Certain details of wine-making processes in Chapter 2 could also have been expanded

and clarified further. Thus in the discussion of fermentation (pp. 45, 47, 346),
the
distinction between inoculated and spontaneous fermentations could have been made
clearer. Traditionally, fermentations were spontaneous, but in recent years wine
makers
particularly in the New World have increasingly used selected cultured yeasts to
inoculate the must so that the fermentation proceeds in a predictable fashion. The
use of
active dry cultured yeasts is merely one of the more recent technological
developments to
enable such yeasts to be delivered in an appropriate form to the winery. Another
point to
note about yeasts is that it is now widely recognised that the key wine yeast
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is most commonly found in cellars and on winery equipment
rather than in the vineyard (Martini, 1993). With reference to methods of
preventing
bacterial spoilage and oxidation (pp. 54, 346), it should be emphasised that
legislation in
most wine producing areas limits the range of chemical additives permitted. Most
countries only allow sulphur dioxide and sorbic acid, and serious wine makers are
increasingly trying to reduce the amounts used to an absolute minimum, preferring
instead to concentrate on improved sanitation and other techniques to optimise the
stability of wines. The discussion of terroirin Chapter 2 could also have been
extended to
include mention of a crucial distinction between Old World and New World wine
making. In the New World, many wine makers draw their grape supplies from numerous
different locations, seeking to optimise the fruit characteristics that they want
for their
wines. In such circumstances, the notion of terroir is meaningless, and most of the
key
features of the wine will be determined in the processes of wine making and
maturation.
However, in the Old World, where grape growing and wine making is much more
integrated, and individual wines are often made from specific plots of vines, then
it is
possible to identify particular characteristics in wines that derive from the
environments
in which the grapes are grown (Bessis, Leneuf and Fournioux, 1994; Riou, Morlat and
Asselin, 1995). Indeed, there are strong grounds for arguing that further advances
in the
quality of New World wines may well result from increased attention being paid to
the
identification of the optimum growing conditions for particular vine varieties
(Elliott-Fisk
and Noble, 1992).