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Industry buzzwords come and go, but "hands-off" winemaking has remained oddly persistent.
Well regarded for environmentally friendly practices and minimal use of additives, hands-off vinification has become a favored style of winemaking for vignerons across the globe. However, this minimalist way of working actually involves more intervention than you might think.
In Alsace, Reichsfeld-based Bernard Bohn compares vinifying without a hands-off mentality to the likes of working as a replicative artist. "If we do not have a hands-off mentality, we are like a painter who only makes copies of a series," he says, explaining that a good winemaker does not make consistent and uniform copies of vintages, but rather highlights each of their unique differences through minimal intervention.
"If you feel obliged to work in a commercial way, its oppression and lack of character will be felt through the glass."
For Oregon-based winemaker Joe Swick, working hands off means not having the urge to mess with anything and simply allowing wines to be what they are. He does this through letting vinification processes happen naturally and only "intervening" via top-offs and/or sulfur additions.
Don't doctor; do little
Although working with a hands-off mentality looks slightly different for everyone, the core principles are unanimously the same: farm organically, manipulate the juice as little as possible, and add nothing, with the exception of minimal sulfur. In California, Chris Brockway of Broc Cellars believes that having a hands-off mentality means treating the fruit as gently as possible. "We do a lot of whole bunch and carbonic fermentations and try not to overly work the grapes," says Brockway, noting that punch downs are only done occasionally.
In Savigny-les-Beaune, Tomoko Kuriyama of Chantereves explains that working hands-off actually requires maximum attention in the cellar, especially when spontaneous fermentations are encouraged.
"When working with indigenous yeast, you have less security," she says, noting that the numerous variables, factors, and unknowns that go into hands-off winemaking actually makes it more prone to accidents. Though for her, this makes it all the more exciting. "Our aim is to focus on the individual nuance of terroir of a specific vineyard, and in order to enhance that, using a hands-off mentality is the best method."
The heat is on
Kuriyama adds that avoiding temperature control is essential when it comes to hands-off winemaking. "Temperature control is especially prevalent in Burgundy nowadays, mostly to extract tannins and [desired] aromatics," she says. After much experimentation on both sides of the debate, she has ultimately concluded that the practice is not necessary. "The more you depend on it, the more you mark the way of your vinification over the terroir, and therefore, the transparency of the wine will decrease the more you intervene," she says.
She relates her passion for eschewing temperature control to her time with Peter Kuhn in Rheingau back in the early 2000s. "[I was taught that] temperature control is some of the strongest intervention you can have in winemaking, and that really stayed with me," she says.
Bohn recounts the numerous winemaking styles that have existed in his family over generations. During his grandparents' reign, vinification was executed simply and naturally. On the contrary, he recalls his father's implementation of modern techniques, which in turn led to "limpid and sterile" wines. As for Bohn, his natural curiosity caused him to experiment with all styles of winemaking, though the answer was clear. "I think that we obtain the best wines by respecting the grapes as much as possible while in their raw state," he says. For Bohn, this means not intervening in the vineyards except for the occasional use of homeopathic doses of sulfites, as well as not "subjecting the wines to trauma" through processes like filtration.
Full speed ahead
For Swick, working with a hands-off mentality does indeed require some hands-on work, such as ensuring that all vessels are completely full (i.e. no headspace in tanks, eggs, or barrels).
"However, the fact that you don't have to move your wine back and forth from vessel to vessel means less work. In the end, I would say it is the same amount of work in the cellar," he says, pointing out that vinification processes can be riskier if high sulfur or additives are not being used. Bohn agrees. "[Hands off] sounds easy, but on the contrary, you need a lot of rigor and precision," he says, comparing it to crossing a canyon on a thread without a net. Brockway sums it up best: "It takes a lot of work to do very little."
In the vineyard, Kuriyama notes that there’s no such thing as a "hands-off" mentality, especially when it comes to organically farmed sites.
"If you're growing organically, you definitely need to intervene more and be more observant than if you were using chemical pesticides," she says, adding that, unlike chemicals, homeopathic remedies and treatments can be weak, as well as washed away with rain. Because of this, they need to be applied more frequently. Kuriyama also cites the need for more detailed pruning when organically farming. "You need to do pretty intensive canopy management to let air in if your vineyard is organic," she says, affirming that jungle-like conditions can bring on higher risks for disease and rot.
Though for Brockway, ensuring that vines are not overly manicured is key. He does this through avoiding an excessive dropping of clusters and maintaining balance in the soil. Swick, who doesn't own his own vineyards, explains that he exclusively works with growers who farm organically or are moving in that direction. "Conventional herbicide is a big no," he says.
Honesty is its own reward
So why work this way? Ultimately, the response is unanimous: better tasting and more honest final wines. "When farmed well, organic grapes make better wines," says Swick, who prefers to make something as "close to just grapes" as possible.
Brockway views working this way as a sign of respecting grapes and the hard work that goes into farming them. "If you love the vineyard, you should try to show it in its purest form," he says. Kuriyama deems hands-off winemaking to be the most challenging, albeit, most stimulating way to work. "Our aim is to focus on the individual nuance of terroir of a specific vineyard, and in order to enhance that, using a hands-off mentality is the best method," she says.
Though for Kuriyama, this trust in a hands-off mentality came with age. "I think the younger you are, the more tempted you might be to intervene," she says. She recalls being a bit more experimental with her ferments back in Germany, as well as the temptations she faced to use a heavier hand in the cellar. Today at Chantereves, she and her husband do not do remontage, exclude the use of temperature control, and only use native yeast fermentations. "When you intervene, you decide and it's easy. When you exercise restraint, it's more exciting," she says.
Though hands-off or not, the wine must be good. Bohn notes that for him it feels natural to want to vinify with as little intervention as possible, though the wines must be of utmost quality in the end. Swick confirms that hands-off winemaking has mostly worked for him, though after many trials and errors, vinifying with absolutely no sulfur does not produce the best results. "I'm not a fan of having to dump wines down the drain," he says. "If it means 10-20 ppm total SO2 added to a wine, I will do it. I prefer wine that tastes like wine, not kombucha."
Bohn feels that winemaking decisions shouldn't be made to appease the masses. "The idea is not to make wine like a supermarket yogurt that will appeal to as many people as possible, but rather a living wine that stimulates the taster," he says. For him, this starts in the vineyard through organic viticulture and respect for the soil, flora, and fauna.
"When the foundations are good, we have a good starting point for winemaking. It is essential."
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