There are several ways to ferment and age wine, and while you don’t need to know how every wine you drink was aged or fermented to enjoy them, having an understanding connects you with the wine and gives you an appreciation you wouldn’t have had before.
Here are a few of my favorites I found at Cakebread Cellars a few months back:
1) Ceramic Eggs: Concrete eggs increase contact with the solids from the harvest and can really solidify the flavors and textures of wine to make it come into its own without any outside help. It works great for wines that a winemaker may want to increase the body of the wine. It works great on whites that need a little more intensity, while not adding extra flavors or characteristics you might get from oak. Using a concrete egg may seem new, but the concept isn’t. Ancient winemakers were known to have used clay pots to ferment in the country of Georgia, which is where some would argue was the birthplace of wine.
2) Oak Barrels: The classic standard. Wood barrels, and more specifically the use of oak, in winemaking has been around for a couple millennia. The fun part with oak barrels is the ability to create drastically different flavors than already presenting in the wine. With an oak, or wood barrel, you can decide what type of oak, where its from, if its old or new, if its been used in winemaking or other spirit making before, and can control the inside through charring or toasting. This opens up a whole world of possibilities.
3) Stainless Steel: A lot of winemakers will use stainless steel to simply ferment first, then move their wines to another medium like oak or pots to continue to age their wine because stainless steel is easier to work with, produces more consistency, and is scalable. But it also has been used in aging and allows for the wine to not take on additional tones or flavors, depending on what the winemaker is looking to do. . You don’t always have to know how your wine was made to know it tastes good or doesn’t. . But the real magic happens when you can start to pick out the difference and see the interplay of various techniques and how they have shaped the wine in your glass.
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