Wonderful piece as usual, Simon -- and good luck with your own fermentations!
Apropos “watching a tub full of crushed grapes looking like they could oxidise in a heartbeat,” readers should be aware that allowing one’s must to oxidize is with white grapes a reliable means of securing stability and resilience in the resulting wine. To the extent that this seems counterintuitive, an inoculative metaphor helps.
Yes absolutely. We pressed our white (Žilavka) with a basket press this year (because the fancy Willmes broke down), and I watched the dark brown almost hyper-oxidised juice coming out.
But yes, one must have faith because when it starts fermenting it miraculously transforms in colour and all the oxidation is gone. I need to read up on the chemical processes that are going on here.
Great piece, Simon. One thing I heard recently, though, was that the yeasts doing most of the work in reality are those found in the winery, not in the vineyard. Curious to see any evidence about this.
I still think there's magic in Sonoma County. It still exists. Maybe not in a tank farm, but it exists behind small roll-up doors, where temperature control is closing the roll-up door to wicked-hot asphalt and sun exposure. Where a pied de cuve is still used, or a co-ferment that we're not 100% sure how it will turn out. Or the pick is scheduled for tomorrow, maybe a week too early, but better early than 10 days to late. Maybe you pick it yourself with your father and brother and it lasts way to long in the day, and the grapes are hot, but better than not picking at all.
Yeah, there's still magic in modern winemaking Simon, even in the heart of Sonoma County.
I am quite sure about that, and I am very happy to read your comment!
Now, pied de cuve, there's a subject that can get radical natural wine people into a froth...
Hands up, we used one this year, because my two wines are the first of the vintage. And I have to say it did wonders for my nerves, not spending two days anxiously looking at a sullen bucket of unmoving slop.
I know the nerves you speak of. The smell of acetone. That's always a cause for worry.
Pied de cuve, I see nothing wrong with that in natural wine making. Good on you for doing it. It's piece of mind, get a good starting going, strong ferment, and it's a little less headache. It's from the same grapes that your making wine from, what's the problem? No one complains about sourdough starter? Why do wine people beat themselves up over this purity thing?
I didn't have any idea that pied de cuve got the natties all frothy?!
I am not a radical, but I think the counter-argument is that if you seed all your ferments with the same pied de cuve, you're muting the "terroir" of each plot that you harvested separately. Becuase the pied de cuve has a sufficient head start that it's going to wipe out any of the delicate little yeasts trying to get going in the fresh grapes.
We need someone like @notdrinkingpoison here. He would knock some natural wine sense into our futile mainstream brains I'm sure.
As for some natural wine sense getting knocked into my brain, always happy to hear what they are saying. They've got sales numbers, media coverage, solid grape sources, they are both a competitor and colleague in the larger wine game. They are part of the fight to increase wine sales globally, increase interest in wine, and have a specific voice in the industry. In many ways, they have been more successful in certain quarters of the American wine world than either small production wineries (like me) or any large commercial establishment.
There seems to be some differences in what happens in France or Italy, compared to what happens here in the States. Part of the definition of what is 'natural' I suppose.
Thanks for the background. Yeah, I understand. All the little things that happen before SacCerv kicks in and actually does the job. I get it. The funny thing, there are actual DNA tests for all this to find out what yeasts are really doing the job. I'd be fascinated if any of the natty folks actually did testing. The irony would be if a commercial yeast slipped into their facility. But, ignorance is bliss.
It has almost certainly happened. But I think the bigger topic is the absolute dominance of Saccaromyces Cerevisiae - a yeast that was domesticated and spread across the globe by humans.
It's reliable, sure. But there are variances in those yeasts. Kinetics are different by varietal, by vineyard. Sure, I could use Uvaferm 43 on everything nearly guaranteeing the result and a flavorless wine. There are others that offer similar results. And in a 100,000 gallon tank, even 10,000, I get it.
And maybe in my small production, the pied de cuve gets things going 80% of the way, and maybe D254 or 43 or 212 finishes everything in the house. It's the hand I have to play if I want to be in the game in CA
Hi Simon, I do share with you the excitement about fermetations and love that serendipitous and a tad anarchic reality of the process. I have a nagging question myself the more I think of it, Why do a natural living (micro)organism like Saccharomyces Cerevisiae will create "alcohol" as a side effect of its feeding frenzy and then that same alcohol will be the reason of its demise and death. Is it an obvious answer for it? I might need to dig more into the research of Pasteur.
Wonderful piece as usual, Simon -- and good luck with your own fermentations!
Apropos “watching a tub full of crushed grapes looking like they could oxidise in a heartbeat,” readers should be aware that allowing one’s must to oxidize is with white grapes a reliable means of securing stability and resilience in the resulting wine. To the extent that this seems counterintuitive, an inoculative metaphor helps.
Yes absolutely. We pressed our white (Žilavka) with a basket press this year (because the fancy Willmes broke down), and I watched the dark brown almost hyper-oxidised juice coming out.
But yes, one must have faith because when it starts fermenting it miraculously transforms in colour and all the oxidation is gone. I need to read up on the chemical processes that are going on here.
But for me it is truly magic.
Great piece, Simon. One thing I heard recently, though, was that the yeasts doing most of the work in reality are those found in the winery, not in the vineyard. Curious to see any evidence about this.
Yes, I've heard this from a couple of sources. But I've no idea how one analyses this.
I still think there's magic in Sonoma County. It still exists. Maybe not in a tank farm, but it exists behind small roll-up doors, where temperature control is closing the roll-up door to wicked-hot asphalt and sun exposure. Where a pied de cuve is still used, or a co-ferment that we're not 100% sure how it will turn out. Or the pick is scheduled for tomorrow, maybe a week too early, but better early than 10 days to late. Maybe you pick it yourself with your father and brother and it lasts way to long in the day, and the grapes are hot, but better than not picking at all.
Yeah, there's still magic in modern winemaking Simon, even in the heart of Sonoma County.
I am quite sure about that, and I am very happy to read your comment!
Now, pied de cuve, there's a subject that can get radical natural wine people into a froth...
Hands up, we used one this year, because my two wines are the first of the vintage. And I have to say it did wonders for my nerves, not spending two days anxiously looking at a sullen bucket of unmoving slop.
I know the nerves you speak of. The smell of acetone. That's always a cause for worry.
Pied de cuve, I see nothing wrong with that in natural wine making. Good on you for doing it. It's piece of mind, get a good starting going, strong ferment, and it's a little less headache. It's from the same grapes that your making wine from, what's the problem? No one complains about sourdough starter? Why do wine people beat themselves up over this purity thing?
I didn't have any idea that pied de cuve got the natties all frothy?!
I am not a radical, but I think the counter-argument is that if you seed all your ferments with the same pied de cuve, you're muting the "terroir" of each plot that you harvested separately. Becuase the pied de cuve has a sufficient head start that it's going to wipe out any of the delicate little yeasts trying to get going in the fresh grapes.
We need someone like @notdrinkingpoison here. He would knock some natural wine sense into our futile mainstream brains I'm sure.
As for some natural wine sense getting knocked into my brain, always happy to hear what they are saying. They've got sales numbers, media coverage, solid grape sources, they are both a competitor and colleague in the larger wine game. They are part of the fight to increase wine sales globally, increase interest in wine, and have a specific voice in the industry. In many ways, they have been more successful in certain quarters of the American wine world than either small production wineries (like me) or any large commercial establishment.
There seems to be some differences in what happens in France or Italy, compared to what happens here in the States. Part of the definition of what is 'natural' I suppose.
Thanks for the background. Yeah, I understand. All the little things that happen before SacCerv kicks in and actually does the job. I get it. The funny thing, there are actual DNA tests for all this to find out what yeasts are really doing the job. I'd be fascinated if any of the natty folks actually did testing. The irony would be if a commercial yeast slipped into their facility. But, ignorance is bliss.
It has almost certainly happened. But I think the bigger topic is the absolute dominance of Saccaromyces Cerevisiae - a yeast that was domesticated and spread across the globe by humans.
It's reliable, sure. But there are variances in those yeasts. Kinetics are different by varietal, by vineyard. Sure, I could use Uvaferm 43 on everything nearly guaranteeing the result and a flavorless wine. There are others that offer similar results. And in a 100,000 gallon tank, even 10,000, I get it.
And maybe in my small production, the pied de cuve gets things going 80% of the way, and maybe D254 or 43 or 212 finishes everything in the house. It's the hand I have to play if I want to be in the game in CA
Hi Simon, I do share with you the excitement about fermetations and love that serendipitous and a tad anarchic reality of the process. I have a nagging question myself the more I think of it, Why do a natural living (micro)organism like Saccharomyces Cerevisiae will create "alcohol" as a side effect of its feeding frenzy and then that same alcohol will be the reason of its demise and death. Is it an obvious answer for it? I might need to dig more into the research of Pasteur.
I guess everything in nature has a beginning and an end. Once all sugars have been consumed, the yeast has done its job and it can die happy I guess!
This made me lol ''our favourite bully-boy Saccharomyces Cerevisiae''
😉
Next week I am harvesting at a vineyard planted in the 1840s and I feel like a goddaned magical witch. Just call me Morgaine le Faye.
Wow, that sounds amazing. What grape varieties are growing there? Some kind of wild field blend I guess?
Super rare ones that only grow in their vineyard plus Cesanese. But they don't do a field blend. They pick the grapes per variety.
In Lazio...