All posts filed under: Viticulture

Flash Heat Treatment Shown to Benefit Vines and Wine

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Many advances pioneered by the dairy industry have improved winemaking in the cellar, but when it comes to using flash or instantaneous heat, it all starts in the vineyard. Flash pasteurization was first applied to milk in 1933. Sixty years later, flashbake ovens made their debut and, shortly thereafter, the adoption of frost prevention and thermal pest control techniques for winegrowing began making news. Fast forward two decades and you’ll find the latest generation of Thermal Plant Treatment (TPT) technology gaining interest from Oregon to Monterey. After three years of rigorous trials by Walnut Creek, Calif.-based AgroThermal Systems, trials show that patented flash heat treatments to vines are producing a host of benefits that extend well beyond the disruption of pest lifecycles. Read the article here: Flash Vine Treament  

Berry Sensory Analysis: A Common Language for Describing Maturity

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If everyone on your winegrowing and winemaking teams shares a common language, there’s less risk involved when it comes to making crucial decisions. Few would argue that the most crucial decision a winemaker faces is when to pick. Beyond establishing intentions for the style and quality of the finished wine, making confident, proactive picking decisions relies on accurately assessing levels of ripeness. This acquired skill is on that vineyard managers and winemakers typically master through trial and error as they learn to speak the same language when describing degrees of fruit maturity and other sough-after qualities. Using the analytical method of Berry Sensory Analysis (BSA), a technique to describe the characteristics of grape maturity developed by Jacques Rousseau at the Institut Cooperatif du Vin in Montpellier, France, and introduced in Northern California by Enartis Vinquiry in 2006, winemakers can c onfidently assess fruit quality for specific wine styles and, in turn, gain more control over harvest timing decisions and production methods. Read the entire article here: Berry Sensory Analysis

High Marks for Community Colleges

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Pursuing a four-year degree in enology or viticulture has been, for many students, the most direct way to gain entry into the wine industry. But that path isn’t the sole option for individuals making a career transition or those whose primary interest is acquiring the skills necessary for wine production. New certificate programs and two-year “associate of applied science” (AAS) degrees in viticulture and enology (V&E) have sprung up across the country at community colleges and state universities in New York, North Carolina, Texas, Missouri, Michigan and Ohio. Many are the direct result of the Viticulture and Enology Science and Technology Alliance (VESTA), a dynamic collaboration among universities and as many as 18 community colleges, state agricultural agencies and industry partners created to bring much-needed training to under-served winegrowing regions. Read full article High Marks for Community Colleges here.

Soil Survey: a crossword puzzle for the terroir obessed

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Dirt.  It’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the influence of terroir and its contribution to the flavor in wine is one of the most controversial and debated topics among wine enthusiasts.  I created this crossword puzzle to help my WSET Level 3 students study soil types in a creative way.  Even if you’re not a student of wine you’ve probably already encountered many of the soils I’ve included here.  So, put on your geological thinking cap and have at it with these clues Soil Survey Clues. You’ll can find the answers here. Soil Survey Answer Key

Long-lived Lake County

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Wine quality has been on the rise in Lake County and winegrowers there have their sights set determinedly on the future—and it’s a very bright one at that. Driven by increased demand for high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Sauvignon Blanc, the value of the region’s wine grapes climbed by 20 percent in 2012, reaching a ten-year high, while yields inched up by just three percent. Here at THE TASTING PANEl, we’ve been following winegrowing in Lake County closely for the last five years. When questions arose about the age ability of the region’s wines, we were quick to take up the challenge. More often than not, exposure to Lake County wines is limited to the supporting role they play in blends from nearby appellations. When this point was raised during a technical seminar hosted in June at MacMurray Ranch by the appellation’s winegrowers, Steele Wines’ Joy Merrilees had answers at the ready but no proof positive that the region’s high-elevation wines can withstand the test of time. Read the complete article here…Long-lived Lake …

The tractor factor: Small vineyard equipment delivers big results for Eastern winegrowers

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Winegowers the world over are motivated to plant tightly-spaced vineyards for a variety of reasons but, the driving factors in the Eastern United States are the near-term attainment of quality and the long-term productivity. Just as vineyard architecture is benefiting from laser design technology and GPS tracking, automated vineyard practices continue to advance productivity and quality gains in vineyards of every scale. “It’s something I call the ‘tractor factor.’ Of all the constraints there are in the world of viticulture, the tractor should not be the primary factor when it comes to vineyard architecture,” confirms Lucie Morton, a Virginia-based international viticulture consultant who is well-known for translating the American edition of Pierre Galet’s seminal word, A Practical Ampelography. Complete article here The Tractor Factor

Multi-tasking harvesters boost quality and efficiency

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During a research trip to the Languedoc region of southern France, AOC winegrowers there were quick to point out the increased performance of the equipment they are using to grow and harvest their grapes. With the Languedoc being home to 70 % of the organic wines in France, mechanization is down-played by some producers who seek to limit all impacts on their sites, but there is no denying the leaps in quality and efficiency that have been brought to bear through mechanical pre-pruning and harvesting. Complete article here…Multi-tasking Harvesters May June 09