CHILLABLE RED WINES COME ABOUT IN A VARIETY OF WAYS

Simply put, a red wine that tastes best cold is one that has little to no tannins and is usually, but not always, light bodied. There is not a straightforward explanation for what makes a red wine “chillable,” but we’ve boiled it down to essentially three factors: 1) the physical nature of the red grape varietal; 2) where the grape grows; and 3) how the grape is manipulated during the winemaking process. And almost always it is a result of at least a combination of two of these factors.

The physical nature of the grape. As we have learned in other wine club editions, there are thousands of different grape varietals. A grape with a thin skin, or lighter colored skin is usually going to impart less tannins to a wine and thus be a good candidate to be light-bodied and chillable. Also, if the grapes are small, there is less pulp, leading to less sugar to be turned to ethanol, which adds body to a wine. Grape varietals that can mature in cooler climates with shorter growing seasons tend to fit these descriptions. If you’re interested, Wine Folly has a great article (with their usual great graphics) identifying 13 grape varietals that make light-bodied red wine (https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/light-red-wine/). I’m sure you can guess some of them, such as Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Cinsault. But, also, did you know that Nebbiolo is one, even though we associate the big, bold (not chillable) Barolo with the varietal? And how about Corvinone, Rondinella, and Molinara, the grapes that blend to make one of the biggest wines around: Amarone? When vinified normally these grapes make one of the lightest bodied wines in Europe: Valpolicella Classico.

Where the grape grows. As we have already hinted, the red grapes that have the physical characteristics, such as light-colored skins, thinner skins, and smaller size, are grapes that thrive in cooler temperatures with less sunlight and shorter grower seasons. Hence, location by default makes for chillable red wines because the varietals that thrive in these locations have mutated over thousands of years to adapt to the climates, OR in some cases such as Zweigelt, they have been engineered by humans to thrive in these climates. That said, “New World” viticulture has proved that even grapes meant for the warmer climates of their native European terrains will produce chillable red wines when planted in cooler climates with shorter growing seasons.

Winemaking process. Wine would not happen if it were not for human intervention. As mentioned already, Barolo and Amarone, despite being made from grapes that naturally produce light-bodied wines, can be manipulated by humans to make full-bodied wines. In the case of Nebbiolo, the grape is small, but the skins are thick, and the skins of a grape are a major source of tannin, so winemakers take advantage of this to macerate the skins for a long time, creating both more starch to make alcohol and tannin, and then they age the wine in oak to produce a tart, full-bodied wine. With Amarone, the grapes that comprise its blend are left to dry in the sun to an almost raisin-like status, giving the yeast more to eat for higher ethanol content, translating into a full-bodied wine.

But let’s stop talking about how winemakers make non-chillable wines and talk about how they make chillable wines. Carbonic maceration is one way, as it involves removing tannins. More on that process later with one of our wine club selections. Another way to lessen tannins is to limit the skin contact with the juice during the fermentation process. Keep in mind that the skins of a red grape are what give the wine its red color and also its tannin and alcoholic heft; hence, when you limit skin contact, you are making what we all know now as a rosé wine. That’s right, a rosé wine is a chillable red wine. Don’t worry, though, we won’t cheat you with a selection of three rosé wines (we already did this wine club edition if you’re interested: August 2022 What is a Rose Wine) for our Wine Club selections, and the one we do include is uniquely full-bodied. Without further ado, let’s dive into our three selections.

The history of winemaking with this grape goes back centuries with mentions of it in records dating to the 1400s, but it was without a doubt a staple well before then. The region also grows white grapes (e.g., Trebbiano, Pecorino, Cococciola) to make wines that pair with the maritime aspects of their regional cuisine, but the cuisine coming from the inland, mountainous territories is so varied that it also demands a light chillable red: enter Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, which is an official appellation. Cerasuolo is wine made with the Montepulciano grape that is purposely macerated for only a short time on the skins to limit the tannin. The word Cerasuolo is a derivation of “Cirasce” in the Abruzzese dialect which comes from the antique Greek “Cherasion,” which means cherry. When you see the color, you’ll see why.

Of course, now you’ll see the Italian word for rosé on some bottles of Cerasuolo – rosato – or even the word rosé, but who can blame them for exploiting trends to sell more product. Anyway, what they have NOT done is compromise the heft of the wine. This is not a light rosé, in neither color nor in body.

Take any type of varietal and keep the grapes whole, then deprive them of oxygen and they will ferment from within. The scientific term is called intracellular fermentation. The winemaking term is carbonic maceration. Fermentation is happening without yeast by being in an oxygen-less, carbon dioxide environment that causes fermentation to happen without yeast from inside the intact grape. Later, the grapes are crushed, oxygen introduced, and fermentation continues normally with yeast, but the chemical reactions that happened with intracellular fermentation have already made their mark, namely stripping out a lot of chemical components that produce tannins, leaving zippy fruitiness in its place.