What’s in that Wine?

Winemakers have different thoughts about making wine. Since winemakers began making wine, they had to learn how to control what they were making. While at Vint Hill Craft Winery in Virginia during the autumn, I added several winemaking products to the fermentation bin. One of these products was Lafase® HE Grand Cru by Laffort. This enzyme enhanced the extraction of soft tannins and flavors from the cell wall of mature fruit. I then added VR Supra, also by Laffort to the fermentation bin. This fermentation tannin helped to keep indigenous tannins in the must rather than those tannins precipitating out.

Later in autumn I added several winemaking products to the barrel. Tan’Cor by Laffort was added to help improve the wine’s structure and help protect the wine from oxidation. Next I added Tan’Cor Grand Cru and Quertanin by Laffort to help with the wine’s structure and wood nuances. Other products were also added to the fermentation bin and barrel. Most of the products were produced by Laffort, and I was curious to learn more about this company.

At the recent Wineries Unlimited Trade Show in suburban Philadelphia, I met Philippe Guillomet and Charlotte Gourraud from Laffort. Philippe explained that the Laffort family was originally pharmacists. During the nineteenth century, French winemakers did not have labs at their wineries to analyze their wines. It was the practice to take wine to a pharmicist to analyze. The Laffort company was founded in 1895 in Bordeaux, France. During its early years the company was involved in a curative form of onelogy as winemakers were trying to fix problems. Now, Laffort has evolved into a preventative form of oneology so winemakers can help avoid defects in the wine.

Winemakers who use Laffort products can create a consistency in their wines. These winemaking products can help to express the best the vineyard has to offer. Laffort makes a large array of products that winemakers use throughout the world in over 50 countries. These include yeasts, enzymes, nutrients, lactic acid bacteria, tannins and many others. Although their products are sold to commercial wineries, home winemakers can buy smaller quantities of winemaking products at some suppliers such as Presque Isle Wine Cellars.

An excelent source of information about winemaking products can be found in the Fermentation Handbook published by Scott Laboratories. This yearly publication has good descriptions of winemaking products and short articles about using them. Visit the Scott Laboratories website to download the Fermentation Handbook.