TONG N°5 / Red Burgundy
TONG N°4 / Champagne
TONG N°3 / ¿El Futuro?
TONG N°2 / Terroir
TONG N°1 / Sauvignon Blanc
TONG N°4 / Champagne
TONG N°3 / ¿El Futuro?
TONG N°2 / Terroir
TONG N°1 / Sauvignon Blanc
© Millefeuille Press
TONG N°6
Ripeness
Ripeness is a controversial concept. These days, it evokes hang time and over-alcoholic red wines. But there’s a lot more going on. This issue reveals the factors at play when trying to define the best time to pick the grapes and the resulting wine styles. Do we want a heavy or a lightweight wine? Red-winemaking has always focussed on concentration. Bordeaux is the textbook example. But the traditional approach is changing. All over the world, winemakers are focussing on finesse. They do this by harvesting earlier and allowing more “greenness” in their wines – higher acidity and slightly juicier tannins that stress fruitiness – and/or by using softer vinification methods. In most cases, Burgundy has become the model. These softer techniques are also being applied to lesser-known grape varieties, or grape varieties that do not perform well when made according to the “concentration” method. Stress is both on fruit and structure, based on a more "holistic" view of things.
Content
The art of canopy management
How pruning affects grape ripeness
by Richard Smart
Liquid music
Playing with alcohol in wine and its "sweet spots"
by Clark Smith
Yeast. Facing new challenges
The search for low-alcohol producing yeast
by Sylvie Dequin
Bringing Sancerre to Marlborough
Old-world techniques changing the face of new-world wine
by Lionel & Jean-Christophe Bourgeois
Lower sugar levels, please!
About different possibilities when to pick the grapes
by Adam Tolmach
How pruning affects grape ripeness
by Richard Smart
Liquid music
Playing with alcohol in wine and its "sweet spots"
by Clark Smith
Yeast. Facing new challenges
The search for low-alcohol producing yeast
by Sylvie Dequin
Bringing Sancerre to Marlborough
Old-world techniques changing the face of new-world wine
by Lionel & Jean-Christophe Bourgeois
Lower sugar levels, please!
About different possibilities when to pick the grapes
by Adam Tolmach
Richard Smart
Australia-based Richard Smart is arguably the world's best-known viticultural consultant and the founder of canopy management. He has more than 40 years of experience and has consulted in more than 30 countries. During the 1970s he undertook some of the world's first experiments with drip irrigation, and he was the co-inventor of the Smart-Dyson pruning method. In 1991 he wrote "Sunlight into Wine", still the bible of canopy management today. He is one of the most influential personalities in the world of wine.
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Australia-based Richard Smart is arguably the world's best-known viticultural consultant and the founder of canopy management. He has more than 40 years of experience and has consulted in more than 30 countries. During the 1970s he undertook some of the world's first experiments with drip irrigation, and he was the co-inventor of the Smart-Dyson pruning method. In 1991 he wrote "Sunlight into Wine", still the bible of canopy management today. He is one of the most influential personalities in the world of wine.
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Clark Smith
US-scientist and winemaker Clark Smith patented volatile acidity reduction and alcohol adjustment applications of reverse osmosis in 1992 and established Vinovation to commercialise them. He teaches wine chemistry fundamentals at Napa Valley College, UC Davis, Fresno State University and Missouri State University. His reverse osmosis techniques are applied to more than 2,500 wines per year.
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US-scientist and winemaker Clark Smith patented volatile acidity reduction and alcohol adjustment applications of reverse osmosis in 1992 and established Vinovation to commercialise them. He teaches wine chemistry fundamentals at Napa Valley College, UC Davis, Fresno State University and Missouri State University. His reverse osmosis techniques are applied to more than 2,500 wines per year.
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Sylvie Dequin
Sylvie Dequin is Research Director at the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) at Montpellier University in France. Her research focuses on genomics and metabolism of wine yeasts and on the development of engineering strategies for yeast strains improvements.
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Sylvie Dequin is Research Director at the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) at Montpellier University in France. Her research focuses on genomics and metabolism of wine yeasts and on the development of engineering strategies for yeast strains improvements.
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Lionel & Jean-Christophe Bourgeois
Cousins Lionel and Jean-Christophe Bourgeois are both winemaker at the family domaines of Henri Bourgeois in Sancerre and Marlborough. They try to bring Sancerre practices into New Zealand and it seems their old-world pruning method of double Guyot among other factors has huge implications for grape ripeness.
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Cousins Lionel and Jean-Christophe Bourgeois are both winemaker at the family domaines of Henri Bourgeois in Sancerre and Marlborough. They try to bring Sancerre practices into New Zealand and it seems their old-world pruning method of double Guyot among other factors has huge implications for grape ripeness.
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Adam Tolmach
Adam Tolmach started his Ojai Vineyard in 1983 with the ambition of producing distinctive California wines using traditional winemaking practices he'd picked up in Burgundy and the Rhône. Twenty-seven years later, he still pursues this goal at his artisanal winery in California, buying grapes from the coolest districts of northern Santa Barbara County.
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Adam Tolmach started his Ojai Vineyard in 1983 with the ambition of producing distinctive California wines using traditional winemaking practices he'd picked up in Burgundy and the Rhône. Twenty-seven years later, he still pursues this goal at his artisanal winery in California, buying grapes from the coolest districts of northern Santa Barbara County.
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