This harvest our winemaker, Dimitri Tchelistcheff, and Dr. Mortimer and Dr. Johnson from the Department of Yeast Genetics at U. C. Berkeley are doing an interesting experiment with natural yeast fermentation. One of our lots of Cabernet Sauvignon was the subject of this experiment. The lot was split into two tanks; one which was inoculated with our usual yeast culture, the other which was left to ferment on its own using only the yeasts that are naturally brought in on the harvested grapes. We can immediately notice a definite taste difference in the two tanks. The naturally fermented wine is more complex, but we won’t know until after aging if we like this particular complexity.