Does using commercial yeast make winemakers lazy? One South African winemaker thinks so…. Using yeast in the winemaking process affects how quickly fermentation begins, how rapidly it progresses, and what the final product tastes like. Whether you support adding commercial strains of yeast or cultivating native yeast from the vineyard and surrounding areas, it’s a topic that’s likely to draw an impassioned response from winemakers. At a tasting held by South Africa’s Oldenburg Vineyards, yeast-whispering winemaker Nic van Aarde told db about his preference for all-natural fermentation and how it keeps him agile. “Yeast makes winemakers lazy,” he said. “Your fermentation just happens, and you can actually sleep at night! With wild fermentation it’s a different story. It’s a much longer, more drawn out process.” According to van Aarde he knows “how to keep wild yeast happy”, and it involves the somewhat unorthodox method of sunbathing. “I take my barrels outside and put them in the sun to warm them,” he revealed. “If you come to visit the winery you’ll see all my barrels parked outside as wild yeast doesn’t like being too cold. It functions best between 18°C and 20°C.” Van Aarde took on the winemaker role at Oldenburg, one of the smallest, newest and highest-altitude wards in Stellenbosch, in 2018, having spent eight years as head winemaker at Warwick, one of the major players in Stellenbosch wine. “Warwick was a much bigger operation, producing around 2.2 million bottles of wine per year. On that scale, I was really
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Wine
