Wine, Oak, Salt

The following is a tasting exercise that shows how salt and oak play off of one another—good & bad.

Sommeliers generally don’t like heavily oaked chardonnays.  They generally lack acidity and overpower delicate flavors.  They also make foodstuffs taste saltier then they actually are.  There is nothing more cringing then a restaurant patron enjoying Japanese bluefin toro delicately seasoning with Himalayan sea salt and drinking a California chardonnay that has 100% new French oak and 100% malo…and then comments that the food was too salty…  If oaky, buttery chardonnays are your preferred white, stick with richer dishes that have heavy cream sauces.

The Popcorn
Pop a big bowl of popcorn.  Separate it into three bowls. Leave one bowl unsalted.  The second bowl should be seasoned with moderate salt and butter.  The third bowl, aggressively seasoned with salt and butter to the point where it is offensive to your palate—it should taste like a cow’s salt lick.

The Chardonnay
Procure three different chardonnays: one with no oak (all stainless), one with neutral oak, and one with 100% new oak.   Pour each respective chardonnay in a tasting glass and line them up left to right.  The left has no oak, middle neutral oak, and right 100% new oak.

The Tasting
Taste the unoaked chardonnay, with each respective seasoned popcorn, beginning with no salt, and progressing to the saltiest.  See how the wine tastes with each different popcorn.  Repeat the process for the next two chardonnays.  By the time you get to the last pairing of big oak and big salt, you may never want to eat salt again!

This is a great exercise to understand salt, oak, and wine.  It will help you distinguish your preference and threshold for salt.   

Malo-Up!

With the turning colors of oak leaves in the fall, I begin to think of apples, cinnamon, vanilla and butter. The flavors of chardonnay immediately come to mind. Chardonnay as a varietal is synonymous with orchard fruit flavors.
Chardonnay, and grape skins, are naturally prevalent in tart malic acid and gives chardonnay many distinct apple flavors. Malolactic acid conversion is a unique process to winemaking and gives chardonnay a distinct buttery quality. It is essentially converting malic acid to lactic acid (also found in milk), a process to smooth a harsh acid to a mellow one. It is like tasting skim milk versus whole milk.

In wine geek speak; malolactic conversion is often referred to as malo, ML, and malolactic fermentation. It is not technically fermentation because it does not produce alcohol as a byproduct, though it does produce carbon dioxide as a byproduct. This is where the fermentation is easily confused. It is not converting any sugars to alcohol. For all of our chemistry friends it is technically a decarboxylation. The other byproduct of malolactic fermentation is diacetyl, which is a byproduct from the yeast, and gives the buttery or butterscotch flavors.

In winemaking, a chardonnay that has not undergone malolactic transformation will have more of a green granny smith apple quality. These chardonnays usually receive little or no oak and are a great aperitif wine. They pair well with fish and shellfish. Chardonnays from the Pacific Northwest are usually made in this style.

Chardonnay that has undergone malolactic conversion will have a buttery and red delicious apple quality. The buttery texture is a result of converting one acid to the next. These chardonnays usually have significant oak influence. The cinnamon and vanilla flavors are not from the grapes or fermentation process, but from the influence of oak. These chardonnays pair well with roast chicken, buttered popcorn, (personal favorite) and cream sauces. Chardonnays from Russian River Valley and Sonoma County reflect this style.