Postmodern Winemaking
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the General Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation.
Postmodern Winemaking
Rethinking the Modern Science of an
Ancient Craft
Clark Smith
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley•Los Angeles•London
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2013, 2014 by Clark Smith
ISBN 978-0-520-28259-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-520-95854-8 (e)
The Library of Congress has cataloged an earlier edition of this book as follows:
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Clark, 1951–.
Postmodern winemaking : rethinking the modern science of an ancient craft / Clark Smith.
pagescm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-27519-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-520-95526-4 (e)
1. Wine and wine making.I. Title.
TP548.S68742013
663’.2—dc23
2012045797
Manufactured in the United States of America
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Natures Natural, a fiber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
À Susie
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART ONE. PRINCIPLES
1The Solution Problem
2Creating the Conditions for Graceful Aging
3Building Structure: The Basic Tool Kit
4The Seven Functions of Oak
5Vineyard Enology: The Power of Showing Up
6The Vicinal Diphenol Cascade: Red Wine’s Defining Reaction
7Redox Redux: Measuring Wine’s Oxygen Uptake Capacity
8Speculations on Minerality
9Winemaking at High pH
10Integrated Brettanomyces Management
11Harmony and Astringency: Nice and Rough
PART TWO. PRACTICES
12Winemaking’s Lunatic Heroes
13Gideon Beinstock’s Mountain Magic: Handling Extreme Terroir
14Randall Grahm: California Dreamer in Search of the Miraculous
15Bob Wample: Thinking Like a Grape
PART THREE. TECHNOLOGY
16Pressing Matters: A Postmodern Tale
17Some Like It Hot
18The New Filtrations: Winemaking’s Power Tools
19Flash Détente: Winemaking Game Changer
PART FOUR. PHILOSOPHY
20Spoofulated or Artisanal?
21Science and Biodynamics: The Limits of Rationalism
22Natural Wine Nonsense
23Yeast Inoculation: Threat or Menace?
24New World Identity and Judging Reform
25Liquid Music: Resonance in Wine
Appendix 1. Winemaking Basics
Appendix 2. Navigating the Postmodern Calendar
Notes
Glossary of Postmodern Terminology
Index
About the Author
Preface
The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.
—Helen Keller, “Optimism” (1903)
I have been making and selling California wine since 1972. When first I drove into the Napa Valley, I encountered a billboard that quoted Robert Louis Stevenson: “. . . and the wine is bottled poetry.” For me, that was a little over the top. I thought, “Sure, I like wine, but ‘bottled poetry’? Give me a break.”
I have since come to believe that this statement sprang from more than the flowery prose customary in his era; that the wines of Stevenson’s time were actually altogether different from ours. The modernization of winemaking in its every aspect has left us with clean, solid wines of greater consistency than ever. But they are missing something.
I hope not to bore you, my reader, while I briefly recount the professional journey that led me to this conclusion.
In 1971, I dropped out of MIT and came to California. After six years selling wines at a well-stocked East Bay retailer, I spent the next thirteen making wine in the modern way. I started off dragging hoses for three years at Veedercrest Vineyards, and in 1980 enrolled at the University of California, Davis, where I learned the principles of modern scientific enology. In 1983 I began applying those principles at the R.H. Phillips Vineyard, where the Giguiere family and I took the fledgling winery from 3,000 to about 250,000 cases in seven years.
At Phillips, I set up an extensive small-lot vinification and sensory lab and, with a series of hardworking UC Davis interns, began delving into quality enhancement in the nascent Dunnigan Hills region, presenting at the American Society for Enology and Viticulture a series of seven papers on vineyard variables affecting wine quality, based on the reductionist methodology I had learned at Davis.
A simple example. We were making White Zinfandel that had more of a canned tomato soup aroma than the fresh strawberry notes I was seeking. Accordingly, I conducted a series of small-lot duplicate trials to test a variety of vineyard variables and winemaking procedures, presenting the resulting samples to a trained panel in a double-blind setting, asking the panel to rate the samples for the aromas they found as defined by the two standards I supplied: fresh strawberries and Campbell’s tomato soup. Compiling the scores and running ANOVA (analysis of variance) statistical analysis, we determined significant differences due to both greater grape maturity and four hours of skin contact, which led to substantial improvement in the following years.
But toward the end my stint at Phillips, I began to hit a wall. I considered that I had learned how to make very good white wines, but my reds were, well, pathetic. Even when I sourced excellent syrah fruit from Estrella River and old-vine mourvèdre from Oakley, the wines