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Ben Justman🍷 profile picture
Ben Justman🍷
@BenJustman
I used to advertise that my wine was naturally fermented. I've stopped.

I had never added yeast, but I learned that most "natural fermentations" aren't what they claim to be, including mine.

Yeast lives on everything. It's everywhere. So if you want a true natural fermentation, you'd have to work with fruit grown on your own land in a space where no fermentation has ever happened before.

I thought that as long as I didn't add yeast, it was a natural fermentation. Turns out the yeast my dad pitched once, back in 2007, is probably still the dominant strain.

I haven't tested it, but that was enough for me to stop calling my wines "natural."

Natural fermentation doesn't make wine healthier, but yeast drives flavor. The fewer outside inputs you have, the more the wine speaks for its place.
Many wineries add a heavy dose of sulfur at harvest to kill off natural yeast so they can start clean with a commercial strain. They want total control.

I don't do that. My grapes come in, start fermenting with whatever yeast lives in the vineyard, and finish with whatever's taken up residence here over time.

It's wine minutia. In the end, only two things matter:

Does it taste good?
How do you feel the next day?

I think you'll like the taste of my wine and by skipping the massive sulfur dose, you're one step closer to feeling great tomorrow.




143❤️29🤙4🔥31💜1🫂1
Nic · 15w
Today, I learned.
Rasha · 15w
Your are an honest and good hearted man Salute 🫡🫡
Tommy "The Purchase" · 15w
You can always call it something along the lines of "No added yeast". I think most people who know anything about alcoholic beverages are aware that, as you said yourself, yeast lives on just about every plant and appreciate if the strain used to ferment the beverage lived in somewhat of a "symbioti...
JasonC · 15w
Cheers to you, great explanation
RobOK 🔸 · 15w
I think it’s good that you don’t add sulfites, but I don’t think that’s why people feel bad. As you know American wine companies can and do put all kinds of things in wine (60+ different things) and not disclose. Whereas the EU has more restrictions on what can be added and what needs to be...
RobOK 🔸 · 15w
Also, sulfites are added for stability and preservation more so than stopping yeast I think
Chef Tommy · 15w
I always say fermented with “native yeast “. But you do you. The 2023 Pinot is beautiful and will post my notes soon. Whether it’s inoculated with yeast from the vineyard or ambient in the winery. It tastes great and that’s what matters most. The Justman yeast strain is strong!
phenixfalconer · 15w
💪yes, how does it taste and how does it affect me? I assume you have good consistency between batches? The unseen world of microbiology is amazing!
OFFGRID · 15w
Sick!
cultivator · 15w
All natural fermentations until the modern period occurred in places with hundreds if not thousands of years of winemaking history that selected for the traits of those regional wines over many generations of humans and exponentially more generations of yeast. If you try a natural fermentation in It...
Ezra Cox III · 15w
I love this. The critical role that yeast play in flavor/aroma in the beverages they enjoy is vastly under appreciated by consumers or completely unknown by most. They assume it is fairly, or completely, insignificant. More on this if you have time.