Old Country Wine Makers Question

[BernardSmith]

Hello MFC

For 20 years I made wine with naturel fermentation from the wild yeast of the grape. My wines tasted great. I do not believe there is any danger in this approach at all.
For the past 10 years or so I have gone the route of using yeast to reach a certain flavor profile for the wines I am making. Just a different approach. Crap, I guess I have gone mainstream, @%$$!#!
As far as making wine based on the phases of the moon I believe in it. If you have details please share. My wife is an Ayurvedic Health practitioner and uses Moon Water in some of her remedies. I know it works.

Cheers
Jim

Jim, Let me say right off the bat that I am a thorough-going skeptic but I am curious about how the moon is supposed to affect the wine. And through what process is the moon doing what it is supposed to do? I have seen claims made by makers of mead that the moon affects their meads but I have yet to learn what the moon is doing and what the outcome is supposed to be and whether a naive taster would recognize differences caused by the moon.

 

[allanerikckson]

question/brandywine/what is unnaturalingredientsthat are used to make brandy?

 

[Rocky]

Jim, Let me say right off the bat that I am a thorough-going skeptic but I am curious about how the moon is supposed to affect the wine. And through what process is the moon doing what it is supposed to do? I have seen claims made by makers of mead that the moon affects their meads but I have yet to learn what the moon is doing and what the outcome is supposed to be and whether a naive taster would recognize differences caused by the moon.

Jim and Bernard, I am not saying that there is or that there is not an effect by the Moon but I knew a lot of old timers who swore that it did. They would not rack or move the wine when the Moon was full. They only explanation I can come up with is that the Moon does exert a gravitational force on the earth and, in part, causes tides (the oceans) to rise and fall. Does this have an effect on wine in a barrel? I don't know but I think the old timers knew what to do although they did not always understand why.

 

[NY25712]

Supposedly the full moon causes particles in wine to fall to the bottom as well as a day with high barometric pressure( therefore a bright sunny day not a rainy day) sounds crazy but that it> sometimes the old timmers have answers that get lost with time

 

[GreginND]

The wineries that have the best success using native yeasts are the ones that compost their pummace back into the vineyard. Over years a strong native population of good wine yeasts develop.

 

[BernardSmith]

Supposedly the full moon causes particles in wine to fall to the bottom as well as a day with high barometric pressure( therefore a bright sunny day not a rainy day) sounds crazy but that it> sometimes the old timmers have answers that get lost with time

I say I am a skeptic but in truth I am fascinated by claims about knowledge different folk have about the world. "Old timers" certainly used and lived by different ways of knowing and the way of knowing that science offers is only
one way of knowing. Certainly the dominant way ,today, and a powerful way given what most folk want to achieve and do... but it is only one way...

 

[seth8530]

My honest thought on the moons effect on wine making is that it is complete nonsense. Maybe, racking when only the moon was full might insure that the wine had enough time to compact or perhaps age a bit longer, but I honestly do not buy moon theory.