White Lie – 117
Sunday, July 17th, 2005
Earlier this year, I documented a Beringer Blass side-product, TwoTone Farms. I was approached to comment on yet another Beringer product, White Lie Early Season Chardonnay. The public relations kit that accompanied the product is chock-full of incredibly pretty documents explaining that this product is a “premium wine tailor-made for women, [and] by women.” The all-female team is Tracey Mason (Director of Global Innocation), Jane Robichaud (Winemaker), and Bettina Ferrando (New Product Development Manager). There is kitchy comments on the types of lies that women say (“I never got the message,” “I was stuck in traffic,” “It’s not you, it’s me”) and other offensive phrases.
The occasion to blog the Livermore valley over the weekend was also occasion to meet up with my good friends, April and Walt. Walt suggested grilling up some salmon after the day’s blogging and knowing the 100+ degree heat of the area, a low-alcohol, low-calorie white wine might work perfectly with Walt’s salmon. What I did not anticipate was the great joy to be had in sharing a new-concept wine with scientists…
Part of the product’s selling points is that it is lower in alcohol, 9.8%, versus a typical 13.5% chardonnay and that the calorie content is 97 calories per five fluid ounces versus a normal 129 calorie glass. How can this be developed? Well, Beringer Blass has trademarked a technique where the grapes picked earlier in the season, which have a lower sugar content (brix), are fermented all the way to dryness before blending. The assertion is that the resulting wine “tastes crisp and fruity but is also low in sugar, naturally making it low in alcohol and calories.” Yes, it is true the wine is crisp, but almost too much so.
The crisp entry is harsh with tart acidity. There are faint aromas of lemon peel, but not much bouquet beyond that. The mouth entry is almost painfully strident. What this lead to in our discussion over dinner was Walt’s brilliant question; Would the wine taste better if it were, in fact, a 13% alcohol wine? Here is where the scientists took off and I sat back and marvelled…
April is a chemist and Walt a programmer/analyst. Over a flurry of discussion that was more than Greek to me, the two of them debated the amount of neutral alcohol that would have to be added to the existing wine to make a 13% alcoholic wine. A book was pulled from the shelf and calculations were configured; 7 grams of Vodka would be added to 98 grams of the White Lie to produce a wine at 13%. I thought it a brilliant experiment.
The final result? We tasted both wines a second time — the original 9.8% and the newly-created 13% version. The new wine was a tad more palatable. It definitely had more body, but was still flabby and lacking depth or balance. Much the ensuing discussion revolved around why White Lie was created. It has been established that while men purchase wine to collect, women make up the bulk of the wine-buying market for immediately consumption. But I know of no women that would drink this wine. I do marvel at Beringer Blass’s gumption in breaking new ground and the regard I have for the Two Tone product is an example. But in the case of the White Lie, perhaps there is poetic justice when being asked what I thought and a “little white lie” comes to mind…
With sincerest thanks to April and Walt for a charming and illuminating evening, delightful company, and a fabulous dinner! Hope you don’t mind the pics….