BOTTLE STOP

Fancy a wine, beer, cider, gin, rum, vodka or whisky? Fermentation is the No.1 secret to all these things delicious and drinkable.

That’s because the alcohol at the core of your preferred tipple is the result of the conversion of fruit or grain sugars into ethanol (plus carbon dioxide).

That’s enough basic science for now, except for the sourcing of those sugars: wine from grapes, cider from apples or pears, and beer from grains such as barley or wheat. And the spirits are distilled from alcohol fermented from a range of grape, grain and other vegetables.

Winemakers live and breathe their ferments, essentially the process where the grapes are brought into a winery (or shed, if it’s a tiny artisan operation), the fruit either crushed or pressed a bit to liberate the juice, and yeasts are either introduced or allowed to spontaneously develop to begin converting the grape sugars to alcohol.

You’ll hear many winemakers extolling the virtues of the widespread trend to let their grapes, red or white, undergo what’s called “wild fermentation”.

You may also see on labels a reference to “indigenous yeasts”, the essential kick-starters that exist on the skins of grapes or are floating around the winery that slowly begin to develop a wild fermentation that can result in more complex aromas, flavours and textures.

At Holm Oak Vineyards in the Tamar Valley region, winemaker Rebecca Duffy is increasingly looking to encourage the use of natural fermentation, which she says helps in the textural feel as well as building flavour and secondary complexities.

Depending on the variety and the style ambitions for each, she varies the amount of natural ferment in pinot gris and sauvignon blanc, then seeks more, for instance, in the Italian arneis, which shows further savoury notes, with some oak influence.

The chardonnay techniques are even more complex: all wild ferment occurring in barrels – and a unique wine because of it.

“As a winemaker you’re trying to show that sense of your own place,” Duffy says.

“Using the microflora [native yeasts] indigenous to your property alone means they are specific to only your wine, and that’s the difference you’re trying to create. It’s the terroir thing – which also encompasses the native microflora.”

It all sounds a bit magical and mysterious, but without the F-word, we’d all still be drinking fruit juice – and that would be fairly boring after a while, wouldn’t it?

Holm Oak 2016 arneis ($25) and Holm Oak 2016 chardonnay ($30) is available from Grand Central and Crown Cellars in Launceston and the Tasmanian Wine Centre on Collins St and the Gasworks Cellar Door in Hobart.