Pinot CountryVineyard and cellar (11)

Old barrels, Used barriques

A barrel that has already given up its flavour — third use, fourth, older. It still lets oxygen through the staves and still shapes texture; it just stops tasting of the forest.

Pre-fermentation maceration, Macération à froid

Chilling the crushed fruit and holding it below fermentation temperature for days before the yeast start. Water pulls colour and aroma out of the skins; alcohol has not arrived yet to pull tannin.

Malo, MLF, Secondary fermentation

A bacterial conversion, not a yeast one: lactic acid bacteria turn sharp malic acid into softer lactic acid and let off CO₂. Nearly every red pinot noir goes through it.

Wild ferment, Spontaneous fermentation, Indigenous yeast

Letting whatever came in on the fruit and lives in the cellar start the ferment, instead of pitching a selected strain from a packet.

Pigeage, Punch-down

Pushing the floating cap of skins back under the wine, by foot or by plunger, several times a day. Pinot's cap rises fast and dries out if nobody moves it.

Whole-bunch, Vendange entière, Stem inclusion

Putting bunches into the fermenter with their stems still attached, instead of pulling the berries off first.

Nine to twelve thousand vines a hectare, rows a metre apart, each vine carrying a handful of bunches. Burgundy's grand cru rules set a floor of 9,000 vines per hectare and the New World mostly did not follow.

Sélection massale, Massale

Taking cuttings from many vines in a block you already trust, instead of ordering one numbered clone from a nursery. You keep the block's variation, and whatever virus it carries.

Bleeding juice off a red fermenter early, to raise the skin-to-juice ratio in what stays behind. The juice that comes out is sold as rosé.

Vendange verte, Crop thinning

Cutting unripe bunches onto the ground in summer so the vine ripens fewer. Yield control with secateurs, after the vine has already set more fruit than the grower wants.

Picking into small crates by hand, so the bunch arrives whole and the cellar decides what to do with it.