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Postmodern Winemaking CL ARK SMITH Liquid Music: Resonance in Wine $100 beers. We will agonize about spending $10 on a bottle of olive oil that will last for months, then cheerfully lay out twice that amount for a bottle of Cabernet that will be gone within the hour. In my September 2010 column "Harmony and Astringency," I touched on the importance of context for wine sensory proper- ties. Here I want to dig deeper into wine's mystery and advocate for the postmodern view of winemaking as "the practical art of A nnual revenues for music worldwide exceed those of pharmaceuticals.1 Brain scans of listeners deep- ly moved by a musical piece show activity in the same cognitive areas stimulated by sex and addic- tive drugs. The special allure of wine is similar. There are no connecting the human soul to the soul of a place by rendering its grapes into liquid music." This isn't going to work. It's easy to hold reader interest about well-worn topics like min- erality and Biodynamics, even when I bring an unexpected slant. But this month I tackle a realm that is perhaps utterly outside your experience. Without that familiarity, you are likely to think I am simply nuts. The article that follows is very likely a complete waste of your time. Before you read on, I really must beg you to do a bit of prepara- VintnersSupply_Immer_Dir11.qxd 11/19/10 1:41 PM Page 1 tion. Run down to the store and buy these wines: 1. Glen Ellen Chardonnay from some recent vintage. 2. Some oaky, toasty butter-bomb Chardonnay with more than 14% alcohol. The Rombauer is great if you can get it. A DIVISION OF MOECKLY ENTERPRISES, INC. ™ FILTRATION & SEPARATION • Reliable depth filter sheets ◆ for successful filtration ◆ from pre-clarification ◆ to bottling VINTNERS SUPPLY COMPANY P.O. Box 153, St. Helena, CA 94574 Toll Free 800.366.6809 • Fax 707.584.7955 www.vintnerssupply.com 60 Wines & Vines MARCH 201 1