My Approach to Winemaking

In the 1800's there were around 100 know chemical components in red wine. Now there are over 500, and one or two more are added each year. Even in our age of advanced technology there are still parts of the process that are mysterious.

With all this scientific effort there is still the element of 'hand made' quality that separates good wine from great wine. Achieving this kind of quality is a factor of grapes, weather, and the winemaking process. All but one is rather outside of my control, so that allows me to focus on the process of making wine as that's the area in which I've had the most experience.

The Right Way to Make Wine

I was once talking with a respected winemaker about his process. I was pressing him about exactly what is the "right" way to make wine. He finally tired of my questions and said,

"You're going to make the wine that you are going to make. If you and I take the exact same fruit and each make wine the final outcome will always be different. There's no one single way to do it; you try different things and stick to what you like. That's all I'm doing."

I stopped worrying about learning the "right" way to make wine, and to focus on finding out how to make wine that I really liked.