Good winemaking is about intervention

Recent building work at Domaine Huet: January 2009

Excellent post here on Peter Liem's Besotted Ramblings and Other Drivel on good winemaking does involve intervention and making decisions. The posting followed tasting Domaine Huet's wines at the Salon des Vins de Loire with Anthong Hwang, when Anthony mentioned Noël Pinguet experiments over pressing.

Here is one particularly pertinent quote:

'But sometimes I feel that it’s become unfashionable to talk about vinification, as if any action somehow automatically constitutes manipulation or spoofulation of the wine. Oftentimes you’ll hear winegrowers talk on and on about viticulture and then say, “After harvest, I do nothing.” (Of course, with some natural wines, this is quite literally true, with unfortunate consequences.)'

When I visited Thierry Germain's vineyards (Domaine des Roches Neuves) in early October last year to look at his Cabernet Franc just before harvesting, Thierry was busy reflecting on how to treat the grapes this year – fairly short cuvaison, avoid too much extraction because of the grapes' thick skins etc.