[Growwine] Vintages don't matter anymore

[Jim Lloyd]

Wine has always been a commodity and will always be so.

What is an "honest" wine?

We are just newcomers to this game. Wine has been made for thousands of 
years.

Who decided to ferment reds on skins ?
Who decided that whites were too bitter if fermented on skins and did 
something about it ?
Who first discovered that sulphur could be used to stop wine from going to 
vinegar ?
Who made the first barrels ? who learned to toast them ?
Who leanred how to stabilize wines with sugar and extra alcohol to keep them 
from spoiling ?
Where did that first sugar source come from ?  Who made the first alcoholic 
spirits ?

So many more firsts to get us to the stage we are at now. What's a little 
Tanin Plus in the scheme of winemaking ?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry Paterson" <littlefatwino1 at cogeco.ca>
To: <growwine at littlefatwino.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 10:36 AM
Subject: Re: [Growwine] Vintages don't matter anymore


> Terry
>
> if we get into what "honest wine" means then by definition only grapes
> harvested from vines growing in trees and fermented with only the yeast on
> the grapes would be wine.  Grapes do not belong in fields.  Incidentally,
> I've never seen any part of an oak barrel on a vine either!
>
> Sadly, honest wine means nothing much any more, I fear that wine is 
> becoming
> just another commodity.
>
> Lardy
>
> Larry Paterson, lfw, rd, adcc
> (Little Fat Wino, Roving Drunk, Alcohol Distribution Channels Critic)
>
> http://www.littlefatwino.com/
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <terry.rayner at sympatico.ca>
> To: <growwine at littlefatwino.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 8:28 AM
> Subject: Re: [Growwine] Vintages don't matter anymore
>
>
> Hey Larry, you can't really call your "water wine" wine since the 
> definition
> of wine is:
> 1) beverage made of the fermented juice of any of various kinds of grapes,
> usually containing from 10 to 15 percent alcohol by volume.
> 2) A beverage made of the fermented juice of any of various other fruits 
> or
> plants.
> 3) The expressed juice of grapes, esp. when fermented; a beverage or 
> liquor
> prepared from grapes by squeezing out their juice, and (usually) allowing 
> it
> to ferment
>
> Which fruit did you extract the water from and deacidify / dechaptilize??
>
> Terry
>
>
>
>
>>From: "Larry Paterson" <littlefatwino1 at cogeco.ca>
>>Reply-To: growwine at littlefatwino.com
>>To: <growwine at littlefatwino.com>
>>Subject: [Growwine] Vintages don't matter anymore
>>Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 08:16:27 -0500
>>
>>http://www.decanter.com:80/news/155385.html                has an
>>interesting story from Decanter by Hugh Johnson (no not our
>>beard-challenged lurker, the Englishman whose eyebrows wiggle like a
>>butterfly about to take off and you can't take your eyes off them when 
>>near
>>him!).  He states that vintages don't matter anymore.
>>
>>Food for discussion?  I believe that he is right - but again he misses the
>>main contributory factor - the incredible effects of the modern additives.
>>I think I could turn old sock wine into something approximating 
>>mass-market
>>Aussie Shiraz with food colour and enough Tanin Plus!  (Maybe I should try
>>this with my actively fermenting water wine???)
>>
>>I disagree with him in our cold climate situations or minimalist growing,
>>but certainly the more moderate the climate the less important vintage
>>variation has become...
>>
>>
>>Lardy
>>
>>Larry Paterson, lfw, rd, adcc
>>(Little Fat Wino, Roving Drunk, Alcohol Distribution Channels Critic)
>>
>>http://www.littlefatwino.com/
>
>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Growwine mailing list
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>
>
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