The Sweet Spot

RE: The Sweet Spot

Brian Green — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 20:15:43 GMT

Loved the article even though it pushed the geeky needle incredibly hard. Wine is about sugars and the balance of dealing with RS. Love all your articles

RE: The Sweet Spot

Jeremy Reed — Sun, 06 Jan 2019 06:06:53 GMT

Kelli,

That was a very well organized and thoughtful article. It confirms my presence as a basic af sommelier who enjoys Champagne with a healthy, but balanced dosage, and a glass of BA or Port after a meal.

Have fun up north.

RE: The Sweet Spot

Jeffery Pyke — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 15:58:03 GMT

I really appreciate this well-thought-out article. Thank you!

One question: In the statement "And while it is often said to increase viscosity in wine, Dr. Waterhouse’s book Understanding Wine Chemistry shows that its concentrations are rarely above threshold, even in dessert wines.", you were discussing glycerol. Since I have not read Dr. Waterhouse's book, I ask for just a bit of clarification, if you could. The threshold you speak of is that at which we as humans can perceive a change in viscosity due to glycerol, is that correct?

Thanks again!

RE: The Sweet Spot

Valerie Kathawala — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 12:35:27 GMT

This was tremendously helpful to my understanding of sweetness in wine, especially in Riesling as it ages. Thank you!

RE: The Sweet Spot

Bobby Wheat — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 23:45:14 GMT

Wow. Awesome article. It made a tone of stuff that used to seem like gibberish make complete sense. Haha. Thank you!

RE: The Sweet Spot

Leonardo Barlondi — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 17:47:26 GMT

Kelli White, I had a discussion with a friend chemist regarding your last thought about sweetness and he says that, the sweetness is given by typical molecules such as glucose,fructose,sucrose etc. But these have constitutional isomers; so maybe over time there are ketohexose balances that makes wine less sweet on the palate. However the residual sugar does not change , because sugar does not turn into other molecules but isomerizes . Therefore, the same composition remains always the same moving bonds or carrying functional groups from inside to outside the plan etc. Hence, the same residue with altered sweetness.

RE: The Sweet Spot

Michelle Rodriguez — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 01:46:56 GMT

Love it! Thanks again!!

RE: The Sweet Spot

Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 20:40:51 GMT

FANTASTIC article :) I'm a fan, Kelli!

RE: The Sweet Spot

Justin Wuycheck — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 17:42:36 GMT

Fantastic lead, fantastic last sentence. Not just informative, the piece is also well written. NICE!

RE: The Sweet Spot

Robert Gomez — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 00:12:42 GMT

Incredibly informative! Thank you!

RE: The Sweet Spot

Adam Vignola — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 05:20:15 GMT

Addictive reading....kept thinking I would stop reading after a time (modern human behavior ha, ha) and I couldn't. Well, done. Well written I enjoy what you have to say when I've had a chance to catch your thoughts. All the best, - A

RE: The Sweet Spot

Bob Lipinski — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 14:36:41 GMT

Kelli... another excellent article. Thank you!

RE: The Sweet Spot

Tom Stevenson — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 11:44:21 GMT

Brilliant, simply brilliant. Thank you Kelli. I suspect I will be going back and forth to this quite a lot! Without wishing to detract from such wonderfully in-depth research piece, there are just a couple of minor corrections/clarifications I would like to make:
[1.] When describing my six-year project for the World of Fine Wine, you say "To prove his point, he conscripted a group of producers to engage in dosage aging trials" but even if I believe low volumes of sugar to have an influence on the ageing of Champagne, setting up a study to prove this or any other point would be unscientific. I had to approach these trials with the possibility that such a belief could be wrong. That is why I wrote in the introduction to the first (three-year) tasting that the "sole purpose has been to determine whether the presence of sugar affects freshness" and I stacked the odds in favour of zero-dosage maintaining freshness by insisting on one of two healthy levels of SO2 at the time of disgorgement, the exclusive use of magnums and for the wines to be aged in the producers' own cellars. FYI, the final (six-year) tasting was last week!
[2.] I'm not sure that Dr. Waterhouse was properly briefed when providing an explanation of "aromatic screening" because he did not allude to it at all. I was referring to the theory that sugar suppresses acetaldehyde by increasing its vapour pressure. This was established in food science by Maier in 1970 but has yet to be followed up by anyone researching wine.

RE: The Sweet Spot

Jay Chadwick — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 08:52:23 GMT

THIS IS AWESOME