Comments on: “Petrol” is a flaw in young Riesling: Olivier Humbrecht

By: Riesling and petrol: right or wrong?

Riesling and petrol: right or wrong? — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:38:04 +0000

[...] Chapoutier was Oliver Humbrecht, winemaker at leading Alsatian producer Zind-Humbrecht. Humbrecht was reported as saying in New York last month that the petroleum aromas found in young Rieslings are unattractive and [...]

By: Christian Jessen

Christian Jessen — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:49:49 +0000

Most of what has been writen here is correct. Actually in the Viticultural School I visited we had a term for Riesling ripening to early. This is called UTA – for “Untypischer Alterungston” – or “Untypical Ripening Aroma”. It appears in White Wines less than 2 years old … Sometimes it smells a bit of wet rag or mothballs (Naphtaline.) Originally, it used to be found in white wines from the Mediterannean Region. Whether it is do to 1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene (TDN) or any other chemical, most scientist today agree that it is a result of too much stress in the plant.
This has nothing to do with the petrol-tone a white wine – especially Riesling – will acquire do to the ripening effect of alcohol esterifying back to athenal/acetaldehyde, after 4 to 8 years depending upon other factors like sulphur-content or extract …
So … it would be too simple to try to explain it as just “Petrol Tone” …. There are a number of criteria to determine, whether or not the white wine should have such a tone and with what age …

By: Dan Berger

Dan Berger — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 06:54:41 +0000

What’s wrong with TDN? I use it all the time.

By: Wine Cellar Roundup – Episode #39

Wine Cellar Roundup – Episode #39 — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:45:55 +0000

[...] had to include this write-up about petrol aroma’s in Rieslings. I really adore Rieslings, probably because they are so sweet. If you, like my husband, has the [...]

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:21:33 +0000

OK, so it’s not good then. Just last week we got an Australian Riesling into the wine store where I work, and it did definitely have that petrol smell. Which I’d often read about but never experienced. I was actually kind of thrilled to detect it though, because I was finally able to experience this thing I’d only been reading about up to that point.
Interesting.

By: John

John — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:08:48 +0000

Great post. Thanks for sharing.
For years I’ve held on to (and used) pre ’63 copper pennies for this very reason.

By: Josh Stein

Josh Stein — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:48:11 +0000

I haven’t made as many Rieslings as M. Hembrecht, but I have made or helped with almost a decade of North Coast releases–from Napa, Mendocino, Lake, and Carneros–and can say only this: we need more discrimination of the terms “petrol” and “minerality” if we are to make headway as producers and marketers of Alsatian varietals. I think you will find other producers elsewhere have said as such before. It’s chicken-and-egg: we need more people to purchase and enjoy these wines so as to spur more development of techniques and critical vocabulary, and those techniques are what will help spread the message of the wonderful transmutability for both winemaker and wine drinker.

By: Peter Birmingham

Peter Birmingham — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:26:13 +0000

A copper penny? Do you know how difficult it is to find any copper in a penny minted after 1963? Better off go to the hardware store and get 2 cm copper piping.

By: In his cups...

In his cups... — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:39:11 +0000

I like the term: “Fusel” the aroma of oil soaked foundry sand used in casting metal, along with the Petrol-Hydrocarbons you get in lab work or syphoning gas for your motorcycle. Though sensory linked, to me petro and mineral expression are separate ,they just hang out together in rieslings allot. I have little problem with it, and find it in the new and old world. I pick it up in some Whiskies occasionally.

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:23:46 +0000

I’m not qualified to have an opinion about whether a whiff of petrol is a defect, but I have always been amused by it as a descriptor and wonder if it sounds as unflattering in Europe as referring to a “gasoline” note here would be.

By: Peter in Niagara

Peter in Niagara — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:08:37 +0000

Petrol in a young riesling is a mistake, minerality (petrol) in an old riesling is sublime.

By: Thomas L

Thomas L — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:15:27 +0000

I’ve been told by the people who introduced and educated me to wine that prestigious Rieslings often presented these notes. My experience growing, I could make my own opinion that indeed it is most often found in rieslings from grands crus (alsace), or renowned producers, therefore in wines that have a strong terroir – or soil – expression. I thereby link this petrol arome to minerality, but I usually qualify it in function of its quality and intensity: minerality in rieslings can, for me, be either very pleasant or very heavy/invasive.

By: Anatoli Levine

Anatoli Levine — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:16:55 +0000

I’ve had German Rieslings with petrol smell (St.Urbans-hof QbA, for instance), but it tasted perfect, of course. I never thought of it as a flaw, but rather as a characteristic of German Rieslings.

By: Steve Edmunds

Steve Edmunds — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:43:09 +0000

I think we need more teapots if we’re going to contain this tempest!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:17:24 +0000

Interestingly, the International Riesling Foundation says petrol notes come not from underripe grapes, but from ripe grapes harvested at low yields, and that “warmer climates, such as Alsace, will tend to exhibit the petrol character earlier in their post-bottling development.” Specifically, they say it’s “caused by the compound 1,1,6-trimethyl-1,2-dihydronaphthalene (TDN), which during the aging process is created from carotenoid precursors (terpenes) by acid hydrolysis.”

Others say petrol is most apt to be apparent in middle age, and it eventually fades.

And then there’s Chapoutier, who says it’s caused by the “decomposition of the veins within the grape” and that it’s always a flaw. “Riesling should never smell of petrol. That is a result of a mistake during winemaking.”

It seems we have not reached consensus on this subject…