Technology in a bottle
By Carrie Lock

Wine has played an important role in our society and culture for almost 8,000 years – from the pharaohs of Egypt to the patricians of ancient Rome, from medieval monks to modern restaurant patrons everywhere. Wine has been used in religious ceremonies, as a substitute for unclean drinking water, for medicinal purposes, and for daily celebrations and social events. More than any other food or beverage, the development of wine closely parallels that of western civilization.

Improvements to the winemaking process have, until the last 30 years, been rare and relatively uncontroversial. The same basic rules have held for centuries. Grow grapes, pick and crush them, ferment in a container, and they turn into wine. Most modern enthusiasts strongly believe in the notion of terroir, a French phrase figuratively meaning “taste of the earth.” In a wine’s terroir, one can taste the soil, the water, the climate, and the human effort that went into each unique bottle. However, technological innovations in the last few decades are threatening this romantic notion of wine as a tie between us and the earth and our history. Indeed, many people as whether modern technology is robbing wine of its soul.

Perhaps the first major advance in winemaking came in the 1600’s, when in order to prevent wine from turning into vinegar as it aged, European monks invented modern glass bottling and airtight corks. This in turn allowed for the transportation of wine beyond the local village, which provided monasteries with economic benefit and wine-drinkers with a wider selection. The next major advance came in the late 19th century, when the phylloxera insect epidemic destroyed most of France’s vineyards. Grafting hardy American vines onto Old World plants provided them with immunity to the disease and opened up new avenues of developing vine rootstocks. The conversion of sugar to alcohol is exquisitely sensitive to temperature, so the development of refrigeration in the 1940’s allowed winemakers to control the fermentation process to an unprecedented degree.

Political as well as technological changes increased American’s consumption of wine in the 20th century. During prohibition, juice grapes replaced wine grapes in American vineyards, and upon its repeal in 1933, winemakers flooded the market with cheap, poorly made fortified wines that dominated store shelves for years to come. The quality of American wine slowly improved, and wine consumption in the United States exploded in the late sixties. Winemakers turned to technology to help produce larger volumes to meet the demands of the public. Inexpensive table wine initially dominated the market, but in 1976, after two California wines defeated French wines in an international competition, Americans began to develop an interest in high-quality, expensive premium wines.

Winemakers are now increasingly using technology to close the gap between price and quality. Some of the most divisive new techniques in modern winemaking involve filtration technologies. For centuries, winemakers poured their product through cheesecloth to remove the seeds, stems and other residue. Modern science has taken filtration a step further, with techniques such as spinning cone columns and reverse osmosis to remove ever-smaller impurities, even down to the molecular level. Towers of stainless steel, rows of pipes and assembly lines have replaced the romantic image of winemakers stomping on their grapes in a wooden casket. Spinning cone technology works by first removing the solid particles from the liquid of the wine. Inside a steel tower, rows of plates separate the water and alcohol from the rest of the wine, leaving behind a fluid containing the flavors and aromas. A distillation tower separates the water and alcohol, and another steel container mixes together some of the water, the flavors, and the original liquid. This produces a wine with all its original aromas and flavors but with a specific alcohol and water content.

Some critics feel that these techniques destroy the wine’s character. They say that some of flavors may be lost in the process, and it throws off the natural water-sugar-alcohol balance. Bill Nelson, vice president for WineAmerica, a national trade organization, thinks that trying to engineer a wine’s composition is just the opposite of what wine-making should be. “When you take it apart and put it back together again in a different way, you have totally changed what that wine is,” he says. “Cone spinning basically tears apart the underlying notion that wine is made in a vineyard” as opposed to a laboratory. In Wine Spectator, Matt Kramer, a leading wine critic, compares the before-and-after taste of wines filtered with these techniques to that of tomatoes or sweet corn that one might buy at farmers’ market versus the vegetables sold in most supermarkets. They may look the same, but technology has dulled and distorted the taste.

Despite their detractors, winemakers are increasingly relying on these technologies. Warm, dry weather such as in California, Australia and South Africa necessitates leaving the grapes on the vines longer to ensure ripeness. Riper grapes have more sugar, which translates into a higher alcohol content. In Europe, winemakers have the opposite problem – greater rainfall leaves the grapes water-laden, and low in alcohol content. Because consumers want ripe, full-bodied, fruity wines, but they do not want excessive alcohol or water, winemakers find it almost a necessity to use these filtration techniques. In addition, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives imposes a tax on American wine that is above 14% alcohol, creating a monetary incentive to keep the alcohol level of domestic wines low.

These factors can drive even the most reluctant winemakers to turn to technology when their wines have not turned out as they had hoped. Winemakers want a consistent product, and modern technology allows them to go back and “fix” their wine to some degree, decreasing the distinction between their “good” and “bad” years. “Personally, I’ve never liked these techniques, from a winemaking standpoint,” says Robert Blue, winemaker for Bonterra Ranch vineyards in northern California, although he acknowledges using some of them in the past to resurrect a disappointing crop.

Clark Smith, co-owner of Vinovation, a company that provides reverse osmosis services to wineries, is less reserved in his enthusiasm. According to Smith, the refrigeration and electricity everyone uses were once considered technological innovations. “There is nothing in any winery today that would be recognizable to a winemaker from a hundred years ago,” he says. “The twentieth century redefined the normal.” In 20 or 50 years, winemakers may be taking this technology for granted too. “Technology is just a new idea you’re a little afraid of,” says Smith.

These new winemaking methods are helping to divide the American wine market even further between expensive high-end boutique wines and affordable mass-produced table wines. While technology in general is appropriate for table wines, says Mark Vlossak, winemaker for St. Innocent Winery in Oregon, “great wines are never made with technology; it’s their antithesis.” Table wines and masterpieces are both legitimate goals of modern wineries, he says, but in an ideal world, winemakers would use as little technology as possible and let the wine simply make itself.

Smith, however, thinks technology can have a place even in the high-end wineries, to find “sweet spots” in a wine’s composition that might never be found otherwise. “Is technology being used for convenience or to increase quality?” he asks. According to him, anything that makes a higher quality wine at a lower cost to consumers is a good thing.”