer to neutral, so the acidity must be restored.
“California’s temperatures are very high, and it is very sunny,” Carli said. “The acid gets demolished by the sun, and the pH increases very fast, which has made this wine a little flabby.”
He fills a 100 ML graduated cylinder with the Mourvèdre and adds a bit of tartaric acid to bring the pH down to 3.76. Suddenly, the Mourvèdre has body and depth. The tannins are more apparent, the fruit is darker and more profound, and the finish lingers nicely at the back of the throat.
It is a better wine, but still a little thin.
Starting fresh with 100 ml of Mourvèdre, he adds the acid again and corrects the color using three drops of densely concentrated grape juice made from merlot grapes, which turns the wine a rich ruby red. It also adds to the mouthfeel and structure. The acid is there, but now it is buffered and layered by the sweetness of the grape concentrate. Now that he has established the balance of the wine, it is time to blend.
“Blending is a very important step,” Carli said. “That is where all the craft of the winemaker shows. It is like being a chef in a kitchen when you are adding the salt and pepper and spices.”
Creating a new mixture of the Mourvèdre, acid, and grape juice, he tries adding some 2022 Sangiovese, tasting it first to see if it would be a good match.
“You don’t want it interfering too much with the Mourvèdre we made,” he said. “But you want it to add something different, like acid or color or a new layer of flavor.”
Beginning with a 15% blend of the Sangiovese, the blend had better color and a new and distinct undertone of dark fruit—but the new wine brought a sharp change to the pH. Easy enough to fix by not adding the tartaric acid, but Carli instead tried a new version, this time with a blend of 80% Mourvèdre and 20% Merlot.
Then 10% Sangiovese, 5% merlot, and 85% Mourvèdre, which was close, but still missing something. The fruit was wonderful, the mouthfeel was perfect, and the swirling layers of fruit with an underpinning of tannins were exciting.
It would have been great, had it not been for the acids, which were still a problem to resolve. The solution? Switch the mixture to 5% Sangiovese, 10% merlot, and 85% Mourvèdre—which created a smooth and profound wine that carried the rosy fruit of the original wine with a kaleidoscope of tones and textures from the other wines.
Was Carli done? Was this the wine Biltmore Estate would be selling?
No. This was only the first of many combinations he would create as he spent two months going through his library of varietals available for mixing. And then he has to convey the final detailed instructions to the costume crush facility in San Luis Obispo, who will follow them to the letter to produce wine based on what Carli created in those 100 ml cylinders.
“I make all the decisions,” he said, “but it’s just the first part of the winemaking—the ending will be at the Biltmore.”
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
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