The Fluidity of Reality

The scientific method is a great tool for examining assumptions. You postulate a theory, you develop a way to test your hypothesis and then you analyze the data. Eventually you publish your findings in a peer review journal. Then it is rinse and repeat.

In the world of wine the requisite experimentation that is the crux of scientific study can take a long time. A very long time in the case of vineyards. To observe a change in a vineyard often takes decades, and in the case of vineyard to well aged wine, a lifetime may easily pass.

This leads to many theories being put into practice before they have been tested. The real world is the laboratory of wine. It is easy to understand why one might be hesitant to experiment in their vineyard, a vineyard that may be the sole source of one’s livelihood.

The result are beliefs that remain in place without a great deal of study or scientific foundation to back them up. This was the subject of a speech given recently at the American Society of Enology and Viticulture conference by UC Davis’ Michael Anderson. The title “Busting Wine Myths” neatly sums up one of my own reoccurring themes. If you are so inclined, the link above makes a good read.

Anderson and others at the conference cited various well held beliefs as being facetious. They included the theory of removing fruit from the vine to help increase the concentration of flavor in the remaining berries, as well as checking assumptions regarding long held irrigation practices.

Myths persist in any field, but the mystique surrounding wine helps to perpetuate and maintain dogmatic points of view. Few are immune from this practice. I have seen my own convictions fall prey when tested. I have every reason to assume there are others yet to be toppled.

What is the lesson to be learned? That believing is easier than knowing, to be sure, but more than that it is important to remember that everyone gets it wrong now and then. Conventional wisdom changes with fashion and embraces fads, but empirical evidence stands the test of, well.. testing.

Monolithic wine beliefs seem to be overturned with each new vintage. New data, new experiments, and better testing models help us understand wine in a way not possible just a decade earlier. As this trend continues, and as technology continues to solve problems, I fully expect wine to become more consistent and of higher general quality.

I am not sure that the high end of quality will ever budge, a great wine is a great wine by any standard. What we will continue to see is the bar being raised on the low end. Bulk wines may someday be better than what was bought as special occasion wine a generation ago.

Through it all a few voices cry out warnings. “Beware that we do not lose site of ‘place’ in wine, terroir is what makes wine special.” Listen to the voices, it is variety that makes wine fun. Most of all, as always, listen to your own voice and drink what you enjoy. Busting myths make for great TV and we pundits love how it makes us sound when we espouse on the latest discovery, but it is, always has been, and always will be, just about the juice.

Tech Time

If I wasn’t a wine writer I would probably be a technology writer. I certainly have blurred the line between the two on occasion in this very venue. Wine can be as high tech to produce as it is low tech to enjoy. A glass and a way to get the bottle open is all you really need to taste wine, but the number of choices technology brings to the modern winemaker is staggering.

There is of course already a catchy phrase for the coming wine revolution: Dialing In. The winemaker will be able to dial in exactly what they want their oak barrels to accomplish. They will have the opportunity to dial in traits for the yeast they use. Soon there may even be ways to dial in exact flavor components like black pepper.

Recent advances have pointed research in the right direction to someday be able to create the black pepper taste on demand in any wine. This is done in the vineyard, and that is where we will see some of the biggest changes.

The wine grape’s genome has recently been mapped. Now that we know what the genes are we can begin the laborious task of doing something about it. The sort of benefits we can expect include disease and pest resistant varieties, tailoring to specific micro climates and of course, greater defenses against drought and heat.

I have already postulated on robotic vine tenders, so I am hardly taking a risk to speculate that someday we could have vines that change color when they are ready to be harvested. They could even indicate their water and nutrient requirements, with easy to respond to visual clues. As the saying goes, the possibilities…

At this point some of you may have come to the conclusion that I don’t buy into the “frankenfood” hysteria. Anyone that knows me realizes that this is where I will *cite Norman Borlaug who “believes that genetically engineering crops is little different from the cross-breeding among plant species that occurs in nature, and he argues that it is irresponsible for affluent environmentalists to prevent these types of foods from reaching developing nations.*

Oak is getting the modern makeover as well. Gone are the days when a cooperage would only make a few types of barrels. Increasingly they are using computer control of heat and time to specify different barrel characteristics for different needs. This is exactly what they have been doing for centuries, but now they claim a precision that makes a barrel specific to white wine, or even a single varietal.

A little more or less heat over a little more or less time and you add more or less flavors like vanilla and clove and woody spices. Mix up the type of oak in the barrel and add or take away a characteristic. One can even go so far as to mix grain size or oak species in a single barrel. All in pursuit of control.

The hardest workers in a winery are also the smallest. The yeast may be tiny, but what the lack in size, they make up for in numbers. It would seem to make common sense that the more control over the fermentation process you have, the more control over the resulting wine you have. This is what the yeast companies are banking on, as they continue to separate strains of yeast into ever more specific cultures.

It is not just about picking yeast in an attempt to influence flavor profile, some yeast foams less, some unstick fermentations, some do better or worse in more or less alcohol. There is a fascinating glimpse at all of the choices one can make in selecting yeast here at the Winemaking Home Page. Genetics will be having a huge affect on yeast as well.

New techniques in filtering are making wines less prone to bacterial problems, while leaving less of a mark on the wine. Removing alcohol has been one of the most recent innovations to have a huge effect. it has been estimated that 40% of wines in some regions have been through this process. It allows one to use riper grapes without making a wine that is too overwhelming in alcohol, or to reduce the tax liability (wine is taxed on alcohol content).

The choices don’t end at growing grapes or making the wine, there are an increasing number of choices in bottles and closures. Everyone has seen a screw cap on a decent bottle of wine by now, but have you seen the Zork? This clever closure has a peel away strip, then you just pull out the top which makes a satisfying cork like pop as it is released.

I am particularly enamored of the Vino-Seal myself. This glass stopper has a tight fitting o-ring and all the benefits that sterile glass offers. The first time you open one you will have no doubt that the seal it makes is sufficient to protect the wine. It is also easily recycled and even easier to keep to reuse.

Glass bottles too are in line for a refreshing. Rising fuel costs have made weight a great issue while demand continues to outstrip availability. As new glass manufacturers come into play the industry may well see innovations in materials as the new companies find ways to distinguish their product lines.

Nifty barrels, new closures, even genetically designed grapes are all going to make a huge difference but as always it is the winemaker that makes the wine. I love technology; I love gadgets; I love the promise of a shiny tomorrow, but mostly I love what works. Sometimes the best solution is pencil and paper. Time will tell.

Love that Grape Crush

It is harvest time in the Northern Hemisphere. I always liked the colloquial term “crush.” I suppose the association with the grape flavored beverage is part of the reason. The soda may even be responsible for the popularity of the phrase for everyone else. Whatever you call it, it is underway.

This is a delicate time for the grapes. Too much sun, too little sun, rain, frost, birds, these are all part of the litany of things that can effect the outcome of the vintage. It has been a wacky year for weather with much of the World getting soaked only to end up with earlier than usual picking times. Earlier than usual may be the one common thread.

It was warm all over. It is tempting to wag a finger at the omnipresent global warming specter, but weather trends are not the same as climate change. I read that a lot this year. Still, it was a warm year.

Wet, it was wet, with many parts of Europe plagued by rain. Wet means mildew, and mildew is an ancient nemesis of the vine. Chemicals help, as do thinning leaves and increasing air flow. It is not unheard of for higher end vineyards to hire helicopters to dry out the vineyards. Wet, especially combined with warm also means disease.

Without enough sun the grapes will not end up with enough sugar to make decent wine. With trends towards higher alcohol style wines, the grapes need that much more sugar. This means hang time, and hang time means gambling against the calendar.

Many great vintages have been concluded well into October. October can also see the first frosts, or the beginning of long rainy periods. Either of these conditions can ruin a crop that was waiting for the perfect degree of ripeness.

Ripeness doesn’t just mean sugar. It also means the development of flavors. Sugars increase during warm days, but flavors improve with cool nights. If there is not enough difference between the day time and evening temperatures, flavors will suffer.

Grapes evolved as a way for the plant to distribute seeds with the help of birds. Birds are quite willing to do their part, but most vineyard owners have other plans for the fruit. The scarecrow may have been replaced by ever escalating technology, but the birds haven’t given up yet.

Frost and mold have their places too. It is the mold botrytis that is responsible for many of the world’s greatest dessert wines. So we do want wet conditions, in the right place at the right time. Frost, or at least freezing rain is responsible for ice wines, another group of dessert wines I am fond of.

Crush then is a time to wish for sun, but not too much. Rain, but not too late or too early or too much. Cool nights, but warm days. Vineyard owners are also wishing for more help, more grapes, more certainty. Winemakers want more sugar, more flavor, more even ripening.

Wishes are not in my power to grant. If they were this would be a much different blog, and chances are I would not be writing it. I can offer a guarantee, with a modicum of solace. There will always be next year. Until there’s not.