Need I say more?? Corn starch. They put ?*&!!!@# cornstarch in the cheese!!! No wonder it tastes like plastic.
This should not even be allowed to say 'mozzarella' on the label!!
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Monday, January 02, 2006
Technology & Wine Ethics 101
I was reading an article today, posted on an excellent, popular wine blog titled, “Vinography.” The subject of the post was an article about scientists at Carnegie-Mellon who are working with a scent laboratory in Chile to computerize characteristics of quality wines, and find ways to automate fermentations to make more quality wine. An extremely pertinent question was posed: "When does wine go from a magical mix of human art and nature's bounty to a chemically engineered beverage?"
Technology has brought us great advances; cross-flow filtration allows us to legitimately filter wine without stripping it or exposing it to oxygen, better presses reduce phenolic extraction and oxidation, gentler pumps reduce strain on wines during movement. More understanding of enzymatic processes and microbiology help us to make sound wine and expose what is unique and true about our own terroir.
At the cynical end of the spectrum is the saying, "Man makes wine, God makes vinegar." This is true to a point. But when does all of our technology obliterate the notion of terroir? If one wine tastes better to you (or me, or Robert Parker,) than another wine, is it fundamentally superior, or only until it owes that superiority to technological manipulation?
This is a conversation that is constantly ongoing among my fellow winemakers, winery owners, wine marketers, and wine drinking friends. Our company’s stated goal is to make the best wine possible. There are available tools that can make wines that will taste better, receive better scores, be more successful commercially, etc… As a company, do we decide to make use of these tools, despite the fact that they may obliterate the notion of terroir and very real fact of seasonal variation? What if we forsake these tools, while competitors all around us utilize them?
One example is the manipulation of wine alcohol levels in order to hit a so-called "sweet spot." Many wineries commonly reduce wine alcohol levels via a mechanical apparatus known as a "spinning cone." This device is used in many other food, perfume and coffee applications, and can delicately separate aromatic components, alcohol, and water from the wine, allowing them to be recombined at will. The way that alcohol levels affect sensory qualities of wine are very impactful, and very non-linear. Through trial blend backs of the “de-alc” wine into the original blend, one may discover that a given wine shows its best aromatics and mouthfeel at 12.4%, 13.2%, 13.7%, and 14.4%, with unattractive or muted phases between these peaks of flavor. Based on this knowledge, one can blend back to reduce alcohol to the desired level in the main lot of wine. This happens not just with mass produced wines, but increasingly among the very top tier of expensive, limited production, critically acclaimed Napa, Sonoma, and even more recently, Central Coast wines.
Maybe this is just another face of older issues; chapitalization in Burgundy, concentrators in Bordeaux, irrigation in California, etc… Is the mission of winemaking in the New World to produce a tasty beverage that consumers flock to and critics rave about, or to develop something true to the spirit of our own land; developing new traditions that will endure? If we make use of this technology, are we negating the notion of vintage by changing one of the most obvious influences of the growing season? Does that matter to the consumer? Does it matter to my own sense of integrity regarding what we are doing?
I think that our industry needs a “Wine Ethicist!”
Technology has brought us great advances; cross-flow filtration allows us to legitimately filter wine without stripping it or exposing it to oxygen, better presses reduce phenolic extraction and oxidation, gentler pumps reduce strain on wines during movement. More understanding of enzymatic processes and microbiology help us to make sound wine and expose what is unique and true about our own terroir.
At the cynical end of the spectrum is the saying, "Man makes wine, God makes vinegar." This is true to a point. But when does all of our technology obliterate the notion of terroir? If one wine tastes better to you (or me, or Robert Parker,) than another wine, is it fundamentally superior, or only until it owes that superiority to technological manipulation?
This is a conversation that is constantly ongoing among my fellow winemakers, winery owners, wine marketers, and wine drinking friends. Our company’s stated goal is to make the best wine possible. There are available tools that can make wines that will taste better, receive better scores, be more successful commercially, etc… As a company, do we decide to make use of these tools, despite the fact that they may obliterate the notion of terroir and very real fact of seasonal variation? What if we forsake these tools, while competitors all around us utilize them?
One example is the manipulation of wine alcohol levels in order to hit a so-called "sweet spot." Many wineries commonly reduce wine alcohol levels via a mechanical apparatus known as a "spinning cone." This device is used in many other food, perfume and coffee applications, and can delicately separate aromatic components, alcohol, and water from the wine, allowing them to be recombined at will. The way that alcohol levels affect sensory qualities of wine are very impactful, and very non-linear. Through trial blend backs of the “de-alc” wine into the original blend, one may discover that a given wine shows its best aromatics and mouthfeel at 12.4%, 13.2%, 13.7%, and 14.4%, with unattractive or muted phases between these peaks of flavor. Based on this knowledge, one can blend back to reduce alcohol to the desired level in the main lot of wine. This happens not just with mass produced wines, but increasingly among the very top tier of expensive, limited production, critically acclaimed Napa, Sonoma, and even more recently, Central Coast wines.
Maybe this is just another face of older issues; chapitalization in Burgundy, concentrators in Bordeaux, irrigation in California, etc… Is the mission of winemaking in the New World to produce a tasty beverage that consumers flock to and critics rave about, or to develop something true to the spirit of our own land; developing new traditions that will endure? If we make use of this technology, are we negating the notion of vintage by changing one of the most obvious influences of the growing season? Does that matter to the consumer? Does it matter to my own sense of integrity regarding what we are doing?
I think that our industry needs a “Wine Ethicist!”
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