Hey everybody, I’d like you to meet Brett…

I wouldn’t quite call Brett a friend…let’s call “him” an infrequent collaborator, and more often, a frequent adversary…Brett’s full name is actually Brettanomyces, and Brett is a yeast. Brett in fact comes from a big family - nine “brothers” and “sisters” actually…to be honest, most of them are problem children, though one or two are not so bad…OK, sustaining the “family” metaphor might get a bit difficult, and probably would also get a bit annoying, so I return to my regularly scheduled style…

Many of you are familiar with Brettanomyces, though you may not know it consciously. Brettanomyces is most often considered to be the source of certain (primarily) flawed aromas in wine. The smell of a brett-infected wine is most often said to display aromas of “sweaty saddle”, or “wet fur”, or even that most evocative descriptor, “barnyard” aromas. Due to some fairly complex chemistry, Brettanomyces is more likely to effect red wines than whites, but encountering Brett in a white wine is not impossible.

But as I’ve alluded to above, Brettanomyces isn’t all bad - there are particular strains of Brett that produce certain kinds of volatile phenol compounds that can lend, in moderate levels, notes of ground brown spices like clove or allspice that can be quite appealing. The problem is is that actually courting the growth of Brett in one’s wines is a dangerous dance indeed, since identifying and isolating just the favorable strains can be nigh on impossible, and if you wind up with the wrong ones, you’re in deep doo-doo. And even if one could be sure that one had 100% of the “good” Brett, a surplus of even these strains, at too high levels, can also unpleasantly distort a wine.

Brettanomyces, once ensconced, is a formidable and tenacious opponent. Like TCA (the acronym for the chemical that causes the “corkiness” smell), Brett can take up residence in so many places in the cellar: in barrels, unsanitary hoses, fermantation tanks, crushers, etc., so idenifying the source of the infestation can be elusive, and one can only be ABSOLUTELY Brett-free by assiduously cleaning EVERYTHING (this includes the floors, walls, ceiling - EVERYTHING), and divesting yourself of every barrel in you cellar. Clearly this can only be done in the “off season”, and is obviously VERY costly to the winemaker. It is for this very unpleasent possibility that most winemakers do not encourage the growth of even the “good” Brett strains…

Thankfully, the rampant growth of Brettanomyces can be prevented and controlled. Those who often wonder why there are sulfites in the wines that they drink can look at least in part to the role that sulfites play in inhibiting the growth of Brett. But sulfites are not a “magic bullet” either - Brett can, and all too often does, fully or partially overcome the effects of the sulfites, making its smelliness quite easily detectable. The only sure ways to elimate Brett is via an involved sterile filtration process that some winemakers feel can damage the final product, and is quite expensive as well, or with the use of a chemical called dimethyl dicarbonate. But while DMDC, as it is abbreviated, can be used in The United States, South Africa, and New Zealand, it is strictly verboten everywhere else, and therefore ceases to be an option for so many wineries.

So let’s get down to the drinking - you’ve got a wine that you think is infected with Brett - what to do? Well, the first thing to make very clear is that Brettanomyces is not toxic in any way, it’s just stinky, so don’t worry about getting sick if you’ve already taken a few sips of the wine before you figured out what that funny smell was…So what to do?…Despite the seeming gravity and irreversible nature of a Brett infection, “Brettiness”, if it is not too intense, can actually “blow off”. Exactly what is afoot in the “blowing off” process I don’t really know (if anybody knows for sure, please educate us), but I’d GUESS that the exposure to air either kills the odor-producing yeasts, or that there is only a small and finite part per million count to begin with, and the inevitable give and take with the air dilutes the compounds below the level of detectability. There are cases however, in which a wine is irredeemably “Bretty”, and in such cases there is little that one can do other than trying to get a refund from your retailer, or failing that, dumping it down the drain. Like corked wines, Brett-infected wines are not even suitable for cooking because the unpleasant aromas can and will be imparted to your food. No good.

TOM CIOCCO