Rimbaud III wrote: Wine is for posh people and priests. I am neither.

Maybe in this country...

Rimbaud III wrote:Who am I kidding, eh? I don't even like wine!

Here, you go Rimbaud.

Rimbaud III wrote:I'm not seeing any love for Chilean wines here. You're all obviously twats.

THIS is my current fave.

Oh, I am sorry I thought the name of this thread indicated a discussion on the United States' alleged watering of their wine!
I must have accidently posted on the "Tell me what fad wine you like" thread.
my apologies sir. shit
Back to the subject at hand.
Thanks for the article Championship rabbit, very informative read.
It still seems the article was saying that if you fuck up in fermentation, add water to keep from losing your ass. It doesn't seem like everyone does it all of the time.
I toured several Napa and Sonoma vineyards. I was walked through their individual winemaking processes. I learned some weird shit, but nothing about adding water. Maybe its to taboo to share with tourists, who knows.
most of the california wines I enjoy are set making wine as close to french tradition as possible. that article also said:

Over the years, the Bordeaux wine industry has been hit by one scandal after another: fake labelling, or mixing in cheap wine from other regions or even other countries. In 1973, one “respectable” Bordeaux wine-shipper was caught adding Spanish Rioja to his Bordeaux. Similar problems have dogged Burgundy, Austria (in 1985, a winemaker was caught upgrading his wine with ethylene glycol) and Italy (in 1986, a winemaker added methanol to his blend and 23 drinkers died).

No mention of that in this thread so far, huh? yeah. I would personally rather drink watery wine than wine with methanol in it. I am kind of a snob that way.

I'll take the bourgeois tag and run with it-as usual, categorical declarations of subjective quality are running amok. There are hundreds of wine producers in the states that turn out extremely high-quality product that probably never makes it out of the country. And while there's a big pile of insipid crap coming out of California right now, you don't have to buy it. Just ask your shop what's actually good (and cheap).

Local products are nice.

buzzsaw wrote:

Rimbaud III wrote:I'm not seeing any love for Chilean wines here. You're all obviously twats.

THIS is my current fave.

Oh, I am sorry I thought the name of this thread indicated a discussion on the United States' alleged watering of their wine!
I must have accidently posted on the "Tell me what fad wine you like" thread.
my apologies sir. shit
Back to the subject at hand.

No no! MY apologies, Lady Fuck.

You know, there are nicer ways of telling people not to divert threads. But judging by the general tone of your posts, I'll hazard that you're not in a particularly nice mood.

My father gets this way when his piles flare up.

buzzsaw wrote:I learned some weird shit, but nothing about adding water.

[confused face]

More?

Los Angeles Times:

"The idea of pouring a few buckets of water into a steel fermentation tank smacks of watering down, stretching and cheapening wine. And to do it in pursuit of a showcase wine -- the Wente family's first -- well, who would do such a thing?

Actually, in California it's been done for decades. Wente, an aggressive 27-year-old, fifth-generation winemaker in Livermore, Calif., stands out not because he adds water to his wines, but because he's willing to talk about it."

link

The reason we add water in CA is because we can. We do not add water to make more wine, we water back to avoid 18% alcohol wines. In CA we have the luxury to do things that aren't allowed in France because are laws are way different. We also "bleed back" juice after two days of soaking (up the water) to bring the must back to the original volume. So we are not making "magic Jesus wine." We have overall warmer weather than France, and that means the ability to fully ripen grapes. We decide when to pick when the flavors are fully developed(which is often at high sugar levels(thus producing higher potential alcohol.)) Adding water seems terrible, but it could easily be done in the vineyard through irrigation. This adding water at the winery is a more accurate technique than irrigating right before harvest. It is no different. I understand the thought of "adding water" seems like a souless thing to do, but it's really no big deal, because often it's such a small %age.

I invite any of you to come to my winery and taste wines that have been doctored with water, and show you that there is no lack of flavor or intensity, or aging potential.

It's kind of funny when there is a warm vintage in france, and they get the ripeness that we are used to in CA each year, it is declared the vintage of the century.

I too love wines from all over the world, but to say CA wines are weak is wrong. Most people taste wines from a grocery store aisle and judge based on that You can find similarly priced artisinal wines at a wine shop.

Do you think the Aussies fine winemakers are stoked on this Yellow Tail bullshit that is setting the Austrailian wine reputation? It's like basing your opinion of all Chicago bands based on Smashing Pumpkins

Rimbaud III wrote:My father gets this way when his piles flare up.

I misread this and had the enjoyable experience of imagining a motorway blocked by an incident involving multiple flared trousers...

Rimbaud III wrote:

buzzsaw wrote:

Rimbaud III wrote:I'm not seeing any love for Chilean wines here. You're all obviously twats.

THIS is my current fave.

Oh, I am sorry I thought the name of this thread indicated a discussion on the United States' alleged watering of their wine!
I must have accidently posted on the "Tell me what fad wine you like" thread.
my apologies sir. shit
Back to the subject at hand.

No no! MY apologies, Lady Fuck.

You know, there are nicer ways of telling people not to divert threads. But judging by the general tone of your posts, I'll hazard that you're not in a particularly nice mood.

My father gets this way when his piles flare up.

my apologies, friend!
I usually overreact when called a "twat"
call it a character flaw! if you knew me personally, you would know my poking is all in good fun. I debate with a little too much passion sometimes.

bart favre wrote:The reason we add water in CA is because we can. We do not add water to make more wine, we water back to avoid 18% alcohol wines. In CA we have the luxury to do things that aren't allowed in France because are laws are way different. We also "bleed back" juice after two days of soaking (up the water) to bring the must back to the original volume. So we are not making "magic Jesus wine." We have overall warmer weather than France, and that means the ability to fully ripen grapes. We decide when to pick when the flavors are fully developed(which is often at high sugar levels(thus producing higher potential alcohol.)) Adding water seems terrible, but it could easily be done in the vineyard through irrigation. This adding water at the winery is a more accurate technique than irrigating right before harvest. It is no different. I understand the thought of "adding water" seems like a souless thing to do, but it's really no big deal, because often it's such a small %age.

I invite any of you to come to my winery and taste wines that have been doctored with water, and show you that there is no lack of flavor or intensity, or aging potential.

It's kind of funny when there is a warm vintage in france, and they get the ripeness that we are used to in CA each year, it is declared the vintage of the century.

I too love wines from all over the world, but to say CA wines are weak is wrong. Most people taste wines from a grocery store aisle and judge based on that You can find similarly priced artisinal wines at a wine shop.

Do you think the Aussies fine winemakers are stoked on this Yellow Tail bullshit that is setting the Austrailian wine reputation? It's like basing your opinion of all Chicago bands based on Smashing Pumpkins

I would love to visit your vineyard. what is is called? are you familiar with bonny doon? I believe it is in your neck of the woods. I am a fan. they are quirky and different in their approach to winemaking.