I do care about wine that tastes good, without flaws like brett. I ask about this stuff because I find the winemaking process fascinating - much more interesting than the BS about non-interventionist, ‘natural’ winemaking. The Testy Troll and all the other basement dwellers can kiss my ass.
That’s pretty loaded William. I only care when those things you mention intrude into the wine and become a facet of their own. Then I stop and wonder what could have been made with less intrusion. Same with “flaws”. Not everyone views brett as a flaw 100% of the time and could write a post as yours the other way. Sure too much brett will be a facet that over whelms the wine and would be a flaw. But I would say a wine that is very soft and over ridden with vanilla and espresso charred is flawed as well with too much new wood masking the fruit.
William,
I agree that the winemmakeing process is fascinating but I believe that it is fascinating for a variety of reasons, some of which have to do with techniques like those you list.
I can well imagine that the end-user doesn’t care much about these techniques but as one who makes wine, I like to stay open to ideas that may seem outside the box. I would guess that most winemakers think that the learning curve is infinite - even though they are faced with making real-time decisions on which techniques are available to them and which they will use.
BS is where you find it and I find it in the last sentence of the paragraph quoted above.
Best, Jim
I was (and still am) overly caffeinated this morning, so I apologize for my seemingly inane rant.
The point I was trying make wasn’t that I don’t care at all about these things, in fact I do. What I don’t/won’t do is pass judgment on someone for their choices. I love wine, I am a wino in what I hope to be the best sense of the word. I love to know why my friends wine tastes so radically different from another that was picked one block over, same clone, same day. (Great side by side comparison btw) I am really excited to try the Carlisle one under cork, one under screw cap wines in a few years. One of the things that keeps me excited about wine is the educational/learning aspect of it all. Rootstocks, oak treatments, even marketing – all of it.
Basically this was all born of Loring & Weis commenting that they no longer share information or fully participate in BB’s like these because of the sniping and BS that is resultant.
BTW, I’ll be drinking with Dridge in a couple of hours while eating a Flannery Wagyu Rib Cab, CA Reserve Rib Cap and a “Landreth Cut” Porterhouse…so there.
Like you, I care in an abstract way about all those things. But none of them matter outside of the context of how the wine tastes. It seems that somehow people associate winemaking processes with some sort or ethics or morality. The only context I find applicable to winemaking is when people lie about what they do. Or if they do something illegal.
I understand that everyone has their own set of standards. Their own beliefs. Their own goals. And as long as we respect that there’s not one right answer, and that a process isn’t inherently good or evil on its own (aside from something illegal), then we can have discussions about what we do and why. And if we can get past the marketing aspect of things like “because I use Process X, my wines will ALWAYS be the BEST”, then we can get to some real truths about what each of us find to be important when it comes to making wines we like.
Even though I’m not a believer in Biodynamics, I can’t discount that the philosophy resonates with some people to the point that knowing the grapes were grown that way makes them like the wine more. Or that for some growers, it provides the structure in which they grow better fruit. But don’t use that to discount what other do without trying their wines with an open mind.
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