First year evolution

In order to consider, stage by stage, the transformations which take place in Rioja wines during the first year of their life, one has to take into account the standards of the Regulating Council of the Control of Origin of the Rioja, which in 1976, defined periods for keeping wine in barrel and bottle.

Therefore, when reference is made to the first year in the life of a wine, it has to be borne in mind that, after being kept for some months in a large vat, the wine is transferred to oak casks and continues to be kept in this kind of container during its second year.

There is intense activity in the wine during its first year, for various reasons: Sugar residues, destruction of the malic acid, sedimentation of the crystalline matter.

The crystalline matter which is formed in wine consists of natural salts, which are dissolved in the grape but become insoluble once alcohol is formed. However, this solidifying is a slow process, coinciding with cold periods. Over a period of time these crystals are deposited in the cask until the wine is considered stable and free from further risk of throwing a deposit.

Two types of crystals are precipitated in wines: potassium bitartrate (cream of tartrate) and lime tartrate. They are very similar in shape (drawings and photographs are shown) but there are differences in their characteristics. Potassium bitartratedissolves with heat, has a slightly acid taste and usually precipitates in the wine during the first winter. Lime tartrate, however, usually precipitates by the second or third winter, has no acid taste and does not dissolve with heat. It is an annoying component, as it can appear in old bottled wine.

Although the colour is strictly speaking a transparent yellow, it occasionally takes on a wine-coloured, purplish appearance.

Sugar remains in the wine during the first year. It is a remnant of the grape sugar.These remnants are usually small in quantity, less than two grammes per litre, and the yeasts, with little remaining strength, slowly consume them.

There are two periods in the year during which the yeasts are active in processed wines. One is Spring, coinciding with the flowering of the vine, the other Autumn, shortly before the harvest.Another characteristic is that the maximum temperature in the cellars is reached in September, not July, the month of maximum atmospheric temperature.The third factor regarding the activity of wine during its first year is malolactic deacidification or malolactical fermentation. It consists of the transformation of the malic acid into lactic acid and CO2 gas.Grapes contain various acids naturally:

Tartaric, characteristic of the grape.................	4,0 gr./l.
Malic, charasteristic of the apple.....................	1,5 gr./l.
Citric, charasteristic of the lemon....................	0,2 gr./l.

Malic acid gives wine a sharp flavour known as "greenness". For this reason enologists refer to a technique based on a natural element in grapes, the lactic bacteria which consumes this acid and transforms it into the much more agreeable lactic acid and CO2 gas.

This is the malolactical deacidification. It is carried out early in the northern part of the Rioja, later in the central region and is not necessary in the Southern areas. Here, the grapes are exposed to a lot of sunlight, giving greater maturity resulting in less malic acid in the wine.

Malolactical deacidification is favoured by taking care that the wine does not get cold and by avoiding racking or sulphuring.

When wine goes through malolactical deacidification it changes in the following ways:

• The volatile acidity is raised by one tenth (normal rise of 50%).
• The fixed acidity falls by five tenths (a fall of 10%).
• Some colour is lost (15%).
• The wine obtains a softer flavour with weak transitory bubbling.