When you spot someone in the vineyard peering anxiously into a refractometer, an ingenious hand-held device that measures the sugar content of grapes, it means the winemaking transition from the field to the cellar has begun.  Reports of these brix levels begin to dominate exchanges between winemakers, who are waiting for the exact moment when sugars and flavour compounds peak to signal the mad rush of harvest.  Flocks of marauding birds and weather forecasts are also constantly monitored.  That’s because the ripest, healthiest and freshest grapes are the most fundamental determinants of wine quality. 

Unfortunately, winemaking can go awry with the weather.  Hailstorms, record cold summers and unending rain must be gracefully and existentially accepted with each sip of wine that has captured the season so unerringly. During a tough harvest season, all the winemaking skills in the world cannot fabricate the taste of vinified perfect sweet grapes.  No matter: like gamblers, winemakers are addicted to next season’s promise.

REFRESHING NORTHERN WINES

Typically our cooler weather in Ontario produces sufficient acid in wine that gives it an essential aliveness, or at higher levels, the ability to refresh.  Barring freak weather occurrences, achieving proper acid levels will never be a problem in Prince Edward County.  Conversely in hot climates, such as Australia and Chile, winemakers may need to add acid to correct wines that have become “flabby” from excess heat units.

Sweetness, acid’s balancing partner, sometimes needs to be topped up in fermenting wines when nature produced a cooler than average growing season.  Of course in hot winemaking regions, where adding sugar to wine is scorned as a winemaking intervention, lack of summer heat is, very conveniently, not a problem.          

THE ANALYSIS OF WINEMAKERS

Anthropologists would have a field day analyzing the wine industry with its wonderfully complex time-honoured and time-stuck beliefs.  Although wine has been made for centuries, scientists have yet to unlock the meaning of every molecule.  And so one winemaker may remove all the stalks before pressing, while another carefully adds 20 per cent.  Some boast about the number of days grapes were cold soaked before fermentation, yet others politely shrug when asked for an opinion.  Some rely on the security of the latest chemical offerings; others are secure with the dictums of nature.  Depending on where you live and how you relate to the world, winemaking techniques are deemed either essential or practically sacrilegious.  Is it any wonder that the word mystery once referred to trades and crafts?  In the end, you can’t knock whatever winemaking practice seems to work.  The job of the winemaker is to step nimbly amongst the beliefs, real or imagined, or simply steeped in idiosyncratic values.

FROM WOODEN CRATES TO STAINLESS STEEL TANKS

At By Chadsey’s Cairns, we aim for an artisanal and humble approach to winemaking, letting nature take its course as much as possible, which then produces fuller flavours and a cleaner taste.  The science comes from keeping an open and critical mind.

We are a small cottage winery, meaning the owners are often found in the fields or scrubbing a winetank.  Our equipment involves a curious mixture of old and new from vintage tractors to gleaming stainless steel tanks and parts per million testing.  Handcrafting is a literal description of winemaking here each step along the way. 

Our handpicked grapes arrive at the backdoor of our renovated century-old stable in a variety of containers, brightly coloured plastic or wooden crates.  The grapes receive a final inspection as they are tipped into the crusher/destemmer, a stainless steel contraption that cleverly separates the grapes from the stalks.  The crushed grapes, resembling mush, are pumped directly into a screwpress when making the more delicate whites or roses, while red grapes are pumped into fermentation tanks so the juice can withdraw more flavours and colours from the skins during fermentation.  Once a red fermentation is complete, the wine is pumped into the screwpress as well where the skins are gently pressed inside a large stainless steel cylinder to extract every precious drop.

WHEN WINE MAKES ITSELF

Fermentation is the grandest mystery of wine, and the bigger the vessel of grapes, the more awesome a show.  Standing on a ladder to peer into a tank of juice deep in the throes of fermentation instills a sense of reverence, as if this brewing, bubbling, hot mass of fruit is a living entity, purposefully controlling its transformation.  Knowledge of chemical molecular bondings and resulting energy transfers do little to dispel the wonder that a little yeast sprinkled throughout the grapes can generate such a wallop of heat and gas, never mind the equally mystifying change of sugar to alcohol taking place at the same time.  Novices, perhaps taking a closer look at the brain-like fissures developing in fermenting foam, will reel back as if physically struck by the invisible acrid wall of carbon dioxide, a potentially lethal punch felt in every respiratory cavity.  A naturally powerful force, fermentation no doubt inspires our primal attraction to wine.

Afterwards, the wine is allowed to rest in our cold barn and settle into its new form.  Fermentation’s imprint--the subtle heat of the alcohol and the succession of aromas and flavours that will capture the essences of other fruits, plants and minerals, sometimes teasingly so—continues to develop.  By spring many wines, particularly unoaked whites, are ready to reveal themselves, but those in barrels need more time to fuse and soften with the touch of oak.

And when the winemaker finally raises glass to lips, an almost pagan rush of gratitude to soil, sun and vines is experienced, making an instant link to winemakers centuries ago drinking a toast to the ancient wine gods, Dionysus and Bacchus.