Hello lovelies! It's such a beautiful morning here in Denver today - a warm 75 degrees, sunny and cheerful. I'm enjoying homemade scones, clotted cream and strawberry preserves on my porch with a steaming pot of English Breakfast Tea and my beloved Blackwell's mug of course. It inspires me to take on the day and achieve everything on my to-do list. What inspires you?
One of my recent inspirations is to initiate a regular weekly post. Lately, I've just written when the muses divine, but I'd like to become a more regular blogger. Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce "Wino Wednesdays" in which I will post something wine related every Wednesday. It could be a review of a recent tasting, a wine related vocabulary word or concept discussion. I don't know how exactly it will evolve, but its intention is to make the wide world of wine approachable and understandable to the everyday imbiber, one step at a time. I write enough about wine anyway, perhaps this will also encourage me to blog about other things more often?
So today's post is about something I learned recently: fermentation "sur lies."
Sur lies is the French term for "on the lees," typically a coarse sediment of dead yeast cells and other natural particles. One most often finds this in white wines aged in French Oak barrels. By allowing the wine to have extended contact with the yeast for a longer period of time, it creates a more complex structure to the wine. This is where some whites can gain a stronger malolactic fermentation, which is the creamy or buttery taste you find in some. You will find this method in many Burgundy Chardonnays, and most popularly in traditional Champagnes. Sur lie wines are typically bottled without racking, or filtering, the wine (though with today's technology, it is hardly necessary anymore). With some of these wines, more often Muscadets from France's Loire region, you will find on the label "mis en bouteille sur lie", which means the wine was bottled from the barrel where the lees were not drained. Go forth and enjoy!
