handcrafted wines

Posted by on 8 May 2012 | 0 Comments

This is a description so commonly used by winemakers that some might think it does not mean much. Wrong. It is especially apt when used by small winegrowers to describe their process and wines.

Perhaps hand-crafted wines are best understood in terms of their opposite, factory-produced wines. Many of the best known wine brands in New Zealand and the well-known Australian brands sold here, are in this category. They are well-known because they are made in huge quantities and show up everywhere. Also in this category are the $7.99 wines you have never heard of before which grace aisle ends in supermarkets. These carry brand names created by the factory producers and sometimes by the supermarkets themselves to peddle surplus, mass-produced wine which the makers do not necessarily want to associate with their name and/or for which there is no other market.

Factory produced wines are made from grapes grown in huge vineyards, where much of the work is done mechanically. These grapes are harvested by machines which agitate the vines so vigorously that individual berries are shaken off the vine on to a conveyor system which deposits them in a large bin. All grapes, ripe and rotten, and all manner of other rubbish is also shaken into the bin – dead leaves and other plant material, bird nests and whatever insects, spiders and caterpillars are there at the time. The process is so thoroughly mechanized that it is not possible to remove this stuff.

After fermentation and a time of aging these wines are likely to require a good deal of treatment before they are bottled, to remove off-odours and off-flavours which may have resulted from the effect on the wine of this extraneous matter. 

Hand-crafted wines on the other hand are just that: Much of the vineyard work, including harvesting, is done by hand. It cannot be stressed too strongly how important hand-picking is to wine quality – individual pickers making decisions based on what their eyes tell them, about what to include and what to discard.

Vineyard work is just the beginning of the hand-crafting process. At every step in winemaking, small wineries are able to pay close attention to every ferment and to the care and aging of every wine after fermentation has finished. Partly this is because the proprietor is more often than not closely involved, but also it is fair to say that in a small operation with a small and closely-knit team there is likely to be a greater sense of pride and ownership amongst the workers. 

Small scale and all it entails is why this sort of winemaking is less cost-effective, and the wines may be more expensive. But the upside is that the final product has benefited from the individual care and attention it has received throughout. The wines from small operations producing all their own fruit express the individuality of the vineyard, the variation of the season and weather, and the passion of the individuals who produced them. 

While “hand-crafted” may sound like a cliché, if used appropriately in the context of winegrowing it is an apt description of the process and the outcome. And it accurately describes the processes and products of all of the wines grown and produced by Matakana winegrowers. 

Robin Ransom