Postmodern Winemaking: Rethinking the Modern Science of an Ancient Craft

by Clark Smith

postmodern principles point to some very specific desired characteristics in red musts that are our goals. Flavor finesse is achieved through fineness of texture. The smaller the grain size of the colloids that make up the tannin structure, the greater their combined surface area and thus the greater their power to integrate aromas and their stability over time. These colloidal structures are aggregates of dozens of polymerized tannins that form through the oxidative linking of a large variety of flavonoids, three-ringed compounds that are synthesized in skins and seeds during the season. The winemaker can control this polymerization in the cellar if anthocyanins arrive in the must as reactive monomers. These are present at ripeness but are converted to useless polymeric forms as a result of field oxidation associated with overripeness. We can’t make a tannin soufflé if the eggs are already scrambled.