Money Quote:
“The majority of the ferment will be carried out by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The question is, will it be wild strains of this yeast that are locally derived, or a single strain that’s resident in the winery and is hijacking the fermentation?”
“The best answer we can give to this question is: It depends…”
Nice read, and why I let yellow jackets crawl all over the fruit.
But is that really the important question? Maybe it doesn’t matter that much. For those who have done both native and innoculated ferments, its obvious that the fermentation starts in a very different way but finishes pretty much the same. The native starts much slower since it has to build a population of S. Cerevisiae letting other yeasts handle the beginning. So regardless where the native comes from, its a longer ferment with more skin time, a later peak temperature, and includes compounds from the early non-Sach ferment. Maybe these differences are more important than the if yeast rode in on the fruit or dive bombed from the ceiling. But a great article that presented all sides. Thanks for posting.
If it finishes…
Good read. I would have liked to see more than a passing mention of the effect of the type of viticulture on the populations. Especially year to year.