In the past six months I’ve used this space for essays which have focused sharply on specific matters I’ve felt passionately the need to explore. Now I realize that I haven’t yet shared with readers the organized framework for which the blog is named.

As we enter the new year, I’ve decided to blog a series of short pieces which elucidate the tenants of GrapeCraft: vineyard enology, coextraction, aromatic integration through structural refinement, microbial equilibrium, and tuning to soulful resonance. I’ll dissect each of these areas, show how the calendar guides us, and how each links to the others.

Many readers are interested in how wine technology works, why winemakers are drawn increasingly today to new methods, and whether such oddities can work into the highly ethical aesthetic which we all demand of wine craftsmanship. Reverse osmosis and micro-oxygenation are funny sounding names. I’ll explain how these tools work into postmodern winemaking practice and compare them against questionable conventional practices such as fining, chaptalization and sterile filtration.

I’d like this exercise to occur as a dialogue with readers. To goad me along, I hope you will use the comments function to register questions and opinions.