Teddy Hall, Teddy Hall Wines (Stellenbosch, South Africa). The use of sulfur in wine is as old as wine itself. Oxidized wine, and wine with bacterial flaws, are not beneficial to wine quality. The correct use of sulfur is necessary for the making of quality wine and in general sulfur levels are so low that consuming a bottle of quality wine a day should pose no health risk at all to the consumer. READ MORE »

“Natural winemaking” is an issue of great interest these days to many consumers, not least because many wine journalists, retailers and sommeliers are touting its benefits. But they also may be tolerating wine flaws that might have been prevented by judicious use of sulfur dioxide. What do YOU view as the most important role of sulfur products in the winemaking and aging process—IF there is one?

Brian O’Donnell, Belle Pente (Oregon). It may be stating the obvious, but for me the role of SO2 is to avoid the aforementioned flaws that are often apparent in "no added sulfites" wines. These flaws result from oxidation and undesirable microbial activity that, as you say, can easily be inhibited by a moderate dose of sulfites at bottling. Although I embrace the philosophical intent of "no added sulfites" wines, I am not willing to compromise quality for the dubious perceived benefits of following that path. READ MORE »

Yves Cuilleron, Domaine Yves Cuilleron (Condrieu, France). Certainly for the holidays this year, I'll open an old bottle because I was born the day after Christmas 50 years ago in 1961. I’m lucky because 1961 is one of the best vintages of the 20th century in France. So I'll try two bottles from this vintage: one red wine, the Château Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac, certainly with game, and a bottle of the Arbois vin jaune Domaine de la Pinte 1961, with Comté. READ MORE »

Josh Bergström, Bergström Wines (Oregon). My wife and I have made a tradition out of enjoying great Pacific Northwest Dungeness crab and lobsters with great white Burgundies during the holidays. We buy the crabs and lobsters fresh and serve them with the traditional fixings of homemade aioli, melted butter and lemon wedges alongside toasted baguette and a simple butter lettuce salad that is heavy on shallots and garlic in a simple Dijon mustard vinaigrette (not too heavy on the vinegar.) It is with this simple but decadent meal that we enjoy with our family and friends the great grand cru and premier cru bottlings of chardonnay from Chablis and the Cote d’Or. The minerality and succulent acidity of the wines pair well with the richness of the crab and lobster as well as cutting the fat of the aioli and the butter for a wonderful, one-of-a-kind experience. READ MORE »

Matt Donaldson, Pegasus Bay Winery (Waipara, New Zealand). I think we learned that if the season is totally awesome you can get away with carrying a higher crop level than would be ideal in an average year. The problem, of course, is that you can’t predict how the end of season is going to turn out at the time you need to do the green harvest, unless you have a crystal ball. READ MORE »

Joel Peterson, Ravenswood Winery (Sonoma, California). I learned that the cleanest fruit doesn’t always make the best wine. This year, because of the timing of the early fall rains, we had more fungal damage in some of our vineyards than normal. Certainly more damage than I have seen since 1989. We spent a lot of time sorting fruit. The question of how clean was clean arose. To answer the question we performed different levels of sorting on the same fruit and fermented each batch separately. Not surprisingly we found the least sorted fruit to make fairly bad wine. But, surprisingly, we like the moderately sorted fruit more than the clean sort. It tasted more interesting and somewhat riper. Up to 10% damaged fruit did not seem to affect the taste of the resulting wine adversely in this test. READ MORE »

Marc Hugel, Hugel et Fils (Alsace, France). Having had four ultra-precocious harvests in the past ten years (2003, 2007, 2009 and 2011), which is more than during the 50 years before, the discussion about the benefit or inconvenience of a significantly warmer than average growing season becomes more relevant. By the way, it is curious to note than since 2002, each early harvest is always followed by a quite late harvest, and then very early again, and this ten times in a row! Of course, at the end, the result in the bottle differs considerably in style: rich, broad, supple, early-drinking for warmer-than-average vintages, and austere, sharp, nervous and closed wines for the opposite. READ MORE »

Abrie Beeslaar, Kanonkop (Stellenbosch, South Africa). Definitely cooler seasons for the Simonsberg area. Normally our ripening is too quick and we are left with some herbaceous character that is not very positive. In cooler vintages the fruit expression on our cabernets is more classic. READ MORE »

As a winemaker, which type of growing season would you prefer to deal with: a significantly warmer-than-average year, or one that’s significantly cooler than normal? And why? Also, which type of vintage, cool or warm, is able to produce classic a expressions of your region, if not your specific terroir?

Chester Osborn, d’Arenberg (McLaren Vale, Australia). I much prefer cool seasons to warmer ones for both McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills.  Autumns are usually quite mild and so it doesn't really matter that the grapes sit on the vine for a long time; they pretty much always ripen. Wines from cool years have both more floral and more fruit character, and better acidity. They age the best also. The whites and the reds show more minerality, with less blocky dry tannins. The color of the reds doesn't seem to suffer in McLaren Vale either. READ MORE »

Rupert Symington, Symington Family Estates (Douro Valley, Portugal). I think it is fair to say that most of us quality producers in the wine business must have experienced a falling-off of demand for our more expensive wines over the last couple of years, with only a partial corresponding increase in sales of the less expensive wines in the range. As regards Port, with a typical lead time of three years minimum in getting product to market, and a fairly stable grape supply base, there is little we can really do to react quickly and deliberately produce lower-quality wines to match lower sales price expectations. Furthermore, there is very little cost to be taken out of our production process even when it comes to making lower-end wines, so in order to respond to the shift in the sales mix we must effectively “blend down” and accept that we sell some good wines at well below their proper price. READ MORE »