TERROIR
THE FEATURE
Native Yeast vs Cultured: The Fermentation Decision That Shapes Wine's Most Argued Question
In 1974, a single sachet changed what fermentation meant. Before Lallemand sold the first active dried wine yeast, every ferment was a wager on whatever lived on the fruit and in the cellar. After it, a winemaker could pitch a tested strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and trust the tank to finish dry. Lallemand now lists more than two hundred such strains. Choosing to skip them stopped being the default and became a conviction.
Native fermentation is a relay. Saccharomyces sits on about one grape in a thousand; the wild genera that coat the rest do the early aromatic work, fade near five or six percent alcohol, then hand off. The reward is complexity no bred strain can match; the risk is a stalled handoff and the spoilage that slips through the gap. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti ferments wild anyway, on a terroir claim the genome still cannot confirm.
THE DISPATCH
Latest from this week
An Italian Takes the Reins at Hermitage
The Frey family has named Chiara Pepe, the 32-year-old third-generation winemaker behind Abruzzo's Emidio Pepe, to lead Paul Jaboulet Aîné's flagship Domaine de la Chapelle from the 2026 vintage. Michel Chapoutier, Hermitage's largest landowner, endorsed the cross-border hire as a guarantor of the appellation's terroir. Italian hands on a Northern Rhône monument is a rare direction of travel.
America's Wholesale Tier Consolidates Again
On May 29, Reyes Beverage Group closed its purchase of Republic National Distributing Company's operations across ten US markets, adding roughly 38 million cases and making Reyes the third-largest wine and spirits distributor in the country. The post-Young's Market consolidation cycle keeps narrowing the shelf for the small and mid-size producers competing for a wholesaler's attention.
THE PICK
ALAIN GRAILLOT CROZES-HERMITAGE LA GUIRAUDE 2023
In 1985, a 40-year-old chemicals professional in Paris bought a vineyard at Pont-de-l'Isère and started over. Alain Graillot fermented whole clusters in concrete and aged in used oak, and that plain method became the template a generation of Crozes-Hermitage growers followed. La Guiraude is his flagship selection, assembled only in vintages the cellar judges worth it. The 2023 is Syrah of spiced berry, warm herb and undergrowth, medium-bodied over a fine, firm frame.
Graillot died in 2022; his sons Maxime and Antoine kept the domaine and its method intact, which makes the 2023 the first standout-vintage La Guiraude of the next generation. James Suckling scored it 95 points. It rewards a few hours in the decanter or a roast bird at the table, and trades at $64.99 at Wine.com.
Until next Thursday,
The editors of TERROIR