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At present, Chaim & Elisheva
live in the vicinity of the
|
Cap'n
Crunch No More
Chaim
Gur-Arieh and his wife Elisheva.
Believe
it or not, wine and cereal
have a lot in common, and Chaim
Gur-Arieh, PhD, has the science to prove
it. As a food scientist, Chaim’s flavor extrusion
process put all of those
fruity, fun
flavors into Cap’n Crunch cereal. And
the formulas for Power Bars, wine coolers,
and Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing?
All his. Now, along with his wife,
this innovative
ex-scientist is one of California’s
most exciting winemakers.
Born in Istanbul, Turkey, he immigrated
to Israel as a teenager, eventually
graduating from
the Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology with a chemical
engineering degree. He also has
a
master’s degree and a doctorate in food
science, both from the University of
Illinois.
Chaim’s wife, Elisheva, is a native of
Israel who is also a former Oakland
Ballet ballerina and an accomplished
artist. Recently, her work was featured in
an exhibition of Palestinian and Israeli
artists titled Piece Process at the Athica
Institute for Contemporary Art in Athens,
Georgia.
Both dreamed of using Chaim’s innovative
extrusion technology to create
wine. So, six years ago, Chaim sold his
flavor company, purchased 209 acres in
California’s Amador County in the foothills
of the Sierra Nevadas, and launched
his own winemaking operation — C.G.
Di Arie Vineyards & Winery. Elisheva
designs their wine labels and stocks their
winery’s art gallery with her own creations.
Chaim exclaims: “Now I am free
to make my own wines and make flavor
for myself!”
TWR: What exactly is extrusion?
CGA: Extrusion is a method of continuously
forcing a semi-solid mass through
an orifice. All pasta products are extruded.
If the orifice is round, then you get
a product that is in the shape of a rod.
An extruder looks like a meat grinder
without the blade at the end.
TWR: Let’s be clear; you aren’t pushing
your grapes through an extruder, correct?
CGA: No, but I am using creative technology
to extract the utmost flavor and
color from my grapes.
TWR: Can you talk more about how
this technology works?
CGA: I try not to crush the grapes, but
rather bruise them and coddle them
into doing the crush work for me. First,
I gently crush them so as to avoid crushing
the seeds, which can impart bitterness
to the juice. Then I cool them in a
cold soak and delay fermentation.
TWR: Why the cold soak?
CGA: After the crush, I “soak” the
grapes in dry ice. This allows time for
the enzymes within the grape skins to
be released. These enzymes do the work
for me as they eat away at the pectin in
the grape skin, which in turn creates the
juice. This helps me to create a wine that
fills your mouth but isn’t aggressive.
TWR: Explain a little bit about your
cap management program. [A cap is a
semi-firm seal of grape skins and other
solid material that congeals on top of fermenting
wine.]
CGA: Most winemakers want to have
their grapes surrounded by the juice for
maximum flavor extraction, [but] I designed
a special ring that submerges the
grapes in the cap and keeps them constantly
exposed to the fermenting juice.
These motor-driven plungers break up
the cap, and more flavor [is] extracted.
TWR: Did you patent this motor-driven
plunger-ring?
CGA: No, I don’t have a patent. I put
some time into getting one and then
decided not to pursue it and instead
focus my efforts on making wine.
TWR: Were you nervous making wine
for the first time?
CGA: It was really scary. There are so
many things that can go wrong. Every
little detail is so important!
TWR: Well, we have to ask: which of
your wines goes best with Cap’n Crunch
cereal?
CGA: Cap’n Crunch and wine don’t go
together. Otherwise, my Zinfandels and
Syrahs pair very well with a variety of
foods such as meat, poultry, fish, and
even good chocolate.
TWR: One last thing. What does the
name Gur-Arieh mean?
CGA: Arieh and Arie are both Hebrew
for lion, and Gur-Arieh means lion’s
cub; thus, the lions on the label holding
an ancient wine press aloft.
Katie Kelly Bell is an Atlanta-based freelance
writer covering the good stuff:
wine,
food, and travel.
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