The Wine Blokes

I was in the lab yesterday and found myself in a verbal stoush over the usefulness and purpose of doing labarotory trials on juices and wine throughout the winemaking process.  WInemakers are a strange breed, but like everyone else, they all have there little ”isms” that set them apart from the winemaker across the road. Winemaking is part science, part art, and part feel.  During the winemaking process, starting as the grapes arrive at the winery, decisions are made on additions such as acid, SO2, tannin, blending components, and numerous other additives that can be legally added.

I’ve worked with winemakers who are very methodical and routinely add the same additions to every batch of juice or wine.  Some may not even do any analysis, and make the addition based on tradition, experience, volume, or just because it’s been done that way all along.

Others will painstakingly do trial after trial on nominal additions, which inevitably causes procrastination and confusion, or what you could also call “analysis paralysis”. Many additions such as acid, tannin, and SO2 are very routine, and it may not be neccesary to do any trials if it’s worked in the past.  However if you talk to winemakers who have had great success with a certain variety or blend, they will all tell you that once they have the fruit quality they desire, and have made the best possible wine from each of the components, they will take time and care to ensure the blend they choose is superior. This is arguably the most important subjective decision a winemaker will make.  Decisions on acid & SO2 for example, can be backed up by laboratory analysis. The final blend or finished wine however, is generally entirely up to the winemakers feel.  This is in essence the art of winemaking. Afterall, the winemaker is trying to create something that other people will enjoy. Some winemakers will tell you that they only make the wine they like to drink. If this is also what others like to drink they have found a goldmine. If their feel and taste is skewed away from consumer tastes, they have dug their own grave.

These days it’s rare to find a winery that makes wine only for its own tastes. If they do, they generally don’t need any financial incentive, or they have another brand or product that acts as a cashcow.

So are winemakers scientists, agriculturists, or artists? As a winemaker, you have to be all of these on a day to day basis, and to be successful, you can’t have one, without the others.