The Facts of (Vineyard) Life

If you have been following this blog you know that in January I signed up for a particular form of self-torture manifested as the WSET Diploma—a demanding three-year course of study in wine and spirits. I passed my first exam month, leaving five more levels to go.

The diploma begins with a “gateway” exam on viticulture (cultivating grapes), vinification (harvesting grapes and making wine), and post-fermentation operations (maturation, treatments and bottling.) Scientific, technical, legal, and economic aspects at every stage of production are discussed.

To say the least, things have gotten more complicated since the first person discovered a stray amphora of grape juice had inadvertently turned into something unusual and intoxicating. Here are some of the fun facts I’ve learned to date:

* Phylloxera is a root-feeding louse that nearly wiped out all of the vineyards of Europe in the 1860s until it was discovered that American vines are immune to the pest. This is why most of the world’s vineyards are planted with the European vine species Vitis vinifera that has had the fruit-bearing portion of the plant grafted onto American rootstocks.

* Many of the world’s most prized wines are fermented and/or aged in oak barrels that have been toasted inside to varying degrees. Lightly toasting yields more oaky wines while heavy toasting gives more spicy wines. French oak is the highest quality and the most expensive. Value wines may use alternatives such as oak chips, oak staves, or even powder to impart oak flavor to the wine.

* After fermentation, wines are sometimes filtered to remove unwanted particles. One method known as earth filtration uses diatomaceous earth or kieselghur that is derived from a sedimentary rock composed of the skeletons of microscopic algae that lived 60-100 million years ago. 

This last fact still has me asking: Who figured that out?

Tags: wine | viticulture