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Wine Is An Age Old Art, A Modern Science and A World-wide Business

By: Don Saunders Wine making has been practiced in one way or another for thousands of years now with jars found in Persia (modern day Iran) dating back to 5,500 BC displaying evidence of grapes use for winemaking. Additionally, jars from Jiahu in China dated to somewhere between 6000 and 7000 BC have also been discovered containing wine from wild grapes.

However whether we are talking about ancient or modern wine production, many of the same conditions apply and not dissimilar techniques are used as the chemistry of the humble grape is an everlasting quality.

With a few notable exceptions the grapes used for making wine grow only in bands delineated by the latitudes 30-50 degrees North and 30-45 degrees South of the equator. As opposed to the majority of other crops, grapes do not require an especially fertile soil and it is interesting to note that a thinner soil normally produces a small crop but also normally produces grapes of a higher quality.

Strangely enough, soils that are rich in nitrogen and other nutrients (conditions that are generally highly beneficial for the majority of plants) can produce grapes that are unsuitable for winemaking. Such grapes are however often very good for eating, but lack the required quantities of minerals, sugars and acids for winemaking.

Undoubtedly, the finest wines are produced on soils which would be considered poor quality for other agricultural purposes. The stellar wines from Bordeaux, for example, are made from grapes grown in gravelly soil, on a base of chalk or clay. The crop here is small, but the quality of the grapes produced is high. In this case the pebbly earth permits good drainage, which is vital as grapevines require adequate but not excessive water, but the conditions also force the roots to reach deep into the earth where they absorb a range of complex minerals.

Vineyards are also commonly found along river valleys, with slopes providing abundant sunshine. Vines in these cases are often of the European species vitis vinifera, from which various well known wines are made, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Merlot.

Viticulture, the term applied to the practice of grape growing for winemaking, is one of the most complicated agricultural undertakings today. A master vintner (nowadays, sometimes referred to as an oenologist), has got to be an expert in a wide range of subjects including soil chemistry, fermentation, climatology and several other ancient arts and modern sciences.

In addition to categorization by variety, wines are also classified by vinification methods (still, sparkling, fortified, ros�, blush), by region (Bordeaux, Burgundy, Alsace etc.), by vintage and by several other methods.

Once the grower, chemist and manufacturer have done their work, the businessman then takes the stage and today wine is very big business. Wine sales in the United States alone run to something like 600 million gallons, representing over $20 billion in consumer spending. Perhaps not surprisingly France is the world leader when it comes to exports with 22% of world export volume, with Italy coming in a close second.

At the end of the day however, no matter how big a business wine producing has become, it is still very much a matter of balancing science, art and business and winemaking is most certainly not a venture to be undertaken by the faint hearted.