By Thomas J. Payette, Winemaking Consultant
A winemaker is a person that is engaged in the selection and growing of a perishable raw material that is made into a perishable fermented product containing alcohol. This simplistic statement just begins to state one’s duty as a winemaker. In reality a winemaker is so much more.
The descriptions provided below are not fitting for all winemakers but perhaps the majority. As corporations have become prominent in the wine industry, some of these duties are eliminated or minimized; yet, most of the people holding corporate winemaking titles have come up through the ranks of hard knocks. Few excel in this profession without dragging hoses first and planting vines with their bare hands before sitting at the cushy, but very demanding, blending table.
In most cases, the winemaker is the general manager of sorts for many operations. Successful winemakers often need to be well-rounded to rise to the top of their game. This includes knowledge as an apprentice, farmer, chef, wine chemist, orchestrator, cellar logistics coordinator, master blender, investigator, people person and marketing guru.
Many winemakers are rugged, yet, refined. Sensorially “in touch” not only through their palate and nostrils but also through their other senses. They are also spatially cognizant and proficient in material handling either gently, as done more today, or otherwise. At crush and bottling many winemakers become logistic coordinators. Many know how they want something done and that one must roll their sleeves up to get that job done properly. Harvest happens once a year so winemakers often only get near forty chances in their lifetime at making wine each year. Winemakers must work exhaustingly hard and make the absolute most out of each vintage.
Apprentice
The winemaking industry still requires much from an individual. Aspiring winemakers often find themselves in need of hands-on training even after their academic degree (or degrees) are completed. Many will find this out from other winemakers who have worked under other seasoned individuals. Many will have to work hard to prove to the mentoring individual, they care to learn from, that they are indeed worthy of being taught. A friendship and professional teacher/student relationship will be built and at the appropriate time key (“missing information”) will be passed forward to the next generation. Few professions are still built on this principal and future winemakers are encouraged to press forward through this often-frustrating process. Work hard, ask questions and prove worthiness to any winemakers you seek to emulate.
Farmer
Winemakers are best suited when they understand the product they are making from the fruit forward. It takes a great raw material, in all cases, to make a great product. With farming knowledge, one knows to study items such as the depth and make-up of the soils they are growing their plants on and in. Knowledge of soil moisture, water holding capacity and any potential need for drain tile, irrigation or both should come into play when trying to produce a premium product. Few growing sites are perfect, on their own, but they do exist. One needs to know the physical and chemical make-up of the soils and how to adjust or condition those soils to provide the best of what is needed for those plants to produce the fruit desired. Some identify ions in the soils and how those interact in the soil while breaking down and allowing the plant to absorb them. If the farmer applies lime to change the pH – how does that affect the chemical make-up of the overall soil and the plant’s ability to absorb what is needed? Will the minerals become out of balance directly or indirectly affecting the plant and its fruit?
With the soils one should match those soils and potential above ground climates with the proper rootstock and scion plant wood if dealing with a vinifera plant. With these considerations, the winemaker is also affecting what style of wine he/she may want to make. If one has a certain desired flavor or style – this is the time to target that flavor profile and make selections that support that goal. Taking the climate above ground and looking at frost issues in the spring and fall will become important in selecting the plants. Areas with late spring frost will most likely guide one toward plants that bud out later in the spring. This decision will be coupled with winter low temperatures if in an area that may experience lows in the range to damage the plant. This can be a fine line as some insect pressures and diseases are minimized with appropriate low temperatures over the winter months.
Once the plants and soils are chosen, one will need to look, again, at the desired wine style and then decide on a training system for the plants. These decisions, as well as all decisions, will be in conjunction with the complete team to adapt the plants growing with the climate, the physiological predicted growth of the plants, vigor estimates, equipment, spacing, harvest mechanisms, orientation, prevailing winds, and micro-climate issues. After looking at these broad range items one may need to decide if leaf pulling will be used. Shoot positioning and canopy management will be questions to address.
Much of the above will be decided and handled in the field with handsful of soil while “kicking rocks in the field”. So much determines what the end product will be from the raw material, growing conditions and ability to affect the maturation of the fruit that will ultimately be the foundation for the finished wine(s).
Chef / Artistic Talent
Being a chef takes a lot of talent on many levels. Smell, aroma, mouth-feel consistency, finesse and timing all come into consideration. As I remind many wineries “never forget the wine glass”. Winemakers must take the complete set of chemical data and taste the wine to make decisions for that wine. The future of that wine must be known as a direction for the winemaker. One can not just make wine on chemistry alone. A wine that has the textbook perfect alcohol, pH, sulfur dioxide, titratable acidity and color is nothing if it tastes bad. The same is true if the wine develops a nasty protein haze while in the bottle. A winemaker must balance the flavors of the wine using knowledge from the wineglass combined with the knowledge of the laboratory. This balance takes experience many will only gain from their protégé as an apprentice. No, we exercise our artistic craft!
Wine Chemist
Along with our artistic craft great winemakers once again find themselves back in the vineyard all through the year, but now more than ever, looking at the condition of the fruit hanging in the field waiting for the anticipated call to “pick”. So much goes into this part of the process because one will not be able to go back in time after the grapes are harvested. Samples will be taken to judge the chemical aspects of the fruit and the winemaking and vineyard team will sample grapes. Much data is collected from this time as the group will taste and record flavors and profiles for given blocks of vines to determine what, when and where grape maturity matches the wine hoped to be made. The decision is critical; yet, more easily made if all persons are in touch with previous years, that particular block and the wines made from that block in past years. This is experience and sharing it, as a team, will be of most benefit from here forward. Great winemakers are often able to select the fruit and target a wine style from taste and chemistry. They are able to ascertain what will happen from harvest forward and to make reasonably predictable assessments on each production step forward and how that may be slightly altered to give desired goals in the resulting wine.
During these sampling times we will look at the chemistry of the fruit, the skins of the fruit, taste the flesh of the fruit, look at the seeds, taste the seeds, physical components of the seeds, the plant canopy and the plant condition itself, the fruit condition, tank space in the cellar, other harvests, fruit handling at the crush pad and weather. Questions for reds become: Will it be best to let these hang, gather intensity, allow the pH to rise, flavors to mature and possibly add a touch of acid at crush or go for a leaner style and harvest now with reduced skin contact time? Whites may go: Should we harvest sooner, place the grapes in the refrigerated box over night, chill, and whole cluster press first thing in the morning or wait and try some skin soaking in bins and the press after 5 hours cold soaking?
What yeast will we use? What characters of this fruit do we care to enhance? Will a malo-lactic fermentation balance the product and achieve a microbiological stability we want? Will we barrel ferment this product? How long and where will we age this product? Will we need to protein and cold stabilize this product?
Orchestrator
There are few winemakers that can get through a crush or bottling without becoming slightly rattled at the chaos whirling around from time to time. Most have enough knowledge of their operations to be able to shift one thing to cover another. Often these shifts afford a “win – win” situation that can be particularly gratifying. It becomes quite a balance when one grower needs to pick and is able, the fruit supports it and the field that should have been picked is having troubles with their harvester or crew. One may shift within seconds to give another the nod of approval to harvest. Predictions are always made, well in advance, with the knowledge certain stopgap measures might have to be implemented. Much communication, confidence and patience are needed at this time. The crush pad staff needs to know what quality and type of fruit is arriving in order to designate tanks and to “control” chaos. How many tons are expected? Historically how close has this grower and the team been able to estimate this vineyard? A ten- percent overage could completely shift the dynamics of the cellar. Can we still bring in the tonnage needed and still have the night crew get their jobs done? Our stainless steel and liquid vessel holding capacity limits us.
(Part 2 will run in The Grapevine Magazine March/April 2019 Issue)
