Brix and phenolics

We’ve written on this blog about the use of scientific and technological methods to produce and understand the quality of wine. The Inniskillin case contained an interesting paragraph on how the producers controlled for the quality of their produce:

“Icewine producers used the Brix scale to determine the quality of the product. The Brix method involved measuring the percent of solids – sucrose, fructose, vitamins, minerals, proteins, and amino acids – in a given weight of plant juice. Brix varied directly with plant quality, but was inversely correlated with yield”

Looking into this in more detail, it seems like this is actually pretty widely used in the industry, including in California. Brix (°Bx) essentially measures the potential alcohol content of a wine before it’s made by measuring the concentration of sugars, since each gram of sugar will turn into about 0.5 grams of alcohol. 25°Bx implies 25 grams sugar per 100 grams liquid. It lets winemakers steer harvesting and also decide in which ways to alter the wine in the winemaking process (to dilute it or to add sugar). Also, some laws rely on Brix scales to define wines – so for example, Spätlese Riesling must fulfill certain Brix requirements to be labeled as such.

A more sophisticated methodology for understanding the chemical composition of wine is the measurement of polyphenols. These are, basically, the molecules that give wine its taste. They include tannins and anthocyanins, and are responsible for key wine properties like color, bitterness, astringency, and longevity. Here’s a good primer on the basics, and here’s an academic article on their spectrophometric methods of analysis.

Someone I interviewed in connection to the midterm insisted that sophisticated phenolic analysis will fundamentally change the industry. His argument is that phenolic analysis already allows winemakers like him to understand wine in a fundamentally new way, and, for the first time, scientifically gauge quality. By understanding which phenolics are present in which quantities (generally: more is better), he can actually scientifically state which wine is better, without relying on blind tasters.

The technology is currently too expensive to be accessible, but as that changes, he claims that this will make everything different. The sommelier and wine critics’ jobs will disappear. The current rough signalers of quality (vineyard brand and regional reputation) will become unimportant. Any producer anywhere in the world will have a chance to sell his or her wine at a fair price given the quality – no matter how disreputable the region or unknown the vineyard. Terroir, the mythical element that gives vineyard-owners power, won't matter anymore; chemical analysis will show that you can make high-quality wines anywhere. Wine will be priced by chemistry, not by appellation. It’s an enticing idea.