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...