Feather White

Coucou y’all.

No, I’m not referring to my complexion—that would be “optic white”.

Here in Luxembourg it’s Fiederwäissen time (“feather white” in English). Fiederwäissen is the young wine made from this season’s recently-concluded harvest and will be available for the next few weeks only. If you’re in the grocery store (or at a winery) and see bottles or mini gas cans filled with questionably pastel liquid, that’s it. Get it while the gettin’s good.

The temporality of Fiederwäissen reminds us that fall not only marks endings but also new beginnings and the possibility of what’s next as winemakers turn their attention from their vineyards to their cellars to shepherd the transformation of this year’s grapes into wine. On that note, today I am going talk about Fiederwäissen, structure and how to predict the future (OK, how tell if a wine can age). Let’s dive in!

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Fiederwäissen

Fiederwäissen is a young wine made from fermenting grape must (juice) from the current vintage. It’s only available for a few weeks because that’s how long it takes for fermentation to complete before the yeast and other particles in the wine start to settle and clarify (it’s these particles that cloud the wine, making it “feather white”). The grape used to make Fiederwäissen can be any really—it depends on the winery—but it’s often Sylvaner or Auxerrois for white. There’s also Fiederrosé, a rosé version made with red grapes.

Fiederwäissen can hit the market at 4% ABV but by the time you drink it it’ll likely be around 9% ABV. It will continue fermenting in the bottle or gas can (which must always be stored upright—gas needs to be able to escape as it ferments) so if it’s too sweet, just wait a little bit and try again.

By the way, Luxembourg is not the only place where Fiederwäissen (or the concept of young wine) exists. It also exists in Germany, where it has different names depending on where (Suser, Neuer Sußer, Junger Wein, Federweißer, Neuer Wein), Austria (Sturm), Switzerland (Federweisser, which is a blanc de noirs), France (vin bourru), Hungary (murci/karcos), and Georgia (machari).

For those who are Beaujolais Nouveau fans (coming at you 16 November this year) wondering if BN is like Fiederwäissen, the answer is “no”. BN is already fully fermented and made completely differently than Fiederwäissen. Perhaps the subject of another post? Let me know.

Also, for any tourist friends who may have stumbled across this: Fiederwäissen is not the kind of thing to bring home, at least it’s not worth trying. It just wouldn’t travel well (gas pressure, risk of leaking) or taste the same by the time you get back. Better to just buy it fresh and drink ASAP.

Aside from finding another reason to drink, people often remark that Fiederwäissen is important because it gives a good idea of what to expect for the vintage when the final wine is released.

While it is true it can give an idea, it doesn’t paint an entirely accurate or complete picture. That’s because you can only really assess some elements at this stage in the winemaking process, mostly structural. As for flavors and aromas that us normies know and love in wine, those won’t reveal themselves until later during élevage (the maturation journey between fermentation and bottling). Rather, we’re more likely to get a sense of how bad the final wine might be, rather than how good it will be.

What even is “structure”?

When drinking wine, we often talk about aromas and flavors and their intensity (how yummy it is) and less about structure (how it feels), which is equally important to quality, balance and ultimately ageability. But what even is “structure”? Structure can be broken down into four components: sweetness, acidity, alcohol, and tannins.

Sweetness, as one might guess, pertains to sugar and the perception of it on the palate. I think this is pretty straightforward for most people to understand. High residual sugar content helps a wine to age, but if it’s not balanced with high acid, it will be cloying and undrinkable.

Acidity is perceived mostly at the sides of the tongue but perhaps the easiest way to understand acidity is by observing how much your mouth waters as it tries to restore its natural acid balance. Acidity also helps a wine to age and makes wine “fresh” because acid cuts through fat and saliva helps clean your palate. This is why high acid wines are so food-friendly. Champagne and aged parmesan truffle salt buttered popcorn? Ugh, my fave.

Alcohol gets you drunk, yes, but in terms of structure, it helps give a sense of weight and body (alcohol is more viscous than water). Just think about any “big” wines you may have had. Likely they were 14% ABV and higher. Alcohol in unbalanced wines can also feel “hot”, which is sometimes confused for high acid. The telltale sign is whether or not your mouth waters.

Tannins bind to your saliva and dry your mouth out. They come from the skins, stems and seeds of grapes during fermentation. Like alcohol, they contribute to the texture of wine and also protect it as it ages. Depending on how ripe they are, they may feel chunky or more aggressively astringent (if unripe) or more rich and refined (if ripe).

Early on in the white winemaking process—after pressing, before fermentation—any issues with sweetness or acid may have already been corrected for (if the winemaker rolls like that, and if the appellation permits).

Around Fiederwäissen time—when fermentation is rolling—there’s not really much else to do. What you’re looking for at this stage is how the structure is shaping up and the purity of the flavors that do exist. From there an experienced winemaker might extrapolate how things will progress flavor- and aroma-wise, but for the inexperienced we’d just be hoping that the final wine will be good so long as the winemaker doesn’t punt it. That said, if the Fiederwäissen is cloying, flabby, watery, hot… even the inexperienced would be able to tell that it’s not a good sign for things to come.

Consider it like dating: a guy may have potential because he satisfies your deal breakers on paper (structure), but that’s no guarantee that you’ll actually share any preferences, interests or chemistry (complex, intense flavors and aromas). You need time for things to unfold in order to determine that (élevage), but in the meantime if he fails any deal breakers, then it’s likely not going to end well.

How to predict the future

How can you tell if a wine is built for the ages?

Just like a relationship, you need to have it all: intense and complex aromas and flavors, structure, and balance (no one element overpowers the others). Each individually are necessary but not sufficient.

If you are only able to evaluate structure, wines that have higher levels of acid (lower pH), tannins, alcohol (in the case of fortified wines) and residual sugar have a better chance of aging because they preserve the wine in different ways. Of course, not all all components need to be present in order for a wine to be ageable, but at least one needs to be.

That said, you also need to have intense enough flavors and aromas to go the distance. At the end of the day, no one drinks wine for its structure alone.

The flavors and aromas also need to be complex—a wine that starts off simple will not become complex over time. Just think of that hopelessly boring date: no matter how much time or effort you throw at him, he won’t spontaneously combust into having a personality.

How do you know if a wine is complex? If you can perceive flavors and aromas from across various clusters within primary, secondary, and potentially tertiary categories.

Primary flavors and aromas come from the fruit itself. Think for example of tasting notes you might have come across citing various descriptors such as citrus, stone fruit, tropical fruit, red fruit, black fruit, floral or herbal.

Secondary flavors and aromas come from the winemaking process. Think vanilla from oak aging, butteriness from malolactic conversion, bread or biscuit from yeast. You can have a complex wine without secondary notes, but it would need to have notes across many clusters within primary descriptors. A quality Riesling or Gewürztraminer would be an example of this.

Tertiary flavors and aromas come with age, so it’s a bit irrelevant to talk about that when considering a wine’s ageability, but if you can already pick up on some then that means that (depending on other elements) it’s either ready to drink or possibly able to age even longer. Some tertiary aromas and flavors you may have heard of include forest floor, mushroom, petrol, nuts, various dried fruits, tobacco, leather.

If a wine serves up mostly primary aromas and flavors with a light acid (or tannin, if red) structure, it is not suitable to age. If it has some firmer structure and more intense flavor concentration, it may age. How long exactly depends on understanding that the flavors and aromas will evolve toward tertiary and tannins (if it’s red) will soften—acid, alcohol and sugar will remain the same. So you need to also consider if the wine would still be balanced as it evolves and if these changes would improve the wine or not.

If you think the wine would be significantly better in a few years that it would be a waste to drink now, then you could say it’s too young.

If you think the wine is good to drink now but could still improve a bit, you could say it’s ready to drink but has potential for ageing.

If you don’t think the wine would improve (or the changes that have already taken place are detracting from the wine) then you could say it’s ready to drink now and not suitable for ageing.

Needless to say, if the wine has changed so much that negative or unpleasant aspects have dominated the wine, then you can say it’s too old.

Coming back to Fiederwäissen, is it a wine built to age? No. The structure is not firm enough. Let’s go through the components one by one:

• Sugar: off-dry

• Acid: medium

• Alcohol: medium

• Tannin: none

If you are experienced with the grape varieties used, you might also understand that the flavors and aromas of their final wines—developed to the extent we could reasonably anticipate—would likely be simple without enough concentration. We could conclude then that it would be a wine to drink now and not suitable for ageing. (You could probably keep it for max three years before it goes off, but what would be the point?)

Fiederwäissen may not be Mr. Right, more like a Mr. Right Now, and there’s nothing wrong with that so long as you don’t confuse the two. Enjoy!

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