MOMMY, WHERE DOES WINE COME FROM?

How is wine made?

Well, that’s a loaded question. Kinda like when your kids ask you where babies come from. I tend to change that subject quickly, especially when small children ask. Wine, on the other hand, is very complex.

You will understand when I cringe over you putting ice in your wine glass, because that winemaker has gone through a lot of pain and effort to make THAT wine! [without the ice].

Winemaking is hard work.

OK, Winemaking is really hard work.

I’ve been trying to blog about my recent trip to Burgundy, with little success. School, homework, soccer, and the list goes on.

Winemaking could be the hardest work I’ve ever done (outside of, well, childbirth!).
Harvest is an exciting (and crazy) time for winemakers! They pray for good weather and quality grapes, and the games begin…  The cliche goes “you can’t make good wine from bad grapes”.  Having said that, Burgundy had glorious weather during harvest this year. 2015 will be an excellent vintage!

There are many kinds of wine makers out there; just like there are many types of parents. Let’s name a few; helicopter moms, free-spirited, and the hipster.

The helicopter mom winemaker would represent a wine maker who tries to control everything, leaving nothing to chance. They will use a strain of yeast, probably not take many risks and will produce a wine of quality but generally won’t have that little something extra or different.

The free-spirited wine maker is bio-dynamic, using a strain of yeast that could be amazing or it could go wrong and the wine will typically reach the table unfiltered. Just like the free-spirited parent, the wine is an experience and an expression of who they are as a wine maker.

The hipster is somewhere in between. They try to control what they can but will take some risks along the way.

Wine-makers will make hundreds of decisions from pruning to bottling.

Grapes are either hand picked or machine harvested. The latter is the cheaper option and has many benefits, but many will argue that hand picking grapes allows the fruit to arrive at the winery untainted and unbruised.
In France, you will find both harvesting techniques being used, usually with the grand cru or premier cru grapes being hand picked.

Motherhood is kinda like this. When our kids are babies, we protect them against everything imaginable. When you have wine that has the potential to sell for hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars a bottle, you proceed with caution. I’ll stop here, and continue the next blog with what happens at the winery! (Other than a blogger demanding wine from a winemaker for her hard work…)