Global shortage of key ingredient in winemaking

[Venatorscribe]

I stumbled upon this article today. Some may find this interesting. Cheers

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-12-23/wine-industry-dap-shortage-oncern/100718348

 

[Boatboy24]

Interesting. I was expecting the 'key ingredient' to be patience.

 

[cmason1957]

Interesting. I was expecting the 'key ingredient' to be patience.

That one is always in short supply, nothing new about that.

 

[ibglowin]

Kinda feel like this famous movie scene about now.........

 

[Rembee]

Maybe it's time to revert back to ways of old and ferment with stems and leaves for a source of organic N2 and natural tannins and leave China out of the equation.
Food for thought

 

[Rembee]

More food for thought,
Over 20 years ago when my farther in law introduced me to the joys of wine making we always used bits of stems from which ever fruit we were going to make the wine from and either oak leaves or muscadine leaves which we still grow here in the south.
For example, we would start our yeast starters with a cup of water, a tsp of sugar a few stems still attached to the mashed up berries, 2 or 3 blueberry leaves and allow it to sit over night in a covered bowl. To the must we would add the mashed up blueberries, some stems and leaves (sometimes oak leaves which are high in tannins) along with pectic enzyme, water and sugar to obtain the proper OG that we were shooting for. We would add Camden tablets to the must back in those days and pitch the starter the follow day. Our fermentation would be off to the races within 24 hours. We never had a problem with the yeast not fermenting to completion nor any issues with H2S.
Most of what we made was very drinkable with the occasional batch that would oxidize to the lack of keeping up a proper seal over time.
But they were some good country wines that I'm still proud of to this day. It was, as it still is, a learning experience with every batch for no 2 fermentation are the same.
I so wish that I could find some of my old note books that I kept my wine journals in but over time and many moves from one house to another they became misplaced or lost to the times of yore.
Just thought I'd share some of my learning experiences throughout my wine journey.

Merry Christmas to all my fellow winemakers and may the joys of the season bring you and yours peace!

 

[Joel]

Maybe this will be the push needed to have someone take the leap to start producing and selling it domestically.

 

[balatonwine]

A key ingredient? Hmmm....

Been making wine wine for 20 years. Never used it.

My grapes come in with enough nutrients, elements, etc., to meet the needs for yeast. As they have been doing here where I grow grapes for about 2,000 years..... Because this is a good Terroir for growing grapes. Move a few kilometers from where I am, and no one grows grapes. Not a grape growing area there. Wrong Terrior for grapes. Unless one "forces" wine making via adding things to the must in the cellar.

What this is rather, it seems to me, is instead an industrial problem. Of wine being grown in areas, by industrial interests, that can not produce grapes that naturally have enough nutrients. It is all about Terroir (the environmental factors that affect a crop's phenotype). Growing grapes in areas that can not supply sufficient nutrients, means growing grapes outside a grape's natural Terroir in the field will necessitate adding them in the wine cellar. Which is fine... I guess.... if one can get a post harvest source of what the crop naturally lacks. But.... if not.... oh well. Tough it out. No sad face here.

I do not need Diammonium Phosphate. So will not miss this "shortage".

Also something to think about: Growing crops only in the areas that best suit them. Think about that for a minute or two, and you always come back to Terroir -- (and I do not mean the over hyped, online, over marketed twisted version of this word, I mean the original concept created a millennia ago = the environmental factors that affect a crop's phenotype).