wine cellar
Wine in The Modern Age
The Death of Terroir, The Rise of Science
– PART 2
–
by Dan Gatlin, Inwood Estates Vineyards
In Part I, we introduced an entirely new concept in the eternally
contentious debate over how to determine quality in wine.
Rather than relying on one person’s opinion, or one panel of
“experts”, or some magazine or supposedly knowledgable “sommelier” (all highly unreliable), there is rapidly evolving new high
technology that can outperform all of the above. Advancements
in molecular science have given us amazing insight into what
makes flavor in wine (and other foods as well). In addition, new
instruments which can measure and analyze these molecules,
known as phenolic compounds, or phenols, will soon proliferate
throughout the industry as they become faster, smaller and
cheaper.
Eventually, this technology could even be available to anyone
shopping for wine in the form of a device, or maybe even an app.
This will have profound effects on the Old Guard in the wine
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industry. It will eliminate the need for all forms of professional
“reviewers”, bloggers or any other. An even bigger impact is
already underway: the knowledge of how to drive phenol production to higher and higher levels in vineyards, regardless of
soil and climate. But first, let’s pick up where we left off, as I
was giving a little background on how I, and virtually all other
wine professionals, have been trained over the last 40 years.
The Flawed “Hallowed Ground” Theory
When I was trained into this industry 38 years ago, I was, like
everyone else at the time, educated according to what I not-solovingly refer to as the “Hallowed Ground” Theory. Simply, that
somehow the Heavens parted and the Light shone down upon
a certain property, and sure enough that site became the
Hallowed Ground for Cabernet or Merlot or Pinot or fill-in-the-