Ever wonder where the carbonic vin de soif came from and why it’s becoming the black sheep of the natural wine world? A series in two (or maybe three) parts.
A History & Chemistry Lesson
Common grape fermentation works like this: grapes are crushed. Fermentation starts when the yeasts convert their sugar to alcohol. But there is another way to make wine and it’s enzymatic, not yeast-driven. This is carbonic maceration, the method so closely associated with Beaujolais and it occurs first inside the grape, not out. It’s both maddeningly simple, stupidly complicated and highly controversial.