Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/90739
WINEMAKING Block would certainly like to try the tests on more wines from different grapes and with different styles. Bo- hanan notes they did not, for example, look at a full-throated, barrel-fermented Chardonnay that had received various additions and ministrations designed to pump up its mouthfeel: Maybe that stuff really would hang up on the filter. Block is also curious to continue the compara- tive tasting over longer periods of time. And everybody who has seen the results would love to know more about the tan- talizing hints toward an understanding of bottle shock. The importance of colloidal material Beside the need for more studies that pursue these variations on the original work, there is still the possibility that the Davis crew didn't find any significant dif- ferences because they weren't measuring the right things. Quantifying the "heart" or "soul" of a wine is tough sledding, but on a more material plane, there is still an argument about colloids. One of the strongest proponents of the importance of colloidal material in keeping a wine's act together is Clark Smith, whose writ- ing about "postmodern" winemaking Smith's first concern is methodological, that the sensory portion of the studies wasn't up to the task. We all know, he argues, that if there are differences between filtered and un- filtered wine—and he devoutly believes there are—although they are going to be small ones, not massive differences that would jump out of the glass. And to find small dif- ferences in a reliable way—or, in this case, to find out that there are not any small differ- ences—means having a whole lot of tasters and sniffers. He suggested the right number might be around 1,000, which, of course, is not going to happen. I told him he was arguing himself into a The effects of crossflow filtration (above) will be replicated using pumps instead of gas. often graces the pages of this very mag- azine. I had a chance to chew over the Davis research with him while we were both chewing on lunch at a recent Petite Sirah symposium. corner, claiming there was a sensory dif- ference that could not be identified by sen- sory methods. True enough, he responded: It's probably beyond the limits of standard descriptive analysis, which is designed, he said, to find out things we already know and is not so good at finding out about things we don't know. I decided this dis- cussion of methodology had gone beyond my pay grade; he suggested that maybe the only way to do this kind of sensory as- sessment would be with electronic sniffers testing volatiles in wine head space. The other part of Smith's case (and to me the much more intriguing one) is that 94 WINES & VINES NOVEMBER 2012