Episode One: A Deep Dive into Winemaking/White Wines

There are a lot of adjectives used to describe winemaking these days. While much emotion is used in debating them, all are inadequate in one way or the other. Some of the most common are:

Industrial
- Designed wines that use all the tools and additives available to create a product to satisfy a specific group of consumers. They are constructed like any mass consumer brand, like soft drinks, snacks, and all ultra-processed food products, and made by committees, marketers, and accountants more than winemakers. The wine shelves in your grocery store are full of them. These wines are interchangeable and better categorized as beverage alcohol rather than wine as they have the same relationship to grapes that Doritos have to corn.
Conventional
- Often wrongly confused with industrial wines, which some certainly are, these are the wines many medium and small wineries produce. Most of these winemakers strive to make a wine with integrity and character. Many also succeed but often make wines that may be technically clean but taste more or less like their compatriots due to the homogenizing impacts of selected yeasts, other additives, and new oak barrels. While these wines can lack individuality, some exceptional examples are among the finest wines made in the world. While many wines in this category are made without passion, many are made with the same commitment to quality and personality as the Biodynamic winemakers discussed next.
Certified Biodynamic/Organic
- Certified winemakers must adhere to a strict discipline and a certification process that guarantees to consumers that their wines are produced according to rigid standards. While not a guarantee of wine quality, they are wines of a place. These certifications are primarily agricultural in scope but require cellar practices that prohibit using almost all additives. While sulfite additions are permitted, the levels are strictly controlled, and producers must submit proof. Unfortunately, while their vineyards may be pristine, their cellars may not be, and these wines can suffer many of the same faults as the natural wines below. At the very least, you know that farming and winemaking and farming were as natural as possible. Some of the world’s greatest, most expensive wines are Biodynamic certified. Some producers claim to use biodynamic methods, but these claims should be viewed cautiously without certification.
Natural
- A popularized winemaking term that has no actual definition or formal requirements except for a small certification in France. All too often, so-called natural wines are marred by faults that overwhelm any sense of vineyard, variety, or vineyard. Many wines that call themselves “natural” are produced from purchased grapes and are more focused on winemaking techniques (or lack thereof) instead of the sense of place. Often, the main requirement for these wines is that they do not add any sulfites to their wine. While they claim to use organic grapes, it is not an actual requirement, and they are often not using certified grapes.

These categories overlap, but these terms are used in the wine media today. So, while great, sound, dull, and terrible conventional, Biodynamic, and natural wines are made, only boring industrial wines are produced.

Back in 2022 I tried to “explain” natural wines, “Natural wines are an expression of the winemaker. Biodynamic wines are expressions of the land. Some wines are both natural and biodynamic, and some are not. You can make biodynamic wines that would not be considered natural winemaking — but why would you? Some wines claim to be naturally made with uncertified fruit, and it’s hard to make a case that they can genuinely be considered natural. Not using sulfur in the winemaking process is not a get-out-of-jail-free card if a vineyard is blasted with it — and other non-organic products.”

Like most things, there is no right or wrong way to make wine. It depends on what goal you are trying to achieve. The wine chemists who construct industrial wine are amazingly talented. It is an astounding technical achievement to produce millions of cases of identical beverages from grapes year after year. Conventional winemakers range from uninspired to the most inspired, each with wines that match their intentions. Biodynamic winemakers see their farm and their wines as one in the same. For better or, sometimes, for worse, their goal is to express each vineyard, variety, and vintage. Natural winemakers focus on what they don’t do rather than where the grapes come from. Sulfite additions seem to be the primary requirement.

As it should be the consumer who gets to choose what they prefer. Fortunately for the wine industry, their tastes run the gamut.

So, for this episode of our podcast, we decided to talk about all of this. You may not be surprised that the discussion did fit into one episode. So this is a marathon of podcasts covering three episodes:

Episode 1: General winemaking and making white white
Episode 2: Red winemaking
Episode 3: Biodynamic winemaking at Troon Vineyard

Please join our winemaking team of winemaker Nate Wall and assistant winemaker Micah Wagner as they take you through the labyrinth of modern winemaking.