Winemakers, Novice to Expert

The Novice Wrote:





Winemaking chose me, at what point I don’t know. I do know that I don’t have a choice in the matter and I have to see where it takes me before rendering a complete and fair judgment. I wouldn’t label it a calling just yet – I don’t think a reflective period of six months is adequate for those extremes.

Prior to embarking on professional winemaking, I prescribed to the idea that winemaking is, “as much a science as it is an art,” or conversely, “as much an art as it is a science” (depending on the audience at hand). I am pleased to find from my tenderfoot experiences, this holds true.
I have chosen to make my way and earn my chops in winemaking in the most scientific of all scientific settings – the laboratory. From the laboratory surroundings, I have been saturated with tests, routines, and the overflow of data, numbers, and recordkeeping.

One would think that my convictions would change, prompting me to proclaim the scientific aspect of winemaking as superior. Industry trends and the prevalence of modern laboratories in wineries as well as increasing budgets for testing and sophisticated equipment might also reinforce this assertion.
If blending and creative decision making were based solely on the numbers, the scientific notion of winemaking would win out. But every number churned out has been promptly followed up with the most discerning machinery of all – the human senses.

Complete winemakers, in my observations, use the science to supplement the art of winemaking. No winemaker worth his or her weight in gold would ever proceed from one major step to the next without using organoleptic analyses (winemaker-ese for tasting). After all, the average consumer – arguably the only opinion that counts – doesn’t usually evaluate the wine with a mass spectrometer but rather their senses.
My ventures into winemaking are young, however, something tells me this will be a lesson illustrated to me many times over. There will surely be instances where it does not make scientific sense to move ahead with something so beautiful. David Sheffer, Enologist, Napa Valley California.






The Experienced Quoted:





"It is a wonderful game of hide and seek that we play with Mother Nature...it is Nature's glory to conceal, and the winemaker's glory to reveal, to discover and to persuade the grapes to unveil their highest potential. It is the playfulness of guessing when and how much to step in that is at the heart of the winemakers task." Charles Hendricks, Winemaker - Black Stallion Winery, Napa Valley California.