Best of Whites 2008

Last night in class we viewed and identified different pieces of equipment used for making wine from the commercial winery scale (at wineries around the world) to the homebrewer scale that could be used in the home. We then tasted six white wines from the UNR vintage. Most wines had lost a lot of their varietal character compared to when the wines were lasted tasted in February (a year and a half after bottling), when they had lots of fruit character. We tasted Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Semillon. There was a difference of opinion but the Riesling had more votes for the best wine overall. The loss of fruit in the wine could be due to under sulfuring the wine. SO2 helps to prevent the wine from oxidation. The wines are stored in a cool room so the loss of fruit character was not due to storage problems. Or the other conclusion is that these wines just don't keep for very long and must be drunk young. We will study this in the future by boosting our SO2 levels in our wines in the coming years.