{"id":2097,"date":"2022-05-29T17:56:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T17:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2097"},"modified":"2022-05-29T17:56:55","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T17:56:55","slug":"think-about-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2097","title":{"rendered":"Think About Farming"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most of us, wine tasting is focused on, well, wine.\u00a0 We visit different wineries in the same region and learn to detect the subtle differences between one Chardonnay and, say, three others made within a mile of one another.\u00a0 We give credit, if we think about it at all, to the winemaker who we see as a master artisan.\u00a0 In general that\u2019s true, but wine is a combination of artistry, industrial processes and agriculture.<\/p>\n

Even when we are at a winery surrounded by vines, how many of us even consider soil composition, trellising and drip irrigation?\u00a0 Visiting at harvest time, with grapes hanging heavy on the vines, we don\u2019t believe that many people give a lot of thought to how much science, expertise and sheer hard work went into getting those grapes there.\u00a0 Now, we\u2019re not advocating that everyone take a few courses at Davis before going wine tasting, but maybe a few thoughts on the matter and a bit of reading are appropriate.<\/p>\n

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Workers harvesting in the Beuajolais region.<\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll enjoy the wine you taste at any time of the year, but we think that there\u2019s also pleasure in knowing what has to happen to get the wine out of the ground and into your glass.\u00a0 For one thing, a visitor ought to be aware of what\u2019s happening in the vineyards at any particular time of year that they are there.\u00a0 Of course, in the winter months the vines are bare, but there\u2019s lots of work going on to prune the vines to increase later yields.\u00a0 In March, there\u2019s some green on those vines; it\u2019s called bud break.\u00a0 Sometime in May, itsy-bitsy grapes begin to form, which is called the fruit set.<\/p>\n

Things get serious in July and August, the period of veraison<\/em>, when those premature clusters become recognizable as grapes.\u00a0 The farmers now do the unthinkable \u2013 they cut away many of the grape bunches that were forming.\u00a0 This process, called dropping fruit, allocates nature\u2019s resources from within the ground through the vines to the remaining clusters.\u00a0 Then in late August through October, the grapes are harvested and vinified.<\/p>\n

The nature of the soil makes a difference.\u00a0 Calcareous soil contains limestone that retains water, making farming easier, and the limestone adds acidity to the wines.\u00a0 On the other hand, grapes grown in gravelly soils are enhanced by the retained heat in the rocks, making the resulting wines bolder and higher in alcohol.\u00a0 This type of soil is typical in Bordeaux\u2019s Left Bank, which is why wines from the south of the city are called Graves.\u00a0 If the ground has a clay-like consistency, it favors grapes that ripen quickly, such as Merlot, which is common on the Right Bank of the Bordeaux region.\u00a0 This little bit of agricultural knowledge explains why wines from a few miles apart in the same region can be so different.<\/p>\n

If your reason for going wine tasting is simply to sample, drink or party, none of these thoughts about farming will make any difference.\u00a0 But if you, like us, go to learn as well as sip, then having a basic understanding of the farmers\u2019 contributions adds to the pleasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most of us, wine tasting is focused on, well, wine.\u00a0 We visit different wineries in the same region and learn to detect the subtle differences between one Chardonnay and, say, three others made within a mile of one another.\u00a0 We give credit, if we think about it at all, to the winemaker who we … Continue reading Think About Farming<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2099,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097\/revisions\/2099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}