Inwood Estates does not Micro-Ox its wines.

Since almost every Spanish Tempranillo released today is Micro-Ox'd (as well as an alarming amount of Bordeaux and other high-end wines), Micro-Ox has become the New Normal. It's important to know this because: 1. This technology yields a very different result than French traditional winemaking, and 2. As time goes forward, the public will forget (or have already forgotten) what traditional wines even taste like. As a former professional wine buyer, I have tasted wines as far back as 1825, so my repository of taste profiles runs a little deeper than most. It was once believed that manipulation of wine in the winery was a negative, and interfered with the wine's optimal path toward becoming the best it could be. Some of us still believe this. But in the world of the New Normal, it is just as likely today that a wine that is not manipulated can be mistaken as a wine that is flawed or inferior. Especially since traditional wines are meant to mature at a much later date, and Micro-Ox'd wines are meant to impress aficionados with how great they appear to be at such a young age. The implication by extension is that since they are showing so well now then they surely must be spectacular later. This assumption is rarely questioned and often overlooked in a rush to invest early, which is coupled with the temptation to consume early. Sadly, producers know this.

So what is the difference? I am a French Traditional winemaker. What does this mean? We age our wines in French Oak barrels. We use no filtration on our reds. We fine with egg whites. The list goes on, but it sounds simple. It is, really. But it is also very time-consuming and very costly. The "costly" part is what steers producers and consumers in the other direction. There are other factors: We have meaningful vintages. The weather differentials leave a signature on our wines that define their growing season. The manipulation of Micro-Ox is used to equalize vintages and make quality control commercial and consistent. Each of our wines are unique and hand-crafted, and are thereby quite opposite of the New Normal. Our varietals mean something. Our wines improve greatly with bottle age. More on all this below. You can always tell a Micro-ox'd wine by it's color in the first few years. The wines have a distinctive purple color. A "Welch's-grape-juice-looking-purple-color" would be more accurate. Any significant amount of barrel aging will turn the color to more garnet and less Welch's. But here's where they excel: Micro-Ox'd wines have a great bouquet of purple, like their color. The nose resembles the finest greenhouse-cultured violets, versus the more reductive, inorganic smells of traditional young wines. This perfumed purple bouquet is seductive and wonderful to be sure. It automatically leads people to think "If this wine is this good already, then imagine how good it will be...", etc. And they buy it. The winery can achieve this on 1-year old wine, or less. They don't have to give up half their profit on expensive French barrels and can turn the wine to cash in 1/2 the time to boot. What a deal. Seems like a win-win. I say not so fast. Tradition versus Technology In 35 years, I have seen numerous technology trends in winemaking come and go. They all have the same spin: "We're going to do the consumer this great favor by providing new, great wines to them in half the time and at half the cost". The real story is all about making money for the wineries and should be "We're going to double our profits and quadruple our cash flow and retire early when we cash out for a bundle". Sadly, most of what most Americans think they know about wine is nothing more than winery propaganda from California. Not all, but mostly. They've been at it the longest and there have been almost no outside voices of opposition providing any checks and balances. Someday enough wine will be made in places like Texas and Virginia and even Massachusetts that alternate views might be heard. But that's another conversation and probably another decade or two...or three. In this winemaker's opinion, the real story of Micro-Ox is as follows: 1. A great Micro-Ox nose does not mean the wine will come together....maybe ever. I've been watching many of these wines to assess their development and have found the following: For the first two years, the wine benefits from the aforementioned great nose but is DOA in the mouth. At this time, everyone just says, "It's young and will improve" using the nose as an indication of what will develop in the wine. In years 3-5, the nose loses its fresh fruit and flowers appeal, but the mouth is still DOA. Everyone thinks it's still young. After five years, the nose is gone and the wine has improved slightly or flatlined with the result that at no time in its development were all the components in harmony. Fortunately for the industry, they almost never have to account for this because 1) all the reviews are written when the wines are young, 2) the whole vintage is bought and consumed before anyone assesses the damage, and 3) there aren't enough people alive anymore that remember what wines became when they were perfectly aged. 2. Micro-Ox destroys vintage variations as it makes all wine the same. Some will point out the benefit of consistent quality control. Some will decry the loss of artisan products. 3. Micro-Ox destroys varietal character as it makes all wine the same. The Tempranillo-as-a-varietal industry in Spain emerged with the availability of Micro-Ox, which I can somewhat understand, since Tempranillo can be particularly reductive when young (hence, the Gran Reserva system). But how it spread so pervasively to other famous regions like Bordeaux is more perplexing. The overwhelming purple character in the nose dominates everything including varieties. Just like vintages, it subtracts from everything individually unique about a wine and installs uniformity. Tempranillo resembles Cabernet which resembles Syrah, and so on. 4. Micro-Ox destroys a wine's Telos as it makes all wine the same. In the interest of uniformity and conformity, we will have fewer wines built to reach their zenith. Conclusion Inwood does not Micro-Ox its wines. Inwood produces its Magellan just like the Bordelais did before 1982. It also may be difficult to compare our wines to Spanish wines now. It wasn't us that changed, it was them. Our Tempranillo is more like Spain's of 20 years ago. But how can people be expected to remember those? I only hope there are enough people still alive who have experienced great wines reaching their zenith and can appreciate why we still do it the hard way.