White Merlot

[nickdanger]

Bought a bottle last week (beringer) , and was pleasantly surprised for what it was, a summer chilled red. Now I'm wondering if there are other versions out there I should be trying.

[zin1953]

Just a point of correction:

>>> a summer chilled red <<<

A White Merlot -- just like a White Zinfandel, White Caberetn Sauvignon, White Pinot Noir, White Grenache, and so on -- IS a white wine, NOT a red. It is produced from red wine grapes, but is fermented without skin contact. Since some 98% of all Vitis vinifera grapes only have pigment in the skins, if you ferment only the juice by itself (i.e.: not the skins) the result will be a white wine. The only coloration the wine gets is during the crushing/pressing process prior to fermentation.

There ARE light red wines that are delicious lightly chilled, but a White Merlot is defined as a white wine . . .

Cheers,
Jason

[nickdanger]

Now that is news I can use. Cheers to you as well.

[Icantread]

I thought those were roses? where does Rose fit in? Just curious on the same thread. . .is there a name for white wines fermented with the skins?

btw nickdanger. . .Hendry makes a nice rose. I think it's usually $10-$15, really preserves a bit of the red wine taste, albeit far more refreshing.

[zin1953]

Again, most Vitis vinifera grapes have clear juice, regardless fo the grape's skin color. The pigmentation is found only in skins.

To produce a RED wine from these clear-juiced vinifera grapes, you first crush the grapes, and then pump the resulting "must" (juice, pulp, skin, and seeds) into a fermentation vessel to begin its journey into wine. During the fermentation, the pigmentation in the grape skins "bleed" into the juice/wine, coloring it red.

To produce a WHITE wine, the grapes are crushed, and the must is then pressed, separating the clear juice from the solids, and only the juice is fermented. (Or the grapes may be pressed directly, but the effect is the same: only the clear juice is fermented.)

ROSE wines begin life (if you well) as a red: the grapes are crushed, and the resulting must (juice, pulp, skin, and seeds) are pumped into a container to begin fermentation. HOWEVER, after x amount of time (eight hours, twelve hours, twenty-four -- whatever the winemaker deems the must has obtains the appropriate color), the juice is then separated from the solids, and the juice -- lightly colored after such as short time in contact with the skins -- finishes its fermentation alone, in no further contact with the grape solids.

Thus, a Whie Merlot, White Zin, etc., is a wine that is fermented as a white wine -- no skin contact. The only color the wine obtains is from whatever cells in the grape skins are ruptured in the press. Those cells will contribute low levels of color to the wine, but the juice is fermented by itself -- no skin contact.

Of course this is a generalization, but the principle holds solid.

Cheers,
Jason

[sbonagof]

The Beringer White Merlot that the OP is referring to has some skin contact (three hours) and is a blush wine, not a white wine. The folks at Merryvale's tasting seminar pour it blind as a "trick" wine every weekend. Everyone thinks it's white zinfandel.

[zin1953]

There's no category -- as such -- called "blush wine," other than the old joke ("How to you embarass Zinfandel grapes? by making them blush.")

A blush wine is a blanc de noirs ("white of blancs"), a white wine made from red-skinned grapes.

This is something impossible to do with, for example, V. labrusca, or with those V. vinifera which are in the teinturier family; with these cultivars, if the skin is pigmented, so too is the juice. Thus, the only way to produce a rosé is to blend a white wine into the red. Making a blanc de noirs (or "blush wine") is impossible.

What I wrote above -- that a white wine is fermented with no skin contact -- is nonsense . . . IF taken as an absolute. Never say "never"; never say "always."

Some white wines are indeed given some skin contact, either before fermentation, and some even during fermentation. (Given the results, however, I've rarely understood the latter.) Some blush wines are indeed given a short time on the skins prior to pressing and fermentation. It's still a white wine . . . .

Cheers,
Jason

[sbonagof]

No it isn't - although I am not going to engage in a pedantic explanation as to why. Let's just agree to disagree.

[penthouse pup]

The white merlots from the Ticino canton of Switzerland are superb. (Their red merlots are excellent, too.) I have never seen a white version imported to the US but the reds, when available, are worth trying.