I’ve recently started baking with a grape must starter with a slightly different method…using Paul Bertolli’s recipe from Chez Panisse cooking. It has you leave the grapes in a liquid starter which you feed over a period of a week before removing the grapes. I am also using his sponge method, where you ferment about half the flour first. After 4 bakes, I’m noticing a deepening of flavor but I’m not sure if that is because of the grape must. As with yogurt, I wonder to what extent starter type impacts flavor. Could you comment on this?

Also, responding to some of the other comments, I’ve been baking sourdough for about ten years and I so not believe you are not a good baker if you have some failure. It seems to me a good bread baker means you are willing to play with the dozens of variables that can impact all aspects of your bread.. Some of these you can control and some, like weather, require us to be flexible, have a good sense of humor, and exercise self compassion. Having baked semi professionally in an outdoor oven in the desert, I do recognize the stakes are higher for those who must put out a consistent loaf.

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