The Holism of Wine
On my recent trip through North America, I once again had the pleasure of meeting exceptional people, each remarkable in their own way and at very different stages of life.
In every city I visited, I tasted and shared wines, told and listened to stories, and once again felt that the people around the world of wine are, each in their own way, special.
One idea I brought back from this trip is the holistic nature of winemaking. Aristotle put it well when he said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In winemaking, I say that 1 + 1 does not make 2.
What I mean is that, for a winemaker, the ideal is to have several distinct lots (the parts) to work with, whether they come from different vineyards, from different grape varieties, or from different types of barrel. A winemaker thinks holistically in the cellar. We know that these small parts, once brought together in a single blend, give a wine that is more complete, more complex and, of course, greater than the sum of the parts that made it.
The Old World of wine is the clearest example. Our ancestors already planted their varieties mixed together, believing that the sum would serve them better. Here in the Old World, the blend is the central theme, and we know it brings more complexity to the wine. In the New World, the single variety is still the more valued, and the holism of wine is bound to the characteristics of the terroir where that variety is planted.
In truth, holism is real in both worlds, and the winemaker always seeks to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts, as defined by Jan Smuts, who coined the word holism in 1926.
