Is Wine Made in the Vineyard?
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 12:44:53 PM
by Jim Gordon
Yesterday I moderated a panel discussion on red wine fermentation at the Napa Grape + Wine Expo, and got to pump two of the valley’s, maybe the world’s, most accomplished winemakers. With my questions, and a lot more from an audience of mostly younger winemakers and other industry folk, the winemakers revealed a lot about their philosophies of winemaking and actual techniques and practices.
Celia Masyczek makes wine for nine Napa Valley clients, and was the Staglin Family winemaker for about 10 years. Bob Levy heads winemaking for Harlan Estate, Bond and The Napa Valley Reserve.
I mentioned in my last post how one of Celia’s wines, the Rocca Family Cabernet, won a a cool accolade in Bordeaux a couple of weeks ago. Bob, likewise, has been in the news, as several of his high-flying, high-priced Cabernets from the 2004 vintage have gotten stratospheric scores from critics. Celia said her highest-priced wine is about $125, while Bob’s are all more expensive than that.
Since I’m the editor of the industry magazine, Wines & Vines, I was trying to bring out of the two winemakers as much useful, how-to advice as I could for the panel audience and our magazine audience. We went over everything from sorting tables to post-fermentation maceration. But to me one of the most interesting lines of discussion was how important the vineyard is compared to the work of the winemaker.
Is wine really made in the vineyard, as the winemakers mantra goes, or does the winemaker have a big influence? In response to an audience question, Bob said that choosing the vineyard site is by far the most important decision in winemaking.
But he also made the obvious point that there are many examples of vineyards selling grapes from the same site to different winemakers, and those wines do turn out differently. They may have a family resemblance, but you can easily taste the winemaker’s influence.
As a journalist covering wine, I get tired of hearing that the wine is made in the vineyard, even if it is true. It’s become a cliche. It seems like a marketing ploy sometimes. Our Wines & Vines columnist, Tim Patterson, thinks this line of rhetoric might hurt wineries in the long run.
If the vineyard did all the work, you’d never get wine, just raisins. The winemaker has to wave the wand or there’s no magic.
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