It was a dark and stormy night at the Cherwell Boathouse on 22 March when Nancy took us deep into the depths of the forests … and led us out safely with a brilliant display of entertainment, erudition and fascinating wines.
The wine world, said Nancy, is perhaps just at the beginning of a third age of oenology. In the beginning (aka the 1970s) it was all about the cellars and the wineries. Wine, we thought, was made in the winery. Then in the 1990s came the vineyard revolution. Issues of leaf cover, planting density, vineyard management, soil treatment, micro-climatic effects dominated the discourse. And now we are entering the age of wood.
It’s not that the partnership of wood and wine is a new one. Wooden casks have been used to ferment, mature and store wine for millennia. What is new though is the technical advances that are adding science to the age-old art and expertise of the coopers.
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