I’m wrapping my head around some of the topics raised at the i4C School of Cool Chardonnay Camp yesterday. Questions like: how much intervention is too much when making wine? Is stirring too much? What about additives? Lots to consider and blog about – but first, more great Chards to enjoy this weekend!

Just one more teaser about the kinds of things discussed at the Chardonnay Camp: sustainability. That’s a concept that comes up in many realms – and rightly so – but it’s also a concept that’s not always evenly applied. Take the topic of using oak chips, for example. There’s many a (snooty) wine lover who looks down on them as the cheap way of infusing oak in wines. But, as Ron Giesbrecht (formerly of Henry of Pelham, now professor at Niagara College) pointed out, when you fell a 200 year old oak and get 2-3, sometimes 4 barrels, and you plant a sapling in its place, while that is responsible, is it sustainable enough? Looked at that way, perhaps wood chips are something that should be more embraced… (Or, as someone put it – maybe we should think of wood chips as ‘micro barrels’!)