Finished last week reading JamieGoode & SamHarrop's book "AuthenticWine...toward natural & sustainable winemaking". That's a way more sensible sub-title than "how I saved the world from Parkerization".
Alice, in her review, dinged the book for not discussing thermovinification and carbonic maceration in Beaujolais. She was horrified that the book suggested yeast innoculations might be warranted in some cases. But she also acknowledged there was much interesting material contained in it, though felt it should be a bit more self-righteous in it declarations. Probably objectivity is something beyond her grasp.
The Chapters are:
2. The Diversity of Wine: How a Natural Approach Can Help Preserve Wine's Interest
3. Terroir
4. Grafted Vines
5. Biodynamics & Organics
6. Sustainable WineGrowing
7. When Winemakers Intervene: Chemical & Physical Manipulation
8. The Natural Wine Movement
9. Yeasts, Wild & Cultured
10. Ripeness & Alcohol Levels
11. Wine Faults
12. The Carbon Footprint of Wine
13. Marketing Authentic Wine
14. Conclusion
Whether its natural/authentic/naked wine, whatever term you wanta use, it seems to be a hot topic these days in wine publications/wine boards/blogs/etc. Hopefully, I predict it will, like all the hoo-ha about excessive alcohol levels in Calif wines, run its course in a few months after every blogger has posted his definitive say on this amorphous subject.
That said....this book is definitely a "must read". It is totally free of the preachy/whiney/vitriolic/polemic rhetoric you find on the subject in some other books. Jamie & Sam lay out the subject in uncomplicated (well...maybe a little complicated) and non-judgemental terms. They don't try to define authentic wine for you and draw the line in the sand, over which growers/winemakers are not to cross. They just lay out the options for winemakers to make authentic wines, without a lot of dogma, and let you decide what you want in an authentic. They even suggest....gasp...that RO might be useful in showing more of the terroir in a wine..unthinkable in some circles. That presents a real delimina for those w/ firm/dogmatic beliefs in what constitutes an authentic wine...maybe...gasp...making them even have to...gasp...think a little bit.
The chapter on SustainableWinegrowing was a bit on the fuzzy side to me and I'm still not clear what it means. It seems to be used a lot by wineries wishing to greenwash their image. The CarbonFootprint and the Marketing chapters seemed a bit non-specific as well.
But all the other chapters left me wanting to go back and re-read them...they were so full of information.
Bottom line.....this is an absolute must-read book for any wine geek...whether you care about naturalness in your wines or don't give a rat's a$$.
Tom
