I hear this question from new winemakers and wineries of The Other 46: wine style

What is the wine style for my region or AVA?

That includes grapes, but also what kind of wine should they make. From a high level there are two primary styles of wine: Old World and New World. From here, you start to group wines under each style. Examples include Cote d’ Rhone and an Australian Shiraz. These represent two extreme points on the scale of Old vs New World wines. Old world styles are typically described as elegant, balanced, complex, soft. Often more minerally with higher acidity and lower alcohol content. Whereas New World wines are often described as bold, fruit forward, simple, big, and full-bodied. They have higher alcohol content and lower acidity.

What creates this difference?

Terroir, climate, winemaking process and equipment. When developing your wine, you have to decide what you want your end product to be like. This will dictate the grapes, the approach, process and the equipment to be used. If you are a winery in The Other 46, a lot of things pop up here. The style drives the grapes you will plant, which is also determined by your area’s soil and climate. After choosing your style, your branding will easily follow. As a winemaker and business, this is a big decision! For instance, if Yellowtail were to produce an old world wine now, it would shock their customers. The stylistic choice determines your winemaking, but it also sets a path for your branding.

Which wine style is better?

Winemaking is like art. You could group art into two extreme groups as well – contemporary and classical. You may like one more than the other, but it doesn’t make one better than the other. This choice comes down to what your customer wants, what you like, and/or your marketing direction.

New World wines have become very popular in the last 30-40 years, thus many wineries often feel like they need to produce a similar wine style. What I have noticed is that neighboring regions are taking on different wine styles. Example: A Malbec from Chile versus a Malbec from Argentina. Both are from the Andes, both have similar climates and soils, and both are using the same grape; yet the wines are drastically different. Clearly different stylistic approaches are being used at the wineries.

And it’s not just about the winemaking either. It’s also about the blending choices, how you harvest, harvesting parameters, the equipment used, and how you process the wine. New World wines are designed to be drunk earlier. Typically modern equipment and processes are being used in both the vineyard and the winery. Old World vignerons tend to use more traditional methods with an emphasis on the vineyard and the quality of the grape. It is often fermented in aged oak casks rather than new oak or steel tanks.

Old World vs New World

In recent decades, Old World wines have gotten a bad rap because they may have flaws such as brett, volatile acidity, bacteria, oxygenation, etc. Because Old World wineries rely so much on traditional, unaltered processes, in years where the grapes are light in color and flavor, and blended with an even blander grape (which previously had worked) they produce flawed or poor quality wines. At times like these, the reliance on tradition versus choices in the winemaking process become very apparent.

On the other hand, there are wineries in Texas and other states, that use old world processes and produce incredibly good wines. Often the size of the vineyard, winery and the equipment available to process the wine determines the method. If you have a 3000 case winery, you are more likely than not using Old World wine methods, because it’s hard to find modern equipment that handles small volumes. It’s just too large and expensive, when you can use 10 neutral oak barrels rather than purchasing a 500 gallon tank. Which makes more business sense? The higher capital investment or higher overhead? When managed properly, the risks inherent of Old World processes can be mitigated. Old World wine styles do not have to equal problems or faults.

Small winery versus larger winery.

If you are a small winery, choosing your style may be based solely on what you want to produce. However, if you are making a 5000 gallon batch of wine, do you put it in 80 barrels or do you put it in a stainless tank with oak staves and micro-oxidation? In a larger winery (over 10k case), you now have to deal with volume. Assuming cash flow and sales are in order and nothing impacting production, a 10k case winery can buy the large, modern equipment a smaller winery could not.

The question is what’s your goal or vision and how are you going to get there?

Now compare the style you want to produce and the style your customers want. Remember you don’t want a large inventory of great wine that won’t sell. Does what you want and what the customer wants come together? Does it tell the story about your wine and winery you want told? If you want a small family winery, then that’s a different story than if you want to be Mondavi or Berenger, so the style of wine you choose may be different.

Can a winery produce multiple wine styles?

Yes, and the challenge is loss of focus. If you are trying to produce a New World Syrah and an Old World meritage blend, you’ll have different challenges in processing each. You’ll need different people providing feedback on your wines. The branding is different. The customer base may be different. Typically this is not a good idea unless you are well-established winery that has clearly established loyalty in your existing wine base. However, if you wanted to produce a South African style Savignaun Blanc and an Australian Pinot Grigio, they could be compatible in production methods at the same winery.

What wine style does California produce?

You might immediately say New World. Yet, in the 1976 tasting, CA wines showed up the French as better Old World style wines. Is it different by regions of California? Nope. Lots of wineries have been built in the last 30 years and they got to choose what they were going to plant and produce. By the same token, there are a lot of New World wines made in Italy, right next to classic Old World wineries.

Is there really a straight distinction between Old and New?

What if you are using Old World processes with New World equipment? Or mixing Old World and New World processes? Example, what if you put a wine in oak for 3 years and bottle aged for 1 year as compared to putting your wine in oak casks for 18 months, then in a stainless tank for 12 months and then bottle aged in an underground cellar for 12 more months? How do you compare? The former is clearly Old World, but what is the latter?

Another example:
Grapes are harvested, pressed, cold settled for 24 hours, warmed up and fermented. Another batch is harvested, pressed, cooled off to 55 degrees for 24 hours, and fermented. While a third batch is harvested, pressed, left at room temp of 65 degrees and put in a container and allowed to ferment. Which is which? Old, New, mixed?

Point: Know the different wine styles so that you can make a choice…or mix it up.

But know enough to know what your options are, how it fits your customers, your story and your brand. If you don’t know your wine style yet, find examples others have produced that represents the kind of wine style you want to make and soon you’ll be able to clearly define yours.

I am teaching viticulture and enology classes over a few weekends this fall. The whole point is to expose these enology students to the different regions, climates, soils, grapes and wine styles of the world. We are comparing and contrasting growing methods and winemaking processes so that they can figure out what they like, what they want to make and be able to use that knowledge to guide them towards the wine style and direction that’s right for them. At the end of the course they will be able to choose a wine style, and find examples to use as guides, and have knowledge of what it takes to produce those styles.

They are figuring out their wine style. What’s your wine style?