"The ‘petrol’ characteristics in Riesling are undesirable and constitute a fault in the wine, Michel Chapoutier said today.
The renowned Rhone producer, showing his new range of Alsace wines at Decanter, said ‘Riesling should never smell of petrol. That is a result of a mistake during winemaking.’
Comparing the debate over petrol aromas in Riesling to the issue of brettanomyces, Chapoutier said It is absurd that ‘historical defects in wine should be accepted as part of the character of the wine’."
The winemaker for Mountford Estate in New Zealand, CP Lin, made this statement on a Grape Radio podcast last year. That was the first time I had heard that statement.
Personally, I don’t care if it’s a flaw or not. Hopefully, it means I can pick up some of my favorite wines for cheap, since they are flawed.
I don’t like the petrol smell myself. But if it’s a result of a mistake in winemaking, what’s the mistake? The smell seems to surface in rieslings made all sorts of different ways. And, as has been pointed out a number of times, it goes away with further bottle age. Hard to call it a flaw under those circumstances.
I am in no way an expert on rieslings, but the concept that ‘petrol is a fault’ is certainly a controversial statement - and one that many will take exception to. The chemical compound responsible for the aromas, TDN, is found in the skins of the riesling grape IIRC, and its presence becomes more pronounced as oxidaton occurs in the wine. I’m also a believer that Grenache Blanc has this chemical present for every one that I’ve made, and most that I’ve tasted fron others, takes on this characteristic over time.
Keith, I’ve not heard that the petrol quality decreases with bottle age - in fact I’ve heard quite the opposite. YMMV of course.
Just from my perspective, petrol increases for a while, but eventually it does fade. It’s more of an interim stage. I have seen it happen numerous times where a wine went through a petrol “phase” then came out on the other side.
Tom Stevenson went through an excellent explanation of petrol in an article about Trimbach for WoFW. If I can find my copy I will summarize his information. He did not call it out as a flaw.
The whole “petrol” matter stirs some controversy.
Some growers accept the adjective sanguinely, but others
detest it. All I can say is I wish I knew where some
guys go to tank up, ‘cause I’ve never smelled refined oil
products that smelled like Riesling.
But, I know what y’all mean by it, and I want to correct
a misconception. That “petrol” flavor is not a signal
of maturity, but rather of adolescence. It will vanish when
the wine is truly mature. By which time we’ll all be driving
electrical cars anyway.
The author Tom Stevenson of whose scholarship I
stand in near-awe, summed up the petrol thing neatly.
“The so-called petrol aroma is a well-known varietal
characteristic of a classic . . . Riesling wine of some maturity.
The active chemical compound has been identified
as trimethyldihydronaphthalene, or TDN for short. TDN
develops during the bottle aging process through the
degradation of beta-carotine, an antioxidant that is itself
derived from lutein, another antioxidant. The ratio of
beta carotine to lutein is higher in Riesling than in any
other white grape variety. Studies show that the lower
the pH of a wine, the higher its potential for developing
TDN. The longer it takes for the petrol aromas to
emerge, the more finesse they have. Interestingly, cork
absorbs 40 percent of TDN, thus screwcaps preserve
more petrol aromas.”
I was at a tasting with Ernst Loosen two years ago, and he referred to it as “Firne”, which roughly translates to “well seasoned taste”.
His point was that this characteristic in Riesling had been around longer than the use of kerosene, diesel, petrol, etc. He wasn’t a fan of the term either, but understood why people made the association.
Can’t say I dig that smell either. I tend to kill my rieslings as babies for that reason although I keep a few around. It must take a helluva long time for the wines to mature because I have had a lot of rieslings that were 30 years old and still stunk of petrol. I am guessing if your older than 30 you might not want to be buying Riesling to mature.
But seriously, if TDN is more evident in lower pH wines, this would probably be the reason he wants to go through ML- it raises pH. I still think ML for Riesling sounds pretty disgusting.
Interesting post with Chapoutier’s explanation and Theise’s view regarding age which had been my understanding. As for me, I don’t mind a very subtle hint, but beyond that I don’t care for petrol in my Rieslings. I can’t recall, however, a petrol note in any Riesling outside of Germany. Never noticed it any Rieslings from US or Alsace. Wonder if others have found petrol in non-German Rieslings.
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