WineStream
Junior
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2013
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 2
Hi all:
I have been reading at this site for some time now, searching as well. I haven't found any answer to my conundrum, so here goes:
Something that has bothered me about wine making since I started (which wasn't long ago in the relative scheme of things) is the number of chemicals that one is supposed to use when making wine. Some hundreds of years ago, I can't imagine that wine makers had Campden, metabisulphate, sorbate, acid testers, pH testers, hydrometers, acid blend, clarifying agents, let alone sanitizers! So how did they do it?
I've done the kit thing, and yeah, it turns out OK to great, but I hate that I'm dumping packs of things into the wine that makes me cringe because I'm not sure if I can even pronounce the chemical(s).
What am I missing? Why is the common method of wine making so chemically intensive? I do not envision the people of 500 or so years ago washing out their barrel, bucket, or whatever with sanitizer. The primary fermentation was probably done with a cloth laid over the top of the bucket, likely a wooden bucket. Secondaries might have been glass with an airlock, but I'm sure they didn't have a degassing paddle on a drill. I'm thinking their siphon was a hose made of canvas or some animal's entrails and it was likely started but sucking on the low end. Bottles were probably hard to seal with a cork (if they had corks) because the glass would have been manually blown. We're sure they were eating, drinking, and being merry and we're sure it included wine. So how could they make it with out "modern technology"?
Has anyone else contemplated this? What have you found? Why can't wine be made "simply"?
I have been reading at this site for some time now, searching as well. I haven't found any answer to my conundrum, so here goes:
Something that has bothered me about wine making since I started (which wasn't long ago in the relative scheme of things) is the number of chemicals that one is supposed to use when making wine. Some hundreds of years ago, I can't imagine that wine makers had Campden, metabisulphate, sorbate, acid testers, pH testers, hydrometers, acid blend, clarifying agents, let alone sanitizers! So how did they do it?
I've done the kit thing, and yeah, it turns out OK to great, but I hate that I'm dumping packs of things into the wine that makes me cringe because I'm not sure if I can even pronounce the chemical(s).
What am I missing? Why is the common method of wine making so chemically intensive? I do not envision the people of 500 or so years ago washing out their barrel, bucket, or whatever with sanitizer. The primary fermentation was probably done with a cloth laid over the top of the bucket, likely a wooden bucket. Secondaries might have been glass with an airlock, but I'm sure they didn't have a degassing paddle on a drill. I'm thinking their siphon was a hose made of canvas or some animal's entrails and it was likely started but sucking on the low end. Bottles were probably hard to seal with a cork (if they had corks) because the glass would have been manually blown. We're sure they were eating, drinking, and being merry and we're sure it included wine. So how could they make it with out "modern technology"?
Has anyone else contemplated this? What have you found? Why can't wine be made "simply"?