416: 100% Whole Cluster

I'll Drink to That! Wine Talk

Levi Dalton

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4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2017

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Erin Scala delves into the evolving conversation around whole cluster, one of the biggest questions in winemaking. One hundred percent whole cluster? Not all wines are, but this episode sure is.

Why might a winemaker choose to use the stems, as well as the grapes, in their winemaking? Or why might they discard those stems? Erin Scala looks at the reasoning presented by some key winemakers from around the world.

This episode features interviews with:

Jean-Nicolas Meo of Meo-Camuzet (Burgundy)

Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (Burgundy)

Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac (Burgundy)

Greg Harrington of Gramercy Cellars (Washington State)

Mark Vlossak of St. Innocent (Oregon)

Sashi Moorman of Domaine de la Côte, Sandhi, Piedrasassi and others (CA & Oregon)

John Lockwood of Enfield Wine Co. (California)

Kate McIntyre of Moorooduc Estate (Victoria, Australia)

Ronnie Sanders of Vine Street Imports

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.
0:05.1	I'm Levy Dalton.
0:06.1	I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, To STEM or not to STEM? That is one of the biggest questions today in winem making. And today we're going to explore this topic
0:35.1	by visiting some new interviews and also by sifting through some past interviews. The STEM and
0:40.8	Holberry question usually becomes most relevant when discussing a few particular grape varieties, namely Pinonoir and Surah.
0:49.0	Though the topic does extend to other grape varieties, today we'll focus mostly on those two. And to further
0:55.5	clarify today's conversation, it's important to note that many de-stemmers these days
1:01.1	can to stem and leave up to 90% of the berries intact.
1:05.0	So the real topic we're getting at is not really a binary one.
1:09.0	It's a little more complicated.
1:11.0	It's the choice of stems, no stems or partial stems, fermented with berries,
1:16.3	crushed berries, or a combination of whole and crushed berries. And if you make a
1:21.1	quick logic chart, you'll see that there are nine possible combinations for a fermentation.
1:27.0	Whole cluster with stems, whole cluster with partial stems, whole cluster with no stems.
1:32.0	Part crushed with no stems. Part crushed with stems, part crushed with part stems,
1:35.0	part crushed with no stems.
1:37.4	Crushed with stems, crushed with part stems,
1:39.6	or crushed with no stems.
1:41.7	Now if you splay those nine combinations on a linear spectrum you'll have at
1:46.4	one end whole cluster wines with all stems and all whole berries. Essentially just picking the bunches and putting them right into the
1:54.6	fermenting vessel.
1:56.4	And on the other end of the spectrum, you'll de-stem completely, throw away the stems, and put
	...

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