Resistance to Modern Winemaking

A famous wine writer has written a fun article about what he considers to be some unfortunate consequences of modern winemaking. I responded to him on his website with these words:

I essentially agree that modern winemaking techniques such as those discussed in your article tend to make wines more similar than dissimilar. However, having utilized alcohol adjustment and micro-oxygenation in several different varietals and climates, I would suggest that these techniques are more subtle than you give them credit for. Alcohol reduction was never meant to repair an egregiously alcoholic wine, only to fine-tune and hit a “sweet spot,” as Clark says. Similarly, micro-ox will not change the flavor of a wine, only the tannic structure, and subtly at that. And you can’t really blame some wineries for trying these techniques. Central Valley wineries are making wines that compete more with Napa/Sonoma wines than ever before, precisely because of alcohol and tannin adjustment.

Look at the big picture and understand that advances in winemaking have, in general, greatly improved the vast majority of low to mid level wines. The industry has just been slow to modernize and the changes are more noticeable compared to other food sciences. No one is complaining that pasteurizing milk is destroying the flavor, right? I’d much rather live Listeria (a disease-causing bacteria) free. With time, alcohol and tannin adjustment will be protocol at large wineries and no one will think twice about it.

The real problem is the fad in CA, and other warm-climate grape growing areas, to leave grapes on the vine much longer than they need to be, in the name of “hang time.” This one technique does more to homogenize wine than anything else. A late-harvest Zinfandel from Sonoma is essentially identical to a late-harvest Zin from Lodi, Sierra foothills, or Italy.

Your comments on the wines from Renaissance Vineyard and Winery are a little misplaced. Their (and any other winery’s) spectacular wines have much more to do with small production than the absence of any “winemaking jive.” Small producers (of which I work for) have much more control over vineyard management and production techniques that allow for spectacular results. Small producers will always make wine traditionally, partly because their budgets don’t allow for the rather expensive tools of modern winemaking, and not because of a conscious decision to not use alcohol and tannin adjustment. Small producers also tend to be located in ideal grape-growing and winemaking areas where these techniques are not needed to begin with.

By the way, at the 8,000 case winery I work for, I can easily cherry pick different lots of wine and make a 100 case lot of something spectacular. It comes at the expense of other blends, but this is something small producers can get away with much more easily than large producers. It has nothing to do with my tendency to employ or not “winemaking jive” that I and any (every) other winemaker routinely use on a case by case basis.

The agenda to romanticize traditional winemaking is usually driven by wine writers and not winemakers. Ask any winemaker 100 years ago and he would wholeheartedly prefer to make wine with modern sanitation, temperature control, stabilization, and vineyard management techniques than those available at the time. Do you know what winemakers used to do with all but the very finest wine? Have you ever tried retsina???

-Jason

Vintner of Rappahannock Cellars

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