Tradition

tradition, defined by oenologist Émile peynaud as an experiment that has worked, is an extremely important ingredient in viticulture and winemaking in many Old World regions and is increasingly emulated outside Europe. A significant proportion of older small-scale producers in regions such as Burgundy and the Rhône, for example, do things in the vineyard and cellar precisely because their fathers did, even if their own children are likely to have been exposed to science through some sort of formal training. These graduates of academe may understand the reasons for some of these supposedly traditional methods better than their parents, but they do not necessarily change them.