Making wine, at least the basic process, is the same as it was thousands of years ago. Ripe grapes get trodden, squashed, pressed, whatever, to extract the juice, which is high in sugar, around 20-23% of the total must weight. (Must is winespeak for grape juice to be made into wine.) The wild yeasts on the skins go to work and convert the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Wine!
Needless to say, this basic process evolved across the centuries. Wine making now starts where wine making formerly was complete. What I mean by that is, in the bad old days, there was a minimum of technology, people did not know what fermentation was or what caused it, and if it worked it worked. If it did not work, no vino.
What developed over the centuries is a large body of knowledge about soils, grape varieties, climate, micro-biology, temperature control, and the role many ingredients play in winemaking. This knowledge led to certain techniques which are still evolving. I am speaking here about: the use of wood, in barrels or in other ways; ingredients used in fining or clarifying the wine; micro-oxygenation; speeded up “aging” through temperature control. The list grows and is ever changing.
Many people are familiar with the general processes of wine making: Grapes are pressed, juice collected, fermented, the new wine, sooner or later, is separated from the lees, aged for a time in larger containers, then bottled and either released for sale immediately or cellared for a time until the winemaker determines the wine is ready for release.
Into this basic stream enter many variables. For red wines, one of the most crucial processes is how the winemaker chooses to age the wine. Tradition says that quality reds must be aged for a time in oak barrels, often times new, but generally not more than four seasons old. The reason for this is that oak is a fine grained wood. The barrels allow a certain amount of oxygen into the wine, but not too much, during its barrel aging but prevent excess leakage of the wine out of the barrel. In addition, there are chemicals in the wood that are extracted by the wine which become parts of the consumers perception of taste, texture, and quality.
Now this process, aging in oak, as you may expect, can take a long time. Quality red Bordeaux wines are generally in wood around two years. Rioja Gran Reservas, Chianti Reserva and Barolo and Barbaresco specify different aging requirements in order to achieve the afore mentioned titles. During the time of barrel aging many changes occur which can also be affected by temperature variations.
Some questions now in winemaking are: If an analysis of the specific results of barrel aging can be identified, and they can be replicated with the use of modern technology, can the results be the same? If the taste and texture are the same, is the wine being manipulated and the public being ripped off? Or is the winemaker simply making use of technology that can replace older but perhaps outdated traditional methods? Are the traditional techniques simply moving into a contemporary mode of execution? Are these new techniques simply part of an evolutionary process?
The traditionalists have substantial investments in their way of making wine. One French oak barrel, a barrique used for cellaring, can cost $1000. American white oak can cost $600-$800 per barrel. There is time involved as well. If it takes three or four years before release of a traditionally made wine, and someone can have the same results using modern technology, the cash flow situation has vastly improved. A winemaker who can sell top quality wine after two years certainly has less financial strain than were he or she required to wait four or five years to release the same wine.
For the modern winemaker the investment in technology is also substantial. Food processing equipment is expensive and there are many pitfalls before the finished product is ready.
In the next part of our mini-series we will look at some specific techniques and how they were used traditionally and how they have been modernized.
No comments:
Post a Comment