Errazuriz uses high tech to redefine "ripeness"

The traditional view of how grapes ripen

Usually when a winery applies a high-tech approach to winemaking, it is to get grapes riper. This was practically the only focus of wine technology of the past 20 years, and is a  major reason our wines are now so high in alcohol.

Here is a refreshingly different story: an enormous export-focused winery in Chile that has applied high technology so they can pick their grapes earlier -- at a different definition of ripeness.

It says something about today's wine market that lower alcohol can be an objective.

Errazuriz makes 16 million bottles of wine a year, most of which it sells in the northern hemisphere, so it cannot take a philosophical stance unless it's also commercially viable. In other words, sure, they can make wines that they like, but those wines have to be wines that sell.

Pedro Contreras

Errazuriz enologist Pedro Contreras told me he is using software that analyzes the size and color of grapes to determine the right time to pick. Errazuriz workers take photos of the grapes every week at the same hour so they can compare them. It takes at least a vintage to have results to compare with the photos, but now that the program is up and running, Errazuriz is picking some of their grapes a month earlier than before.

"It was a little revolution for us," Contreras told me.

He said that in the past, the picking decision was difficult to make early because of commercial concerns. Again -- 16 million bottles they have to sell.

"You taste green notes and you think, 'One week more'," Contreras said. "Then one week later you taste no green notes and nice juicy fruit, and you think, 'One week more.' Then one week later the fruit is really ripe and the tannins are soft and you think, 'One week more.' You can keep doing this ad infinitum.

"This software allows us to make a different decision," Contreras said. "We can pick at a different type of ripeness."

I might be burying the lead. Contreras told me about a new view of ripeness in grapes. He drew a chart on a white board, which I copied, tentatively, in my notebook. I don't know how widespread this thinking is. But it is revolutionary, so I attempted to recreate the sketches online.

Errazuriz's new view of how grapes ripen

Here's a graph roughly showing what Contreras said is the current thinking, at least among some people, about how grapes ripen. As you can see, they hit an early peak of physiological ripeness and then go down a little bit before heading back upward. The idea is to pick the grapes at that early peak, because if you miss it, you have to wait some time before the grapes even reach it again, and by that point they already have accumulated a lot more sugar.

Is this science? I don't know. Contreras gave me the name of the French company that makes the visual analysis software. I tried contacting them and nobody was interested in getting back to me; why I don't know. This would have been pretty much free advertising, but maybe it's a proprietary thing they don't want to share with the world. Or maybe it's all voodoo. Or maybe it's like biodynamics -- voodoo that also seems to work.

In any case, the very idea that a big export-focused company wants its wines to be lower in alcohol, with more freshness and red-fruit flavors, that's not voodoo. That's giving the market what it's asking for.

Take a look here at the Errazuriz wines for sale in the U.S. (Make mine Chadwick, thanks.)

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