authentic wine -toward natural and sustainable winemaking

[...]... innovations and an ever- expanding catalogue of yeast strains, processing aids, and winemaking additions, which have given them much more creative control over the winemaking process Have they all used this power wisely? In the past, fine wine was an aesthetic system, based on benchmarking and learning Students of wine explored the classic styles and learned to discern what constitutes a great wine as opposed... like naturalness, the concept of authenticity is a shifting paradigm, and that there are limits to its application for individuals and businesses Larger more hierarchical businesses have greater limitations, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try to make more authentic wines THE FO R K IN THE R OAD The issue of naturalness and authenticity is one of the key current debates in the world of wine, and. .. retracing of steps and a celebration of what has made wine different and special: a respect for tradition, a sense of place, and an acknowledgment that diversity is valuable and not just an inconvenience Wine is embedded in the deeper culture The destination of this road is the rediscovery of natural, ” authentic wine This is wine with a vital connection to the vineyard it came from, wine that is unique... interesting and tastes better, and natural wine production is more sustainable and respectful of the environment This concept may also offer an effective marketing strategy for wine, which is currently stuck in a price-reduction rut In this book we present a wide-ranging, critical look at the way naturalness and authenticity apply to wine We begin by examining how more natural approaches in the vineyard... Shifting to the winery, we will discuss the natural wine movement and attempts to make wine with no additives at all, as well as a gradual shift among many growers to try to reduce winemaking inputs to the bare minimum We’ll take a thorough look at exactly what is added to wine, and why We will also cover attempts to reduce the carbon footprint of wine We conclude the book by examining whether naturalness... make wine One could therefore argue that the more manipulations or additions a wine undergoes, the less natural the resulting product, although this is an overly simplistic view In truth, there is no such thing as natural or unnatural wine; rather, the “naturalness” of a wine is most usefully measured on a continuum from least to most natural and takes in many aspects of the cultivation, harvesting, and. .. simply poor winemaking Natural wines made with no sulfur dioxide additions often taste very similar, and the winemaking choices have in this case resulted in the loss of a sense of place A winemaker who lets her or his wines go bretty (referring to the influence of the rogue yeast Brettanomyces, covered in the chapter on wine faults) will find that they taste the same as a whole heap of other bretty wines... for the wine industry We realize that readers will be coming to this book from different perspectives Believers in natural wine (whatever it may be) will be looking for a defence of the natural wine position, coupled with a thorough exploration of those wine producers who would position themselves under the natural wine banner Others will be sceptics who have already decided that the term natural wine. .. natural wine But if we accept the idea of a continuum of naturalness, and if we recognize that it is useful to establish just how natural some wines are when compared with others, then a range of choices become available in the vineyard and winery that will shift the wine in one direction or the other along the naturalness continuum We must draw a line somewhere along the continuum from least natural. .. discerning market of wine geeks and wealthy restaurant diners At the other we have wine for the masses: wine as a commodity, dominated by branded wines and sold through supermarkets and convenience stores The middle ground is disappearing fast, which is a minitragedy, because this is where much of the diversity lies Modern retailing doesn’t suit interesting wine well Generally speaking, wine is best made . Jamie. Authentic wine : toward natural and sustainable winemaking / Jamie Goode and Sam Harrop. p. c m. Includes index. ISBN 978- 0- 520- 26563- 9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Wine and wine making