Postmodern Winemaking: Integrated Brett Management
Postmodern Winemaking: Integrated Brett Management
Sep 9, 2011 6
It’s high time I post my views concerning this beast and its handling—as usual somewhat at odds with modern enological thinking. For winemakers interested in bypassing sterile filtration when possible (count me in), Brettanomyces management is the central problem facing the making of serious wine. The reason is simple: The focus of postmodern philosophy is the creation and preservation of beneficial macromolecular structure. This structure manifests in wine as colloidal particles sometimes nearly as large as a bacterial cell. The benefits of good structure (profundity, aromatic integration and graceful longevity) appear to be lost by sterile filtration despite the fact that no tannin material may be retained by the filter. Our hypothesis is that the action of tight filtration somehow disrupts rather than removes structure.
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