The science of wine in the last 20 years

I’m a scientist. But – as cute noticed Andrew Jeffords, reviewing my book about wine – I’m not a scientific fundamentalist. Science is just one of the prisms through which we study wine, and still plenty of things science is unable to explain. A large part of the greatest wines in the world are not designed by techies, and creative wine-makers, working empirically. They observe, experiment, delve and come to the knowledge.

We still have no clear scientific explanation why, for example, such a fantastic wine Romanee-Conti vineyard of Domaine de La Romanée Conti Grand Cru, while a few hundred metres from the vineyard, outwardly little distinguishable, creates quite a common fault.

The concept of “natural wine” – is also the cause of controversy and a problem for the scientific approach: our knowledge about the wines tell us that the wine is made in General without the use of sulfur dioxide will be obscene, but in reality, these wines are excellent. Mystery.

But biodynamics? Even the most advanced wineries, sometimes, improve the quality of their wines by using these wonderful practices, the mechanism of which science often refuses to comment.

But, though science is just one of the tools of understanding the world, it is still powerful, if used wisely and to the point. Some of the problems faced by the science of the fault comes down to an incorrect formulation of the question the people for whom the concept of “interesting wine” lacks substance. But in the right hands, is a passionate and inquisitive winemaker – science is able to give people superpower: to provide a stable, interesting result during the process of creating complex wines. Unfortunately, this power is often used to reduce the cost of production of ordinary wines.

In this article I’m going to light some of the latest achievements of science and wine I will try to explain why I consider them important. And along the way, I will look into the future, trying to guess which direction all of this will develop.

Wine in bottle and new plugs

Ecological viticulture

Chemistry and perception of fragrances of wine

The role of oxygen in wine

Genetic modification of yeast and grapes

This is only a brief overview of the most important moments in which science has contributed to the development of winemaking. If I had a trillion dollars on research, I would put them in the projects in the above areas. I’d really like to understand what exactly gives the terroir that makes possible the emergence of outstanding wines. Would like to understand why and how biodynamics works, how she manages to produce high-quality and complex wines. And I would be happy to share their discoveries with all the winemakers that they could produce excellent wines at prices affordable to many.