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Science & Romance: friends or foes?
Design Services & Colour Consultations Specializing in Bathrooms & Kitchens Aging in Place READY TO START YOUR DESIGN JOURNEY?
www.janenaresdesigns.com I 250 252-0501
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Chris Turyk - I love wine, a lot. I’m a Certified Sommelier, WSET Diploma graduate, and get in everyones way at unsworthvineyards.
ating back millennia, few things eclipse wine’s storied and integral link with romance. Much of this time was spent in reverence and awe of the mysterious transformation of fruit to its hedonistic result. In times of antiquity wine was a social lubricant, an artist’s muse, a currency and just a pure energy source! Advancements in production essentially halted after the Roman era, as technology was sidelined in favour of logistics. Romans employed layers of protection like, crafting wine from dried grapes, development of amphorae aided in fermentation kinetics, and wines were protected from oxygen by way of wax and olive oil closures. During the following 1500 years, until Louis Pasteur came on the scene, wine was more about making vinegar than stable wine! I argue that fortification, the creation of glass bottles and the development of natural cork closures were the only significant technological
advancements during this era. Over the past century, discovery of various microbes and processes responsible for fermentation and stabilization of wine entered our awareness. During the past few decades wine technology hit warp speed. By some wine is viewed as an ancestral beverage which should be treated as it was in the times of antiquity, by others as a medium in which to apply the latest in technological advances, and naturally the majority are somewhere in between. History’s mystics most likely felt a loss on innocence when yeast strains responsible for alcoholic fermentation were discovered and isolated. Many must have preferred chalking it up to the will of the gods or natures magical reward for a day of hard work. Romance certainly permeates perceptions of viticulture. Wine growing is ripe with pastoral images of vineyard vistas, pensive and attentive farmers with a connection to nature. Agricultural technology has come a long way but far from unheardof are the use of sheep for grazing vineyards and horses for ploughing them in contemporary vineyards. Harvesting around the world is often done by hand, as are many other vineyard tasks. These evoke a sense of return to the ancestral and a harmonious tuning into nature. It may come
