Green Is Not a Four Letter Word

Even with my atrocious spelling I know that green is not a four letter word but I am beginning to wonder is some winemakers need to be reminded of this fact. In response to last weeks article, “A Wake up Call to Some Winemakers” I received a number of very interesting responses. Some of these have been from growers and some from winemakers, none of whom disagreed with the content of the article but they did provide some further insight and reasons for both why and how it is happening.

It seems there is a real paranoia out there about green characters in wine. The following is a good example of the feelings out there and it’s a quote from Roger Pike who owns Marius Wines in McLaren Vale. “You have certainly identified a very real trend. I can only speak of my experience in McLaren Vale where I do not believe that any winemakers have set out to make high alcohol stewed prune juice but have pushed the envelope due to a paranoid fear of those dreaded "green characters".

We are known for our ripe, soft, mouth-filling reds and there is the perception that riper and softer is better and the fear that a review which mentions "green characters" is death. Of course, that may well be the case. There are certainly a few green characters around in some of the 2000's that have been universally damned.

A grapegrower friend of mine related a conversation he had with the purchasing winemaker at harvest time this year when my friend was pushing to pick at 14 baume and the winemaker said, "Lets leave them on for a few days, there are some green characters at the southern end".

What people need to understand and based on Roger’s quote they clearly must not is that there are different green characters in wine. Some are indeed poor winemaking but in many cases they are attributes. In terms of poor winemaking the green can come from a number of reasons and whilst not dismissing them, they will be examined in detail in a moment.

The first and most obvious case of when green character is an attribute is the mint or leafy flavours commonly found in many Cabernet Sauvignons. Some people may feel that green characters are acceptable in Cabernet Sauvignon but they are not acceptable in Shiraz. To those people all I can say is that you are misinformed and it’s this perception that is part of the problem. Green characters in many cases are perfectly acceptable and indeed an attribute that adds complexity to a wine.

Green characters that are not acceptable are those green characters that are from unripe grapes, unripe tannins, wine has been pressed too hard etc. Without wishing to get to technical about it, it’s important to skim the surface of this subject. David Cross of Winter Creek Wines writes “Viticultural practices need to be looked at. A dense canopy will lead to fruit being and leaves being hidden from the sun which can result in sugar ripeness but not flavour ripeness leading winemakers to raise the level of sugar ripeness looking for some flavour.”

David is dead right here. A lot of the problems stem from the vineyard practices and his comments are supported by Murray Paterson of Vinifera Services in New Zealand who is a very experienced viticulturist who writes “Clever winemaking (i.e. the addition of grape tannin, acid and indeed Aitch Twenty), will never make up for properly balanced fruit from the vineyard.

In part, much of this is due to both over and  under cropping (green, unripe phenolics in fruit that is excessively over-sugared), in an attempt to get extract, or to over worked wines (added tannins, long maceration of high tonnage fruit), both ends of the spectrum. Neither producse a balanced and well structured wine.

The viticultural reasons behind the problems are many and complicated and whilst they are real, in the long term it is sheer stupidity to push the ripeness envelope to fix the problem because it does not work properly. It just covers up the issue and like a dirty flesh wound that is just coved with a bandaid sooner or later it needs to be fixed properly because the resulting infection does not go away. Neither does bad winemaking or viticultural practices.

The green flavours caused by these practices are seen as many people to be worse than the alternative wine where the ripeness envelope is pushed to cover it up and that’s why some wines continue to be made in this method, (but they are not the only ones.) This “green problem” has caused so much paranoia that the baby is being thrown out with the bath water. In many cases green flavours in wine are a positive attribute and add real complexity, even in Shiraz!

Langhorne Creek, Clare and many parts of Victoria are known for having flavours and aromas of mint, menthol or eucalyptus in their wines and these resulting green flavours have absolutely nothing to do with poor vineyard practices, young vines, poor winemaking or unripe grapes. And even wines in McLaren Vale and the Barossa can show green characters which are positive and add complexity. In the last week I have had two such wines. The first was the Hardys1996 Tintara Shiraz from McLaren Vale which had wonderful rich ripe dark fruit and a huge amount of sweet minty characters that added to the wine and made it most enjoyable. It was rated as Excellent.

The Barossa Valley Estate 1996 Black Pepper Shiraz from the Barossa weighed in at 14.5% alcohol. The bouquet was ripe and savoury showing blackberry, plum, prune, chocolate and menthol. It’s a full bodied wine that packs a punch. Tannins are fully resolved resulting in a smooth harmonious and beautifully balanced wine with a reasonable level of complexity and a lingering finish. The palate flavours followed the bouquet initially but as it had a few hours of air time the flavour moved into the prune spectrum (not stewed) but as that occurred, the complexity increased as the huge amounts of eucalyptus emerged and the wine became more interesting.

Rated as Excellent, almost Outstanding this wine shows two things. Firstly it’s possible for wines to enter the prune spectrum and not be boring one dimensional plonk and also that green flavours can be very positive and add complexity.

So in reality pushing the ripeness envelope is being used to

·        to help hide poor quality grapes

·        cover bad viticultural practices

·        cover heavily manipulated winemaking

·        because the market wants it

In terms of the final point, let’s continue with Murray Paterson’s comments. “I also find that many wines are excessively sweet. Yes, this lifts the fruit character and makes them approachable when they are very young (within a year of release), however it also destroys the balance of the wines. I suspect that this may well be done to make them saleable in the US market, with residual sugars in the order of 2 ½ gm/litre to 4 gm/ litre. Technically “dry” of course.

This and my reasoning above are reinforced by further comments from David Cross. “One of my pet hates is adding tannin to adjust for a poorly structured wine. I am sure some winemakers add tannin as a matter of course regardless of the wine. If the fruit is right, there should be more than sufficient natural tannin for balance and longevity. My experience is that those wines with detectable levels of added tannin on the palate do not age well. How many times do we see in tasting reviews words like “lovely powdery tannin” or “talcum powder character” – if only they knew. 

I guess what it all boils down to is that wines made from quality fruit showing flavour ripeness which is simply and sensitively made with winemaking practises designed to retain complexity and structure will give the most pleasure over the years.

The last paragraph says it all!

The last paragraph says it all!

Green is not a four letter word and not all greens are bad, some are completely positive. To paraphrase the Castrol advert, “greens ain’t greens” and hopefully now the green picture will be a little clearer.