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The first person you should make wine for is yourself. In
contradiction to the greatest Indian ideology of all, that of selflessness,
Winemaking is an almost selfish task. When it is 4 o clock in the morning,
you have not had a break for 20 hours and you dread hearing the sound of the
rolling wheels of the next truck full of grapes lumbering through your front
door, then you know you can only be doing this as a labour of love. Forget
the poems, the pictures of ancient Persian lords draped over princesses,
wine goblet in hand – winemaking is sheer hard work.
I have worked vintages now in New Zealand with some of the
best winemakers in the world, and continue to hone my skills as an aspirant
master winemaker. Much as I wish I was a Persian Lord draped over a
princess, more often than not I find myself waist deep in macerated red
berry skins at ridiculous hours of the day….but I do still love it.
A winemaker wears many hats, but first and foremost you must
know what good wine is. It is up to the winemaker to decide what style of
wine they want, and then to actually achieve the desired style.
Do you know how you might achieve the following….
‘ I want a dry white wine, full bodied almost creamy in
texture, still maintaining a zestiness, but not so fruit driven on the nose,
more toasted features and perhaps some flintiness’
By the end of this series of articles I hope you may have an
idea of how.
For the purpose of this first article let’s just stick to
definitions. This may be a bit ‘back to basics’ for most of you, but there’s
nothing like starting at the beginning.
Modern winemaking seems to have been divided into two
predominant areas.
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Viticulture – ‘The
cultivation, science and study of grape growing.’
Viticulture
gets you as far as having well matured fruit berries in your hand –
hopefully with the optimum flavour profiles, sugar, acid and water content,
good skin to pulp ratio and of optimum size – and of course with no evidence
of pest or disease.
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Oenology – The art and
science of winemaking.
Oenology
encompasses all those logical and magical skills that combine to turn a
grape berry into a great wine, fit for Kings, Queens and of course me.
Most great winemakers seem to have a foot in both camps, and
especially for those just starting out in an enterprise of their own, in an
infant industry such as India, knowledge of both is essential.
The only other term I’m going to Introduce in this Opening
Article is that of ‘Terroir’.
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Terroir – Broadly speaking ‘the
site- or region-specific characteristics of a wine’
In truth terroir is as
much a philosophy as anything else. It encompasses the large number of
factors about a vineyard which make the wines made from those vines unique.
Wine buffs often talk of being able to feel the terroir in their wine – half
the time it’s probably just Brettanomyces. (A little wine joke there
for those of you who are already ahead of the game)
In
the following articles on this site, I will be pressing further into each of
the definitions, and outlining simple points that are ‘must knows’ if you
are yourself venturing into the world of grape growing and winemaking.
However if you really want to know the ins and outs, there is
no substitute to studying an accredited course. If you want any info on
courses just drop me a line. There are plenty of correspondence courses
available out there.
Article
written by:
Puneet Dhall
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