Postmodern Winemaking

 In Postmodern Winemaking, Clark Smith shares the extensive knowledge he has accumulated in engaging, humorous, and erudite essays that convey a new vision of the winemaker's craft--one that credits the crucial roles played by both science and art in the winemaking process. Smith, a leading innovator in red wine production techniques, explains how traditional enological education has led many winemakers astray--enabling them to create competent, consistent wines while putting exceptional wines of structure and mystery beyond their grasp. Great wines, he claims, demand a personal and creative engagement with many elements of the process. His lively exploration of the facets of postmodern winemaking, together with profiles of some of its practitioners, is both entertaining and enlightening.

Review: "This is a brave book, fusing data, experience and intuition in a way that scientists rarely attempt... It's a significant and much-needed contribution to the literature of winemaking." 2013 BOOK OF THE YEAR Wine & Spirits Magazine "Smith is nothing if not genuine in his curiosity about the appropriate uses of science in the cellar." San Francisco Chronicle "Fascinating... His book is a tool for winemakers and a sinewy bone on which to gnaw for wine geeks." The Daily Meal "Top 10 Wine Books of 2013: Clark Smith has written the most interesting and eclectic wine book in years. Smith has a rich and swirling mind that is on display in this both technical and philosophical treaties on modern winemaking the issues that have been pushed to the fore through innovation." Tom Wark's Fermentation "Wine savvy comes easy for Clark Smith, who's the smartest guy in most of the rooms he inhabits... His 'Postmodern Winemaking: Rethinking the Modern Science of an Ancient Craft' is a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at the 'bones' of wine - structure, acidity, tannins, minerality - and how postmodern winemaking can help the industry build upon these attributes. Thus, it's a great gift for a wine geek or a science geek or a business geek." Minneapolis Star Tribune "A detailed, accessible portrait of what it takes to be a professional, successful winemaker." Newsday 

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART ONE. PRINCIPLES

1 The Solution Problem

2 Creating the Conditions for Graceful Aging

3 Building Structure: The Basic Tool Kit

4 The Seven Functions of Oak

5 Vineyard Enology: The Power of Showing Up

6 The Vicinal Diphenol Cascade: Red Wine's

Defi ning Reaction

7 Redox Redux: Measuring Wine's Oxygen

Uptake Capacity

8 Speculations on Minerality

9 Winemaking at High pH

10 Integrated Brettanomyces Management

11 Harmony and Astringency: Nice and Rough

PART TWO. PRACTICES

12 Winemaking's Lunatic Heroes

13 Gideon Beinstock's Mountain Magic:

Handling Extreme Terroir

14 Randall Grahm: California Dreamer in Search of

the Miraculous

15 Bob Wample: Thinking Like a Grape

PART THREE. TECHNOLOGY

16 Pressing Matters: A Postmodern Tale

17 Some Like It Hot

18 The New Filtrations: Winemaking's Power Tools

19 Flash Detente: Winemaking Game Changer

PART FOUR. PHILOSOPHY

20 Spoofulated or Artisanal?

21 Science and Biodynamics: The Limits of Rationalism

22 Natural Wine Nonsense

23 Yeast Inoculation: Threat or Menace?

24 New World Identity and Judging Reform

25 Liquid Music: Resonance in Wine

Appendix 1. Winemaking Basics

Appendix 2. Navigating the Postmodern Calendar

Notes

Glossary of Postmodern Terminology

Index

About the Author