Account of fermenting a "natural" wine

The new(ish) wine columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, who replaced the windy W. Blake Gray, is writing an account of making a "natural" wine
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/win ... 4&cat=3334

The SunHawk vineyard, planted starting in 2006, is enjoying its first real harvest. Kevin notes a theory that a vineyard's first crop tends to be excellent — and an excellent barometer of its potential — which stands to reason when you consider that the process of growing fruit (or more precisely, their seeds) is essentially one of vine reproduction. The vineyard has been building up for years to the point where it will finally bear mature fruit.

SunHawk is eight acres of grapes and 12 acres of olive trees (plus a labyrinth of lavender plants) all farmed biodynamically. This year the eight acres of grapes are all for Kevin. Mostly it's Syrah — a variety I have a nearly endless fondness for, making me the exception from the average wine drinker — but there's also quite a bit of other Rhone grapes: the red Grenache, Mourvedre and Cinsault; plus the white grapes Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne and Picpoul. And a touch of Cabernet. (Trevallon would be proud.)

Lots of hands on descriptions about winemaking choices, crushing by foot, sanitation. I've been following with interest.

Walt

Very interesting, Walt, thanks for posting it.

Somewhat unorthodox, but that doesn't mean he can't produce a good wine. However, I question some of his "science". For instance he talks about using the juice to cover the floating grapes to protect the wine. He compares to the properties of honey. Honey has around 3 times the brix of grape juice and is hygroscopic (removes moisture from what it comes in contact with including bacteria and other microorganisms, therby destroying them). Grape juice does not offer the same protection, though he might get some benefit. He also says that wines might result in lower alcohol if brix measurements were take with the Anton Paar device he uses because it typically measures a degree higher than a refractometer. When using brix or specific gravity to determine alcohol content, you have to have a beginning and ending reading (alcohol is measured based on the difference). If the Anton Paar device measures a degree high in the beginning, it likely measures a degree high in the end. Hence, the change in brix is the same. Maybe I'm missing what he is trying to say but as I read it, it doesn't make a lot of sense. He also mentions limiting oxygen, which yeast need in the beginning to get going and to build-up a vigorous fermentation. Later the yeast benefit from a low-oxygen environment, so maybe he is mostly limiting after fermentation has begun. A combination of low oxygen and the sulphite naturally created during the fermentation process might offer him a decent amount of protection. However, without adding sulphite to the grapes in the beginning, he is definitely exposing the must to all sorts of bacteria and yeast that were on the grapes.

The biggest issue I see on this is not knowing what yeast he is going to get. Some yeasts can only tolerate 6% - 7% alcohol while he appears to be shooting for around 14%. Some yeasts also make lousy wine. When using yeast strains developed for wine making, you can somewhat pinpoint the effect it will have. Some yeasts do great in white wine, but make a lousy red wine. The reverse is also true.

I'm not knocking the guy. He knows what he is doing and realizes his approach is somewhat unorthodox. I think ongoing consistency is going to be his biggest problem. Even if there is protection from bacteria and oxidation, he still doesn't know what yeast is going to ferment and hence, the properties of the resulting wine. I do agree this is an interesting subject; and he has an interesting approach.

Hi Jack,
I’m sure you heard of carbonic maceration or whole berry or whole cluster fermentation. In the case of the first wine they did a 20% crush and then 80% whole berry or whole cluster. In these types of fermentation (unlike preparing the must using a full crush and then getting a “desired” wine yeast strain to “dominant” fermentation) in carbonic maceration you are not really letting any yeast strain dominant fermentation instead all you really want is the enzymes present in the yeast to be released and to do their thing to every berry. Instead of having a “single” fermentation you got literally “thousands” of single berry fermentations.

Salute

I believe you are correct. I didn't continue reading past the two pictures (I thought that was the end). However, there were other clues in the part I did read that if I had read a little more carefully, I probably should have picked up. I will admit that I know very little about carbonic maceration and have never performed myself. From his own account, it appears he is still a little unorthodox, but I can't speak to what would be normal or abnormal for this process.