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WINEMAKING cellar surprise—a batch that goes bad, a product that fails to perform as advertised, a wine that comes out just fine without much biochemical assistance—for them to change protocols. I pushed the supplier reps on the particular issue of possibly superfluous color enzymes, and they pushed back. Peter Salam- one at Laffort, who admits he's "an enzyme guy" by training and background, was typical in saying, "Color enzymes aren't just for color, they also get flavor and aroma compounds from the same place as the color, from the vacuoles of the skins." "All this stuff, all the costs, are just part of good, sound winemaking protocols." —Steve Pessagno, Pessagno Winery Salamone also noted that, "Enzymes got a bad reputation early on, since the first ones were really apple enzymes, not the right stuff for wine, which was a much smaller market." Perhaps the most surprising comments (for me, at least) came from José Santos of Enartis, a native of Portugal with experience elsewhere in Europe, who only recently relocated to the United States. Contradicting my romantic misbelief that Europe was still full of little old winemakers who followed the time-honored ways, Santos insisted that the European fine wine producers are much more enthusiastic adopters of new tech- nologies and products than their U.S. counterparts, and that the French lead the world in using these materials. Good to have some perspective. Winemakers chime in Not having the time or the funding to survey several thousand winemakers, I called five of them (pulled out of a hat) who have been in the business long enough to have tried just about every- thing and to have decided what they want to use and why: Da- vid Akiyoshi of Lange Twins in Lodi, Calif., with a background at Mondavi; Steve Pessagno of Pessagno Winery in Monterey, with many years at production-oriented Lockwood on his re- sumé; David Whiting of Red Newt Cellars in the Finger Lakes, N.Y., with 25 years of commercial winemaking under his belt; Kirk Venge of Venge Vineyards in Napa for nearly a decade, and Jerome Chery, who trained in Burgundy, with stints at im- portant California operations, and now winemaker at Saints- bury since 2004. I didn't plan it this way, but my fivesome offered a nice cross-section of additive attitudes, from avid proponents to near-naturalists. For most of these winemakers, pulling things off the menu of additives is just part of the job. Whiting de- scribes his as a "pretty mainstream program," and says "the stakes are too high not to be cautious and conservative." Con- sidering the value of the product, the potential impact of ac- tion or inaction, and the time savings, he says that most of his winemaking decisions "are no-brainers." Steve Pessagno thinks that "all this stuff, all the costs, are just part of good, sound winemaking protocols." All of these winemakers order their additives a la carte, using some treatments and skipping others. Most rely on commercial NEWS SITE << Latest wine industry news QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #1316 134 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2012 << Wine Industry Data Center << Archive search << Live reader comments WWW.WINESANDVINES.COM QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTHS #430 & 818 QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #1739g