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The Story Behind The Story Of Wild Yeast In Winemaking
Wild yeast is not the secret indispensable answer to making great wine. It’s one of the ways todevelop complexity in wines, even if this added complexity is short-lived. The majority of winemakers feel these methods make their craft more interesting and challenging, assuring theuse of wild yeast will continue to grow in the production of super premium wines.There are groups of winemakers who continually look for techniques that will help them improvewine quality. The “indigenous yeast” trend became a buzz word popularized by influential winecritics of wines made with more natural, less interventionist techniques. Native yeast start thefermentation naturally in contrast to the common California, and in recent years European,practice of adding yeast to start the fermentation.Fining (clarification of wine by filtration and chemical additives to precipitate out suspendedsolids) and filtration are examples of “interventionist” techniques some critics object to, perceivedas excessive manipulation which compromises wine quality. This view is contradicted by topCalifornia winemakers that claim a properly carried out fining or filtration improves the quality of some wines.Robert Parker, a skilled writer and passionate advocate of wine quality, helped shape consumer opinions and buying habits. Some winemakers, being well aware that favorable Parker reviewssell wine, are actually producing their wines to suit his taste. John Williams, Owner andWinemaker of Frog’s Leap Winery in Napa Valley who began making wine since 1981, draws theline: “When I see people making good wines change what they’ve believed in for a long time justto satisfy the latest craze, I have to scratch my head.”
What role should the wine writer have in the winery?
Williams believes a limited one: “Wine writers do have a place in the cellar - reflecting on andcommunicating the vision of the winemaker. To me, the most interesting wines are those madewith conviction based on the personal experiences of the winemaker. That conviction can change,that’s how wines get better, but it should not shift with the wind.”Williams, a long-time user of wild yeast, feels that the inherent risks are overstated. He says, “Youbring grapes into a winery and you’re faced with risks. I don’t think those risks are substantiallyincreased by using natural yeast fermentations and that is 20 years experience. I don’t want tosay that we’ve never had a fermentation problem that is not true, we have. But I think there maybe some benefits to an overall program of using natural yeast that come with it, the wines aremore harmonious, more knit and reflect their vineyard character more closely.” Terry Adams,Winemaker at Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards, comments on the wild yeast trend: “There is acontinuum, 10% of the wines I think are excellent and 10% I think should be sold in bulk andthere are wines in the middle. I do about 10-15% of the wine that way because I like thecomplexity. But I like the clean fruit characters that I get from cultured yeast. I continue to workwith it because I think it’s fun and exciting, but it just doesn’t work for me the way it seems to workwith other people. I think it’s a great philosophical approach; I just don’t know that everyone hasthe same indigenous yeast. We’ve decided which yeast we like and they work well for us.”Most winemakers using wild yeast are looking less at the marketing dividends and more at thepotential for enhancing wine quality. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is referred to as the “true” wineyeast, and it’s only on about 1 in 1,000 berries. Its alcohol tolerance enables fermentation up toand beyond 13% alcohol. Also on these grapes are other species of wild yeast, bacteria andmold. Generally, S. cerevisiae is the least prevalent of these microbial species. For the first one tothree days of a natural fermentation, the wild yeast predominate. As alcohol levels reaches 3-4%,the wild yeast give way to the increasing numbers of alcohol tolerant Saccharomyces and in twoto five days this yeast predominates. At the end of a natural fermentation, usually only S.cerevisiae yeast is present from a multiplicity of strains (as many as 16) in such fermentations.
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harryo

There must be medicinal benefits to wines. Sounds like there is alot of good here.

reply03 / 11 / 2008
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