Wine Transformation

The art of making wine is a transformative process. The process starts with grapes, the grapes are pressed to make juice, yeast is added, the yeast converts the sugars in the grape juice into alcohol and voilà you have wine!

Of course, I have vastly simplified the process and the “art of winemaking”. Grape variety, yeast selection, temperature, type and length of aging are among the variables controlled by the winemaker.

The vast majority of wine produced in the United States is what we refer to as bulk wine.  Most of this is produced in the Central Valley region in California. While these wines are predictable they are mostly uninteresting and lack character. Smaller, boutique producers handcraft their wines, starting in the vineyard where they hand prune and harvest to the cellar where they tend and nurture their wines. The results are noticeable - think Hostess Twinkie versus home-baked cake.

 

On my recent travels I had the pleasure of visiting Oregon’s smallest wine producer.  The husband and wife team of Mark and Tina Hammond moved to their 2.5-acre property in Newberg nine years ago to escape the growing stress of city life. Today Mark tends to the vines and Tina makes the wines. They grow Pinot Noir grapes on their property and produce handcrafted burgundy style wines. Checkout www.privevineyard.com for a description of the wines.

The Hammond’s like to fire up the brick oven and throw pizza parties.  While they make terrific Pinot Noir, it is not the perfect pairing for pizza. So, Tina heads just a few miles north to purchase grapes in the southern part of Washington state and brings them back to her small winery to craft the perfect pizza wine: