After The Harvest - Tasting Wine for Greatness

All the grapes have been harvested. They have been crushed, de-stemmed, macerated, the musts have fermented. The once exhaustive aromas of carbon dioxide and alcohol have subsided. For those of us in the wine-production industry, it feels as though the leviathan wind that threw open the doors and windows and scattered our effects has finally left the building.

It is a relief really. For half a dozen people to produce fifty-thousand cases of wine from over 700 tons of grapes in about seventy+ days is daunting (and that’s a small production, relatively speaking). But what happens now that the grapes have fermented? What happens after the sugars have been broken down by yeasts and you have alcohol?

This is truly when the real work begins – after the harvest. But what do we have so far? What stage of the process are we in?

For red and white wines, depending on the varietal, we will determine what shape the wine is in. We will look at the PH, the percentage of alcohol by volume, the rate of bacterial conversion of acids. We will look for potential flaws in the wine, off aromas or unbalanced characteristics, anything that could make the final product displeasing.

There are empirical tests which can be applied to examine all of these aspects of wine chemistry. But truthfully, the best way to know how healthy a young wine is, is to taste it. Wine is a gastronomic experience after all, not a science project.

As romantic as this sounds, tasting young wines is not as fun as tasting finished and aged wines. A winemaker has to be able to sense where a wine is going, and could go, if it were to achieve something close to greatness. Unfortunately, greatness doesn’t come easy.

The foremost concern, prior to manipulating a wine for the consuming public is staying true to the varietal expectation.