What’s brown and sticky? Oxidised grape must, such as that resulting from these Viognier grapes arriving at the winery where I'm working.
This is no joke. At every step of the journey through the winery, from crusher to bottle, a constant battle is fought against oxygen. You have to get up very early in the morning to outwit it. As early as 3am in fact, to pick the fruit at its coolest to minimise the chances of oxygen spoilage.
However, when the lowest night temperature is 25 degrees C and the grapes have to travel for several hours, slightly more is...