“I was slow to embrace the Coravin when it arrived on the scene, thinking if wine could come out of a bottle, (inferior or substitute) wine could certainly go in. I’ve already seen some fraudulent first and second growths bought in China brought into one of my restaurants as corkage! But, two years in, I’ve come around to see that the device’s benefits definitely outweigh my initial suspicions. Those spurious bottles were not done by a Coravin. There’s no money in one-bottle-at-a-time piracy.
“I’m still not into wine on tap, for several reasons. A good sommelier offers some surprises by the glass and a good list is fast on its feet, changing constantly; I sometimes think that the ability to edit and print lists in-house may be the most significant technology change in the past 200 years! Wines on tap dumb down a wine list. As well, the cost of the system is prohibitive, which allows the on-tap supplier to subsidize its purchase if their wines have a preferred place for an agreed length of time. Unfortunately for customers, this can leads to limited choice.”
Winemaker Adam Pearce (Two Sisters Vineyards; Niagara Region):
“My job is to deliver the best product possible, so it is hard to ignore technological advances that can help that process. While we always respect time-honoured traditions, we certainly implement some modern processes. At harvest time, we fly a drone with infrared cameras to help with the decision-making process for picking. The images let us know what blocks are still photosynthesizing and should not be picked yet and which ones are slowing down and ready for harvest. In the cellar, we use LASI’s Mythos fermentation tanks. These give us precise control over temperature, pressure, and oxygen gas. Control over these factors results in very plush, fruit-forward wines with nicely polymerized tannins.”
Sommelier and proprietor Andrew Brooks (Back 10 Cellars; Niagara Region):
“We wild ferment our Chardonnay. The desired end result is more of everything: more texture, length, and nuance in aroma and bouquet. However, we know nothing about this yeast. The ferment could reach two per cent alcohol and simply get ‘stuck’ and stop fermenting. Many winemakers tell me the use of wild yeast is straight-out foolhardy. I feel the risk is worth the constant monitoring when we achieve the incredible complexity in the ‘start-from-scratch’ Chardonnay.
“We harvest Riesling a little differently. As you know, so many growers focus on brix levels (sugar content) at harvest for all varieties. When it comes to Riesling, at Back 10 Vineyard we track the acid and harvest when it falls to 10 grams per litre, regardless of the sugar level. I feel Mother Nature is constantly giving us moments of opportunity and you can capitalize on them or let them pass. I want the sugar and acid to balance on the edge of a knife on the palate. A flabby Riesling is an example of a missed opportunity.”
Of course, wine is not the only beverage that benefits from new and innovative products. Dimitri van Kampen, owner and founder of Toronto’s Spearhead Brewing Company, talks about the future of craft beer:
“By relying on technical innovations to reduce the cost of brewing and improve efficiencies, big industrial breweries have affected the commoditization of beer. In this sense, the more traditional, inefficient brewing methods used by craft brewers are innovating the brewing industry.
“While craft brewers are returning to traditional brewing methods, they are also looking to shake things up by brewing off-the-hook flavourful beers. Many of our beers are brewed with unique ingredients that require equally unique brewing methods. So we faced a problem: How to get all these awesome ingredients – such as ground dates or cinnamon – into our beer without screwing up our brewing system? Often necessity is the mother of invention. We set to work designing and building a large metal basket to hold our specialty ingredients, which we attach to a metal chain and lower by hand into the boil kettle. It’s not in any way automated, but this simple innovation enables us to infuse any of our beers with any ingredient. We call it the Depth Charge!
“Innovation also means taking risks, something familiar to most craft brewers. When we first launched Spearhead in 2011, there were a handful of Ontario brewers making regularly available beer with unique ingredients. The more exciting beers with crazy ingredients were still pretty rare and reserved for special one-offs or seasonal releases. When we told people that our first flagship beer was going to be a super-hoppy west-coast IPA brewed with pineapple juice, and that it would clock in at 6.0% ABV, they told us we were crazy and it would never sell in Ontario. None of these attributes were typical of the beer available at the time. But we didn’t listen. We wanted to brew beer that we wanted to drink. Our Hawaiian Style Pale Ale is still our biggest selling beer.”
About the author:
Sommelier Zoltan Szabo is a hospitality consultant offering wine sourcing and staff training services to restaurants. He is also the sommelier at the Trump International Hotel & Tower. Check out his website www.zszabo.com or follow him on Twitter @zoltanszabo. If you’d like to find out more about the wines mentioned above, email Zoltan at [email protected].
