One of the reasons that winemaking is referred to as an art as well as a commerce is that so many things can go wrong during the life span of a wine in production. Aside from mechanical problems like leaking barrels or cellarmen running into tanks with forklifts, wine is chemically delicate and must be supervised and nurtured, like a child, in order to avoid the various infections and diseases to which it might be prone. On top of that, winemakers use some pretty unusual ingredients to get the wine ‘just so’. Continue reading