Innoculated v. Wild Yeast Fermentation

An interesting and balanced discussion, for those who are interested.

http://www.enologyinternational.com/yea ... yeast.html

That was interesting, Thanks.

I still get the impression that for the most part, anyone using wild yeast is doing it simply to climb on the buzzword bandwagon. If you can use labels like 'organic' and 'natural' the yuppoids will blindly buy it in preference to those 'unnatural' wines like Ch. Latour...

If I ever made wine, it would of course be natural, organic, artisanal wine made exclusively with wild years and I'd play soft music throughout the fermentation....

I've personally asked maybe 5 or 6 winemakers if they would go the wild years route and they have all responded that the riks of losing a batch, or even just slowing it down so that it interferes with normal winey scheduling just isn't worth it.

What you DO see is winemakers risking only a small batch of must, to be blended back in later so they can use the buzzword about the whole batch. Gee, my 10 gallons finally managed to get going. Toss all but a gallon out and add the gallon to the main tank of our new 'wild yeast' cuvee...."

Agreed, but it is still pretty interesting that Ridge, a producer that I think most of us respect a lot, are very dedicated to it... I thought the most damning point was the notion that after a year has passed you can't tell the difference anymore.

The winemaker at Clos de Gat, one of the best Israeli boutique wineries (http://www.closdegat.com , annual production around 70-80,000 bottles) uses only wild yeast fermentation. His wines are spectacular, albeit pricey. As far as I know he is the only winemaker in Israel who does only wild yeast fermentation, or at least the only really good one who does so...

I still get the impression that for the most part, anyone using wild yeast is doing it simply to climb on the buzzword bandwagon....

Maybe in California. It's not a 'buzzword' in Europe because it's the way everything was done prior to the technological revolutions of the past 20-40 years. Some of which were good, some of which were bad.

But my understanding is that like with everything else, much of the best wine uses indigenous yeasts but of course not every wine that is made from indigenous yeasts is good. It's not the magic ingredient for making good wine but it is part of a process that can lead to more distinctive wine.

I thought the most damning point was the notion that after a year has passed you can't tell the difference anymore.

I have read this before but it just does not make sense. One can see that some yeast result in a faster more vigourous fermentation while other result in a slower fermentation. Other factors then could become related to the rate of fermentation such as temperatutre of fermenation (if not controlled) and skin contact (again unless the winemaker ensures the same contact time). Therefore to say that the yeast makes no difference after a year implies that either the other impacts are being managed by the winemaker so that the yeast is irrelvant or that there are many other decisions involved in winemaking that also make no difference which seem to indicate that much of the role of the winemaker is irrelevant.

I still get the impression that for the most part, anyone using wild yeast is doing it simply to climb on the buzzword bandwagon. If you can use labels like 'organic' and 'natural' the yuppoids will blindly buy it in preference to those 'unnatural' wines like Ch. Latour...

That's a bit unfair, Bill. As Rahsaan said, many winemakers in the Old World never adopted inoculated yeasts, so they never had to "adopt" wild yeast fermentation. And, really, there's a whole spectrum of intervention out there, from the wild yeast practitioners who introduce cultured yeast to remedy a stuck fermentation, to the people who employ specific yeast strains to get a particular flavor profile in their wine (err... DuBoeuf anyone?). There's also the well-publicized issue of whether the yeast that you start with is really the one that ends up fermenting your wine. In the end, I'm a pragmatist: if the winemaker makes good wine, I really don't care if he or she is burying dung-filled cow's horns under a full moon or microoxygenating. I'm drinking wine, not ideology.

Mark Lipton

I was just suggesting that the winemakers that do not use cultured yeast AND who tout that fact as a selling point are pandering to the people that will react to that sort of buzzword association. (E.g. Errazuriz)

I was just suggesting that the winemakers that do not use cultured yeast AND who tout that fact as a selling point are pandering to the people that will react to that sort of buzzword association. (E.g. Errazuriz)

BTW, I recently tasted two Errazuriz Wild Ferments, the Chardonnay and the Pinot Noir, and liked them better than just about any other southern cone chardonnays and pinots. Since both come in screw cap, I bought a few bottles of each to see how they age.

Certainly agree about the Chard. Sadly, we do not get the Pinot in our market.

Wild yeast ferments are much more difficult to manage for interventionists. Leaving a ferment to work itself out takes nerves of steel. Rudi Bauer of Quartz Reef winery in Central Otago has made a lot of wine down there. For himself, he will allow natural ferment. If he is contract making, he does not. "I will not take chances with someone else's grapes" but he will for his own wines. I think that is part of the conundrum. There are over 600 chemical processes (that we know of) occurring during fermentation and if a pathway seems to be leading to a road the winemaker does not want his juice to go should he intervene? Well, if they are relying on a pay packet then they definitely will. If you encourage natural yeasts to live in your winery and build up by having natural ferment batches on the go (as many people do) then it is more likely your ferments will kick in by themselves and, generally more slowly than if innoculated, trudge through to dryness. As to 'difference' - run a ferment side by side, innoculated and wild, and compare. Same vineyard, same grapes, picked same day, just divide into two lots and get on with it. If you have a big winery, the place is crawling with yeasts anyway but if you want a particular style then you need to be much more in control of how the ferment is happening - by using a particular strain of yeast that gives you the result your company and public want. I agree there is some bandwagon jumping with regard to 'wild' or 'natural' ferment. It may have started off that way, but those with less than iron nerves may have intervened to make what is in the glass palatable and, probably more importantly, saleable.

Angela