Wines and Vines October

B O T T L E S
A N D
L A B E L S
i ss u e
THE VOICE OF THE WINE INDUSTRY
WWW.WINESANDVINES.COM
OCTOBER 2013
Message
Elements of Winning Packaging 32 Interactive Marketing Using Labels 42
Margerums New Santa Barbara Winery 46 Barrel Orders Reflect Optimism 52 Wine East: Establishing a Noiret Vineyard 90
On the Bottle
Nutrition Labeling and Alcohol Content 62 Aeration Treatments Before/In Ferment 65 Vineyard Irrigation the Smart Way 77
Your Options, Our Promise.

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Thats a beautiful machine.

When Rudy Jungwirth, Owner and Operator for Valley Vineyard, Prescott, Wisconsin, was looking for a way to avoid ordering several thousand labels at a time, he turned to Primeras LX900 Color Label Printer. We started out 4 years ago with the Primera LX400 and it was a great machine. We had to upgrade and picked up the LX900. Thats a beautiful machine. Its easy to set up and its fast 4-5 seconds a label and youve got it.
Its easy to set up and its fast.
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Laurie Daniel alance and alcohol levels are popular topics these days, but for some winemakers and wine writersthese arent just passing fads. Daniel talked to winemaker Ross Cobb about how he honed his practices to produce elegant, lower alcohol Pinot Noirs (page 55).
In This Issue
B
A Member of Wine Communications Group Inc.
Dr. Linda Bisson r. Linda Bisson coauthors an article about the impact of Oxygen in Wine (page 65). She organizes the University of California, Davis, Wine Flavor 101 series aimed at understanding relationships between vineyard and winemaking practices and wine composition.
EDITORIAL Advertising Editor West: Jacques Brix Jim Gordon Vice President & Director of Sales Managing Editor (707) 473-0244 Kate Lavin [email protected] Midwest: Hooper Jones Staff Writer (847) 486-1021 Andrew Adams [email protected] Senior Correspondent Northeast: Marsha Tabb Paul Franson (215) 794-3442 Contributing Editor [email protected] Jane Firstenfeld East: Laura Lemos Northwest Correspondent (973) 822-9274 Peter Mitham [email protected] Columnists International: Dave Bayard Winemaking: Tim Patterson (973) 822-9275 Grapegrowing: Cliff Ohmart, [email protected] Glenn T. McGourty Advertising Manager Practical Winery & Vineyard Christina Ballinger Editor: Don Neel Associate Publisher: Tina Vierra PUBLISHING President & Publisher Wine East Chet Klingensmith Editor: Linda Jones McKee; Writers: Richard Carey, Operations Coordinator Hudson Cattell Caroline Shakeshaft Contributing Writers Laurie Daniel, Jean Jacobson, Andrew Reynolds, Chris Stamp, Fritz Westover, Stephen Yafa database development & information technology Database Manager Lynne Skinner Project Manager Liesl Jaros Database & Web Development James Rust Peter Scarborough Chairman Hugh Tietjen Publishing Consultant Ken Koppel
Justine E. Vanden Heuvel ew wine cultivars offer viticultural challenges that also impact winemakers. Justine Vanden Heuvel, associate professor of viticulture at Cornell University, evaluates spacing and trellises for the new red cultivar Noiret with an eye toward wine quality (page 86).
Postmaster Send address changes to: Wines & Vines PO Box 1649 Boulder, CO 80306-1649
Customer Service (866) 453-9704 [email protected] Design & Production winesandvines.com
B O T T L E S
A N D
L A B E L S
i S S u E
THE VOICE OF THE WINE INDUSTRY
WWW.WINESANDVINES.COM
OCTOBER 2013
Message
Elements of Winning Packaging 32 Interactive Marketing Using Labels 42
Margerums New Santa Barbara Winery 46 Barrel Orders Reflect Optimism 52 Wine East: Establishing a Noiret Vineyard 90
On the Bottle
Nutrition Labeling and Alcohol Content 62 Aeration Treatments Before/In Ferment 65 Vineyard Irrigation the Smart Way 77
Octobers Cover or our cover story (page 32), Jane Firstenfeld identifies packaging trends from the 2013 BTI award winners, which include selections from Divining Rod and Cryptic.
Wines & Vines, ISSN 043-583X, a member of Subscription Rates Wine Communications Group, Sonoma, Calif., U.S., $38.00; Canada/Mexico, $48.00 is published monthly. Periodicals postage paid All other countries, $85.00 (for airmail add $85.00) at San Rafael and at additional mailing offices. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is prohibited. Wines & Vines does not assume responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or materials. Contributors are responsible for the proper release of proprietary and/or classified information. Wines & Vines is distributed through an audited circulation.
Bridget Williams Publishing Information Barbara Summer Volume 94, Number 10
PACKAGING
BOTTLES &LABELS
Digital conference explores design, planning, materials and the current market
By Jane Firstenfeld
highlights
Digital Edition
PACKAGING
VIeW VIDeO: Watch these wine industry and design professionals share the best and worst of wine packaging.
To access, scan this mobile barcode with your phone. Or see the digital edition at winesandvines.com.
All print subscribers now get digital access to Wines & Vines. You can: DOWNLOAD pages or full issues
eDWaRDS: If you decide to use QR coding on your labels, make sure you have the resources to support it. TONI haMIlTON-
ACCESS via desktop, tablet or mobile device SEARCH by keyword or table of contents NAVIGATE by topic or page thumbnail
To access, scan this mobile barcode or visit winesandvines.com/digitaledition. Use your Wines & Vines login to sign in.
BROWSE current and archived issues

JIM GORDON: There has never been as exciting a creative explosion of unusual names and labels.
Thin layers of birch and cherry wood can be stained and used as facestock for wine labels.
WATCH videos 2
caTheRINe DIDulka: The role of design in business is to address the needs of consumers and visually express the values and beliefs of the business.
Mysteriums sophisticated packaging was designed to appeal to patrons of night clubs, where its name glows under black light.
O C TO b e r 2 0 1 3
4 Questions? Contact customer service at (866) 453-9701 or [email protected] Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. PDT.
O C TO b er 201 3 43
4 W in es & V i ne s OC TOB E R 20 13
Win es & Vin e s O C TO B E R 20 13 5
OCTOBER BOTTLES AND LABELS ISSUE
BOTTLES AND LABELS
DEPARTMENTS
Winning Trends 32
Message on a Bottle 38
Contributors 4 Editors Letter 8
Packaging awards favor gold and screenprinting. Optimize your label for consumer relationships.
Bottles, Labels and Wine making. By Jim Gordon
Wine Industry Metrics 10

Cab Grows in Sales and Volume; Flash Offers Drop to 2011 Level.
Most Effective Labels 42

TECHNICAL REVIEW
Conference explores design, planning, materials.
Protect Your Reputation 44
32
Lessons from the Anti-Counterfeiting Seminar.
A Winery With Personality 46

Former restaurateur outfits warehouse as cellar.
B A R R E L S & winema k in g
Oregon Continues to Draw Investment; Labor Trends May Challenge Industry; Yeast Nutrition Vital For Wine Fermentation; B.C. Wines Stall in Home Market; Vintage Wine Estates Buys Clos Pegase; 50 Million-Case Wine Opportunity; Options to Control Powdery Mildew. Plus News Bytes and Briefs.
News Headlines 14
Orders Herald Optimism 52 Ross Cobb on Subtlety 55

SALES AND MARKETING
Tasting Room Focus 21 Product News 28

46
Latest Winery & Grower Offerings and Developments.
Coopers concerned about American oak supply. Sonoma Coast Pinot specialist details approach.
Faces & Forums 30
Wine Library Association Annual Tasting; A Family Affair In San Francisco.
Asking for the Sale 58
Inquiring Winemaker 82 Advertisers Index 98
Twelve tips for tasting room customer service.
The Skinny on Skin Contact for Whites. By Tim Patterson
WINE EAST IN WINES & VINES
Alcohol and Serving Facts 62 Nutrition labeling debate is not about nutrients. Oxygen in Winemaking 65 Aeration treatments prior to/during fermentation. Commercial Irrigation 77
Vineyard irrigation, the (Richard) Smart way.
News from Eastern North America 86

58
Cultivars by Region; Arkansas Winery Swept Away by Flood.
NORTHWEST CENTRAL CALIFORNIA EAST
Establishing Noiret Vines 90

6 W in e s & V i ne s OC TOB E R 20 13
REGIONS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
Trellising, spacing and root systems impact fruit.
COVERING NORTH AMERICA
Owens-Illinois, Inc.
Glass is the link between you and us. When you open a bottle of Mouton Cadet, whether in Tokyo or San Francisco, we expect you to enjoy it as if you were with us here in Bordeaux.
Hugues Lechanoine
Managing Director, Baron Philippe de Rothschild
glassislife.com #glassislife
EDITORS LETTER
Bottles, Labels and Winemaking

Introducing a new issue theme as harvest 2013 ramps up
s I write this letter in mid-September, harvest and crush activities have slowly ramped up in the North Coast counties of California, where our magazine is based. Trucks and trailers stacked ridiculously high with half-ton binsmost of them still emptycrisscross the areas I see on a weekly basis in Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties. Rigs of vine yard lighting for night harvesting are making their annual appear ances. Spotting a polished Land Rover along with dusty white pick up trucks and worn 1980s sedans among the vines indicates that ev eryone from cult winery owners to vineyard foremen to seasonal labor ers are paying close attention to the ripening grapes. Wines & Vines already has published several reports online at winesandvines.com/headlines about the harvest across North America, and we will continue that coverage through early November. The January 2014 issue of the print magazine will devote a large section to a final wrap-up about vintage 2013, with reports from more than 25 regions written by careful local observers. Right now, here in Northern California, it looks like an almost trouble-free harvest!
New issue theme
second conference was a live one, the Wine Anti-Counterfeiting Seminar, co-hosted by the Napa Valley Vintners and Wines & Vines. See page 44 for managing editor Kate Lavins summary of the information shared there.
Winemaking focus
Everyone from cult winery owners to vineyard foremen to seasonal laborers are paying close attention.
The October issue theme is a new one for us: bottles and labels. And rather than being a harvest themewhich is such a moving target right nowit deals with the other end of the production cycle, that of bottling, packaging and selling. Here is what our bottles and labels articles cover: On page 32, contributing editor Jane Firstenfeld examines the Best of the Bottles to see what elements comprise them. She bases her story on wine packaging singled out by the Beverage Testing Institute as outstanding. Message on a Bottle is the title of a piece beginning on page 38, which advises how to maximize the interactive marketing value of a wine label. Author Toni Hamilton-Edwards is a former Diageo and Constellation marketing pro who now works for a major label-printing company, so her advice is well tested. Two other articles concerning bottles and labels originated this summer during conferences, held for wineries, in which Wines & Vines was a participant. Firstenfeld wrote the first one, Experts Dissect Effective Labels (page 42). It concerns making brands stand out as discussed during a digital conference in July conducted in partnership with Labels & Labeling magazine. The
8 W in es & V i ne s O C TOB E R 20 13
There isnt enough room on this page to mention everything in this issue, but I do want to point out five articles that winemakers will find es pecially interesting. Two of them are by Tim Patterson, otherwise known as the Inquiring Winemaker. Tim reported the monthly Technical Re view (page 46), which has all the de tails about construction and equip ment for the new Margerum winery in Buellton, Calif. His second story is the monthly Inquiring Winemaker column on page 82, in which he ad dresses the topic of fermenting white wines on their skins. Talented Pinot Noir winemaker Ross Cobb from Californias Sonoma Coast shared winemaking details with interviewer Laurie Daniel that were unusually frank and helpful (page 55). Also on this winemaking list is a thorough technical article about the effects of aeration on must and wine in the Practical Winery & Vineyard section (page 65). Dr. Linda Bisson, microbiologist at the University of California, Davis, wrote this one with two co-authors. Finally, on page 90 in the Wine East section, Cornell University associate professor Justine E. Vanden Heuvel shares the results of an extensive vineyard trial. She gives winemakers valuable information about the quality parameters that Noiret grapes have yielded under different viticultural conditions.
Good luck with harvest
I hope your harvest will be well under way by the time you read this. All of us at Wines & Vines wish you good luck during this most important time of the year in winemaking. We would love to hear from you during or after the crush about any unusual challenges you faced this season, and how you met them. As you all know, its never the same and there is always something else to learn. If you are open to sharing your own solutionsas the writers, researchers and winemakers mentioned above have please give me a call at (415) 453-9700, ext. 108, or email me at [email protected].
METRICS
Wine Industry Metrics

800000000
$750 $700 700000000 $650 $ Millions $600 600000000 $550 $500 $450 2012 2013
Latest Metrics
Complete metrics data is available at: winesandvines.com/metrics
533,075,041 Domestic Wine Sales

Up 7% from 2012
DtC Shipments Lead Positive August Metrics
500000000
$400
400000000
Source:
Jan
, Wines & Vines
Apr
July
Oct
Dec
Table wine and sparkling wine produced in the United States grew 7% in sales in August compared to August 2012. The same 7% growth was recorded for 52-week sales.
Direct-to-Consumer (DtC) Shipments

$250 250000000 $200 200000000 $ Millions $150 150000000 $100 100000000 $50 50000000
Source: 0 Wines & Vines/ShipCompliant Model
The sharply rising value of direct-toconsumer shipments highlighted the positive Wine Industry Metrics in August. DtC shipments rose 23% in value from August 2012, totaling $67 million, according to the Wines & Vines/ShipCompliant Model. Off-premise sales of domestic wines stayed on track, with 7% monthly growth in value. This metric has shown few monthly changes during the past year, except for the traditional highs in November and December. The Winery Job Index also rose 7% from August 2012, marking the seventh month of continuing growth this year. Hospitality job hiring activity was the fastest growing category, according to Winejobs.com, which publishes the index. Jim Gordon
2013
Up 23% from 2012
DtC Cabernet Sauvignon Sales by Price Segments

$200 12 months through August 2013
2012 2011 $150 Jan Apr July Oct Dec $ Millions $100
300 levels from the same months of 2012, according to the Wines & Vines/ShipCompliant Model. Winery Job Index 250300 300 $240 200
Winejobs.com Index 250 250 200 200 $120 2011 150 150 $80 $200 $160 2012 2013
August marked the fourth month in a row that direct-to-consumer shipments exceeded their
$50
Up 7% from 2012
$0
<$ $2 20 0$3 9. $4 99 0$5 9. $6 99 0$7 9. $8 99 0$9 9. 99 $1 00 -p lu s
Source: Wines & Vines /ShipCompliant Model
150
$40 100 100100 $0

Source: Winejobs.com
50
50 50
Jan
Apr
July
Oct
Dec
The August increase in winery job postings was driven by a surge in hospitality jobs that buoyed the index despite less activity in the winemaking and sales/marketing categories.
For Cabernet Sauvignon, the value of direct-to-consumer shipments by bottle price differs markedly from off-premise store sales (see opposite page). DtC shipments of Cabernet at the highest price points generated the most revenue in the 12 months through August.
GovtLiaison_Dir08
11/29/07
2:00 PM
METRICS
Cabernet Grows in Sales, Volume

No. 2 varietal increases by 7% and 23 cents per bottle
Cabernet Sauvignon by Price Segments
$300
Sales
20%
Growth Rates
LABEL APPROVALS
Low per-label costs
Govt. Liaison Negotiations or Footwork
TTB
Reasonable Hourly Rates

$250 15%
$200
Percentage
$ Millions
10%
TRADEMARK SEARCHES
As Low as $185
Your trade names or designs are searched at the U.S. Patent Office to help establish valuable ownership or avoid costly legal liability. Over 100 years total staff experience handling every government liaison need for industry.
$150
5%
$100 0%
$50
Phone or write for details.

-5%
< $3 $3. 5 .5 0- 0 $4 . $5 99 -$ 7 $8 .99 -$ $1 10 1- .99 $1 $1 4.9 9 5$1 9. $2 99 0pl us
$0
< $3 $3. 5 .5 0- 0 $4 . $5 99 -$ 7 $8 .99 -$ $1 10 1- .99 $1 $1 4.9 9 5$1 9. $2 99 0pl us
Source:
, Wines & Vines
52 weeks through Aug. 11, 2013
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 321 Arlington, Virginia 22203 Phone: (703) 524-8200 Fax: 525-8451 TOLL-FREE 1-800-642-6564 Major Credit Cards Accepted www.trademarkinfo.com Since 1957
hats not to like about Cabernet Sauvignon? From the off-premise perspective it is the second largest-selling varietalbehind Chardonnay in overall sales, but faster in sales growth, in volume and in price per bottle. Cabernet Sauvignon reached $1.28 billion in sales during the 52 weeks ending Aug. 11 at stores tracked by IRI, a Chicago, Ill.-based market research firm. Its sales growth rate of 7% beat Chardonnays 4% and matched the overall domestic wine sales growth rate. Cabernet increased in volume by 4% and price per bottle by 23 cents, while Chardonnay rose just 4% in sales, 1% in volume and 16 cents in bottle price.
Cabernets best-selling segment
increased 32%. It may have come at the cost of brand prestige in some cases, however, since the average bottle price dropped 10% (or $2.93) along the way. The second-fastest growth for Cabernet came in $11-$14.99 brands, as sales rose by 13% and volume climbed 11%. The average price rose by 21 cents. Sales at the two lowest price points dropped both in dollars and volume.
Import competition
Looking at Cabernet by price, the $5$7.99 segment is the varietals best seller, although it performs nearly as well in the two segments just above, forming a slightly concave top on the classic bell curve. The average sales price for Cabernet overall is $7.36, but in 750ml bottles the average rises to $9.47. Domestic Cabernet grew fastest in the $20-plus segment, where sales increased 19% during the past year and volume
Domestic wineries selling mostly in off-premise channels appear to have few immediate worries about foreign competition. Domestic wines have held their 80% market share while growing at a rate of 7%. Imports grew by just 2%. Australia is the most popular import country, selling more than $522 million worth of wine annually in IRIs data. But Aussie wines decreased 5% during the past year. Italy is the No. 2 importer with $492 million and 4% growth. California accounted for 72% of table wine sold and grew by 7% in sales. Washington state accounted for 5% and grew by 9%. Oregon wine sales grew at 13% to account for 1%. Jim Gordon
Win es & Vin es O C TO B E R 20 13 11
METRICS
The Flash Report

Flash SiteS COMPARED FOR AUGUST
Flash Reseller No. of Domestic August Offers Average Flash Average Pageviews* Price (750ml) Discount (000)
Latest Flash Data

Complete flash data is available to subscribers: winesandvines.com/flash
Flash Offers Drop to 2011 Level

33% 39% 43% 43% 34% 32% 41% 53% 34% >1 233 65 19 274 10 310 271 96
Cinderella Wine Invino Last Bottle Wines Last Call Wines Lot18 The Wine Spies Wine Woot Wines Til Sold Out WineShopper
16 45 19 58 31 32 23 59 28
$26.89 $23.31 $30.08 $21.69 $17.79 $25.44 $16.10 $18.75 $15.46
Source: Wines Vines Analytics, winesandvines.com/flash *Source: Compete.com, Aug. 2013
Flash websites offered a total of 366 domestic wines in August, and that total is just five offers more than in August 2011 and 72 offers less than in August of last year. The 16% decrease in the number of flash offers from last year continues a decline that began in January. Wines Til Sold Out and Last Call Wines offered the most domestic wines in August with 59 and 58, respectively. Just as Cabernet Sauvignon is popular in the offpremise and direct-to-consumer segments, the varietal represents a quarter of all wines offered by flash websites in the past 12 months. Of the 5,088 total offers for domestic wines, 1,246 were for Cabernet Sauvignon and almost all (93%) of these wines were from wineries in California. Andrew Adams
No. of Offers for Cabernet Sauvignon by Flash Price
Offers for Domestic Cabernet by Flash Resellers

Invino
$100plus $60$99.99
49 115 163 424 492 0 100 200 300 400 500

12 months through August 2013
Last Call Wines Lot 18 Wine Spies Wine Woot Wines Til Sold Out WineShopper All Others 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200
Cabernet Sauvignon All Other Wines
Price
$40$59.99 $20$39.99 $6$19.99
12 months through August 2013
Flash Discounts for a Sample of cabernet sauvignon wines Offered in AUGUST

Discount Winery/Brand Winery Varietal/Type Vintage Winery State Retail Flash Price Winery Size Flash In Cases Site
13% Shafer Vineyards 25% Robert Hall Winery 33% Woodward Canyon Winery 51% Fortino Winery Inc. 52% Murphy-Goode 56% Martellotto Wine Productions 56% Michel-Schlumberger 64% Artesa Vineyards & Winery
Source: Wines Vines Analytics
CA CA WA CA CA CA CA CA
Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon
2010 2010 2010 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010
$76.00 $65.97 $24.00 $17.99 $54.00 $35.97 $80.00 $38.99 $24.99 $11.99 $45.00 $19.99 $45.00 $19.99 $70.00 $24.99
32,000 70,000 15,000 15,000
Wired For Wine Good Juice Direct Wired For Wine Wine Spies
225,000 Last Call Wines 5,000 Lot18 10,000 80,000 Wines Til Sold Out Wines Til Sold Out
leading Flash sites

Company Name URL Principals Affiliation Operation
Releases one wine at noon and one at 9 p.m. M-F. Buys only from distributors. Offers two to four new wines daily for 48-72 hours, or until the wine is sold out. Offers one wine until sold out. Offers four to six wines per day, available until sold out. Advertising platform for wineries to sell directly to consumers. Sells one wine each day, 365 days per year. One deal daily M-F. Emphasizes interactivity. Winery controls price. Sells one wine at a time from midnight EST until sold out. One new event per day, with one to five products. Cinderella Wine cinderellawine.com Gary Vaynerchuk Wine Library Invino invino.com Tony and Danielle Westfall Good Company Wines Last Bottle Wines lastbottlewines.com Cory Wagner Blicker Pierce Wagner Wine Merchants (BP Wine) Last Call Wines lastcallwines.com Michael Rockower Canals Hamilton Wine Store, N.J. Lot18 lot18.com Philip James, Kevin Fortuna The Wine Spies thewinespies.com Jason Seeber, Brandon Stauber Wine Woot wine.woot.com David and George Studdert Amazon Wines Til Sold Out winestilsoldout.com Joe Arking Roger Wilco (liquor store) WineShopper wineshopper.com Rich Bergsund, Mike Osborn Wine.com Source: Wines Vines Analytics
Next time, drink New York.

New York State is the second largest wineproducing state in the country, receiving a record number of top medals and rave reviews. In fact, New York wines have won 80 Double Gold, 565 Gold and 88 Best in Class awards in international competitions in the last year alone. With distinctive varietals and awardwinning wineries, theres so much to love about New York wine. So next time youre at a restaurant or liquor store, ask about New York wines.
taste.ny.gov
Headlines
Oregon Continues to Draw Investment
Resonance purchase follows Solna Estate buy
OCTOBER NEWS
NEWS BYTES
Tero owners buy Waters Winery Trout Wines, acquired Waters Winery in Walla Walla, Wash. As part of the deal, Roskelley and Tembreull announced that Waters original winemaker Jamie Brown would return as winemaker for the well-known Washington winery. The deal also included the 21 Grams brand, which is now wholly owned by Roskelley and Tembreull. GROWERS seek AVA changes
oug Roskelley and Mike Tembreull, owners of Tero Estates and Flying
cMinnville, Ore.Oregons wine industry is set for a banner year of transactions, with two additional major winery purchases announced in August. Burgundys Maison Louis Jadot acquired Resonance Vineyard, a 20-acre property in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, from Carla and Kevin Chambers for an undisclosed sum. Originally planted to Pinot Noir in 1981, the vineyard is Jadots first foray outside Burgundy. Grapes from the vineyard will go to Trisaetum Vineyards near Newberg, Ore., for processing this fall under the supervision of Jacques Lardiere, formerly winemaker at Louis Jadots operations in France. Lardiere will also oversee vineyard operations. I cant think of a better steward to hand off the property to than the Jadot team, winesandvines.com Kevin Chambers Learn more: told Wines & Vines. Search keywords Resonance Vineyard. The timing was very good for us. The Oregon industry as a whole right now is on a new growth curve. The owners of Maison Louis Jadot in the United States initially approached International Wine Associates of Healdsburg, Calif., regarding potential acquisition opportunities. Resonance surfaced as a possibility, and the deal proceeded. They were looking for a small, worldclass Pinot Noir property, said Robert Nicholson, principal of International Wine Associates. Oregon is graduating from small, boutique status to being recognized as a world-class producer of great Pinot Noir, he said. Chambers, whose family has been farming in Oregon for five generations, plans
T
Kevin Chambers Robert Nicholson
he TTB has accepted a petition by Martha Cunningham of 3 Horse
Ranch Vineyards in Eagle, Idaho, to crewould consist of 67 acres currently in the Snake River Valley AVA. The Willow Creek petition came after growers led by Dr. Alan Busacca refiled a petition for the creation of the Lewis-Clark Valley AVA, which would encompass eight
ate the new Willow Creek AVA, which
to buy a new, 80-acre vineyard in the EolaAmity Hills south of McMinnville, which will also allow them to refresh their housing. But given his farming heritage, the vineyard is key for Chambers. Chambers wont betray his love for Pinot Noir, which hell plant at lower elevations of the new south-facing property, but hes keen to put Chardonnay and Riesling at the middle elevations, graduating to Riesling alone on the higher elevations. The Jadot deal comes on the heels of an announcement that Jackson Family Wines will purchase a 15,000-case winery and 35-acre vineyard from Yamhill, Ore.-based Solna Estate, owned by Laurent Montalieu and Danielle Andrus Montalieu. Solna sold the property in connection with its move to a new production facility in the Dundee Hills. The deal (for an undisclosed amount) gives Jackson Family Wines a small-scale facility that will serve its recently acquired vineyards in the area. In order to fulfill our vision for creating world-class Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley, we need a winery capable of producing artisan wines, Hugh Reimers, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Jackson Family Wines, said in a news release. Peter Mitham
counties surrounding Clarkston, Wash., and Lewiston, Idaho.
Carneros Brewing Co.
Ceja brothers open brewery
who own and manage Ceja Vineyards, and Manuel, an engineer based in Los Angeles, to open the Carneros Brewing Co. near Sonoma, Calif. A building adjacent to the brewery will house a winery and custom-crush operation run by Armando and Pedro Ceja. The brewery uses several types of hops that are grown on site.
xperienced brewer Jesus Ceja teamed with brothers Pedro and Armando,
OCTOBER NEWS
Labor Trends May Challenge Industry

Economist: Wages, lack of housing will force Napa to get competitive
apa, Calif.Economist Robert Eyler predicts the labor situation in Napa Valley may get increasingly challenging, forcing wineries to pay higher wages and adopt more mechanization. winesandvines.com Eyler, the president of Economic ForenLearn more: sics and Analytics and a professor at SoSearch keywords Napa labor. noma State University, delivered his sobering message at the Aug. 29 Impact Napa conference hosted by the North Bay (California) Business Journal. Eylers forecast results partly from the increasing demand and wages for workers in nearby counties, plus limited housing in the Napa Valley. Continued improvement in the Mexican economy, which is growing at 3% per year, and changes in immigration policy and enforcement would only make things worse, Eyler said. The good news is that many people want to work in Napa, so theres not likely to be a worker shortage developing, but employers may have to pay them more. More and more workers are coming from outside the countyincluding the contract workers. Relatively cheap fuel encourages them to come from the larger population centers nearby, while high housing costs in Napa force many to live elsewhere. Eyler said one clear trend in Napa Valley is that the rise in grape tonnage since 2000 suggests outside contract labor and mechanization are filling local labor gaps. Interestingly, Napa Countys mix of employment hasnt changed much since 2000. Six industries dominate hiring: hospitality, professional services, retail, winery, health care and government. He also noted that winery wages are generally lower than the average Napa County wages, yet many winery job skills are transferable to other industries. Eyler cited this among the factors that may force wine industry wages to rise. The sales sector, for example, has a mobile work force that can easily switch into hospitality or administrative jobs such as bookkeeping. The booming businesses of nut and fruit producers in Californias Central Valley provide increasing competition for seasonal labor, but many Napa wineries are trying to train their personnel for other positions to keep them employed year-round. Some are adding olives and other crops that complement vineyards. Theyre also paying workers better and providing benefits like insurance to create a stable work force. Eyler said Napa Countys growers and vintners might need to pay higher wages in a competitive market for skilled workers who will likely be living outside of the county. Paul Franson
Winery wages are generally lower than the average Napa County wages.
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OCTOBER NEWS
Dr. Linda Bisson encouraged growers whose vineyards are prone to stuck fermentations to send juice samples to the University of California, Davis.
Yeast Nutrition Vital For Wine Fermentation
Enology experts discuss research and best practices at UC Davis

avis, Calif.In a session appropriate for the pre-harvest season, a panel of University of California, Davis, professors and yeast experts offered insights into the best practices to ensure an efficient and healthy fermentation during a daylong seminar in August. Dr. Linda Bisson, a yeast expert with UC Davis, organized the seminar and provided an overview of problematic fermentations. Bisson said stuck or sluggish fermentations are often caused by insufficient or imbalanced nutrients, ethanol toxicity, the presence of toxic substances, a yeast strain thats ill suited for the particular must or juice, low pH and temperature shock. Toxic substances include acetic acids produced by stressed yeast or other microbes. The acids may have occurred in the vineyard but dont cause problems until the fermentation has produced a certain level of ethanol, Bisson said. Sluggish or slow fermentations indicate theres something out of balance with the fermentation, while a complete stop is likely the result of a misguided step such as making a pH adjustment in the middle of fermentation. Usually, if there is an abrupt stop, its because someone did something to cause it, Bisson said. Dr. Nichola Hall, a technical representative with Scott Laboratories, said the yeast assimilable nitrogen, YAN, requirements for one strain of yeast to consume 1 gram of sugar could be twice that of different yeast. Hall said yeasts also require several nutrients working in tandem so that they can process wine sugars effectively. The host of other microbes usually present in cold soak can rapidly deplete the amount of nutrients, and Hall suggested winemakers should run a complete nutrition check after cold soak, going so far as to say a YAN analysis prior to winesandvines.com cold soak is almost a waste of analysis. Learn more: Search keywords Darren Michaels, technical representative Fermentation seminar. for Laffort USA, said specialty strains offer nuances in mouthfeel, aroma, color and other more specialized considerations such as less foam production (good for barrel-fermented Chardonnay), VA production and the ability to mask green flavors. But yeast can only impart those characteristics if it has the nutrients it needs and is within its pH, temperature and alcohol comfort zones. If you cant control fermentation temperature, it would be hard to say that strain is going to give you what you want, he said. Andrew Adams
16 W in e s & V i ne s O C TOB E R 20 13
OCTOBER NEWS
B.C. Wines Stall in Home Market

Sales revenues are up in British Columbia, while market share dips
ancouver, British ColumbiaThe economic impact of the British Columbia wine industry is significantmore than $2 billion, according to a study released earlier this yearbut local producers are facing equally significant challenges holding their own against a tide of foreign competitors. While more than 90 labels showed up at this weeks fall release event in Vancouver, hosted by the British Columbia Wine Institute, the latest numbers from the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB) indicate that wines entering the market face stiff competition. Wines bearing the B.C. VQA designationgranted to wines made entirely from B.C.-grown grapes that meet established quality standardssaw their share of dollars spent on wine in B.C. peak at 20.4% in 2010 (BCLDB figures do not include cellar door sales). By the end of 2012, market share had fallen to 18.9% and despite rising in June, preliminary
British Columbia Wine Sales

Period Wine Sales BC VQA Sales Market Total ($000) Total ($000) Share
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
$829,354 $145,551 17.6 $819,507 $153,750 18.8 $863,710 $176,392 20.4 $901,640 $176,705 19.6 $938,711 $177,615 18.9
* 12 months ended this month
June 2013* $951,201 $181,322 19.1
numbers for the 12 months ended Aug. 31 suggest their share of the market had dipped to 18.6%. The shift comes despite a rise in sales of B.C. VQA wines, which totaled $178 million in 2012, up from $146 million in 2008. While we continue to grow our piece of the pie, the pie is getting bigger faster than our piece, Miles Prodan, executive director of the B.C. Wine Institute,
told Wines & Vines. Were selling more juice, but were not making as much money (per bottle). Competitors include California, which was featured at this years Vancouver International Wine Festival and poses a formidable challenge to B.C. producers. Canadas strong dollar in 2011 and 2012its traded at near par with the U.S. dollarhas helped winesandvines.com make it an attractive Learn more: Search keywords export market. DoB.C. stall. mestic buyers have used their buying power to snap up foreign wines at prices much cheaper than at any point in recent years. Consumers keen to buy local have supported an overall rise in the average price of a bottle of B.C. VQA wine, with the average price through the BCLDB now approximately $15.65, up from $15.42 in 2010. Peter Mitham
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OCTOBER NEWS
Clos Pegase is known for its distinct architecture and modern art work; the colorful sculpture Faribolous by Jean Dubuffet is visible at far right.
Vintage Wine Estates Buys Clos Pegase

Famed architectural property marks a deviation from previous purchases
anta Rosa, Calif.Vintage Wine Estates announced Aug. 21 its purchase of Clos Pegase Winery from Jan Shrem, who celebrated his 83rd birthday in July. Vintage is a collection of wine brands owned by Pat Roney and Leslie Rudd, and Clos Pegase is one of Napa Valleys iconic wineries, famous for its architecture and art collection as much as its estate wines. Vintage bought the winery and property including vineyards in Calistoga as well as a lease on Carneros AVA vineyards that total 450 acres. Included is a 40-acre parcel across Dunaweal Lane from the winery that is now planted in vineyards, but which Roney admits would be a great site for a new Girard Winery. The acquisition, which is being financed by Bank of the West, is a big departure for Vintage. Other than Girard, most of its acquisitions had been troubled or secondary properties, including bankrupt Cosentino Winery in Yountville, Calif., pioneering direct-to-consumer Windsor Vineyards, Sonoma Coast Vineyards and the Cartlidge & Browne Winery brand. Vintage also bought the former McDowell Valley Vineyards & Cellars in Hopland, Calif., from Weibel Winery and upgraded the facility to make part of its portfolio of wines including a brand called winesandvines.com Rays Station after a pioneering local vintner. Learn more: Search keywords Roney admits Clos Pegase didnt seem to fit Clos Pegase. his firms model of mostly low-asset acquisitions but says, We saw the possibilities, including growing the business. He said that Clos Pegase is strong in direct-to-consumer sales, a special strength of Vintage. There are also opportunities for expanded hospitality and events. He added, It has very good vineyards. We could do a lot more with them. Though Clos Pegase has a permit for 80,000 cases, it only makes 25,000 at present. The Clos Pegase wines are priced slightly above Vintages current Girard flagship wines, which include Cabernets from famed Pritchard Hill in Napa Valley. By comparison, Vintage produced about 700,000 cases last year. Roney plans to add Clos Pegase wines to the sales force of Vintages own portfolio and expand distribution. Jan Shrem founded Clos Pegase Winery in 1984, naming it after the famous mythical flying horse, Pegasus. Celebrated architect Michael Graves designed the winery after an architectural competition hosted by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Paul Franson
OCTOBER NEWS
50 Million-Case Wine Opportunity

Rabobank analyst sees opportunity to boost U.S. wine sales to Hispanics
an Rafael, Calif.While Americans are drinking more wine than ever, the U.S. Hispanic population still consumes far less wine per person than the general population. Tapping into that market could result in wineries selling an additional 50 million cases over the next 20 years, according to a new report by Rabobanks food and agribusiness research group. The report predicts that Hispanics may buy 96.5 million cases of wine per year by 2033. The growth in wine consumption by Hispanics could account for as much as 40% of the total growth in wine consumption during the same period. Driving consumption growth among Hispanics will not necessarily be easy, but (it) may be critical for the wine industrys continued growth in the long term, said Stephen Rannekleiv, the reports author and Rabobanks wine industry analyst. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Hispanic population is expected to
Million cases
U.S. Hispanics Wine Consumption

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 2013 2033 46.6
Rabobank
96.5
grow to 22% of the total U.S. population by 2033. The white non-Hispanic population is expected to only account for 54% of the U.S. population in 2033, down from 64% in 2011. Offering information in Spanish on a winery website or ensuring someone in the tasting room can speak Spanish would help a winery connect with Hispanic consumers, Rannekleiv noted. The low rate of Hispanic wine consumption is one of the biggest ironies in the wine
industry. Many of the men and women working in the vineyards and cellars producing wine are Mexican immigrants who dont drink much wine themselves. Napa and Sonoma counties are home to some wineries such as Ceja Vineyards and Robledo Family Winery in the Carneros AVA and Mi Sueo and Alex Sotelo Cellars in Napa Valley that are owned by Mexican immigrants. But despite the many contributions of Mexicans and other Hispanic groups to the wine industry, the alcoholic beverage of choice in most Hispanic homes remains beer. Yet that is changing. A study by the Wine Market Council found that Hispanics represented 3% of core wine drinkers in 2008 but 5% in 2012. Nielsen predicts an annual 6% growth rate of Hispanic wine and spirits consumption through 2015. That growth rate is double that of the U.S. non-Hispanic population. Andrew Adams
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OCTOBER NEWS
Options to Control Powdery Mildew

Annual field day looks at efficacy of fungicide treatments
ourtland, Calif. Grapegrowers, vineyard managers, consultants, pest control advisors (PCAs) and ag chemical suppliers inspected the results of 90 different fungicide spray treatments to control powdery mildew Aug. 7 as part of a University of CaliUC Davis plant pathologist fornia Cooperative Extension Dr. Douglas Gubler noted that (UCCE) vineyard field trial organic oils continue to be very conducted by the University effective against fungus, but they of California, Davis, Departcan slightly delay fruit maturity. ment of Plant Pathology. UC Davis plant pathologist Dr. Douglas Gubler, an expert on grape fungal pathogens and diseases and a frequent lecturer at industry meetings, oversees the annual research trial that has been conducted in the same Chardonnay vineyard for 28 years in cooperation with grower John Baranek of Herzog Ranch in the Clarksburg American Viticultural Area. The vineyard near the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is an excellent test site, with powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator) disease pressure each season because the weather in the area is cooler and the vineyard is near a body of water. The 90 treatments tested in 2013 included synthetic, biological and organic fungicides in different combinations, and with varying application rates and timing. Applications were made beginning in early April, and final treatments were applied the week of July 15. Gubler noted that organic oils such as JMS Stylet Oil (a paraffinic oil), PureSpray and Safe-T-Side, which work as contact fungicides with a smothering or barrier effect to PM growth, continue to be very effective products, particularly when used early in the season to knock back the fungus. One caution with these oils is that they can slightly delay fruit maturity, as the oil will block and shut down leaf stomata to reduce carbohydrate accumulation. A general recommendation is that different classes of fungicides with different modes of action be used alternately during the growing season and from year to year in an integrated program to prevent disease resistance and improve efficacy. Soft chemistry, natural and biological products can be used when disease pressure is low to moderate to practice good integrated pest management (IPM) and still get good disease control. A final report with results of disease severity and incidence for each treatment will be posted on the website for the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology within the next two months. Copies of annual PM field trial reports going back to 2003 are currently posted at plantpathology.ucdavis.edu/cooperative_extension. Jon Tourney
OCTOBER NEWS
CALI FO R N I A
New owners for old Stevenot winery
News Briefs
Duckhorn acquires Hopland winery
Matthew Rorick, owner of Forlorn Hope Wines in Napa, partnered with members of his family to purchase the Sierra Nevada Foothills winery that had been the original home of Stevenot Winery. The $4.7 million deal included a neighboring ranch, for a total of 350 acres near Murphys. A mortgage company owned the property after taking control from the former owner, Jack Munari.
Foley acquires stake in distributor
Wines & Vines welcomes news items from wineries, vineyards and industry suppliers located in the wine regions of North America. Send us your latest news by emailing [email protected]. Items may be edited for clarity and brevity.
Duckhorn Wine Co. in St. Helena acquired the Hopland winery that is the current location of Rack & Riddle Custom Crush Wine Services. Duckhorn bought the property from Entertainment Properties Trust and plans to use it to expand the production of its second brand, Decoy.
Krupp hires Buoncristiani as winemaker
of the board, and that Jeff Meier was promoted to president and will continue as COO overseeing winemaking at the companys facilities in San Jose, Paso Robles and the new winery in Greenfield. Founder Jerry Lohr will manage the firms estate vineyards. Details: jlohr.com.
Sparkling wine expert dies
Bill Foley purchased a minority share in Epic Wines, which added several of the Foley Family Wines brands to its portfolio. Robert Prough announced the deal in a statement and said he will remain president and CEO of the distributor based in Capitola. The company now represents Sebastiani Vineyards, Langtry Estates, Guenoc, Lancaster Estate, Roth, Lincourt Winery, EOS Estate, Kuleto, Merus and Foley Johnson.
Sparkling wine production expert Raphal Brisbois, director of winemaking at Rack & Riddle Custom Crush Wine Services in Hopland, died in August. Before joining Rack & Riddle, Brisbois oversaw wineTransition at J. Lohr Vineyards making operations on J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines in San Jose four continents, from announced that second-generation family Champagne Piper in member and co-owner Steve Lohr would Reims, France, 10:57 to conAlainFouquet_Aug06 5/17/06 AM Page 1 Raphal Brisbois assume the posts of CEO and chairman sulting at wineries in Jay Buoncristiani is the new winemaker at Krupp Brothers Estates and Stagecoach Vineyards in Napa. Buoncristiani is also part owner and winemaker for Buoncristiani Family Winery, also based in Napa.
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OCTOBER NEWS
Chile, Nova Scotia, India and elsewhere. Brisbois came to California in 1987 to work for Iron Horse Vineyards and Rmy Cointreau. Our memories of his dedication, his eternal optimism and his wit will forever be etched in our hearts, Rack & Riddle founders Rebecca Faust and Bruce Lundquist said in a statement.
New assistant winemaker at Fess Parker
the winery as winemaker coming from Beringer Vineyards in Napa, where he was an associate winemaker. Louton will work with winemaker Katie Madigan and oversee the winerys Bordeaux variety program. Details: stfranciswinery.com.
SSU professor earns Fulbright
position of associate winemaker to winemaker at Ancient Peaks Winery in Santa Margarita. Mike Sinor remains the director of winemaking. Cameron has been with Ancient Peaks since 2006. Details: ancientpeaks.com.
OffBeat launches Zin-phomaniac label
David Baird is the new assistant winemaker at Fess Parker Winery in Santa Barbara. Baird is the former cellar master at Justin Vineyards in Paso Robles. Details: fessparker.com.
Chateau Potelle opens tasting house
VGS Chateau Potelle Winery opened its new tasting house and garden in St. Helena. The new tasting room features seasonal wine and food pairings. Details: vgschateaupotelle.com.
Louton joins St. Francis as winemaker
Dr. Liz Thach, MW, a wine business professor at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, was selected for a Fulbright Specialists project in Mendoza, Argentina, at the National University of Cuyo. Thach will teach Dr. Liz Thach wine business, wine marketing and wine tourism classes in March 2014.
Benovia names assistant winemaker
OffBeat brands in Petaluma launched its new Zin-phomaniac brand, an old-vine Zinfandel from Lodi. The company, which makes wines targeted for millennials, generation X and baby boomer consumers, describes the wine with a suggested retail price of $18.99 as plush and full-bodied.
New winemaker for Pellegrini
Jen Walsh is the new assistant winemaker at Benovia Winery in Santa Rosa. Walsh was the enologist at Miner Family Winery in Oakville before joining Benovia. Details: benoviawinery.com.
New winemaker at Ancient Peaks
Lynn Krausmann is the new winemaker for Pellegrini Wine Co. at Olivet Lane Vineyard in Healdsburg. Krausmann is the former winemaker for Esterlina Vineyards & Winery in Philo. Details: pellegrinisonoma.com.
Lynn Krausmann
St. Francis Winery & Vineyards in Santa Rosa announced that Chris Louton joined
Chenin Blanc and Petite Sirah conference
Stewart Cameron was promoted from the
The organizers of the first-ever Chenin
OCTOBER NEWS
Blanc & Petite Sirah Wine Conference aim to share with the world two of the most unrecognized and yet highly versatile grape varietals. The two-day conference takes place Nov. 14-15 at the Old Sugar Mill in Clarksburg. Experts will discuss best practices for growing and winemaking at the conference, which will also feature trade and consumer tastings. Details: Sapporo cheninpetiteconference.com.
Winery exec publishes memoirs
Michael David launches namesake brand
serve in California. Details: merryvale.com.
Michael David Winery in Lodi released a Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc under a new Michael David label. The winery is known for its brands such as 7 Deadly Zins, Earthquake and Freakshow. The new releases are the first wines branded with the name Michael David, after owners and brothers Michael and David Phillips. A red varietal wine will be released in 2014. Details: michaeldavidwinery.com.
Opus One names VP of PR
N O RTH WEST
Culmina winery opens in B.C.
Osaka shima
Former winery executive Michaela Rodeno published the first of her two-part book recounting the founding of Domaine ChanTokyo don in 1973 and her 40 years of working Nagoya in the wine industry. From Bubbles to Boardrooms, Act I: Startups are Such Fun, delves into the heady days of the winerys first years of business and the lessons Rodeno learned from founding president John Wright. Rodeno says her book features amusing anecdotes that she hopes also provide lessons for entrepreneurs, managers and those starting their careers.
Christopher Barefoot joined Opus One Winery in Oakville as the vice president of public relations and guest relations. Barefoot most recently was the sales and marketing director for Flowers Vineyard & Winery in Cazadero.
Christopher Barefoot
Donald and Elaine Triggs opened their new Culmina Family Estate Winery in Oliver, B.C. The winery is designed for gravity-flow winemaking and is situated on 100 acres, of which 56 are planted with Bordeaux-variety vines as well as Chardonnay, Riesling and what the owners say is the first Grner Veltliner to be planted in the Okanagan Valley. Donald Triggs founded the wine company Vincor, which Constellation Brands Inc. acquired in 2006 for $1.2 billion (Canadian).
Washington auction raises $2 million
New assistant winemaker at Merryvale
Simon Faury joined Merryvale Vineyards in St. Helena as assistant winemaker. Faury comes to the winery after working at wineries in France, Australia and Italy as well as Harlan Estate and The Napa Valley Re-
The 26th annual Auction of Washington Wines raised more than $2 million through various events held Aug. 15-17. Proceeds from the auction support the Se-
OCTOBER NEWS
attle Childrens Hospital and the Washington State University Viticulture & Enology Program. The top lot of the auction gala was a South African safari offered by Betz Family Winery that sold for $58,000.
Bethel Heights hires national sales director
C E N T RAL
Diageo invests in Illinois bottling plant
Nels Becker is the new national sales director for Bethel Heights Vineyard Inc. of Salem, Ore. Becker is the former national sales director of Gruet Winery in Albuquerque, N.M.
Diageo North America announced in early August it had completed a $120 million investment in its bottling facility in Plainfield, Ill. The center currently bottles approximately 31 million cases of Diageo products per year. In addition to three high-speed lines, the Plainfield location is also home to Diageo North Americas brand technical center, which helps to turn new liquid and packaging ideas into commercial products, according to a statement by Diageo.
Texas winery hires Chilean winemaker
Sergio Cuadra is the new winemaker for Fall Creek Vineyards in Tow, Texas. Cuadra worked for 19 years in the Chilean wine industry, spending a Sergio decade with Concha y Cuadra Toro. Most recently he was the winemaker at Anakena Wines in Santiago, Chile. Details: fcv.com.
St. Julian winemaker honored
Purdue University announced that Nancie Corum-Oxley, head winemaker at St. Julian Wine Co., in Paw Paw, Mich., would receive the schools Outstanding Food Science Award in a ceremony to be held Oct. 10. Recipients of the award are Purdue alumni who have demonstrated excellence in food science. Corum-Oxley joined St. Julian in 2002 as lab manager and enologist; after a series of promotions she became head winemaker in 2010. Detail: stjulian.com.
Top winners in Michigan competition
The judging panel of the Michigan Wine Competition tasted 450 wines from 55 of the states wineries and awarded best of class honors to six wines from a group of 42 gold medal winners. The top wines were: Black Star Farms 2012 BeDazzled (sparkling), Chateau Fontaine 2012 Pinot Blanc (dry white), Peninsula Cellars 2011 Cabernet Franc (dry red), Boathouse Vineyards 2012 Knot Too Sweet Riesling (semi-dry white), Karma Vista Vineyards 2012 Devils Head Red (semi-dry red) and Brys Estate 2011 Dry Ice Riesling Ice Wine (dessert wine).
Stone Hill wins top honors in Missouri
Stone Hill Wine Co.s 2011 Norton won top honors at this years Missouri Wine Competition. The wine received Best of Class for dry red, the C.V. Riley award for best Norton and The Governors Cup for the best wine of the year. Details: stonehillwinery.com.
OCTOBER NEWS Indiana wine named Wine of the Year
The 2012 Vignoles from Hubers Orchard, Winery & Vineyards in Sapporo Borden, Ind., received Wine of the Year honors at the Indy International Wine ComDana petition. The Vignoles Huber topped 2,300 entries Tokyo from around the United States and the Nagoya world Osaka in the competition, which used 44 Hiroshima international judges and a blind tasting format. Details: huberwinery.com.
Japan
try experts as well as a tour of nearby North Carolina vineyards and wineries and a grand wine tasting. Details: ncviticulturecenter.com.
Winemaker opens tasting room
S U PPLI ERS
Nursery expands production
E AST
Southeastern grape, wine conference
Surry Community College in Dobson, N.C., and Viticulture Enology Science and Technology Alliance will hold the Southeastern United Grape & Wine Symposium on Nov. 6-7 at the college. The conference will feature educational workshops and seminars by winemaking and indus-
Johannes Reinhardt, winemaker for Anthony Road Wine Co. in Penn Yan, N.Y., opened the tasting room of his own winery, Kemmeter Wines, which is also located in Penn Johannes Yan. Reinhardt plans Reinhardt to stay at his post at Anthony Road while building his own winery and planting vineyards nearby. Details: kemmeterwines.com.
Keuka Spring, McCall win top N.Y. honors
Duarte Nursery Inc. of Hughson, Calif., announced it expanded its grapevine production for the 2014 delivery season to meet the demand from growers looking to expand or replant. The nursery stated in a news release that it has 30 million rootstocks and 50 million scion buds certified and virus tested for 2014 grafting. Details: duartenursery.com.
NakedWines.com announces funding
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo presented the Governors Cup award to Len and Judy Wiltberger, owners of Keuka Spring Vineyards, for their 2012 Riesling, which won Best of Show honors in the 2013 New York Wine & Food Classic competition. Winery of the Year honors went to McCall Wines on Long Island.
Online wine retailer NakedWines.com announced it received a third-round investment of $10 million to increase the companys business in the United States and Australia. The investment came from WIV Wein International AG, which is a founding shareholder of the firm and owns a majority interest in the company. Details: nakedwines.com.
SureHarvest honored for sustainability
The California/Nevada Chapter of the Soil
OCTOBER NEWS
and Water Conservation Society presented SureHarvest with an award recognizing the companys development of technologies and sustainability and certification programs. SureHarvests vice president of professional services and Wines & Vines columnist Cliff Ohmart accepted the award on behalf of the company. Details: caswcs.org.
Roll Global buys Vintage Nurseries
moving into a new 22,000-square-foot location in Napa, Calif. The firm specializes in filling kegs for wineries to offer their clients a wine on tap option. Details: freeflowwines.com.
Saury adds to North American sales team
eral manager and winemaker at Norman Vineyards in Paso Robles and makes his own wine under the Felten Cellars label. Details: prosperocorp.biz.
Packaging firm makes invests in facilities
Roll Global LLC, owner of Fiji Water, Wonderful Pistachios, Justin Vineyards & Winery in Paso Robles, Calif., and other enterprises, announced its purchase of Vintage Nurseries in Wasco, Calif. The acquisition includes 755,300 square feet of production and growing facilities and 1,169 acres of owned and leased land in Californias San Joaquin Valley. Vintage Nurseries produces grafted grapevine rootstocks for the wine grape, table grape and raisin industries. Details: vintagenurseries.com.
Free Flow pouring at 1,500 locations
Brianne Day joined Saury USAs North American sales team and will be responsible for mainly Washington and Oregon. Day has eight years of experience in wine production. Details: sauryusa.com.
Saxco adds sales account manager
Universal Packaging Corp. announced it had completed a $1.2 million investment in its Canadian production plant in Vernon, B.C. The company, which decorates bottles with screen-printing, reports the investment will increase its capacity by 50%. Details: unipack.ca.
CORRECTIONS
Carson E. Wright joined Carson Wright Saxco International LLC as its sales account manager for the Northwest. Wright will handle dayto-day sales and new accounts for the glass bottle distributor based in Oakland, Calif. He joins Saxco after working as a sales consultant for Cork Supply USA in Portland, Ore. Details: saxco.com.
New rep for AWS/Prospero
In the September 2013 issue of Wines & Vines, the table on page 38 titled The Bacchus Portfolio should have listed DeLille Cellars location as Woodinville, Wash. In the same table, the item on Maritime Wine Trading Collective should have listed its case volume as 150,000 cases and its vineyard acreage as none. Also in the September 2013 issue, the Viewpoint article on page 82 should have identified Dr. Andrew Walker as the Louis P. Martini Endowed Chair in Viticulture in the Department of Viticulture & Enology, University of California, Davis.
Free Flow Wines announced that more than 250 wines are on tap at more than 1,500 restaurants, hotels and other venues in the United States. The company is also
Steve Felten is now representing AWS/ Prospero in the Central Coast and Southern California. Felten is the former gen-
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OCTOBER NEWS
Product News
G.W. Kent offering Syntek closures
selection. The Cool Climate Series is available for the 2013 harvest. Details: twboswell.com.
Over the Top tannins
Send us your latest offerings and announcements by emailing [email protected]. Items may be edited for clarity and brevity.
Synthetic closures from French firm Syntek are now available through G.W. Kent. Syntek is the second-largest synthetic closure manufacturer in the world, and G.W. Kent is offering the firms I-Tek closure. According to product information from G.W. Kent, the closure offers a consistent oxygen-transfer rate, and its outer coatings are made of a food-safe mixture of paraffin and silicone for good sealing and extraction. G.W. Kent is carrying 38x22 mm closures in bags containing 1,000 closures. Details: gwkent.com.
Cool-climate wine barrels by T.W. Boswell
Scott Laboratories announced its new Over the Top (or OTT) line of tannins to provide a final stylistic touch to wines. The new Tannin Bold can add wood, caramel and vanilla notes and a touch of sweetness, while Tannin Finesse adds a perception of sweetness while reducing the perception of alcohol or biting acidity in white wines. Both are available in 500-gram packages. Details: scottlab.com.
Wingman 2.0 sales support program
Groove, a digital and social marketing agency, released Wingman 2.0, a tablet- and smartphone-enabled digital sales book for the wine, spirits and beverage industries. Wingman 2.0 provides sales reps with up-to-date brand information, plus improved ordertaking and order-transmission capabilities. The days of walking into an account armed with glossy sell sheets and a pencil are winding down, Groove managing director Sean Dunn said in a statement released by the company. Details: sfgroove.com.
FFA licensed work gloves by Ranchmate
Cooperages 1912 announced that it is expanding the T.W. Boswell barrel line to include three new barrels as part of its Cool Climate Series. Cool-climate wines tend to be very fruit focused, with higher acidity and delicate overall tasting notes, Jason Stout, the companys international sales director, said in a news release. Our team researched and experimented to carefully develop a line of barrels that responds perfectly to this style. The low-impact barrels featured in the series are made with 36-month aged, extra fine grain oak as part of T.W. Boswells special reserve premium wood
Preformed Line Products released Ranchmate brand work gloves bearing the logo of the Future Farmers of America, FFA, to support the national youth agricultural education organization. The full-grain, cowhide gloves are available in four styles and feature the FFA logo and motto: Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve. Details: ranchmate.com.
UNIFIED
WINE & GRAPE S Y M P O S I U M
January 28 30, 2014 exhibits: January 29 & 30 Sacramento Convention Center Sacramento, California Registration and Housing open in October. Check our website for details as they become available.
www.unifedsymposium.org
by the industry for the industry

Allied GrApe Growers AmAdor County Vintners AssoCiAtion moss AdAms llp idAho wine Commission turrentine BrokerAGe new york wine & GrApe FoundAtion CiAtti CompAny el dorAdo GrApe Growers FrAnCis Ford CoppolA winery CAwG lAke County wineGrApe Commission CAkeBreAd CellArs sonomA County wineGrApe Commission/sonomA County Vintners Fetzer missouri wine & GrApe BoArd stipp rAnCh sCheid VineyArds lodi wineGrApe Commission J lohr VineyArd & wines ohio wine produCers AssoCiAtion JACkson FAmily wines liVermore VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion Bennett mArketinG Group lodi wineGrApe Commission wine institute sAntA Cruz mountAin wineGrowers AssoCiAtion AseV AtlAs VineyArd mAnAGement inC monterey Vintners & Growers AssoCiAtion treAsury wine estAtes pAso roBles wine County AlliAnCe sAFAri VineyArd mendoCino wineGrowers wine X-rAy temeCulA VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion lAnGetwins FAmily winery And VineyArds sAn JoAquin VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion treAsury wine estAtes GArnet VineyArds AmAdor County Vintners AssoCiAtion uniVersity oF CAliForniA, dAVis AtlAntiC seABoArd wine AssoCiAtion Allied GrApe Growers AmAdor County Vintners AssoCiAtion moss AdAms llp idAho wine Commission turrentine BrokerAGe new york wine & GrApe FoundAtion CiAtti CompAny el dorAdo GrApe Growers CAwG FrAnCis Ford CoppolA winery lAke County wineGrApe Commission CAkeBreAd CellArs sonomA County wineGrApe Commission/sonomA County Vintners Fetzer missouri wine & GrApe BoArd stipp rAnCh sCheid VineyArds AseV lodi wineGrApe Commission J lohr VineyArd & wines ohio wine produCers AssoCiAtion JACkson FAmily wines liVermore VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion Bennett mArketinG Group lodi wineGrApe Commission wine institute sAntA Cruz mountAin wineGrowers AssoCiAtion AtlAs VineyArd mAnAGement inC monterey Vintners & Growers AssoCiAtion treAsury wine estAtes pAso roBles wine County AlliAnCe sAFAri VineyArd mendoCino wineGrowers wine X-rAy temeCulA VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion lAnGetwins FAmily winery And VineyArds sAn JoAquin VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion treAsury wine estAtes GArnet VineyArds AmAdor County Vintners AssoCiAtion uniVersity oF CAliForniA, dAVis AtlAntiC seABoArd wine AssoCiAtion Allied GrApe Growers AmAdor County Vintners AssoCiAtion moss AdAms llp idAho wine Commission turrentine BrokerAGe new york wine & GrApe FoundAtion CiAtti CompAny el dorAdo GrApe Growers FrAnCis Ford CoppolA winery lAke County wineGrApe Commission CAke BreAd CellArs sonomA County wineGrApe Commission/sonomA County Vintners Fetzer missouri wine & GrApe BoArd stipp rAnCh sCheid VineyArds lodi wineGrApe Commission J lohr VineyArd & wines ohio wine produCers AssoCiAtion JACkson FAmily wines liVermore VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion AseV Bennett mArketinG Group lodi wineGrApe Commission wine institute sAntA Cruz mountAin wineGrowers AssoCiAtion AtlAs VineyArd mAnAGement inC monterey Vintners & Growers AssoCiAtion treAsury wine estAtes pAso roBles wine County AlliAnCe sAFAri VineyArd mendoCino wineGrowers wine X-rAy temeCulA VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion lAnGetwins FAmily winery And VineyArds sAn JoAquin VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion treAsury wine estAtes GArnet VineyArds AmAdor County Vintners AssoCiAtion uniVersity oF CAliForniA, dAVis AtlAntiC seABoArd wine AssoCiAtion Allied GrApe Growers CAwG AmAdor County Vintners AssoCiAtion moss AdAms llp idAho wine Commission turrentine BrokerAGe new york wine & GrApe FoundAtion CiAtti CompAny el dorAdo GrApe Growers FrAnCis Ford CoppolA winery lAke County wineGrApe Commission CAkeBreAd CellArs sonomA County wineGrApe Commission/sonomA County Vintners Fetzer missouri wine & GrApe BoArd stipp rAnCh sCheid VineyArds lodi wineGrApe Commission J lohr VineyArd & wines ohio wine produCers AssoCiAtion JACkson FAmily wines liVermore VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion Bennett mArketinG Group lodi wineGrApe Commission wine institute sAntA Cruz mountAin wineGrowers AssoCiAtion AtlAs VineyArd mAnAGement inC monterey Vintners & Grow ers AssoCiAtion treAsury wine estAtes pAso roBles wine County AlliAnCe sAFAri VineyArd mendoCino wineGrowers wine X-rAy teme CulA VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion lAnGetwins FAmily winery And VineyArds sAn JoAquin VAlley wineGrowers AssoCiAtion treAsury wine estAtes GArnet VineyArds AmAdor County Vintners AssoCiAtion uniVersity oF CAliForniA, dAVis AtlAntiC seABoArd wine AssoCiAtion
2 0 1 4
one place, one time, all the answers
the Unifed!
OCTOBER NEWS New ticket platform by CellarPass Real-time irrigation data
CellarPass announced the launch of its new ticketing platform that enables wineries and event organizers to create, manage, promote and sell tickets for their events. Wineries can offer tickets for purchase or via a reservation. The free system employs an embedded, secure and PCI-compliant credit card processor for selling tickets. Details: cellarpass.com.
Bulk depalletizer by A-B-C
MapShots Inc. and AgSense announced a joint effort to offer realtime irrigation data for growers. The new relationship pairs MapShots AgStudio suite of agronomy software with AgSenses WagNet cloud-based wireless network. The system provides growers with real-time access to irrigation status and machine health, as well as the ability to collect watering records for agronomic analysis, said Ted Macy, vice president of operations at MapShots.
New mannoprotein products by Scott Labs
A-B-C Packaging says its new 108HL high-level bulk depalletizer transfers containers from the pallet stack and sweeps them gently onto a high-level discharge conveyor at speeds of up to four layers per minute. The unit is designed to provide container handling and quiet operation at discharge levels of up to 144 feet. To ensure positive container handling, the 108HL offers four containment devices, tier sheet stabilizer and a precision chain and sprocket sweep mechanism to maintain stability even with lightweight containers. Details: abcpackaging.com.
Orion adds point-of-sale features
Scott Laboratories introduced UltiMA Fresh and UltiMA Soft for the 2013 vintage. The two products are mannoprotein/gum arabic blends developed through a three-year research and development program at the Institut de Oenologique de Champagne. The company reports that UltiMA Fresh helps ensure stability and improve perceived volume while reducing perceptions of bitterness and acidity. UltiMA Soft can soften, enhance body and lower astringency in white wines. In red wines, UltiMA Soft maintains fruity aromas while helping to round out the mid-palate. Bench trials are recommended prior to use. Details: scottlaboratories.com.
Enzymes, filter bags by Eaton
Orion Wine Software updated its integrated point-of-sale system to include a new function designed to help wineries provide table service and enable their staff to accept gratuities. By adding our new table-service feature, we offer a fresh avenue for wineries to connect with customers, said Jay Hall, Orions general manager. Details: orionwinesoftware.com.
Filtration equipment manufacturer Eaton unveiled the latest generation of its enzymes including Panzym YieldMASH as well as special bentoniteactivated charcoal for ultrafiltration and Cleargraf filter bags at the recent Drinktec trade show in Munich, Germany. Details: eaton.com.
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Faces& Forums
Wine Library Association Annual Tasting
of the Silverado Resort and Spa. Winemakers and staff from 75 Napa Valley wineries poured samples of current releases and special library wines for association members. The tasting followed an Aug. 10 winemakers seminar featuring several next-generation winemakers and industry professionals. Panel members included Angelina Mondavi, winemaker and co-owner of Dark Matter Wines; Danny Fay, director of brand management at Envolve Winery in Sonoma, Calif.; Jordan Kivelstadt, co-founder of the wine-on-tap firm Free Flow Wines in Napa; Maggie Pramuk, sales and marketing for Robert Biale Vineyards, and Tony Leonardini, winemaker with the BNA Wine Group. Chelsea Prince, author of Rock and Vine, moderated the panel discussion that explored industry issues from a younger perspective. Each of the panelists griped at the frustration of having to deal with the United States outdated, tedious and burdensome alcoholic beverage laws. Kivelstadt recounted his experience of flying to Tallahassee, Fla., as part of a lobbying effort to convince lawmakers there to pass a law allowing wine to be served on tap. The effort was successful, and wine kegs are now legal in Florida. Andrew Adams
all photos: TEPLIN NUSS
NEWSMAKERS
apa, Calif.The Napa Valley Wine Library Association held its 51st annual tasting Aug. 11 on the grounds
Jo Ann and Tony Truchard, owners of Truchard Vineyards, greet guests at the Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, Calif.
NVWLA board member Angelina Mondavi and her sister, Alycia Mondavi, unload bins to ice the white, ros and sparkling wines.
Tamra Lotz, assistant winemaker at Mumm Napa, offers the winerys sparkling selections.
Chelsea Prince, author of Rock & Vine, moderated a discussion about wine industry issues from the perspective of young professionals.
Lang + Reed winemaker John Skupny (right) opens bottles while his father, Bob, pours for guests at the tasting event.
Faces& Forums
Family Winemakers holds 23rd annual grand tasting
Charles Smith is the winemaker at SmithMadrone Vineyards & Winery, which he runs with his brother, vineyard manager Stu Smith. Luciana Souza Alves is assistant winemaker at J. Wilkes, which produces Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley.
NEWSMAKERS
A Family Affair In San Francisco
an Francisco, Calif.The inaugural Family Winemakers of California tasting in 1991 featured 46 wineries
pouring their wares. On Aug. 17-18 this year, more than 215 wineries participated in the 23rd annual event at Fort Mason in San Francisco, with at least 40 of them pouring for the first time. A larger number of wineries opted this year to offer wines for purchase at the tasting. These wineries were identified in the
all photos: kate lavin
program, and an icon on their signs alerted consumers that they had bottles for sale. Others indicated they were looking for distribution either in California or out of state.
Trey Fletcher is winemaker at Bien Nacido Vineyards, which is owned by a fifth-generation farming family in Santa Maria, Calif. Decades after starting work as a vineyard laborer in Napa, Mario Bazn, pictured with wife Gloria, started his own wine label: Mario Bazn Cellars.
Finally, the iSip Lounge was opened to wineries producing bottles that sell for more than $75. Wineries signed up for one-hour shifts in the iSip area, where between eight and 10 wineries were pouring at any one time. Extra tickets were required to access the lounge. As the voice for family-owned wineries in California, Family Winemakers focuses primarily on wineries producing less than 5,000 cases per year, although some larger producers participated in the grand tasting. Family Winemakers of California lobbies on behalf of its members for state policy issues. During the 2012-13 legislative session, the organization identified 51
Mary Rocca of Rocca Family Vineyards embodies the Family Winemakers concept: She is founder and vintner at the Napa winery.
Winemaker David Coventry represented Puma Road Winery, which participated in the grand tasting for the first time this year.
priority bills of interest to family-owned California wineries. Kate Lavin

C PO AV CEK R ASG TO IN RY G
Special Report
Bottles and labels

Editors note: This is the first Bottles and Labels Issue of Wines & Vines. The special report that starts here and continues for 14 pages recognizes that wine packaging is experiencing an extremely rapid period of change, and tries to help winery owners, marketers and operations people better understand how to capitalize on the changes.
Award-Winning Packaging, page 32 Optimizing Labels for Marketing Purposes, page 38 Guide to Packaging Suppliers, page 40 Experts dissect effective labels, page 42 Seminar explores Counterfeit protection, page 44
BOTTLES &LABELS
Best of the Bottles

We examine the elements of winning packaging
By Jane Firstenfeld
ine packaging plays an important role in the industry and in Wines & Vines editorial coverage, but this magazine does not normally rely on competitions for our reporting. Rather, we identify trends among our audience of winemakers and suppliers in order to share technologies and techniques that bring effective wine packages to the shelves. Earlier this year, the Beverage Testing Institute completed its most recent wine packaging judging. We followed up on their choices and spoke with the wineries that produced the most outstanding packages of 2012. The diversity of choices accurately reflects the options available to wineries of any size across the continent and beyond. Founded in 1981 with the objective of producing fair and impartial wine reviews for consumers, BTI has since branched out into the spirits and beer industries as well.
highlights
P lanning ahead, collaborating with suppliers and attention to detail are always key when adopting a new package. U se the entire 360 surface of a bottle to showcase your brand. T he lowly shipping case is also worthy of design attention. E ven older wineries can profit from fresh designs for new products.
The packaging adjudication began in 2004, according to Jerald OKennard, BTI director. We wrap up the year with the packaging competition, OKennard said. Instead of rating wines, were judging the books by their covers. As their last project for the year, the beverage testers sorted through an a collection of 50-60 standout packages they had accumulated throughout the year, OKennard explained. We flag those bottles as they come in, he said. The criteria include all kinds of packaging. This year, bottles claimed the top spots.
Historic winery adopts sexy new look
Founded in 1890, Meiers Wine Cellars in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the states oldest and largest winery, with distribution in 29 states. Almost shockingly modern, this is hardly your grannys wine label. Winner of BTIs
32 W in es & V i ne s O C TOb e r 20 13
COVER STORY
Best Bottle award, Meiers Sinful Sangria is encircled by graceful, scarlet-nailed hands in a sensuous, attention-grabbing grasp. The full-wrap effect is accomplished with a PVC-coated bottle, according to Mary Beth Dunn, exterior relations manager for Meiers. The material is PVC, steam-shrunk onto a glass bottle. This emulated the effect of a full bottle decoration. Sinful Sangria is a new brand developed after Meiers was acquired about two years ago by Luxco, a spirits specialist. Unfortunately neither company can measure how much impact the package has on sales. From a branding standpoint, Dunn said, Working with the entire surface area of a bottle allows one to tell a brand story in three dimensions. Im not saying this cannot be done with a single-face label, but being able to utilize more surface area on a bottle means you can expand the ways you reach your target consumer. From a manufacturing standpoint, being able to bypass conventional labeling allows us to bottle more and waste less, she added. Designing the package with Jeff Schmidt and Robert Jeffreys took about 10 months from inception to completion, Dunn said. Luxco had previous experience with this packaging technique, used on the Yago Sangria from its spirits division. We look at any way we can bring added value to a category. I feel that this method of labeling is inventive and fun, and would love to use it again, Dunn commented. Its not about the means, she said, as much as it is about branding and creating something completely different. Anchor Glass supplied the bottle; Belmark the shrink sleeve. The screwcap comes from G3. The sleeve is applied as a cylinder and then steam heated until it contours the bottle, Dunn said. The UV protective coating helps to preserve the wine, and the sleeve is made of 100% recyclable plastic. Meiers also shares this technology with private bottling clients through its Business Services division.
The full-wrap PVC decoration of Meiers Sinful Sangria (far left) snagged BTIs Best Bottle award, while Pomar Junction adopted a special package worthy of its exceptional late-harvest Viognier (above).
Dunn said of the packaging competition: The BTI program helps give visibility. We appreciate being recognized. Luxco/Meiers believes in best practices and learning from the rest of industry. Its a core competence. Sometimes you have to innovate.
Pomar Junctions boss look
cial, Merrill said, I was actually somewhat disappointed. This meant that I had to figure out a whole new label that would be different than the other label.
Pomar Junction Vineyard & Winery in the Paso Robles AVA of California is smaller (6,000 cases per Wines Vines Analytics) and younger (founded 2002) than Meiers, but already it has earned a big reputation. The winerys bottle for its 2010 Reserve Late Harvest Viognier took BTIs award for Best Embossed Label. While we expected to see an elaborate embossed paper label, BTI defines embossed differently: This is in fact a screen-printed bottle that reflects its $85 per 500ml bottle price. Co-designed by Denise McClean of Mode Communications and Pomar Junction managing partner Matt Merrill, it also employs a wrap-around effect. Merrill told BTI, We had heard from our winemaking team that they thought they had an exceptional late-harvest Viognier that needed to be separate from our regular late-harvest Viognier. I knew that I needed to have an exceptional silkscreened bottle to match the amazing wine. The wine recently earned Best in Class for the White Dessert Wines at the Central Coast Wine Competition. Of 94 cases originally produced, only 50 cases remain. Since it is such a special wine, we have not tried to sell this outside the tasting room. It is 95% sold through the tasting room, Merrill said. We have another lateharvest Viognier called Amber Moonlight. The only reason we have this wine is because the harvest crew started picking and leaving the botrytis-affected grapes out of the picking bins. So we told them we did indeed want to include those clusters. We processed the grapes separately and kept them separate throughout the entire process. Informed by the winemaker that the botrytis-infected wine was extremely spe-
There is no difference in label approval time (for screenprinting). You simply treat the image the way as you would a paper label.
Lisa Erlich, Purple Wine Co.
Packaging design is always time consuming. I wanted to create something that was as special as the wine, so I knew that it would take some time. I believe we had known around January of 2011 that we were going to bottle this lot with a different label, so I used that time to work on the label and let it evolve, Merrill recalled. He worked with McClean, former tasting room manager at Meridian Winery, who is conveniently keeping her hand in the industry in by working Thursdays in the Pomar Junction tasting room. If the tasting room was slow, I would go over ideas with her, and she would have something for me for the next week based on my input, Merrill said. Pomar Junction takes its name and branding image from its home base in Templeton, Calif., a historic railroad hub. My original idea was to have the train coming at you and wrap around the bottle. I wanted to utilize the possibilities of silk-screening the label, but Denise was having trouble making it happen and came up with having a train on the back that can be seen on the front, he said. Everything about the bottle evokes quality. We used different color inksblack, gray and a 22-karat gold. I thought the gold would help make it pop more and even reflect back some light, Merrill said. The bottle, imported from France by TricorBraun WinePak, is appropriately named Seduction. Adam Peltier of Peltier Glassworks did the screen printing and helped finish the artwork. The closure is, Merrill said, The highest grade cork that MA Silva produces for this wine and all of our reserve-level wines. This precisely designed package makes use of the cork to reinforce branding. The capsule is a wax treatment. We decided to get a gold that matched the gold
Win es & Vin es O C TO b er 20 13 33
COVER STORY
on the label. We liked how the clear bottle shows the artwork on our cork, so we hand dip the bottle so that part of the cork can still be seen, Merrill said. We have train tracks that wrap around the cork, along with some of our key terms for our brand.
Cryptic message
Another screen-printed bottle took the award for Graphic Design Embossed Label. Cryptic 2010 Red Wine, from Purple Wine Co. of Graton, Calif., is a classic design with a regal inspiration: The Cryptic wheel emblem printed in metallic gold was inspired by a cipher machine bearing the coat of arms of Frances King Henri II. The 15,000 cases of the original 2010 vintage hit the market in August 2012 and are already sold out. Were now into the 2011 vintage, said Lisa Ehrlich, vice president/marketing at Purple. Cryptics suggested retail price is $16 per bottle, all sold through Purples distributor network. We had a very strong response from the restaurant trade, Ehrlich said. Purple stoked the enthusiasm with a large format, 3-liter bottle for display, which helped spark curiosity. Purple produces more than 400,000 cases annually; Cryptic is one of more than a dozen distinct brands. Ehrlich discussed how the screen-print process differs from paper labeling, starting with the essential label approvals. There is no difference in label approval time. You simply treat the image the same way as you would a paper labelbut you do need to show an image of how the finished bottle will look. Weve had experience with this before, she said. It doesnt really take longer, in theory. The screen printers who work with the wine industry have excellent in-house designers who can translate a paper label concept to screenprinting. But I think it works best when the design comes from a place where you have screen printing in mind from the start.
Screen-printing tips from a pro

f a label costs 20-30 cents per bottle, that same design converted into a screen print could cost 35-60 cents per bottle, depending on the number of colors and type of inks, said Lisa Ehrlich, vice president/ marketing at Purple Wine Co. So the decorating cost can be 25%-50% more than a paper label. Since screen-printed bottles come to the bottling line ready to go, with no need for sometimes-tricky label Decorating costs can be 25%-50% more per application, the process does save bottle than traditional labels. money in production, Ehrlich pointed out, since the screen-printed bottles run faster and more efficiently on the bottling line. Ehrlich offered a few more considerations for those pondering a change. Screen printing requires more planning, is more time-sensitive and less flexible than a paper label. Its necessary to factor in additional lead timethree months ideallyensuring that the glass is purchased in time to allow the bottles to be printed before the bottling date. This pre-planning requires close collaboration with glass suppliers and coordinating delivery to the bottle decorators. In periods of high demand, the decorators may need more lead time. If wineries wait until the last minute, their production run might not happen in time, Ehrlich cautioned. Finally, there is limited flexibility. With a paper label, if you decide to bottle less or more wine than planned, you simply dont use the labelsor ask for an additional label run from the printer. With silkscreen, whatever number of bottles get printed are the number you have. If you dont have enough, youll need to scramble to get more glass decorated in time. If you have too much decorated glass, you have to discard it if its vintage dated.With all these factors to consider, the final decision is whether the impact of a silkscreen design outweighs the costs. For Cryptic, we knew from the start that screen printing was the way to go, Ehrlich concluded.
photo courtesy of bergin glass
J.F.
Working with Napas Bergin Glass Impressions, Cryptic was designed with screen printing in mind, Ehrlich said. Our team drew on the experience of our designer along with the skill of the in-house designer at Bergin to make the concept come to life. The package looks expensive for a moderately priced wine, and thats not just dazzle from the 24-karat gold ink. Indeed, it costs more to produce a screen printed bottle than a paper label, Ehrlich explained. Ehrlich said that flamingo red was the color of the year, but she
and her collaborator, Paul Morales of San Francisco, Calif.-based Onyx Design, chose the name blood-orange for their blazing polylaminate capsule from Maverick in Ukiah, Calif.
Divining design
BTI did not overlook more traditional labels in its decision process. The Divining Rod 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, a new label from Napas venerable C. Mondavi & Family, combines quirky and traditional, earning the Creativity Gold award for paper labels. We needed a label that was unlike any other, said Elaine Mellis, director of public
The packaging on Purple Wine Co.s Cryptic 2010 red blend elicited a strong response from the restaurant trade.
2012 G3 Enterprises, Modesto, CA. All rights reserved.
Tr a n
sp
or
tat
ion
PACKAGING
relations. It needed to communicate the magic, mystery and history of water witching. It needed to grab consumers attention and inspire them to ask, whats the story? We wished to open a dialogue with consumers and begin telling that story. With her first design for C. Mondavi, Chanda Williams perfectly hit the requirements, Mellis said. For this new brand, the process started about six months prior to bottling. For the first vintage of some 17,000 cases, (retailing at $15.99 for Chardonnay; $17.99 for Cabernet) a neck-hanger tag carried a quick response (QR) code on the label. Future bottlings will include the QR on the back label, directing purchasers to C. Mondavis mobile site, which continues to evolve with the brand story. The face stock is an aged-looking Liso Crudo, applied with cold glue. Again, planning ahead was vital. Because the labels were to be sheet fed, the Technikote had to order special from Argentina so that it would not have the pressure-sensitive material on the back of the paper. This required a much longer timeline to receive the paper, Mellis recalled. Ben Franklin (now Tapp) handled the special order and printed the labels.
A foreign affair
Covering the North American wine industry is a full-time endeavor for Wines & Vines, so its rare that imported brands make it to our pages. BTI, however, gave its gold in Best Paper Label design to Indaba 2012 Chenin Blanc from South Africa, so we contacted Courtney Luick, communications manager at Cape Classics in New York, for the backstory. Indabas Chenin Blanc is a simple looking bottle with a screwcap. The whole line retails in the U.S. and Canada for $11.99 per bottle. The package is representative of Indabas 2012 rebranding. At the core, the Indaba brand is proudly South African, Luick said. Cape Classics set out to design a package that echoes that sentiment. The new brand design is reflective of the rich diversity of the Western Capes floral kingdom: The smallest, yet most diverse of the six plant kingdoms in the world. The colors chosen for the varieties are based on what you see in the Cape: slightly muted hues, the way the light falls on the mountains, that sun-faded effect caused by the strength of the African sun. BTIs OKennard noted that the judging panel was impressed by the packages
sustainability. Luick commented: The new brand image also draws on the regions commitment to sustainability. As recycling is a social priority in South Africa, we selected recycled and biodegradableas well as pH-neutral (acidfree)paper. We also decided to use minimal coloring, and the bottles are screwcap. The Indaba brand launched in the United States in 1996, shortly after South Africa transitioned to a democratic republic. Indaba is the
C. Mondavi wanted to communicate the process of water witching with its label for The Divining Rod (above). South African winery Indaba adopted colors found in the landscape of its native country for the awardwinning label at left.
36 W in e s & V i ne s O C TOb e r 20 13
PACKAGING
Zulu word for a meeting of the minds, or a traditional gathering of tribal leaders for sharing ideas. According to its website, The brand was created as a celebration of the democratization process in South Africa, and from its inception the wines have conveyed the spirit of South Africa to American consumers.
Best-case scenario
A far cry from traditional kraft paper or white boxes, cases of Cecchetti Wine Co.s Austerity are works of art in themselves.
An essential component of the wineselling process, wine shipper cartons rarely are recognized in packaging competitions, but BTI bought the case for Cecchetti Wine Co.s Austerity 2011 Proprietary Red brand. Most notably, despite the name, this is not a stripped-down brown cardboard carton. Rather, its a sleek black package with gold stamping (obviously, BTI is attracted to shiny things). According to BTI, president/ owner Roy Cecchetti challenged CF Napa Brand Design with his concept: Create a new wine brand named Austerity that looks like a million bucks, tastes like a million bucks but doesnt cost a million bucks. He wanted a package that was the antithesis of the name itself. These wines had to
look and feel as if they would deliver luxurious taste at a modest price. The tag line, Wines of the highest discipline, promises wines of a value far beyond their affordable price tag. Dave Schuemann at CF Napa also created the complementary bottle. Cecchetti bottled 5,400 cases of Austerity, retailing at $16.99. Printed directly on a corrugated cardboard box with a state-of-the-art press, Cecchetti said, The printing application allows the
fine detail of the logo to be well defined on a black background. Cecchetti already is using a similar process for his Exitus brand, he said. Although its more expensive than a generic case shipper, he noted, In todays highly competitive wine market, you need to get on the floor for brand awareness and to increase sales. A branded shipper with attractive artwork will compel the wholesaler/retailer to display the wines on the floor. Whether a century-old winery or totally new brand, just as wine changes with every vintage, packaging evolves with technology and the market. Consumers eyes are drawn to new concepts. A packaging award may not increase your sales or your price-point, but a refreshed look may indeed bring in new buyers. The deadline for BTIs 2013 packaging competition is Dec. 1, 2013. Contact BTI for details.
Visit our new webpage!
PACKAGING
Message on a Bottle
How to optimize your label to build relationships with consumers
By Toni Hamilton-Edwards
BOTTLES &LABELS
ith a growing number of wine brands crowding the shelves, small wineries can find it challenging to make their products stand out. As the age profile of wine consumers changes, and their shopping methodology evolves to be more information-based, how can your small winery engage with consumers and begin to build lasting brand relationships with minimal expenditure? The No. 1 tool is right in front you: your wine label. As the director of marketing at ASL PrintFX, I try to collaborate with clients early in the concept stage. One of the main reasons is to ensure our clients are optimizing their labels: Do our clients labels differentiate them from the competitive set? Do they speak to their brand identity? Do they engage with their consumers? Are they going to increase sales and build a solid consumer base? Your label is the reason that you will sell your first bottle to a consumer; your wine is the reason they will buy a second. Your label should be treated as your billboard. You have about five seconds to grab a consumers attention and convince them to pick up your bottle. There are several innovative ways to leverage the space on your wine label, so you can start to increase your brand recall and build that relationship.
One option to investigate is a peel-away or label-on-label feature. It is a great way to increase brand retention and initiate engagement. This hidden feature can be used to drive consumers to a mobile website; it can show food-pairing ideas, promote other varietals or even include a special promo code with access to pre-buying for new releases. The peel-away label can be treated like a business card: a smaller, more efficient way for a consumer to recall that special bottle of wine enjoyed at a restaurant. Customers can easily place the peel-away portion into their pocket instead of having to write down the brand, vintage and varietal. Ensure continuity with all your varietals and update the information on the peel-away label regularly. It may become a mini flyer that your consumers look for. Also, if you include a peel-away label, make sure you include a call to action or reason for someone to peel it back, such as Look behind the label for information about or Peel back for an exclusive chance to A great example of a peel-away label is one used by Cline Cellars in Sonoma, Calif. They have an extra panel that provides recipes from restaurants that serve their wines by the glass. Cline also includes information about their farming practicessolar power, soil
Cline Cellars peel-away label features an extra panel printed with recipes from restaurants that offer their wines by the glass.
highlights
Wineries have several innovative ways to leverage the space on their wine labels so they can increase brand recall and build relationships with consumers. P eel-away features and QR codes are excellent options that enable two-way conversations with consumers. Its important to track the results of marketing activity sparked by your label, including the number of people responding and the amount of time they are spending with your brand.
enrichment with crushed volcanic rock and oyster shells, and the employment of sheep and goats to graze weeds in the vineyards. Some wineries will use the tear-away label to increase brand recall with consumers who have enjoyed the wine outside their home (such as the Durbanville Hills label shown below). They have a small peel-back label that consumers can keep, and which acts as a business card displaying their website and phone number. Work with your designer and label printer early in the concept stage to achieve the
The peel-back label on Durbanville Hills bottles acts as a business card consumers can keep to help them remember the wine.
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most efficient way of incorporating this feature with your current design. Another option to initiate consumer engagement is to make your wine label interactive. Include a quick response (QR) code; 49% of millenials (the emerging wine customer born in the early 1980s to 1990s) who see QR codes will scan them. If you choose to include a QR code, make sure you have the resources (both staff and technology) to properly support this two-way communication. There are some key tips to ensure success:
Ensure it has a purpose. Build a strategy and content plan when implementing the QR code. How often will the content be updated? What reason does a consumer have for scanning the code? The QR code needs to be a quick connection to exclusive information that has an immediate payoff.
Dont send consumers to a desktop site. Ensure your site is up to date and mobilize your landing page.
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Make sure your code is large enough and in a convenient location on your wine label to scan. Placing the code on the inside of the bottle wont help. The minimum size of a QR code should be one square inch.
tising. When a customer scans the codes Keep your URL short. The more informaeither from their ad or the wine bottle, they tion your code is trying to relay and the are provided with more information about more dots on the code, the that particular advertiseharder it is for smartphones ment or varietalwhether it to read. is the latest award received Give your consumer a reaor upcoming events at the son to scan. As with the peelwinery. away label, ensure your QR QR codes can also be code has a call to action, or placed on event flyers or ads reason, beside the code. For to help direct consumers to example, for information register to attend. Rememabout the best food pairber: A QR code alone isnt ings or, for exclusive going to get people to want discounts on your next to register. Make sure to propurchase vide enough content about When your QR code is the event (text and visual) on done, test, test, test. You your flyers and give people would assume once coman incentive to sign up. You pleted your QR code should can also use QR codes to Australian winery Jacobs be up and running. Wrong. direct people to easily sign Creek proves that QR codes Test your code with differup to receive your newsletdont have to adhere to a ent phones, using different ters. The code can be set up boring box shape. applications, different proto scan and take them viders, different angles and directly to be added to your different distances. Ensure that the code mailing list. works consistently. Its important the code Now that youve incorporated your label is easily accessible always. on label and/or your QR code, the last QR codes can be built into your initial important piece is to track your results. Its design or can be applied later by making a important to track the results of all your smaller sticker. Your label printer can help marketing activity so you can ensure your you create this code and work with you to budget is spent effectively in growing your ensure success. Your QR code can take on brand. Each of your activities can have a interesting shapes such as the unique URL code, thus tracking back to Jacobs Creek label (above right). how your consumer started their engageOne winery has fully embraced ment with your brand. Success can be meaQR codes in a majority of their sured in two waysthe number of people activity. Ospreys Dominion Vinewho are responding to your activity yards in Peconic, N.Y., worked (response rate) and the amount of time they with Pitney Bowes and their Smart are spending engaged with your brand. Codes. Peter Carey from Ospreys Make a list of what to track: who scans, Dominion implemented QR codes how often, when, where, what happens after to be ahead of the curve. They the scan and so forth. Be sure to work with have included QR codes on their your website provider when developing the wine labels and within their adverQR codes, as they will be able to provide the results of activity. So leverage your wine label and engage with your consumers. Romance copy and descriptions of your production are still essential, but these options give you more opportunities to have two-way conversations and provide insights into how your consumers think.
Things to do
Scanning the QR code on Ospreys Dominion labels and advertisements takes users to the winerys website, where consumers can buy wine or find local retailers that carry their products.
Toni Hamilton-Edwards has 10 years of marketing experience with some of the worlds leading alcoholic beverage companies such as Diageo and Constellation. She is the director of marketing at ASL Print FX, where she collaborates with clients to provide the best marketing solutions for their brands.
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Packaging Suppliers
Company Name
ASL Print FX All American Containers - Pacific Coast All American Containers The Anchor Hocking Co. APHOLOS Metal Labels & Closures Art on Wine by Sugarman Design Arton Products ArtWorks & Marketing Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials Baldwin Press Baltimore Glassware Decorators Bastos Belmark Bennu Glass Bennu Glass by Rich Xiberta USA Bergin Glass Impressions The Bottle Meister Brewmaster Brick Packaging Britton Design Bruni Glass Packaging By The Light of The Moon Design Carolina Wine Supply CF Napa Brand Design Chanda Williams Design Classic Impressions Collotype Labels Crush Creative Packaging Dan Mills Productions Diablo Valley Packaging Digital Dogma Corp. Dispensa-Matic Label Dispensers Elite Label by GM Nameplate Encore Glass Etched Images 4Parts Design G3 Enterprises Global Discoveries Global Package Government Liaison Services Halsey Bottling Hauser Packaging Hemlock Printers (USA) Huffman Communications KapStone Container Corp. (formerly Longview Fibre Co.) GW Kent Label Gallery Label Solutions
BOTTLES &LABELS
Custom Labeling Service
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aslprintfx.com aacwine.com aacwine.com anchorhocking.com metal-labels.com sugarmandesigngroup.com artonproducts.com artworksandmarketing.com enhanceyourbrand.com baldwinpress.net bgdecorators.com bastosllc.com belmark.com bennuglass.com xiberta.com berginglass.com thebottlemeister.com brewmasterinc.com brickpackaging.com brittondesign.com bruniglass.com by-moonlight.com carolinawinesupply.com cfnapa.com chandawilliamsdesign.com classicimpressionsco.com collotype.com crushcreativepackaging.com danmills.com dvpackaging.com digitaldogmaslo.com dispensamatic.com elitelabel.com encoreglass.com etchedimages.com 4partsdesign.com g3enterprises.com globaldiscoveries.net globalpackage.net trademarkinfo.com halseybottling.com hauserpack.com hemlock.com hcnapa.com kapstonepaper.com gwkent.com labelgallery.net labelsolutions.net
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For more information about packaging suppliers, see Wines & Vines 2013 Buyers Guide in print or online at winesandvinesbuyersguide.com. Custom Labeling Service
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Label World Labeltronix Loggerhead Deco MA Silva USA MALA Closures Systems MacDay Label Systems Markem-Imaje Business Group Maverick Enterprises McDowell Label & Screen Printing McMillan Design Group Mode Communications Monvera Glass Dcor Napa Fermentation Supplies O-I (Owens-Illinois) Onyx Design PakSource Paragon Label Peltier Glassworks Phoenix Packaging International Corp. Presque Isle Wine Cellars Primera Technology Pitney Bowes QuickLabel Systems Rich Xiberta USA Robert Jeffreys Ryan Mobile Bottling Saverglass Saxco International Signature Mobile Bottlers Spirited Shipper Stanpac Sterling Creativeworks Synergy Glass & Packaging Tapp Label Technologies Technicote Top It Off Bottling TricorBraun TricorBraun WinePak TriStudios UPM Raflatac Verallia Vintage 99 Label Vitro Packaging WS Packaging Group Waterloo Container Co. Watermark Labels West Coast Bottles Wine Appreciation Guild Wine Packaging by Naylor World Wine Bottles & Packaging Wright Global Graphics
Website
labelworldusa.com labeltronix.com loggerheaddeco.com masilva.com mala-usa.com macday.ca markem-imaje.us maverickcaps.com mcdowelllabel.com mcmillandesigngroup.com modecommunications.com monvera.com napafermentation.com o-i.com onyxdesignsf.com paksource.com paragonlabel.com peltierglassworks.com phoenixpackaging.com piwine.com primeralabel.com pb.com/smb/qr-codes quicklabel.com/wine xiberta.com robert-jeffreys.com ryanmobilebottling.com saverglass.com saxco.com signaturebottlers.com spiritedshipper.com stanpacnet.com sterlingcreativeworks.com synergygp.com tapplabel.com technicote.com topitoffbottling.com tricorbraun.com tricorbraunwinepak.com tri-studios.com upmraflatac.com us.verallia.com vintage99.com vitropackaging.com wspackaging.com waterloocontainer.com watermarklabels.com westcoastbottles.com wineappreciation.com naylorpackaging.com worldwinebottles.com wrightlabels.com
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Experts Dissect Effective Labels

Digital conference explores design, planning, materials and the current market
By Jane Firstenfeld
BOTTLES &LABELS
highlights
The proliferation of wine brands means competition is fierceboth for shelf space and buyers. Millennials buy lots of wine, but they shop differently than baby boomers. A clear idea of your market is essential. New materials and printing techniques offer limitless opportunities for standout label design. Dont rush into rebranding or relabeling your product. Take the time to collaborate with all concerned to maximize impact and minimize costs.
abels & Labeling Maga zine assembled a diverse professional panel recently to con-
duct a digital conference focused on the North American wine industry. The agenda, moderated by Labels & Labeling North America editor Danielle
Jerschefske, included the industrys continued strong growth, buying patterns of baby boomer vs. millennial consumers, the intricacies of planning and producing effective labels and improving technology and materials.
Wines & Vines editor Jim Gordon set the stage during the live June 18 web seminar by presenting data demonstrating the recession-defying steady growth of the U.S./Canadian wine industries during the past decade. Driven by increased sales and consumption, and fueled by the proliferation of wineries and brands across the continent, growth of the market means that packaging wines for instant shelf-appeal is vital. The U.S. is now the No. 1 market in the world, and it is a target for imports, Gordon said. This sets the stage for great packaging and labels. More impressive than the market growth is the growth of U.S. wineries, which took off after the millennium, even faster than sales. Our data shows more than 7,558 wineries (including brick and mortar and virtual wineries) in the United States, and 529 total wineries in Canada. Many of these wineries have more than one wine brand, amounting to an additional 3,150 extra brands in all.
Its a lot of competition. There has never been as exciting a creative explosion of unusual names and labels, Gordon said, citing IRIs Top 10 New Brands of 2012: Skinny Girl, Be, Bella Bolle, Acronym, Maron, Fancy Pants, Thorny Rose, Wine Sisterhood, Flirt and Ooh La La. Wineries typically used to be named for trees, ridges, mountains and chateaux, Gordon said. Newer brands, though, succeed with quirky, humorous names designed to capture the eyes, interest and abundant dollars of younger buyers.
Reeling them in
Toni Hamilton-Edwards, director of marketing for ASL PrintFX, said that with all the competition, wine labels must be striking. The label is your billboard. Consumers shop with their eyes first. Label printers and designers must partner with wineries to optimize sales. Consumers, she stated, will buy their first bottle because of the label. Whats inside will sell the second bottle. On a store shelf, you have just three seconds to grab a buyers attention. The package must reflect the wine and its selling points; it must reflect the personality of your winery and be something youre proud of. Appealing to buyers across generations, HamiltonEdwards said, is a fine line to walk. Millennials, she pointed out, shop differently from baby boomers. Boomers need legible typography with larger fonts. Light colors printed on dark bottles can be difficult to read. Go to the store as a consumer, Hamilton-Edwards suggested. Forget about the juice inside: What makes the label pop on the shelf?
JIM GORDON: There has never been as exciting a creative explosion of unusual names and labels.
While boomers with fading eyesight are drawn to large type, Millennials put more value on fun: quirky humor, interesting names, bold bright colors, unique shapes. Make it memorable and fun, Hamilton-Edwards stressed. They prefer more modern design: large, bold type, unique pictures. They wont pick up chateaux. Add personality. The emergence, speed and convenience of digital printing make that process great for low-volume labels, she said. There is no one best type of printing;
Mysteriums sophisticated packaging was designed to appeal to patrons of night clubs, where its name glows under black light.
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each has its benefits. Collaborate with your printers to get the right process, or combination of processes. Hamilton-Edwards described current options for standout labels such as embossing or debossing to create 3D effects with a premium look. Remember to leave enough space between the letters for embossed printing, she said. Die cutting produces unusual shapes for labels, or transparent windows where the wine peeks through. Foils provide metallic highlights; holographic patterns are alluring to the eye and still rare. Varnish can provide protection or draw attention with spot varnish, matte or gloss. We now can do all the technology in one pass rather than multiple printing passes, Hamilton-Edwards said. You dont need to use all of them, though. Label-on-label or peel-away label addons can suggest action, food pairing or offer promotion codes. (See the related article by Hamilton-Edwards on page 38). Forty-nine percent of millennials will scan a QR code if they see one. Hamilton-Edwards cautioned, however, If you decide to use QR coding on your labels, make sure you have the resources to support it. It provides an immediate payoff.Make sure to mobilize your landing page; make it valuable. Most commonly seen on back labels, QR codes can be used as an integral part of the package design.
View video in the Wines & Vines Digital Edition. Watch these wine industry and design professionals share the best and worst of wine packaging.
toni hamiltonedwards: If you decide to use QR coding on your labels, make sure you have the resources to support it.
upgrade wet-strength face stocks suited for white wines and sparkling bottles; adhesives for removable labels and special PS materials providing the security of tamper evidence. Avery Dennisons Aquastick range is especially adapted for application on chilled bottles of sparkling wines. PS labels are, Rampala said, easy to set up and maintain on the bottling line; more user friendly to bottling line operators. Some PS labels are now mounted on PET liner rolls, arguably more sustainable than traditional paper rolls because of reduced greenhouse gas emissions, water use, waste footprint and use of trees in their production, Rampala said. On the other hand, one of the freshest ideas from Avery Dennison is a label faced with genuine wood veneers instead of paper. Thin layers of birch and cherry wood, uniquely grained, add a novel look and texture. The labels can be stained or charred, and can be top-coated for compatibility with flexo- or digital printing processes.
Didulka recommended starting the process with a brief defining the projects parameters and scope and the story behind the label. This collaborative effort between the brand owner and the design team will build a solid foundation. This should include, among other things, a category review of comparably priced brands, definition of the audience, reflection of the companys portfolio, philosophy, values and business objectives.
Thin layers of birch and cherry wood can be stained and used as facestock for wine labels.
After the brief is finalized and approved, she said, the design process continues in four key stages: Concept presentation: Make sure the concept answers the brief. Make sure it delivers. This can be costly, requiring clarity and buy in from all parties. Preproduction meeting: A must, involving the printer, design team and owners. Review the file, make sure the design aligns with the printers capabilities. Test it, or it will cost more. Design requirements: Check them all. Test the drawdowns; test the labels before running the labels. Foil and varnishes will not be replicated in this step. Press approval of the final label: Your last chance to make slight adjustments. Invest in time, Dudulka recommended. A clearly defined process is integral to success.
Word from a winery PS: Stuck on your bottle

Label stocks arent just paper anymore. Matt Rampala, wine and spirits business development manager for Avery Dennison Label & Packaging Materials, North America, described recent advances in pressure-sensitive (PS) labels offering ease of application and countless design opportunities for wineries. PS labels, he explained, are material sandwiches assembled of the face stock, a self-contained glue adhesive and a liner to protect the individual labels on their rolls. Their advantages: shelf appeal and impact, serving as a canvas for visual effects; textured papers to provide distinct visual, tactile and sensory effects; subsurface printing for striking no label designs and varied label shapes. Label manufacturers continue to Catherine Didulka, director of creative services for Constellation Brands Canada, stated, Labels play a critical role in the success of a wine product. How does your label break through? Knowing the process can help to give your label confidence. Color, texture, brand and shape are significant elements to make the connection harmonious and deliver the right information. For Constellation, and wineries of any size, collaboration and planning are essential. Design is not a mysterious ritual, Didulka said. It means the structure and organization of visual information to aid in communication and orientation using words, symbols and images. The role of design in business is to address the needs of consumers and visually express the values and beliefs of the business.
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catherine Didulka: The role of design in business is to address the needs of consumers and visually express the values and beliefs of the business.
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Protecting Your Reputation

By Kate Lavin
BOTTLES &LABELS
Wines & Vines and Napa Valley Vintners co-host Wine Anti-Counterfeiting Seminar
hen it comes to tracking down fake bottles of alcoholic beverages, David Gooder says the challenge is like pulling weeds in a garden. Turn your attention to one corner, the chairman of the International Federation of Spirits Producers (IFSP) contends, and more interlopers will spring up behind you. Gooder was one of several speakers featured at the first Wine Anti-Counterfeiting Seminar (WACS) that Wines & Vines and the Napa Valley Vintners hosted at the Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa, Calif., in August. And while he told the audience of 108 attendees that the job of tracing fakes is never-ending, that doesnt mean companies should ever stop working to protect their brands. According to Gooder, who also serves as managing director and chief trademark counsel for Jack Daniels Properties/BrownForman Corp., the spirits industry has been fighting counterfeiting for about 15 years. Many kinds of fraud take place in the beverage industry, he says, from on-premise substitution (a customer ordersand pays fora glass of one brand and is presented with another, cheaper version), to refilling
(a genuine bottle is refilled with another product and then resealed) to all-out fakes. Refilling is far and away the biggest issue, adds Gooder, who theorizes that copycats opt into counterfeiting alcoholic drinks because its profitable and not complicated. But for a winery with a brand to protect, every counterfeit bottle represents potential erosion of confidence in that label. Weve seen entire brands literally tank in a country, Gooder says. The Rothschild example is a good one: (Its said that)more Lafite sells in China than is produced in France.
The French paradox
Wines made in China but emblazoned Valley Napa prompted the Napa Valley Vintners to take legal action that would help protect the reputation of Californias Napa Valley.
example of wines selling in China emblaUntil recently wine counterfeiters in China zoned Panfaids with the same red script and elsewhere targeted first-growth Borused by Australian winery Penfolds. Meandeaux with an almost sinwhile, the front label on a gular focus, but as the bottle found in a Beijing international marketplace supermarket proclaims has opened up, so has the Valley Napa, while the business of wine fraud. back label explains the Scott Gerien, who wine inside is produced in heads the Intellectual northwest China. 1 08 participants Property Department at COFCO, the largest stateattended the inaugural Napa-based law firm owned food company in Wine Anti-Counterfeiting Dickenson Peatman & China, registered the desigSeminar in Napa, Calif. Fogarty, points to the nation Nava Valley for
highlights
O ne expert from the spirits industry, which is years ahead in terms of protecting brands, claims the refilling of bottles is the biggest threat. T he first person to register a brand in China is entitled to protection, whether it is their brand or not.
Wines & Vines editor Jim Gordon (from right) introduces speakers during the inaugural Wine Anti-Counterfeiting Seminar including Marietta Bartoletti, J. Scott Gerien and David Gooder.
PACKAGING
wine, though historically the places name (Penglai) bears no resemblance to the phrase. Geriens legal team challenged the registration but was unsuccessful. The need for protection prompted the Napa Valley Vintners to have Gerien register the Napa Valley appellation as a geographical indicator with the AQSIQ, the Chinese agency charged with accreditation, import inspection and food safety.
Defensively register your mark
countries, and the Chinese Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau are not included.
Outsmarting the counterfeiters
For individual wineries looking to protect their names, Gerien says companies dont have to be exporting wine to China in order to register for a trademark there. You can defensively register your mark, he says. Gerien encourages clients looking to enter the Chinese market in the next three years to apply for protection now, before trademark poachers register their brands first. Who ever gets to the trademark office first will get to protect the rights, Gerien says.If youre selling wine in the Chinese market, and you dont have a trademark registered there, youre not protected. In fact, if someone registers your brand before you do, that person can sue you for selling your own wine. This process is employed by Chinese wine distributors to hold U.S. wineries captive; by owning the trademark for a wine brand, distributors are able to ensure that all of the brands distribution in China happens through them or not at all. Wineries that already hold a registered trademark in the United States are eligible to apply for international trademark registration through the Madrid Protocol (China is among the member countries). The caveats, Gerien says, are that the cost makes it worthwhile only for wineries looking for brand protection in three or more member
According to Marietta Bartoletti, senior economic/commercial officer for the U.S. Department of State, 75% of counterfeits come from China. I do believe the Chinese government wants to get away from being known as the counterfeit capital, Bertoletti says. If you know that a certain wine is not available there, and you see it, you could report it right away. For David Pearson, CEO of Opus One Winery and one of the speakers at WACS, the fight against counterfeiters has been not so much against exact duplicates but near misses. A restaurant and wine bar in Thailand called Shala One offers a house wine with a label undeniably similar to the one used by Opus One, which has been using the label design since the 1980s. Both feature blue profiles printed on white paper and feature signatures underneath, although comically, the profile that adorns Shala Ones label appears more like Alfred E. Neuman from Mad magazine than it does Robert Mondavi or Baron Philippe de Rothschild. The problem with such cases, Pearson says, is that inaccuracies on copycat labels make a trademark infringement claim difficult to litigate. We cant trademark a silhouette, we cant trademark a squiggly line, and we cant trademark a signature, says Pearson, who adds that when such imitations arise he consults a trademark attorney and weighs the possibility of winning vs. the money that would be spent bringing the case to court. Often, he says, a strongly worded letter encouraging a label makeover proves sufficient. Of course sending such a letter requires tracking down the party responsible for producing the wine, and according to Pearson copycats make the ownership structure intentionally difficult to navigate.
Using technology
In addition to QR codes, Opus One embeds technology in its back label and uses custom light-sensitive ink on its capsules.
We can track a bottle from winery to destination as long as its being scanned. We know it passed through distributors, ngoiants, Pearson says. If the final owner scans the bottle with an Internet-enabled device, Opus One winemaker Michael Silacci appears on video discussing the vintage of the newly purchased wine. We get to connect instantly with the consumer, to a person who wants to talk to us, Pearson says.
Playing it close to the chest
Napa Valleys Opus One has identified international counterfeiting and replication attempts such as this comical likeness Shala One from Thailand.
For brands with costly wines like Opus One, ensuring that bottles end up in consumers hands unadulterated is worth an investment. The winery uses anti-counterfeiting technology as both a visible way to communicate the bottles authenticity to consumers (the back label contains a chip as well as a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone) as well as a vehicle to track bottles after they leave the winery. Every time a bottle is scanned, the location is relayed to a server at Opus One.
Opus One employs other anti-counterfeiting protection technologies, but Maureen Downey, founder of private wine collection management firm Chai Consulting, emphasizes the value in keeping such details secret. When you disseminate information about what you are doing, she says, youre just giving (counterfeiters) a road map. Having spent a career uncovering counterfeit bottles from high-end wine collections and verifying the provenance of legitimate wines, Downey says, Anything you can do to make sure that capsules dont get re-used is great. Many French wine exporters have been campaigning for restaurants to break the bottles after use so they cannot be refilled. Downey also advocated the use of layered technologies that combine low-tech solutions such as unique glass and keeping track of wine lots with high-tech tools. According to Erik Harvey, project manager at Napa-based iProof, You have to think about the cost (of anti-counterfeiting technology) and the reduction of actual risk that you have. Most of the exhibitors in attendance agreed that solutions can range from 2 cents to 30 cents per bottle, plus additional expense for the software and data storage. And simply packaging with anti-counterfeit technology isnt enough, Downey says. Ask customers and members of the distribution channel to be part of the solution. According to Philippe Mathevon of Advanced Track & Trace, You really need to encourage the consumer to scan the code.
WINEMAKING
TECHNICAL REVIEW
A Winery With Personality

Former restaurateur Doug Margerum outfits a Santa Barbara warehouse
By Tim Patterson
all photos courtesy margerum wine co.
The people behind Margerum Wine Co. include (back row, from left) Travis Enholm (harvest intern), Sam Smith (cellar hand), Christina Panameno (office manager), Doug Margerum (owner), Jason Barrette (winemaker), Hugh Margerum (web/wine club), Michael Miroballi (assistant winemaker); (front row) Evan Margerum (Doug s son) and Brooks Van Wingerden (general manager).
ou can take the restaurateur out of the kitchen, but you cant take the kitchen out of the restaurateur. When Doug Margerum, former owner and impresario of Santa Barbara, Calif.s high-end, vinocentric Wine Cask restaurant, finally got the chance to design his own winery, the part he worried most about was making sure it had a kitchen. The winery shell is a
generic warehouse space in a generic warehouse park, as boxy as the day is long, with no vineyards in sight, on a street with the picturesque name Industrial Way. But when it was retrofitted a little over a year ago as the new production facility for the Margerum Wine Co., a small but serviceable kitchen got priority treatment, turning out daily staff lunches that bond the operation together. Its a practice Margerum learned from one of
Highlights
M argerum Wine Co. in Buellton, Calif., in the Santa Ynez Valley, runs a complicated, multi-label operation inside a no-frills warehouse space. T he facility turns out more than 10,000 cases of wine per year for three labels, along with several small side projects. T he keys to making this work are strong temperature control and plenty of small, variable-capacity tanks.
his winemaking mentors, Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat, and one that traces back to the vignerons of Burgundy. Despite the address, the approach to winemaking is anything but industrial, offering a long roster of well-regarded small-batch wines. Warehouse wineries may lack the architectural pizzazz and high-tech bells and whistles of fancier places, but its still possible to give a barebones operation its own personality. Tanks are tanks and barrels are barrels, but a place that offers hot meals for visiting trade members and journalists? Now thats my kind of winery.
Moving into the business and the winery
What got Margerum out of the restaurant industry and into the wine business was seeing up close that the Santa Barbara winemakers whose wines were prominently featured at the Wine Cask were having more fun than he was. So as he transitioned from home winemaking to trial production to 20,000 cases in 2012, his network of relationships meant he had ready access to some of the best vineyards
wW in IN eE mM aAk KiI n Ng G
in the area. I could go to someone like Steve Beckmen, who owns Purisima Vineyard (a source of premium Rhone variety wine grapes) and say, I want that row and that row and that row, and hed say, Sure. I still have those contracts. Im not a farmer. Margerum does own and farm a small vineyard near Klickitat, Wash., which yields some fruit for the winery, but he describes that project as mainly a labor of love. The new facility comes after six years of making wine in some spare space at the Curtis Winery in Los Olivos, Calif. As Curtis grew and Margerum grew and got more complicated, an entirely amicable move was in order. Margerum took what had been the companys case good storage space in a Buellton, Calif., warehouse park and made it into the new winery, turning the former guest room into the kitchen. Another space in the same complex became available for case goods; the offices, which had been on the property where Margerum lived in Happy Canyon, moved to the winery, as did the production Margerum oversees for Happy Canyon Vineyards. And Doug Margerum moved himself to Montecito, Calif., in the hills above Santa Barbara. This elaborate shuffle came, naturally, just on the cusp of harvest time in 2012. Both of the 5,500-square-foot spaces already had some cooling capacity in place, but upgrades were part of moving into the new configuration. Flooring also had to be re-engineered to hold the
weight of Margerums two largest (17,000-liter) tanks. Some new production equipment was picked up at the same time, including a Della Toffola press, a new forklift and several new tanks. The humble Buellton facility houses what has become a quite complex operation, one reason Margerum brought in Aussie winemaker Jason Barrette (with credentials from Penfolds) with the 2010 harvest. The core Margerum label focuses on Rhone reds and blends as well as Sauvignon Blanc, but it also turns out small lots of Pinot Gris, Riesling, Chenin
almost every grape and a total of 300 tons, the total case output was above 20,000but that, Margerum says, is not the plan. The normal targets are more like 6,000 cases for Margerum, 3,200 for Happy Canyon and 2,000 for Centanni. No one is talking about making fewer wines, just smaller lots, leaving this still a very intricate undertaking.
Moving grapes through their paces
The one constant thread that runs through the entire workflow at Margerum Wine Co. is temperature control:
I like ambient temperature winemaking, (though) we do burn a fair amount of electricity in the summer.
Doug Margerum
Blanc and two ross. Wines produced for the Happy Canyon Vineyard include several Bordeaux reds and blends and a Sauvignon Blanc. For Centanni, a highend Italian project in which Margerum is a partner, there are two reds and a white. And then theres an Amaro, an Italianstyle fortified herbal digestif and a lot of one-off custom projects. The Margerum website, which boasts all the wines for sale, currently lists 30 offerings23 of them under the Margerum labeland that doesnt count things that are sold out or not yet released. In 2012, with bountiful harvests of keeping things quite cool, from harvest to case goods storage. One part of the production area is kept at 45 for ambient temperature winemaking, the other at 55 for maturation. The lowered temperatures slow down wine kinetics and help maintain some level of CO2 in many of the wines, something Margerum wants. I like ambient temperature winemaking, he says; Its more natural, tanks can get cold spots, and dry ice can burn grapes. He admits, however, We do burn a fair amount of electricity in the summer. Grapes arrive at the facility and currently get hand-sorted on a Westec
Hosting daily staff lunches is important to winery owner Doug Margerum.
Margerums office park exterior belies the vibrant cellar activity taking place inside.
Australian winemaker Jason Barrette joined Margerum in 2010.

WINEMAKING
TECHNICAL REVIEW
year bonded DtC SALES on-premise sales
Margerum Wine Co.

59 Industrial Way, Buellton, Calif. 93427 (805) 686-8500 margerumwinecompany.com Owners Doug Margerum Winemaker Jason Barrette WINERY AVA Santa Barbara County, Santa Ynez, Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo County, American
2001
Winery Average Bottle Price
10%
30%
$29
Winery Case Production
6,000 Margerum Wine Co. 9,000 Santa Barbara County Average 80,000 California Average 44,000 U.S. Average
0 40,000 80,000
Margerum Wine Co. Santa Barbara County Average $8 California Average $9 U.S. Average
$0 $10 $20 $30 Source: Wines Vines Analytics
$28
the challenge
When Doug Margerum moved his expanding wine business into a generic warehouse in a business park in Buelton, Calif., he needed to consolidate two production facilities, three wine brands, administrative offices and case goods storage. The restaurateur-turned winemaker also made sure to convert a room into a small kitchen to provide team-building lunches for the winery staff.
Retrofitting the Winery Facility

Facility owner Buellton Industrial Partners (20-year lease), Lompoc, Calif. Contractor Chuck Cunningham, Cunningham Parris Construction, cunninghamparris.com Engineering Craig Shallanberger, Robbins|Reed, (primarily flooring) robbinsreed.com Electrical Chuck Cunningham, Cunningham Parris Construction, cunninghamparris.com Tank refrigeration Pinolis Refrigeration Co., pinolis.com
Packaging
Bottling service Bottles Cork Screwcaps Capsules Label design and printing Castoro Bottling Co., castorobottling.com TricorBraun, tricorbraun.com; Demptos Glass Co., demptos.com MA Silva, masilva.com VinPerfect, vinperfect.com Ramondin USA, ramondin.com Tapp Label Technologies, tapplabel.com
Grape and Wine Processing

Sorting Destemmer-crusher The Belli Corp. (dba Westec Tank & Equipment), westectank.com Della Toffola USA, dellatoffola.us
Press Della Toffola USA, dellatoffola.us Laboratory services Terravant Wine Co., terravant.com; Enartis Vinquiry, enartisvinquiry.com Tanks The Vintner Vault, thevintnervault.com Barrels Franois Frres and Taransaud, Mel Knox Barrel Broker, knoxbarrels.com; Ermitage, Tonnellerie Ermitage, caroline@ ermitageusa.com; Gamba, Gamba USA/Botti Generazioni, bottigamba.com Barrel racks Barrel washing Tank cleaning Western Square Industries, westernsquare.com Aqua Tools, aquatools.com Scanjet, scanjetsystems.com
Distribution and Sales

Distributors In California: Chambers & Chambers, chamberswines.com; several smaller distributors in single states and Japan Vintegrated Solutions, vintegratedsolutions.com Hugh Margerum and Bodhi Oser (in-house) Nexternal Solutions, nexternal.com; ShipCompliant, shipcompliant.com 813 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara (since 2001) American Riviera Bank, americanrivierabank.com
Wine club fulfillment Website design eCommerce/ Compliance software Tasting room Banking services
Filtration Della Toffola USA, (plate and frame) dellatoffola.us Forklifts Toyota, toyotaforklift.com
48 W in e s & V i ne s OC TOb e r 20 13
WINEMAKING
table, though Margerum hopes to sell it and move up to a shaker-style table. The Della Toffola destemmer-crusher is mainly used just for destemming; most of the pressing, for both reds and whites, gets done indoors. Margerum aims for restraint on the alcohol front; some lots of Sauvignon Blanc, the biggest production wine, get picked at 18 or 19 Brix, and none of them higher than 23.5. The various lots of Pinot Gris get whole-cluster pressed; the successive waves of Sauvignon Blanc get increasing amounts of skin contact time, from four hours to an entire day. Margerums ample supply of small300-liter, 1,000-litervariable-capacity stainless tanks, plus some barrels for certain white fermentations, make it possible to handle a dizzying number of small batches and start thinking how to combine them within a few weeks of harvest. General practice is to prevent malolactic in all the whites, unless its necessary to reduce overly high acidity. Reds go into a room full of open-top fermentorsfrom 3/4 ton to 2 tonsand get multiple daily punch downs. Target red fermentation temperatures are slightly on the low side, around 80F, and most reds are pressed still turbid, slightly sweet and finished off in barrel along with malolactic fermentation. Margerum tries not to use too much sulfur, a goal made easier by generally having high-acid, low-pH wines and by stringent sanitation practices.
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Margerum uses barrels for some white varieties and malolactic fermentation for all white wines.
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San Luis Obispo County
CALIFORNI San Luis A Obispo

Pismo Beach Santa Maria
Santa Barbara County
Margerum Wine Co.

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Margerums interest in small-batch fermentations is made possible by an ample supply of small, variable-capacity stainless tanks ranging in size from 300 to 1,000 liters.
Margerum is particularly fond of one feature of his Della Toffola press: Its pressure bag is in the center of the press tank, not on one side, which means equal pressure on all the contents and a thinner layer of must getting pressed. In fact, Margerum suggested I not tell anyone about this press, for fear others would adopt it, too. Yeast choices are the subject of ongoing discussions at Margerum, though nothing too exotic comes into play. Jason Barrette noted that the giant Penfolds winery uses a single yeast strain, AWRI 796, selected
by the Australian Wine Research Institute, on all its reds, from supermarket staples to the Grange. Margerum goes a little wider than that, but the choices are industry favorites, chosen for their performance characteristics. One corner of the facility is a very basic lab, perfectly serviceable for running Brix, TA, pH and sulfur dioxide tests over and over. More advanced testing, including for malolactic completion, gets farmed out to one of two local service labs. The winery wish list includes something like an
Enofoss analyzer, which would increase the number of parameters that could be tested as well as the throughput. Margerum does not do routine YAN testing but does standard nutrient additions. Keeping track of all these batches and all these numbers is currently handled, says Barrette, with a pencil and a piece of paper, though wine-tracking software is somewhere on the horizon. Doug Margerum is a partisan of French oak, period. Coopers represented on the barrel racks include Franois Frres, Ermitage (for the Rhone program), Taransaud (for the Happy Canyon Bordeaux varieties) and Gamba (for the Italianate wines). Given the prominence of small lots, its Margerums tanks that show more personality. Among the oldest are two blending tanks, Fat Man and Tall Man, and one named Rick Longoriaa tank borrowed several years back from that Santa Barbara winemaker by someone else, who then loaned it to Margerum, and here it still sits.
&
W I N E I N D U S T RY N E E D S T H R OUG H T H E
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P.O. Box 5779, Napa, CA., 94581 T: (707) 252-6911 Email [email protected]. Visit our Web site at www.avf.org for information on funding and current research projects
WINEMAKING
The largest tanks in Margerums cellar have capacities of 17,000 liters.
A top-of-the-line kitchen was among the top priorities when designing the new winery facility near Santa Barbara, Calif.
Whites generally get filtered with a plate-and-frame filter; reds get filtered only when they dont get clear enough on their own. Margerum thinks it makes no sense for a small operation to own a bottling line, which just takes up space most of the year. He brings in a mobile line from Castoro a couple of times per year and packages the wines in TricorBraun or Demptos glass, finished with screwcaps for most of the whites and M.A. Silva corks for the reds. Ramondin capsules and Tapp labels round out the list of packaging suppliers. Although both of the Buellton spaces had previously been used one way or another for winemaking, neither has builtin wastewater-handling capacity. Water is pumped out of the winery and into an outdoors holding tank, which gets picked up and emptied periodically. Margerum says this is a definite incentive to keep the use of chemicals to a minimum. Cleaning is largely accomplished with percarbonate. One tiny design wrinkle the Margerum crew is proud of is a wall where hoses and tools of all kinds are hung, letting them all drain clean, rather than sit on the floor, coiled and full of whatever; gravity means less cleaning is needed.
Moving product
taurants in some key cities. Website sales and a 500-member wine club account for about 10% of sales, and on-premise sales another 30%. Theres no trace of grapevines outside the Margerum warehouse winery, but there is a new chicken coop and some
chickens just off the parking lot. I asked if the idea was to produce estate-grown fining agents, but Margerum said no, the idea was fresh eggs in the kitchen for the staff lunches. Theyll certainly have plenty of wine to choose from for pairing with those omelets.
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Doug Margerums longtime connections in the wholesale and retail wine trade are undoubtedly one reason his wines receive California exposure through Chambers & Chambers, a high-end distributor. The label has arrangements with smaller distributors in several states, as well as Japan, and direct relationships with res-
Win es & Vin e s O C TO b er 20 13 51
BARRELS
Coopers reported a price increase of 1%-5% this year, partly because of the ever-increasing cost of raw materials like this stave wood piled at a seasoning yard in France.
Barrel Orders Herald Winery Optimism

Coopers report strong activity, have concerns about American oak supply
By Andrew Adams
obust barrel orders for the 2013 vintage provide another sign the wine industry has made it through the economic doldrums of recent years. This is a big year. This will be our biggest year since 2007. Were up 15% over last year, said Phil Burton, who owns Barrel Builders in Napa Valley. It speaks well for the industry in general, because if wineries arent buying barrels theyre not making money. Jason Stout, Napa-based international sales director for Cooperages 1912, said the company had posted a double-digit sales increase of good, solid, organic growth from our core customer base. Stout said wineries have cleared out back inventory, and with a good vintage
in 2012and one expected for 2013 wineries in the United States are looking to take advantage of growing domestic and global demand for fine wine. Certainly the American wine industry has really bounced back from the recessions of 08, 09, 10, he said.
Strong demand for American oak
Bruno Remy, vice president of sales for Canton Cooperage in Windsor, Calif., said orders are up 5% from 2012, with the promise of another good vintage prompting wineries to order more barrels. But Remy said the French-owned cooperage, which produces only barrels made from American oak, has had issues with supply. Wood keeps getting pricier, and it has not been easy to secure oak.
Its becoming a real problem, he said, noting the cooperage raised its prices 3%-5% this year. Remy said theres a bottleneck in the supply chain from forest owners being less willing to sell, fewer loggers cutting wood and the mills being picky about what staves they want to produce. Since the home building collapse in 2008, Remy said the entire U.S. wood market has stalled, causing forest owners to simply hold on to their trees, including oak. And on the tail end of the supply chain, mills prefer to run wood for whiskey barrel staves because they can cut them quicker, cheaper and dont have to worry about quality as much. Sales of Bourbon and craft whiskeys have also surged in the United States, fueling greater demand for whiskey barrels. For example, Remy said winemakers in Australia like 300-liter hogshead American oak barrels, and Remy said Canton saw an opportunity to order long staves to meet this growing demand. The mills, however, arent eager to take a contract for the longer staves because they have to readjust their machines, and the staves require stringent quality control. For them, that is not interesting, he said. We are missing wood. It is crazy because the wood is there. Remy said hes noticed more of his clients are opting to lease their barrels through a third party such as H&A
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Financing and Services. Winemakers also seem to be more interested in a lighter touch of oak for their wines. Canton is offering a new 36-month seasoned Vintage Premium barrel, and Remy said the cooperage is experimenting with a 60-month seasoned barrel.
Barrels for higher acid wines
This summer, T.W. Boswell, part of Cooperages 1912, released its Cool Climate Series of barrels designed to showcase the fruit of higher acidity wines. Stout said the low-impact barrels are a direct response to the growing popularity of that winemaking style. The purpose of an oak barrel is never to be front and center in the bottle of wine; its to show the fruit, Stout said. These barrels are a little more conscious of that. Stout said American oak is in high demand but pointed out that barrels represent just 6% to 7% of the entire market for American white oak. I dont know if I would say the spirits industry is stealing oak from the wine industry, he said. Tree harvesting is also subject to the weather, and Stout said the rainy summer endured by the Midwest interfered with logging. This has been one of those years
when climate has been a real factor in getting wood, he said. Cooperages 1912 did make a slight price increase that Stout said was in line with the Consumer Price Index. Chris Hansen, general manager of Seguin Moreau Napa Cooperage, said his prices for French and American oak rose slightly (by 2% and 1.5%, respectively) and he also said its a bit harder to find American oak. He said he was in Missouri a few weeks ago and suppliers there said they just didnt have logs to cut. Seguin Moreau has sold out of its Icone specialty barrels for this vintage, and Hansen said hes waiting for more orders to come in as winemakers get a better sense of what their red varietal grape yields will be. This year compared to last year we have a lot more orders in at this time, he said.
Demand and prices strong for French, European
dollar has weakened through the summer. In addition to French oak, Burton also sells Hungarian and American barrels. He said the price of Hungarian has stayed stable, but American oak is up between $5 and $10 per barrel. Mel Knox, San Francisco, Calif.-based representative for Taransaud, Francois Frres, Francois Frres Hungary and Kadar Cooperage said his prices went up
Highlights
W hile prices are up slightly for new oak barrels, coopers also report wineries are ordering more barrels. American oak stave wood is in greater demand, partly because of the popularity of Bourbon and craft whiskies. T onnelleries de France released a report in July that Frances barrel production was up 3% over last year, with much of that growth fueled by exports.
Burton, owner of Barrel Builders, sells Tonnellerie Marchive barrels and vats. He said the cost of French wood went up slightly, but the price to U.S. wineries for French barrels is still most dependent on the dollar to euro exchange rateand the
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about 2.85% for French oak and 1% for Hungarian oak due to supply costs and the exchange rate. Like the other barrel suppliers, though, Knox had an optimistic view. Were having a very good year right now. The wine economy is very strong and very competitive, he said. Compared to where we were four years ago, were in paradise now. Paul Frommelt, who sells barrels made by Francois Frres subsidiary cooperages Trust Hungarian, Treuil and AP John, said his prices went up in the range of 3% to 4%, with American oak climbing up closer to 5%. Whiskey takes a lot of American oak, which takes our prices up, he said. He mentioned that Trust just released its new 100% French oak Ingnieux barrel available in Rouge and Blanc versions. Because its coopered in Hungary, the barrel offers a bit of a discount for French oak, he said. So far, Frommelt also said 2013 has been a good year for orders. This is above last year already, which is good, were pleased with the sales of all the brands.
French barrel production figures
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In July the Tonnelleries de France, a trade group representing coopers in various regions of France, released a statement based on remarks by the organizations president Jean-Luc Sylvain on 2012 barrel production at the groups annual meeting. Member coopers produced 525,100 barrels in 2012, recording just less than 330 million euros (or $441 million) in sales. The association reported 66% of total production was exported to its major markets of the United States, Italy, Australia and Spain. Total exports represent a 5.4% increase in volume and a 9.5% increase in value.
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Winemaker Interview
ROSS COBB
By Laurie Daniel
hile winemaker Ross Cobb was studying biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the late 1980s, his father, David, was establishing Coastlands Vineyard in the Freestone/Occidental area of Californias Sonoma Coast. As he helped his dad on weekends and during the summer, he fell in love with viticulture and decided to switch to the environmental studies department, where he studied agroecology and sustainable agriculture. After graduating in 1993, Cobb worked at Ferrari-Carano, Bonny Doon Vineyard and Williams Selyem, which was buying fruit from Coastlands Vineyard. Cobb had remained involved in the family vineyard and had made some noncommercial wines from the site, but working at Williams Selyem gave him an additional opportunity to work with Coastlands fruit. In 2000, Cobb joined Flowers Vineyard; in 2001, while still at Flowers, Cobb and his father started Cobb Wines, with Ross as the winemaker. Cobb Wines now works with four vineyards, including Coastlands, and produces 1,200-1,500 cases of Pinot Noir per year.
Wines & Vines: Why did you decide to pursue a more elegant, lower alcohol style for your Pinot Noirs? Ross Cobb: I was introduced to Pinot Noir through people like Burt Williams at Williams Selyem, Ted Lemon at Littorai, Steve Doerner at Cristom in Oregon, Jeffrey Patterson at Mt. Eden, Josh Jensen at Calera, Tom Dehlinger, Steve Kistler and Tom Rochioli. In my early days, I didnt have a lot of experience with Burgundy, but I found I had a preference for the wines made by everyone I just mentioned. I especially appreciated the more elegant style and subtle expression of
Sonoma Coast Pinot specialist details his approach
ripeness in the wines that Ted Lemon and Burt Williams were making. In making Pinot Noir from my early 20s to early 30s, I started to appreciate wines that were in the alcohol range of 12.5% to 14%. Often, I found wines above 14% (alcohol) a bit clumsy for my palate and not as ageable. At 30, I took my first trip as an adult to Burgundy and spent two weeks tasting incredible Pinots ranging across the style spectrum. This included everything from the sort of riper, more extracted wines that were also going in and out of vogue in California to wines that were modern and not too rustic. But I also tasted a lot of elegant wines that showed less winemaking influence. Over the next decade, I took nine or 10 more trips Burgundy. I also tasted a lot of Oregon, Sonoma and Central Coast Pinots. I found that the beautiful expressions of Pinot at lower ripeness were almost always the ones from great vineyards and vintages, and that these were wines capable of aging for 10 to 15 years. In contrast, the wines that were more extracted and showy in the short term were not as long-lived in the bottle.
W&V: Why are your vineyard sites in the Freestone/Occidental area well suited for this type of Pinot? Cobb: Everyone talks about cool-climate Pinot Noir, but the truth is there is a huge difference in the temperatures throughout the various regions. For Pinot, the relevant weather for the growing season is basically March through October. In Freestone/Occidental, we have relatively mild weather in the 60s from March through May. Because of our elevation, we dont have many frost issues, and because of our proximity to the ocean, we dont have issues with extreme heat on the ridge tops. During what are typically the warm-
Ross Cobb embraces low alcohol for his Sonoma County Pinot Noirs.
est months (June, July and August) for many areas, the coastline of Sonoma is inundated in a summer fog. So in Freestone/Occidental, we can get temperatures in the 50s in June, July and August. On the flipside, we have less fog in September, October and November. The vineyards in Freestone/Occidental are mostly between 400 and 1,200 feet in elevation. As a result, most of the vineyards I work with (Emmaline Ann, Jack Hill, Rice-Spivak and our own Coastlands Vineyard) are above the heavy fog, but not completely above it. Freestone/Occidental has a little lower elevation than other coastal areas like Fort Ross/Seaview, which are closer to 1,400 to 1,800 feet, and tend to be above the cooling summer fog. We typically pick two to three weeks later than Fort Ross/Seaview. We usually pick in early October; they pick early to mid-September.
W INEM A KING
My father thought the climate and soils on the uplifted marine terraces directly in from Bodega Bay and Jenner would be ideal for elegant Pinots. He found and planted the land for our Coastlands Vineyard in 1988 and 1989. Its at 1,200 feet and just 3.5 miles from the ocean. Over the past 15 years of Cobb Wines, we have acquired long-term contracts on three other Freestone/Occidental vineyards near Coastlands. Because of the lack of fog at these sites in September and October, I have a lot of leeway as a winemaker to choose when I want to pick. Some winemakers pick later by choice unless rain is coming. I like to pick earlier in October. If you were to pick at four different times, you could make four completely different winesfrom underripe to overripe. Beyond what I do in the vineyards, 90% of winemaking is the picking decision.
W&V: Have you identified what you think is a sweet spot for the alcohol ranges in your wines? Cobb: The alcohol level between 12.5% and 14.5% seems to be suitable for most varieties of wine. Pinot does especially well within these ranges. Personally, I dont really enjoy any wines over 14.5% (alcohol).
W&V: How do your vineyard practices help you achieve the style youre looking for? Cobb: The yields on the far west Sonoma Coast and at our vineyards are typically 1.5 (tons) to a maximum of 3 tons per acre. We pay very careful attention to canopy management including leafing, shoot thinning, green dropping and vraison fruit thinning. The level of detail achieved in the vineyard determines your ability to pick the fruit at moderate ripeness profiles. Especially the green and vraison fruit dropping, which can be done two to three times between July/August and pre-harvest. The use of sustainable viticulture and being as organic as possible (without losing crop) allows for minimal intervention during fermentation. Whereas some wineries may include additions of yeast food, enzymes and fining agents, I have found that if the work is done meticulously in the vineyard through canopy management and green dropping, then Im able to pick the vineyard at beautiful maturity and full flavor at 22 to 24 Brix.
Cobb sources from four vineyards to produce a total of 1,200-1,500 cases per year.
W&V: How do you decide when to pick? Cobb: The picking decision for
Oak exposure offers complexity to Pinot Noir

more in barrel and an additional one to two years in bottle. He uses about 30% new oak and prefers tight-grained wood thats been air-dried for three years. Barrels receive a light to medium toast. He deals with six to seven coopers and several forests, all French. He declined to identify the coopers. After bottling, Cobb says, I have also found that one to two years in bottle before release is best. I age my wines for at least one year in bottle before releasing them to my mailing list, and two years before releasing to restaurant and retail customers. Since many restaurants immediately put the wines on their list, I think it is very important that restaurants are showing the wines when they are at the beginning of their most optimum time. He adds, I definitely make wines that can be very beautiful within six months of bottling, but when given at least two years to rest, they show most elegantly and expressively. L.D.
inemaker Ross Cobb ages his Pinot Noirs longer than most of his California colleagues dotypically 20 months or
WINEMAKING
Pinot Noir in Freestone/Occidental near Bodega Bay, where our vineyards are, may be different than picking decisions in other appellations. Assuming that the viticultural work was done, and the season provided desirable weather (no major heat spikes in between fog coverage), then Im interested in picking low22 to 23.5 Brixif the flavors are complex and the acidity is not too aggressive. I typically like to pick on the cusp of strawberry to cherry fruit aromas, while the Brix, pH and TA are still in balance. Also, I have found that both the Brix and fruit expression can continue to elevate during cold soak, so if I am working with an outstanding vineyard I can pick a little before the perceived ripeness has been reached. On a practical note, the vineyard manager/owner and I have to be in great communication three to four weeks before harvest. The ability to pick when you want to pickat the exact day, time and fruit temperaturecan only be achieved with excellent communication. I usually give the vineyard manager seven to 10 days notice to make sure that the picking crew, equipment and transportation are all arranged. Having established a rough picking date, I will fine-tune the time as I get closer. By three days before, I have established an exact time.
W&V: How do your winemaking practices help you achieve the Cobb style? Cobb: As Ive mentioned, for me, picking decisions are most important, assuming that the vineyard management and upkeep are of highest quality. This said, there are many things that can create a larger impact. For some winemakers, their influence on the final wine (beyond picking decisions) is more like 50%60%. This influence can be seen in the new oak, enzymes for extraction, acids and nutrients for yeast in the fermentations. Thats not my approach. I have found that the work Ive done in vineyard, and setting the exact day of harvest, allows me to do very little manipulation in the winery. I use approximately 30% new oak, versus a more common 50% for high-end Pinots. I have also found that aging my wines from 15 to 22 months in 30% new oakthe period of levageachieves a beautiful elegance, where the integration of oak and fruit seems to be the ideal. Over the years, Ive experimented with longer aging and less new oak.
W&V: Do you ever add water or acid in your winemaking? Cobb: Adding water isnt necessary due to my picking decisions. Picking between 22 and 23.5 Brix achieves a natural alcohol level of 12.5% to 14%. Besides, even if you pick at 29 Brix, and water back to 24, it still tastes like 29. Also, because of the quality and maturity of the vineyards I work with, I very rarely use organic tartaric acids. On the rare occasions when I do, it is not to increase acidity or tartness; it is to precipitate out the excessive potassium from the juice.
In my 25 years of winemaking, there have been a few years with excessive heat events, where one or two lots needed to be adjusted, but not due to excessive ripeness or late picking. It was more due to shrivel of dehydration in a hot growing season. A resident of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Laurie Daniel has been a journalist for more than 25 years. She has been writing about wine for publications for nearly 15 years and has been a Wines & Vines contributor since 2006.
SALES & MARKETING
Sales and Customer Service

What tasting room staff should know before asking for the sale
By Craig Root
people have a good time, they tell five friends; if they have a bad time, they tell 10 friends. Now, with social media, they tell 500 friends. 2. Staff is the most important component of success, second only to wine quality Good staff can overcome bad architecture; great architecture cant overcome a bad staff. Many impressive wineries offer very poor service with staff that pour and ignore. They dont act interested in the customer, and they expect all the energy to come from the customers side of the counter. This drags the experience down and diminishes the effect of the great architecture. It also shows disrespect for all the hard work that goes into making a bottle of wine. We in the tasting room are the last in a chain of events before the wine is presented to the customer. To pour and ignore is like being the last person in a relay race and deliberately dropping the baton. It is the worst possible public relations we could provide next to outright rudeness. 3. Lasting positive impression Just because you didnt make a sale doesnt mean that you dropped the ball.
henever I coach tasting room personnel I bring up how to ask for the sale. I tell them that at some point during their interaction with customers, it is important to ask for the sale with a sentence as simple as: Would you like to buy some wine today? However, if you are working in a tasting room, you need to set the stage by interacting with customers so that this question comes off as constructive rather than pushy. I dont mean to imply that you should ask for the sale with every single customer. There are reasons it may not happen. If you havent achieved a very good rapport with the guest, for example, or your retail shop is some distance away from the tasting counter, asking for the sale may feel inappropriate. However, throughout the year there are numerous times in most tasting rooms when asking for the sale will greatly increase profits.
Helpful sales
are that you tell all your friends about it. You are trying to enhance your friends lives. Helpful sales enhance the visitor experience and tasting room profits. Always remember that your winery produces some of the premier wines in your area. Therefore, you are actually enhancing peoples lives by encouraging them to consume your winery products and join the wine club. Please keep in mind that not all of these techniques listed below are possible all the time. Sometimes you are so busy, its all you can do to keep your head above water. However, there are numerous other times during the course of a year when these techniques can be very effective. 1. The importance of the tasting room: TV ad Imagine that you successfully ran advertising on a TV station for your product. When you went to pay the bill, they refused the money and instead handed you a big check. Tasting rooms are not just profit centers; they are also highly effective public relations vehicles. Remember: You are not just selling wine; you are also selling memories. If
Highlights
T he author, a former tasting room manager and veteran consultant to wineries, lays out his rules for customer service. S taff must remember that a helpful sales approach enhances both visitor experience and tasting room profits. T he authors 12 points about sales and customer service cover critical points that make wineries stand out from their pour and ignore peers.
The best way to think of helpful sales is to remember what you do the day after you have seen a great first-run movie. Chances
SALES & MARKETING
For example, people may be on bicycles and not want to carry wine. However, if they leave with a positive impression, they will be more apt to buy your wine the next time they see it at a store or restaurant in their hometown. 4. Grounds, rest rooms and cluttered counters How do you feel when you are out dining, and you visit the rest room and it is trashed? Chances are that it doesnt make you feel good about the food. Clean workstations, grounds and rest rooms are all parts of creating a lasting positive impression. While many wineries have maintenance teams to help accomplish this goal, a better rule of thumb is: When you find a mess, clean it up, whether it is on the grounds or in the facility. 5. Being on Have you ever gone to a concert where the crowd started dancing five minutes before the band started playing? It doesnt work that way. Always remember: We in the tasting room are the band, and it is up to us to provide energyboth initial and ongoing. This work is like performing arts, and this kind of hospitality can be draining. But we are not just paid to pour wine and conduct tours, we are also paid to be upbeat and charming. Therefore, if you are coming to work and are feeling a little blue, you need to psych yourself up and consider being engaging and animated as an extremely important component of your work. For example, think about the employees whom you like to work with and who make you laugh. Challenge yourself to sell at least one or two wine club memberships. Focus on the quality of the product you are about to pour and the wonderful ambiance of your winery. 6. Fifteen-second rule Its absolutely necessary that people be greeted within 15 seconds of coming into your area, whether you are a pourer, stocker, cash register staff or performing any other duties on the floor. It is particularly important when working in the tasting room that you acknowledge customers in the second row because, very often in tasting rooms, they can be totally ignored. Also, a friendly good-bye is very important. 7. Open-ended questions A closed-ended question would be: Do
you like sparkling wine? This calls for a yes or no answer and does not lead to dialogue, rapport or sales. Open-ended questions use who, what, where, when, why and how. For example, What kind of food do you like with white wine? Its best to use follow-up open-ended questions. If the answer to What kind of food do you like with white wine? is seafood, you may wish to ask: What are your favorite types of seafood? The trick is to ask at least three open-ended questions in order to get the conversational ball rolling. Obviously, we want to be talking about the winerys wines; however, let the conversation go where it has the most energy.
choosing from among the 31 flavors. They go next door to the wine shop and feel intimidated. Whatever you can do to take wine off its pedestal will be greatly appreciated, particularly by the novice wine taster. For example, if a customer mispronounces the name of a varietal, dont correct them but pronounce it correctly a couple of times in the ensuing conversation. c. Talk with, not at, people: Theres a big difference between listening and waiting for your turn to talk. d. Women by themselves/younger visitors: Women by themselves and younger visitors continuously report poor treatment in tasting rooms. If you cater to them, you will stand out in relation to all the other tasting rooms that did not. In the case of younger visitors, they may not have as much money now, but they will remember who was nice to them when they do have more money. In this case, you are planting seeds for your winerys future sales. 9. Educate yourself There are a number of low-cost ways to continually educate yourself in addition to search engines. For example, read the food and wine sections of major newspapers in print or online. Check out books from the library about food and wine. Another technique is to talk with cellar workers as often as possible, and ask them what is going on in production. Production can also provide you with trade magazines they subscribe to that are devoted to winemaking. Please read them religiously (especially Wines & Vines). Without continually educating yourself, you run the risk of becoming stale: a real turnoff to customers and sales. 10. You never know to whom you are talking Never be negative about any other establishment. Maybe the person you are talking to isnt a friend of the manager of that establishment, but the person 10 feet away, who can hear you, might be. I know of numerous examples of tasting room staff being rude or negative because they didnt know who was in front of them, which can cause problems, such as having your wines removed from a wine list of a restaurant you just insulted. One trick to always maintaining proper decorum: Pretend that everyone you are dealing with is a mystery shopper.
The whole point of asking open-ended questions is that they lead to dialogue, dialogue leads to rapport, and rapport leads to trust. When the customer trusts you, and you ask: Would you like to buy some wine today and/or would you like to join our wine club? you are much more apt to make a sale. Being asked about themselves also makes the customers feel cared about. And finally, using open-ended questions can lead to lively conversation, which makes the day go by faster for you. Just be careful not to enjoy yourself so much with one couple that you forget the other customersand your duty to support your colleagues. 8. Be adjustable a. Some people dont want conversation: If visitors do not seem to want to engage in conversation after youve asked two or three open-ended questions, dont pursue any more dialogue. Do continue to pour and describe the wines with enthusiasm. Also, to repeat, if you do have a good conversation with visitors, you still need to work the rest of the counter and support your colleagues. b. Be informative, not snobby (31 flavors): Americans go into BaskinRobbins and dont have any trouble
SALES & MARKETING
11. Helpful sales vs. manipulative sales Examples of helpful sales would be: You are buying five bottles: If you buy a sixth, you get our half-case 10% discount. Or: You are making a big purchase there. If you join our wine club, I could save you quite a bit of money with the club discount. Or: I can tell that you really like that wine; we are almost sold out, so you may wish to buy a few extra bottles. These gentle tips for the visitor are a non-pushy way to increase sales. Remember: sales are what pay for staff wages. One line I use: When a couple is debating whether to buy a smaller or larger amount of wine, such as six or 12 bottles, I say: Buy 12: The you of tomorrow will thank the you of today. Youll be drinking that 10th bottle, which you wouldnt have had if you had only bought six, and you will appreciate that you were generous to yourself.
The importance of analogies
ompare these two statements for the average wine drinker: The oak barrel adds flavor to the wine.
And: The oak barrel is like the cinnamon stick you use to add flavor to your hot chocolate. Its the same principle with the oak barrel. Which of these two statements is more easily understood by the visitor to your tasting room? Clearly, the second one. Please note that analogies usually have the word like or as in them. Other examples: You dont want to over-oak the wine. That would be like cooking some rosemary chicken, and all you could taste is the rosemary. Or: Eventually the oak barrel wears outnot because the wood gets weak, but because the flavor gets weakjust as the cinnamon stick in the fifth cup of hot chocolate doesnt provide as much flavor. Or: The body of wine is just like milk: skim milk doesnt have as much body as 2% milk, and 2% milk doesnt have as much body as whole milk. There are many more examples of analogies, but the point is that they take wine out of a mysterious world and put it smack-dab in the middle of everyday life. Making the customer feel comfortable once again leads to trust and sales. C.R.
milk
2% milk
SALES & MARKETING
After using the many techniques discussed here, you need to remember to ask for the sale, as noted in the introduction. You are representing a premier brand. Encouraging people to buy your winery products is part of helpful salesbecause you are enhancing their lives with superior wine at a great price. If you dont truly believe this, it is extremely difficult to be an effective sales rep for the winery, and you should reconsider working at your winery. 12. Wine club sales Wine club sales deserve a dedicated section of this article in addition to the specific training you will be receiving from the club manager. You need to know the club backwards and forwards in order to sell it, for example, membership benefits and terms and conditions of the club. Always keep this scenario in the back of your head: You are a gal in Sacramento, and you just had a rotten day at work. Your boss was a jerk, your feet hurt and you got caught in traffic on the way home. When you go into your kitchen, there is a twopack from your favorite winery sitting on the table. Does this make you feel better about the day or worse? Next, you start
chilling the sparkling wine while you change your clothes and take a shower. When you finish, you have a flute of cold sparkling wine. Now you are feeling even better. If you remember this scenario, it is easy to sell the club because, in essence, you are helping the customer give themselves gifts in the future, which make their lives more fun and joyous. That is a wonderful sales impulse. Also keep in mind that wine clubs are one of the most profitable parts of the wine businessand a tremendous asset to your tasting room sales picture. In addition, the customers are paying to be reminded about the winery. They also frequently share the wine with friends and relatives, which influences those folks to purchase our products. The other component is that there are excellent monetary and other incentives for you, the staff member. Its a great way for you to enhance your income on a regular basis. Here are some tips on selling clubs: You can say the following to potential club members: 1) You get 20% off, which means you save $40 on a $200 purchase. (The point is: It makes the discount more concrete.)
2) You can quit anytime you want: This isnt like a CD club (for those who remember them). Or, you can quit anytime after you receive two shipments (if your winery has such a stipulation). 3) Any shipment you dont like, you can send back. 4) For a party of four, you can say: If just one of you joins the wine club, your first savings will be $40 (the cost of tasting for four people). In summary, when we work at a tasting room, we have many tasks such as being wine educators, being guides to local attractions and restaurants and being engaging. But never forget that we are sales reps as well. Craig Root has 30 years experience working with tasting rooms, the past 17 years as a consultant. He has helped create more than 80 tasting rooms and 150 wine clubs all over the United States. He analyzes current operations and teaches tasting room design and management at the University of California, Davis. He still works one day per month in a busy tasting room in order to stay in touch with the public and the work.
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TECHNICAL RESOURCE FOR GROWERS & WINERIES

65 Effect of aeration treatments prior to/during fermentation By Linda F. Bisson,
Lauren A. Schwartzburg and Andrew L. Waterhouse
77 Vineyard irrigation, the Smart way By Richard Smart

wine labeling
has taken credit for backing this petition.2 According to petition supporters, the percentage of alcohol by volume disclosure on alcoholic beverage products is inadequate and arguably misleading.1 They argue that, under current labeling laws, Americans are generally unaware that standard servings or drinks of beer, wine and a shot of distilled spirits each contain the same amount of alcohol.
Why the debate over le nutrition labeling has l li it t t le to do with nutrients

BY John Trinidad, Dickenson Peatman
& Fogarty, Napa, Calif. Decade-long regulatory history
Malt Beverage (5% ABV)

In 2003, the National Consumers League, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a number of other organizations petitioned the TTB to issue regulations that would require the inclusion of an Alcohol Facts panel on all alcoholic beverage products.1
Serving Facts
Serving Size 12 fl oz Servings Per Container 1 Amount Per Serving
ecent debate about federal nutrition labeling for alcoholic beverages dates back at least 10 years. The latest chapter in this ongoing regulatory saga occurred in May 2013, when the U.S. Department of Treasurys Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) issued an interim policy that allows alcoholic beverage suppliers to voluntarily include information such as the amount of calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein per serving on Serving Facts statements on their labels. During the past 10 years, the distilled spirits industry has positioned itself as the champion of nutritional labeling for alcoholic beverage products. In contrast, the wine industry has by and large opposed such labeling requirements. The nutritional labeling debate, however, is not solely about nutrients. At the heart of the split between distilled spirits companies and wineries is how consumers will be presented with information that would allow them to compare the alcohol content of spirits and wine.
62 p r acti c al w i ne ry & v i ne yard O CTO BER 20 13
Calories Fat Carbohydrates Protein Alcohol
A standard drink contains 0.6 fl oz of alcohol. A serving of this beverage is 1 standard drink.
.6oz
1.5 oz Spirits
150 0g 13.2g 1.1g .6 oz
Figure 1 is an image of the petitioners proposed Alcohol Facts label for a 750ml bottle of wine.
= * = .6 oz *
5 oz Wine 12 oz Beer
.6 oz
Among other things, the petition called for mandatory disclosure of serving size for a standard drink containing 0.5 ounces of ethyl alcohol, the number of servings per container and the amount of calories and ounces of alcohol per serving on all alcoholic beverages containing more than 0.5% alcohol by volume.1 Diageo, the worlds largest spirits producer,
Figure 2: In 2005, TTB requested public comments regarding this proposed Serving Facts panel.
According to the petitioners, alcoholper-serving information provides consumers with a clearer understanding of how much alcohol and how many drinks they are consuming, thus allowing them to make more informed
wine labeling
responsible drinking decisions.1 TTB responded to the petition by issuing an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in April 2005. 3 Notice No. 41 solicited commentary from industry members regarding the petition and the inclusion of a Serving Facts panel on alcoholic beverage products that would list the amount of calories, fat, carbohydrates and protein per serving on alcoholic beverage labels. In addition, TTB requested input regarding serving size and alcohol-perserving disclosures, and the agency specifically requested feedback regarding the inclusion of the graphics at the bottom of this label (see Figure 2). After reviewing the public comments responding to Notice No. 41, the TTB concluded that even though disclosure of alcohol in fluid ounces may not be inherently misleading, consumers were accustomed to seeing alcohol content expressed as a percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV) and may be confused by a statement of alcohol in fluid ounces, without some context in which to evaluate the information.4 TTB also concluded that the equivalency graphic found in Figure 2 could be misleading and therefore would not be included in any proposed Serving Facts panel. 4 TTB noted that wineries had strongly opposed the graphic and pointed out that the distilled spirits trade association often used such equivalency statements in an attempt to achieve parity with wine and beer in various regulated areas such as taxes, access to markets (and) advertising. 4 In addition, producers could choose to include the number of fluid ounces of pure alcohol per serving, but only if the ABV was also included on the panel. TTB also proposed two different reference serving size for wines: 5 ounces per serving for wines of 14% alcohol by volume or less, and 2.5 ounces for wines with more than 14% ABV. The Wine Institute submitted a 34-page response to Notice No. 73 in January 2008. The Institute opposed making the inclusion of a Serving Facts panel mandatory and also argued that TTB should not consider 2.5 ounces to be the standard serving size for all wines with more than 14% ABV. 5 Instead, the Institute argued that the 5-ounce serving size was appropriate for all wines up to 16% ABV. In addition, the Institute claimed that statements of fluid ounces of alcohol per serving were inherently confusing and should be prohibited. The Distilled Spirits Council disagreed.6 In its letter to TTB, the Council stated that requiring a statement of calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein per serving, without requiring a similar statement about the amount of alcohol in that serving, simply is inadequate. Several years passed without any further rulemaking action from TTB regarding the Serving Facts issue.
Figure 3 is an example of a 750ml wine bottle label that includes the alcohol by volume (ABV) and amount of alcohol per serving.
In 2007, TTB issued another Advanced Notice of Public Rulemaking regarding Serving Facts statements. In Notice No. 73, TTB proposed new regulations that would require alcoholic beverages to carry a Serving Facts panel listing the calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein per serving.
145 Jordan Street
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pr actica l win ery & vin eya r d O CTO B ER 20 13 63
wine labeling
Federal Trade Commission weighs in
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settlement with Phusion Project LLC, the producer of a malt beverage energy drink called Four Loko, recharged the Serving Facts debate. In 2011, the FTC issued an administrative complaint alleging that Phusion had falsely claimed that the 23.5ounce can of 11%12% ABV Four Loko contained the equivalent of one or two 12-ounce beers and could safely be consumed on a single occasion. As part of a settlement, the FTC issued a final order in February 2013 requiring Phusion to seek approval from TTB for an Alcohol Facts panel to be included on Phusions products. The panel would include the container size, percentage alcohol by volume, number of servings per container and the following statement: According to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, a serving contains 0.6 ounces of pure alcohol. The day after the FTC issued its order, Diageo and the original petitioners again pressed TTB to adopt Serving Fact regulations.7 In an interview with the Wine Spectator, a representative for the Center for Science in the Public Interest acknowledged that the distilled spirits industry has probably for 30 years now been promoting the concept that all of these beverages are equivalent in terms of alcohol content per drink. And naturally that is a stalking horse for an argument that the beverages ought to be taxed at the same level as well.7 On May 28, 2013, the TTB issued an interim policy allowing for voluntary inclusion of Serving Facts statements on alcoholic beverage products. The policy includes many of the changes recommended by the Wine Institute in its 2008 response to Notice No. 73. First, the inclusion of Serving Facts panels remains entirely voluntary. Second, although any Serving Facts panel must include calories, carbohydrates, proteins and fat per serving, there is no requirement that the panel include ounces of alcohol per serving. Third, TTB adopted the 5-ounce referenced serving size for wines from 7% to 16% ABV, and a 2.5-ounce serving for wines from 16% to 24% ABV. Fourth, TTB stated that if a producer decides to include the amount of alcohol per serving on the panel, it must also include the ABV on the panel, thus providing some context for consumers. The TTB made clear that the rulemaking process for Serving Facts statements is far
from complete. If the past is any guide, Diageo and the distilled spirits industry will continue to push for mandatory Serving Facts statements and mandatory disclosure of alcohol per serving. Any attempt to couch this debate as a fight to provide consumers with nutrition information is flawed. The long history of Serving Facts statement rulemaking shows that the disagreement between industry members is largely about alcohol content. PWV John Trinidad is a Napa, Calif.-based wine law attorney at Dickenson Peatman & Fogarty, where he works with the Alcohol Beverage, Business and Intellectual Property departments. Prior to joining Dickenson, Trinidad served as a litigator in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, Calif., and worked harvest for wineries in Burgundy, France, and Healdsburg, Calif. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the New York University School of Law.
Bibliography 1. Center for Science in the Public Interest and National Consumer League, Petition to Improve Mandatory Label information on Alcoholic Beverages, (Dec. 16, 2003), available at cspinet. org/booze/031216IngLabelingPetition. pdf (hereinafter, 2003 Petition). 2. Press Release, Diageo Marks Sixth Anniversary of Petition to Allow Serving Facts on Its Bottles, (Dec. 16, 2009), available at bloomberg.com/apps/new s?pid=newsarchive&sid=a7TTibpZ6HfA (stating that the petition was backed in large part by Diageo after it was filed). 3. Labeling and Advertising of Wines, Distilled Spirits and Malt Beverages; Request for Public Comment, 70 Fed. Reg. 22274 (April 29, 2005), available at gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2005-04-29/ pdf/05-8574.pdf. 4. Labeling and Advertising of Wines, Distilled Spirits and Malt Beverages, 72 Fed. Reg. 41860 (July 31, 2007), available at gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-200707-31/pdf/E7-14774.pdf. 5. Wine Institute, Letter re: Notice no. 73: Labeling and Advertising of Wines, Distilled Spirits and Malt Beverages, (Jan. 27, 2008), available at wineinstitute.org/files/SFLPC.pdf. 6. Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Letter re: Notice No. 73 Labeling and Advertising of Wines, Distilled Spirits and Malt Beverages (72 Fed. Reg. 41860 (July 31, 2007)), (Jan. 27, 2008), available at regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D= TTB-2007-0062-0434. 7. Ben ODonnell, Labeling Cold War Heats Up Again, (Feb. 22, 2013), available at winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/48072.com.
TTB interim policy
winemaking
OXYGEN IN WINEMAKING
present and not available for chemical reactions or enzymatic oxidation. The use of sulfur dioxide to inhibit grape polyphenol oxidases further olecular oxygen and oxidative reduces the competitiveness of enzyconditions influence the commatic oxidation for oxygen introduced position and quality of a wine prior to and during fermentation. Oxyand therefore play important gen will be consumed by organisms in roles during the entire winemaking the juice and must even in the absence of process.16,26 direct inoculation. Oxygen can participate directly in Many winemakers try to introduce chemical redox reactions, function as a oxygen in the early stages of red wine fersubstrate for grape and microbial oximentation on the skins with the hope that dases, stimulate phenolic compound tannin formation and structure will be polymerization and influence microbial modified, but most of the oxygen will be metabolism, survivability and end prodconsumed biologically. Micro-oxygenuct formation. ation during wine aging, assuming the From a quality perspective, oxygen can wine is not held on biologically active have both positive and negative impacts yeast lees, may in contrast lead to chemion juice and wine composition. Some oxical changes in the wine. dation reactions add complexity to the In white wine production, introduction wine, others lead to off-character or offof oxygen early in processing can lead to color formation. Similarly, the presence off-color formation in the juice and resultof oxygen stimulates the metabolic activiing wine. Hyper-oxygenation may be ties of both desirable and undesirable performed with the goal of converting microbes. Oxygen exposure may occur at browning potential into brown products any point in wine production, but the that can then be removed from the wine, consequences of that exposure differ. but this is not always successful. If popuOxygen exposure occurs during normal lations of microorganisms are high, the winemaking operations such as press-toadded oxygen may be consumed biologitank and tank-to-tank transfers. Oxygen cally. may also be introduced with cap manageAlthough the impact of oxygen in wine Figure 2: Oxygen Reduction Steps ment and extraction procedures such as has been studied intensively,6,12,13,14,18,26,29,33 the role of oxygen treatments prior to pump over, cap irrigation or dlestage. levage have been less well delineated. However, if microbial activity is occurThere are three primary fates of oxygen ring, the oxygen introduced will most introduced to the winemaking process: likely be consumed by the organisms non-enzymatic oxidation, enzy +e +e +e +e matic oxidation O2 2OH O2. OH O2 and microbial conPeroxide Hydroxyl Superoxide sumption. radical The most active +H+ +H+ +H+ consumption of oxygen in fresh H2O2 HO2. OH 2 At wine pH juice with a low microbial bioload Hydroperoxyl Hydrogen peroxide Water is via the phenol radical oxidases. In must, given the higher Figure 2: Oxygen reduction steps. microbial popula-
BY Linda F. Bisson, Lauren A. Schwartzburg, Andrew L. Waterhouse, Department of Viticulture & Enology, UC Davis
Relative Values
Effect of aeration treatments prior to/during fermentation
Oxygen Consumption Comparison
Juice
Enzymatic PPO
Must
Yeast/Microbial Metabolism
Wine
Non-enzymatic chemical oxidation
Figure 1: Fates of oxygen during winemaking.
tions, competition of microbial activity with enzymatic oxidation occurs. Once microbial populations build in size, the most active consumption switches to microbial metabolism. In finished wine, grape oxidases are made inactive by the ethanol produced by the microorganisms, and the microbes are no longer active so the principal consumption of oxygen is non-enzymatic (Figure 1). Mold-produced laccase is a phenol oxidase that retains activity in the presence of ethanol, so mold-infected fruit will also display active enzymatic oxidation in the wine. Enzymatic oxidation is generally more of a concern in juices and musts than in wines. In addition, wine and juice harbor different microbiota, so the specific microbial responses to addition of oxygen will vary for wine and juice/must. Processing decisions can also impact wine and juice oxidation. Barrel fermentation and/or levage contribute oak wood ellagitannins to wine. These compounds are able to participate in oxidation/reduction reactions.32 During fermentation, oxygen plays an important role as a yeast nutrient, and actively fermenting cultures consume oxygen efficiently blocking both enzymatic and chemical oxidation.8 Both biological and chemical impacts of oxygen are due to its ability to function as an oxidant in oxidation/reduction reactions. Here we will address oxidation reactions and outcomes of enzymatically catalyzed oxidation.
Oxygen and non-enzymatic or chemical oxidation
Oxidation/reduction or redox reactions

winemaking
are those in which there is a transfer of electrons from one compound to another, altering the chemical properties of both compounds. Oxidation and reduction are therefore mutually dependent reactions. Oxidation refers to a loss of electrons by an atom or molecule, while reduction is the gain of electrons by an atom or molecule. The compound that loses electrons is in an oxidized state, and the compound that gains electrons is in a reduced state. Redox is a term that derives from a combination of the words red uction and oxidation. Molecular oxygen is a good oxidizing agent on its own (Figure 2), as long as there is a catalyst, in addition to serving as a substrate in many enzymatic reactions that take advantage of its oxidant activity. Non-enzymatic oxidation in juice and wine refers to direct exchanges of electrons between chemicals. Such exchanges are usually facilitated by the participation of catalysts such as iron, either chemically or in enzymes, and generally these electron movements are a cascade involving a series of intermediates by way of
1-electron transfers. Although oxidation is commonly Figure 3. The Fenton Reaction and Acetaldehyde F thought of as being dependent upon exposure of the juice or wine to molecuFenton Reaction reduction reactions lar oxygen, oxidation mostly occur in wine without directly involving participation of molecular oxygen. Oxygen attracts electrons from other molecular species, changing the chemical nature of those compounds.
OH O OH
O2 Fe+2
H 2O 2
H2O 2 Fe+2 CH3CH2OH
HO
Hydroxyl radical
CH3 C HOH
HO
Ethoxyl radical CH3CHO
CH3 C HOH
Fe+3
Acetaldehyde
Figure 3: The Fenton reaction and acetaldehyde formation.
In chemical oxidation reactions, intermediates are produced that have a higher affinity for electrons than molecular oxygen, for instance the superoxide radical (Figure 2). Many oxidation reactions do not involve oxygen in any way, but involve transfers of electrons between other atoms moving electrons from a compound with low affinity for electrons to one with a higher affinity. Hydrogen peroxide is an early intermediate in the chemical reduction of molecular oxygen, and it is a stronger oxidizing agent than molecular oxygen, meaning it has a higher affinity for electrons. Without iron (acting as the catalyst) hydrogen peroxide is not very reactive, although it will react with good reducing agents such as SO2. The reduction potential of a compound is a measurement of its ability to gain electrons. In complex solutions such as juice and wine, many compounds can participate in oxidation/reduction reactions. In such a mixed solution, an equilibrium is reached with compounds having highest affinity for electrons being in their reduced (gained electrons) state. Those with the weakest hold on electrons are in their oxidized state (carbon, for example), having lost electrons to those compounds
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with a higher affinity for electrons (oxybe oxidized to acetaldehyde. Acetaldeassociated with reduced sulfur comgen, for example). hyde is an important compound in pounds, such as H2S, and a suppression of fruit character that accompanies the Metal ions may also participate in and levage as it will lead to formation of presence of these compounds. catalyze oxidation reduction reactions bridges between anthocyanins and tanIn the glass, these compounds either and impact the extent and nature of oxinins leading to color stabilization. dissipate due to volatilization or become dized components of wine. 11 During Oxidative color stabilization requires levage, the Fenton reaction (Figure 3) oxidized to a non-aromatic form, allowformation of aldehydes with a bridging 5. Enzymatic of Quinone and Oxidative helps to catalyze the reduction of oxygen ing other aromas that wereCoupling present to be capability, and manyFigure aldehydes are Formation and produces oxygen radicals such as the detected. As the wine breathes in the known to be reactive (Figure 4). hydroxyl radical from hydrogen peroxglass, the loss of sulfur volatiles leads to Reduced and oxidized are also comide that are so powerful in attracting electhe expression and detection of fruity mon terms used in wine aroma descriptrons that they will oxidize the first tion. Reduced wines compound they come in contact with. are generally charIn wine, since ethanol is the most abunacterized by having O2 Figure 4, Anthocyanin Reacting with Glyceraldehyde to Form a Wine Pigment dant compound after water, ethanol will aromas typically
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Grape reaction product
Brown products
Figure 4: Anthocyanin reacts with glyceraldehyde to form a wine pigment. Figure 5: Enzymatic formation of quinone and oxidative coupling.
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and other varietal aromas. Oxidized wines also display distinct aroma and color changes. The sherry aroma attributed to oxidized wines is due to formation of aldehydes from their respective alcohols. The most abundant aldehydes found in oxidized wines are acetaldehyde, methional, (Z)-2-nonenal, (E)-2-octenal, furnaneol, dodencanal, (Z)-whiskey lactone, furfural, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, phenylaldehyde and o-aminoacetophenone.2 As these aromas overwhelm the fruity aromas over time, the wines freshness is lost and fruit complexity decreases. Oxidation reactions can also lead to formation of yellow and brown pigments, and these undesirable color changes are also associated with the term oxidized in reference to wines.31 For example, thiols that contribute varietal character to Sauvignon Blanc and many red varieties are sensitive to oxidation.3,20 Similarly, levage is described as reductive or oxidative, depending upon exposure of the wine to oxygen. Here it is assumed that wines with deliberate oxygen exposure during levage will display some positive effects of that exposure in polymerization of tannins, softening of mouthfeel and stabilization of color. In reductive levage, wine is protected from oxygen. Restriction of oxygen may be needed to prevent unwanted microbial activity.
Enzymatic oxidation in juice and wine
Enzymes known as oxidases can catalyze oxidation/reduction reactions and transfer of electrons among substrates. Grape tyrosinase, more commonly called polyphenol oxidase, is active in grape juice upon crushing of the fruit. 21,25,29,36 Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity (Figure 5) is the primary enzyme responsible for oxygen consumption by juices, and this enzyme consumes O2 at a rapid rate, particularly in the absence of SO2.7 Although non-enzymatic oxidation is possible in juice and must, the affinity of PPO for molecular oxygen effectively prevents chemical oxidation. Addition of SO2 will block enzymatic oxidation but can also block some forms of non-enzymatic oxidation. As a result of polyphenol oxidase activity in the juice, oxygen can be consumed nearly as rapidly as it is introduced. In grape juice, polyphenol oxidase catalyzes the oxidation of caftaric and coutaric acid to caftaric acid o-quinone. Caftaric acid o-quinone then undergoes coupled oxidations with other compo-
nents of the juice such that caftaric acid o-quinone is reduced back to caftaric acid (Figure 6). Thus PPO generates reactive intermediates that then participate in subsequent electron transfer and coupling reactions. Polyphenol oxidase is classified as a mono-oxygenase. Mono-oxygenases are a group of enzymes that, by definition, catalyze reactions in a way that one of the two oxygen molecules of O2 is incorporated into the organic substrate and the other is reduced to water (Figure 5). PPO is a complex mono-oxygenase present in many fruits and vegetables including wine grapes.21 This class of enzymes requires two substrates to serve as reductants of the two oxygen atoms of O2. The main substrate accepts one of the two oxygen atoms, and a co-substrate furnishes hydrogen atoms to reduce the other oxygen atom to water (Figure 5). Specifically, PPO consists of a dinuclear copper center, which is able to have an oxygen atom inserted in the ortho position to an existing hydroxyl group in an aromatic ring, followed by oxidation of diphenol to the corresponding quinone.21 Browning in both juice and wine is the result of quinone formation and formation of substituted polymers that are brown in color. In the case of juice, qui-
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nones are largely formed by the action of PPO in wine that are formed from nonenzymatic oxidation reactions, unless laccase is present. When flavanols are oxidized by caftaric acid o-quinone, the corresponding quinones polymerize and precipitate as brown pigments.27 There is significant variation in the levels of both PPO and caftaric and coumaric acids in cultivars, and therefore the tendency to brown varies. In red musts and juices, PPO activity has been shown to lead to a loss of color,35 and browning may also occur. Browning of juices increases with the level of phenolic extraction. Winemaking processes that increase extraction, such as pomace contact, hard pressing and high temperature exposure during processing increase the tendency of a wine to brown.29 Once browning is initiated, it is autocatalytic, meaning brown begets brown due to creation of intermediates that are more reactive than their substrates in leading to formation of brown polymers.29 Sulfur dioxide is an inhibitor of PPO. Levels of 25 75 mg/L of SO2 in clarified juices led to inhibitions of 75% and 97% of polyphenol oxidase activity.5 It is suspected the sulfur dioxide acts by reacting with o-quinones or other intermediates in the browning reaction, preventing formation of colored complexes (Figure 6).1 It is also possible that sulfur dioxide interacts directly with the enzyme, inhibiting it.1 Oxidation of phenolic compounds to quinones can occur non-enzymatically and co-produce a strong oxidant, hydrogen peroxide or H2O2, which then oxidizes other components.34 H2O2 is not a direct product of enzymatic oxidation. Thus simple inhibition of PPO might not prevent oxidative damage from occurring in juice or must if there is significant oxygen exposure. Sulfite can interact with other oxidants and can impact non-enzymatic and enzymatic browning. Grape glutathione can also inhibit PPO-induced browning. Caftaric acid o-quinone can bind to glutathione, forming GRP or the grape reaction product, thereby trapping the quinone and preventing it from reacting with other juice components.8,30
Microbial consumption of oxygen
as a terminal electron acceptor, passing will use organic compounds as electron electrons along a chain and capturing acceptors. energy released in the form of adenosine During grape juice fermentation, sugtriphosphate (ATP). ars are converted to pyruvate, and pyruMany organisms are obligate aerobes, meaning oxygen must be present to serve as an electron acceptor. H2O O2 Other organisms, such PPO as many found in wine, can use oxygen in this role if it is avail- Figure 6: Oxygen and enzymatic oxidation of phenolics. able; if it is not, they
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vate is cleaved to form carbon dioxide and acetaldehyde. In this situation, acetaldehyde rather than O2 serves as the terminal electron acceptor, becoming converted into ethanol. Oxygen has additional roles in the yeast cell and is involved in many biosynthetic reactions that require electron movements. Many key biological reactions are, in fact, oxidation-reduction reactions. Oxygen can be both a direct participant in electron-transfer reactions or used in enzymatic-oxidation reactions in microbial systems. Oxygen addition can enable metabolic activities of non-Saccharomyces microbes present and stimulate the yeastfermentation process. Molecular oxygen is necessary to act as the hydrogen acceptor in the first reaction of sterol biosynthesis, the folding of the precursor compound into the sterol form, catalyzed by squalene oxidase.5 Molecular oxygen is also required as the hydrogen acceptor during introduction of double bonds in the generation of unsaturated fatty acids, by the enzyme desaturase.5 Formation of these unsaturated long-chain fatty acids and sterols are termed survival factors. Without survival factors, yeast would not be able to overcome the ethanol toxicity of high-ethanol concentrations that develop during fermentation. These components are also needed as growth factors for yeast cells. Thus, oxygen availability will impact metabolic activities of the yeast and yeast cell composition, which, in turn, will impact the contribution of yeast to the sensory profile of the finished wine. These effects are indirect and can be difficult to predict. With respect to microbial activity, oxygen can impact both the viability and metabolic activities of microorganisms. The activity of those microorganisms can have an impact on wine composition independent of any direct role of oxygen. The microbes can also produce endproductssuch as sulfur compounds, alcohols and aldehydesthat can participate in the oxidation-reduction reactions occurring in the juice or wine, or that can be substrates of oxidation such as fatty acids. Considering the potential impact of these metabolites, much more information is needed about how oxygen affects the production of yeast metabolism, especially with respect to compounds with a sensory impact.
Impact of juice/must aeration prior to fermentation
Many winemaking techniques introduce molecular oxygen into the juice prior to the onset of fermentation. This introduction may be unintentional and a consequence of crush i ng, pressi ng or tank-to-tank transfersor it may be deliberate as in the case of juice hyperoxidation to force oxidative changes to occur early in the wine.7,9,27 Oxygen exposure in white juice increases browning10,29 but also leads to an increase in perceived bitterness in white wines.23 Hyper-oxidation is generally employed to force polymerization and precipitation of phenolic compounds as insoluble brown pigments in white wine production, thereby stripping the wine of browning potential and protecting the wine against further browning during levage post-fermentation. 27 In many cases, it seems that the same effect may be achieved by not adding SO2 and allowing unfettered PPO activity.27 Hyper-oxidation and polymerization may also lead to precipitation of bitter and astringent compounds in white juices.27 This is particularly important in over-extracted white juices that may result from mechanical harvesting. Some
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to compete for oxygen under these conditions and limits the availability of oxygen for grape microbes and acetobacter. Electrochemical micro-oxidation, which involves passing a current into a wine to add electrons, and which enables a greater control of the nature of the compounds that will be reduced/oxidized, has been explored as an alternative to micro-oxygenation in wine,17 but has not been investigated for use as an alternative to juice hyper-oxidation. Sensory analysis of wines made from hyper-oxidized juices has yielded varying results. In some studies hyper-oxidation was beneficial to wine quality, in others it was neutral or detrimental.27 The impact of hyper-oxidation obviously depends upon the composition of the juice and presence of sufficient reactants to obtain efficient polymerization and avoid damage to varietal aromas. Often it is difficult to quantify how much oxygen has been consumed by a juice during aeration treatments. Oxygen levels are easily measured in finished wine in the form of dissolved oxygen, when there is no enzymatic activity consuming oxygen, and oxygen levels change slowly. However, in juice, measurement of dissolved oxygen is difficult. The juice released from grapes at crushing will initially be saturated with oxygen from the air. The mixing of oxidases and their substrates in the juice will generally result in complete consumption of this dissolved oxygen in a matter of minutes under natural conditions.5 The difficulty of measuring dissolved oxygen in juice makes it complicated to define precise starting conditions with a quantified amount of dissolved oxygen. However, color change is significant when oxidative conditions have been altered. PPO activity consumes O 2 so quickly that it often cannot be detected in
Figure 7: Hypothesized anthocyanin degradation by PPO.
of these reactions can be reversible. Yeast metabolic activity leads to a more reduced juice environment and can alter the oxidation state of molecules in the juice. Reductive conditions formed by yeast metabolism can lead to a dissolution of insoluble complexes, so it is important to rack the hyper-oxidized juice off of the brown sediment prior to initiation of fermentation. Poor removal of brown sediment is thought to explain variable experiences with hyper-oxidation in white wine production.27 In some cases the juice may need to be filtered to remove brown pigments, if they are still in solution and have not precipitated. Aeration in red musts is often associated with loss of color.29 Enzymatic oxidation and production of quinones leads to a disappearance of anthocyanin mediated by the quinones.7,19,35 The proposed mechanism of color bleaching is thought to involve formation of unstable colorless phenolic acid and aldehyde derivatives of the anthocyanins catalyzed by quinones,19 and the loss of color is irreversible (Figure 7). Thus there are fundamental differences in the impact on both color and polymerization reactions involving anthocyanins, comparing juices with active polyphenol oxidase activity to wines lacking oxidase activity. In wine, the formation of hydrogen
peroxide and subsequent oxygen radicals leads to the presence of acetaldehyde which plays a key role in polymerization, color stability and changes in tannin composition. In juices, acetaldehyde is not formed in appreciable concentrations because ethanol has not yet been produced and because hydrogen peroxide is not a product of PPO-mediated activity. However, even if PPO activity was effectively eliminated via SO2 addition, there would be no available ethanol to yield acetaldehyde. Polymerization, if it occurs via oxidation in juice, seems to lead to colorless or brown products. If laccase is present in the finished wine, it will generate quinones in the wine that will also lead to loss of color, rather than polymerized pigment formation and color stabilization. Hyper-oxidation can be achieved by tank-to-tank or within-tank transfers using an air diffuser, or if a technique such as flotation is used for juice clarification, air can be introduced instead of nitrogen. It is important to monitor and limit these operations to avoid growth of undesired microbes in the juice. Immediate inoculation with yeast can prevent unwanted microbial activity, as will SO2 addition following clarification. If done with sufficient speed, hyper-oxidation does not result in microbial deterioration of the juice or wine. PPO is able
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juice following transfer or manipulation. New technology using fluorescent materials may provide rapid enough analysis to observe oxygen in must. In the case of oxidation of white wines and juices, the appearance of brown pigment can be used as an indication of the level of oxygen pick-up by the wine, and of its fate. In red juices, loss of color can be monitored, and in wines the appearance of aldehydes is correlated with oxygen level. Other factors in red and white wine influence oxygen uptake, penetration and impact including the temperature at which the wine or juice is stored; at lower temperatures, the amount of oxygen necessary to saturate wine or juice increases.16
Impact of aeration treatments during fermentation
Saccharomyces, once established, outcompetes PPO for dissolved molecular oxygen. In addition, the ethanol of fermentation inhibits PPO activity. There are several factors impacting how long oxygen remains in the juice environment during fermentation. CO2 production during fermentation can also cause oxygen to be sparged out of the wine, because the large volume of CO2 being created during fermentation absorbs oxygen and sweeps it out of the fermentation as it forms gaseous bubbles.5
Addition of diammonium phosphate (DAP) can greatly impact fermentation behavior.22 Use of DAP is to avoid fermentation issues such as sluggishness or sticking by providing extra nitrogen, utilizable by yeast. Nitrogen supplementation to increase fermentation rate and CO2 production can lead to a more rapid O2 depletion, due to volatilization, blanketing and consumption in the presence of a more active biomass. During fermentation, oxygen availability allows a more rapid development of
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In addition to PPO activity, the micro organisms present in juice also consume oxygen. Many organisms present on the surface of grapes, particularly the bacteria and molds, are obligate aerobes. These organisms can compete with PPO for the oxygen present in juice. It appears, however, from the rapid production of quinones under these conditions, that PPO activity, if uninhibited by SO 2, consumes more oxygen than microbial activity early in juice.29 As microbial populations build, or if the juice contains a high bio-load, there may be more microbial competition with PPO than would occur normally. Grape surfaces also contain fermentative organisms, Saccharomyces and nonS a c c h a ro m y c e s y e a s t s . A l t h o u g h fermentative, these organisms will also consume oxygen to synthesize cellular components required for growth and to aid in the transition from respiration to fermentation as the mode of energy generation. As these populations grow, they compete with PPO for oxygen in juice.4 Thus the fate of oxygen in juice is dependent upon the relative ratios and activity of the microbes present and PPO activity. A third factor affecting the balance of PPO versus microbial consumption of oxygen is the presence of SO2. It influences the rate of O2 consumption, with the rate declining dramatically with SO2 addition due to PPO inhibition,16 leaving oxygen-available microbes. However, SO2 is also toxic to microbes, especially bacteria and some wild yeast such as Hanseniaspora, so its use can also reduce microbial demand on the oxygen supply. Saccharomyces is resistant to SO2 and is able to detoxify this compound and grow in its presence.
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cell biomass due to the ability to synthesize an array of cellular building blocks that depend upon oxygen as a catalyst.5 In a recent experiment, we examined the impact of oxygen addition in juices that were supplemented with ample nutrients. The goal of this study was to determine if oxygen would have an impact during juice fermentation if the cellular components requiring oxygen for their biosynthesis were plentiful in the environment.28 Five different yeast strains were examined. Oxygen exposure showed little to no impact on fermentation behavior in all trials,28 and confirmed that the primary benefit of oxygen during fermentation is the enabling of biosynthesis of growth requirements. In addition to direct consumption of molecular oxygen, yeast also creates a reductive environment in the fermenting juice. This means that end products of metabolism are good electron donors and, once in the fermenting juice, can participate as reducing agents. For example, inorganic sulfur from a vineyard will be reduced to hydrogen sulfide due to reductive conditions created by yeast. Addition of large amounts of oxygen during fermentation can reverse these reductive products by overwhelming the yeasts ability to absorb oxygen, and inducing chemical oxidation. The resulting quinones will then quickly react with H2S that is present, removing reduced aromas. Lactic acid bacteria can also impact the fate of oxygen in wine. Like yeast, the bacteria will use molecular oxygen for biosynthesis, and introduction of oxygen will stimulate both growth and metabolism of the organism. Micro-oxygenation of wine has been shown to increase activity of malolactic bacteria and lead to color stabilization,24 suggesting that the bacteria are not as competitive in oxygen consumption as the yeast are during alcoholic fermentation, and non-enzymatic oxidation will occur simultaneously with malolactic (ML) fermentation. In addition, non-enzymatic reaction products produced will differ if microoxygenation occurs before or after ML fermentation, 15 suggesting that metabolic activities of malolactic bacteria can contribute or consume compounds participating in oxidation/reduction reactions. Oxygen is an important component in winemaking. Oxygen can stimulate the growth and metabolic activities of microorganisms impacting microbial contribution to wine aroma and flavor. A better understanding of how oxygen affects these metabolic activities and metabolites of sensory importance is needed. Oxygen can also participate in both enzymatic and non-enzymatic oxidation reactions with differing outcomes for the wine. Enzymatic oxidation leads to destabilization of wine color, while non-enzymatic oxidation can lead to color stabilization due to formation of different reactants and ultimate end-products. The timing of aeration and therefore oxygen exposure is critical. In juices, PPO consumption of oxygen dominates unless the enzyme is inhibited via SO2 addition, heat or fining treatments. During active fermentation, yeast consumption is the dominant form of oxygen utilization. Under levage conditions, nonenzymatic oxidation becomes more prevalent in the wine. The optimal amount of oxygen exposure will vary by grape variety and wine style being produced. PWV
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Bibliography 1. Almeida, M.E.M. and J.N. Nogueira. 1995 The control of polyphenol oxidase in fruits and vegetables. Plant Food for Human Nutrition. 47: 245246. 2. Balboa-Lagunero, T., T. Arroyo, J.M. Cabellos, and M. Azanar. 2011 Sensory and olfactometric profiles of red wines after natural and forced oxidation processes. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 64: 527535. 3. Blanchard, L., P. Darriet, and D. Dubourdieu. 2004 Reactivity of 3-mercaptohexanol in red wine: Impact of oxygen, phenolic fractions, and sulfur dioxide. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 55: 115120. 4. Bisson, L.F. 1999 Stuck and sluggish fermentations. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 50: 107119. 5. Boulton, R.B., V.L. Singleton, L.F. Bisson, and R.E. Kunkee. 1996. Principles and Practices of Winemaking. Chapman and Hall. 6. Cacho, J., J.E. Castells, A. Esteban, B. Laguna, and N. Sagrista. 1995 Iron, copper and manganese influence on wine oxidation. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 46: 380384. 7. Castellari, M., G. ArteLli, R.. Riponi, and A. Amati. 1998 Evolution of phenolic compounds in red winemaking as affected by must oxygenation. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 49: 9194. 8. Cheynier, V., G. Masson, J. Rigaud, and M. Moutounet. 1993 Estimation of must oxidation during pressing in Champagne. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 44: 393399. 9. Cheynier, V., J. Rigaud, J.M. Souquet, J.M. Barillere, and M. Moutounet. 1989 Effect of pomace contact and hyperoxidation on the phenolic composition and quality of Grenache and Chardonnay wines. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 40: 3642. 10. Cheynier, V., J. Rigaud, J.M. Souquet, F. Duprat, and M. Moutounet. 1990 Must browning in relation to the behavior of phenolic compounds during oxidation. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 41: 346349. 11. Cilliers, J.L. and V.L. Singleton. 1990 Nonenzymatic autoxidative reactions of caffeic acid in wine. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 41: 8486. 12. Danilewicz, J.C. 2003 Review of reaction mechanisms of oxygen and proposed intermediate reduction products in wine: Central role of iron and copper. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 54: 7385. 13. Danilewicz, J.C. 2007 Interaction of sulfur dioxide, polyphenols, and oxygen in a wine model system. Central role of iron and copper. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 58: 53 60. 14. Danilewicz, J.C. 2012 Review of oxidative processes in wine and value of reduction potentials in enology. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 63: 110. 15. Durner, D., F. Weber, J. Neddermeyer, K. Koopmans, P. Winterhalter, and U. Fischer. 2010 Sensory and color changes induced by microoxygenation treatments of Pinot noir before and after MLF. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 61: 474485. 16. Du Toit, W., J. Marais, I. Pretorius, and M. du Toit. 2006 Oxygen in must and wine: a review. S. Afr. J. Enol. Vitic, 27: 7694. 17. Fell, A.J., S.I. Dykes, L. Nicolau, and P.A. Kilmartin. 2007 Electrochemical microoxidation of red wine. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 57: 289297. 18 Fulcrand, H., M. Dueas, E. Salas, and V. Cheynier. 2006 Phenolic reaction during winemaking and aging. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 57: 289297. 19. He, F., N-N Liang, L. Mu, Q-H Pan, J. Wang, M.J. Reeves, and C-Q Duan. 2012 Anthocyanins and their variation in red wines I. Monomeric anthocyanins and their color expression. Molecules 17: 15711601. 20. Herbst-Johnstone, M., L. Nicolau, and P.A, Kilmartin. 2011 Stability of varietal thiols in commercial Sauvignon
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blanc wines. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 60: 459502. 21. Mayer, A.M. 2006 Polyphenol Oxidases in plants and fungi: Going Places? A review. Phytochemistry 67: 23182331. 22. Monteiro, F. and L.F. Bisson. 1992 Nitrogen supplementation of grape juice. I. Effect on amino acid utilization during fermentation. Am. J. Enol. & Vitic. 43: 110. 23. Nagel, C.W. and W.R. Graber. 1998 Effect of must oxidation on quality of white wines. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 39: 14. 24. Nguyen, D.-D., L. Nicolau, S.I. Dykes, and P.A. Kilmartin. 2010 Influence of microoxygenation on reductive sulfur odors and color development in a Cabernet Sauvignon wine. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 61: 457464. 25. Okuda, T., A. Pue, K. Fujiyama, and K. Yokotsuka. 1999 Purification and characterization of polyphenol oxidase from Muscat Bailey A grape juice. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 50: 137143. 26. Oliveira, C.M, A.C. Silva Ferriera, V. De Freitas, and A.M.S. Silva. 2011 Oxidation mechanisms occurring in wines. Food Res. Int. 44: 11151126. 27. Schneider, V. 1998 Must hyperoxidation: a review. Am. J. Enol. & Vitic. 49: 6573. 28. Schwartzburg. L.A. 2012 Impact of Oxygen Alterations in Chardonnay Juice on Fermentation Behavior and Bound Sulfur Formation. MS Thesis, University of California, Davis. 29. Singleton, V.L. 1987 Oxygen with phenols and related reactions in musts, wines and model systems: Observations and practical implications. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 38: 6977. 30. Singleton, V.L., M. Salgues, J. Zaya, and E. Trousdale. 1985 Caftaric acid disappearance and conversion to products of enzymatic oxidation in grape musts and wine. Am. J. Enol. & Vit. 36: 5056. 31. Singleton, V.L., E. Trousdale, and J. Zaya. 1979 Oxidation of wine. I. Young white wines periodically exposed to air. Am. J. Enol. & Vitic. 30: 4954. 32. Vivas, N. and Y. Glories. 1996 Role of oakwood ellagitannins in the oxidation process of red wines during aging. Am. J. Enol. & Vitic. 47: 103107. 33. Waterhouse, A.L. and V.F. Laurie. 2006 Oxidation of wine phenolics: A critical evaluation and hypotheses. Am. J. Enol. & Vitic. 57: 306313. 34. Wildenradt, H.L. and V.L. Singleton. 1974 The production of aldehydes as a result of oxidation of polyphenolic compounds and its relation to wine aging. Am. J. Enol. & Vitic. 25: 119126. 35. Yokotsuka, K. and V.L. Singleton. 1997 Disappearance of anthocyanin as grape juice is prepared and oxidized with PPO and PPO substrates. Am. J. Enol. & Vitic. 48: 1325. 36. Zapata, J.M., A.A. Calderone, R. Munoz, and A. Ros Barcelo. 1992 Oxidation of natural hydroxybenzoic acids by grapevine peroxidases: Kinetic characteristics and substrates. Am. J. Enol. & Vitic. 43:134138.
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S M A R T V I T I C U L T U R E by Dr. Richard Smart
Vineyard irrigation, the Smart way
for this column. I can hopefully provide a smart twist as to how this approach may be tweaked to better irrigate wine grapes, with quality outcomes paramount. At best this will be a suggested procedure rather than an outcome supported by research.
have been traveling around wine grape vineyards for more than 40 years. It is my considered opinion that irrigation of wine grapes, although widely practiced, is typically poorly done. I want to propose some reasons for this. Typically the vines are over-irrigated due to irrigation starting too early in the season, especially in winter-rainfall areas and where soils are deep. Further, irrigation tends to be applied using a cookiecutter approach. That is, so many hours of irrigation per week, at fixed intervals, and applying the same over the majority of the growing season. In my opinion we can do much better than this. The reader may wonder why I am critical of much commercial irrigation. How can so many people be performing irrigation in a not-so-efficient manner? I think the answer to this is that it is relatively
easy for an irrigation manager to apply water to a vineyard, to keep it looking healthy and to produce reasonable crops. But this is not to say that the vines physiology is being manipulated in the most water-efficient way, to have a desired grape yield/grape composition/wine quality outcome. When we irrigate wine grapes we should have a very specific goal in mind. In my opinion this is to create a desired level of vine water stress at appropriate points in the growth cycle. I recognize that these strategies may differ between red and white wine grape varieties, and that water stress might be greater for red than white varieties. I want to applaud the excellent research and extension efforts of Dr. Larry Williams of the University of California, Davis. His studies have provided a basis
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s m a r t v i t i c u lt u r e
Dr. Larry Williams studies
I have long been a fan of Dr. Williams irrigation studies in California. He developed his ideas from initial research at the Kearney Ag Center with Thompson Seedless. He was able to use a weighing lysimeter to estimate accurately the amount of water lost by vineyard evapotranspiration. Williams took his studies of irrigation back to first principles, relating vine water use to the current environment in addition to characteristics of the vineyard. He was able to manipulate vines, for example, to show the effect of exposed leaf area on the amount of water lost by vines. He extended his studies to wine grapes in the coastal valleys of California, from the North Coast down to Santa Maria. He has been able to develop irrigation methods for this range of viticultural environments, and for vineyards of different vine-row spacing and trellis systems. I am particularly impressed that he was not content with only scientific publication of his results but brought them together in a very comprehensive extension article published in the November/ December 2001 issue of PWV, which is
available at practicalwinery.com/ novdec01p42.htm. This extension article is one of the finest I have ever read and should be compulsory reading for vineyard irrigators.
Summary of the Williams approach
Williams studies have recognized the difference between Californian wine grape growing regions in the evaporative
This shoot tip is stopping growth. Note that internodes behind tip are shorter, and that young leaves can reach in front of shoot tip.
78 p racti c al w i ne ry & v i n e yard O CTO BER 20 13
climate. Hotter, sunnier and less humid regions have higher potential evapotranspiration, and well-irrigated crops will lose more water. Examples of these differences include a growing season potential water use of 51 inches in Fresno to 44 inches in the Paso Robles region and 36 inches in Santa Maria. The ratio between the actual vineyard water use and the potential evapotranspiration is defined by the factor kc. This factor varies with stage of the growing season. It is higher later in the season, when vines have reached their full exposed leaf area, and also varies with vine row spacing and trellis system. The factor is higher for close vine rows and for divided trellis systems, both of which have higher amounts of exposed leaf area per acre. A particularly useful part of the research was to develop a relationship between the canopys shaded area at noon and the crop factor kc. This allowed Dr. Williams to develop irrigation strategies for vineyards of different row spacing and trellis systems and row orientations at various times of the year. His paper documents simple methods as to how kc can be calculated from the noon shadow area. Williams paper covers many pages in PWV, and this column is only a few hundred words, so the reader should refer to the original article for details.
Smart proposals for wine grape irrigation
Williams has used pressure-chamber readings as a first point of reference for vine water stress. I do not feel comfortable with this. I am used to working in environments where intermittent cloud cover may occur, and where the effects of dayto-day temperature and humidity variations on mid-day pressure-chamber readings can be dominant. I have found the appearance of the vine to be a more useful indicator for irrigation management. Therefore, my approach has been to use the appearance of grapevines, as quantified by visual scorecards, as an indicator of vine-water status. I have developed two scorecards. The first describes shoot tip growth rate and can be used from fruit set through vraison, about which time shoot trimming has usually occurred. I have been able to quantify the appearance and growth rate of shoot tips to a numerical score, a grapevine stress index if you will. Following vraison, shoot tip growth should not occur, and I have developed a second scorecard that relies on the
appearance of the grapevine, especially the leaves, to indicate water stress. Both of these scorecards return a numerical value between one and five, related to water stress. For red wine grape varieties, the aim is to commence water stress after fruit set to achieve the cessation of shoot growth a couple of weeks before vraison. Following vraison, water stress should be moderate so as not to impair the ripening process. The Smart approach to wine grape irrigation is iterative. One makes a guess at the irrigation amount to be applied based on the soil moisture measurement reading and/or the vine scorecard reading and uses this guess to establish a modified value of kc. This modified value is called kcs (or kc stress). Moisture stress is induced by reducing the value of kc in the calculations of vineyard water use and hence the amount of irrigation water to be applied. The approach is iterative in the sense that the changes in vine water status as recorded by the scorecard should track toward the desired outcome of final water stress. Let me summarize the Smart approach to vineyard irrigation for wine grapes: 1. Assess root distribution profiles for the vineyard prior to the commencement of the irrigation season. This can be achieved with backhoe pits made parallel to the vine row and about 12 inches from the line of the trunks. Fine root distribution can be assessed as a function of depth. Normally, the majority of the roots are within the top 23 feet of soil. 2. Use the Williams approach of shaded area measurement at noon to estimate seasonal values of kc for the vineyard. 3. Use average local data for potential evapotranspiration as a basis for calculating irrigation amounts. 4. Begin irrigation when soil moisture measurement indicates subsoil moisture reserves, for example greater than 23 feet, are mostly depleted. Typically vineyard managers begin irrigation too early in the growing season, when there is still plenty of moisture retained in the subsoil. (Depleting subsoil reserves is difficult in very deep soils; they may need little irrigation anyway.) 5. I suggest the definition of the root zone (measured from the soil surface) that contains about 60% of the root volume. When moisture stress is applied, it is this root zone depth that we need to monitor closely for soil-moisture content. 6. Moisture stress is induced by lowering the value of kc to less than the value providing for optimal water status. My suggestion for a first guess of the modified value is to make kcs say 50% of kc. 7. The irrigation interval is normally fixed, at say two to three times per week, appropriate for drip irrigation. However, the irrigation amount is varied, by using a modified kcs. Be prepared to modify this value further, depending on soil moisture content readings. With several years experience, the soil moisture readings of the root zone can be related to water stress readings on the scorecards. The soil moisture depletion graph can then be a template for future use. 8. Following several seasons of application of this technique, a relationship will be developed for the vineyard that relates soil moisture content readings in the maximum root amount depth to the scorecard value.
Conclusion
In a brief column like this it is not possible to go through all the details of this proposed new irrigation schedule. However, a couple of points are relevant. First, vine appearance scorecards are used to provide an indicator of grapevine
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Finding Solutions Through Research

Drs. Zalom, Mills and others have completed comprehensive pesticide trials on spider mites and mite predators. Their work has provided viticulturists with insight and direction concerning the consequences of applying various spray materials on general and regional mite populations. Dr. Linda Bisson and others have helped vintners understand the yeast dynamics in high sugar musts and how to deal with stuck fermentations. The work has led to the development and commercialization of specialized wine yeast and her lab is currently working on yeast that produce less ethanol.
For a wealth of useful viticulture and enology research and information, visit AVF.org, iv.ucdavis.edu, enologyaccess.org, or ngwi.org.
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water stress. These have been found to work quite reliably and are easy to assess with experience and can be integrated over many vines. The second feature of the Smart proposal is that irrigation should be practiced with a view of vine water status in mind. This should avoid the common practice of over-irrigating wine grape vineyards and potentially reduce wine quality. PWV Dr. Richard Smart is rewriting and thoroughly revising Sunlight into Wine. He is happy to receive statements from growers and winemakers about their commercial success with various aspects of canopy management. Interested persons should contact Dr. Smart by email at [email protected]. Dr. Smart visits the U.S. frequently, and consulting appointments also can be made by email. See smartvit.com.au.
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Inquiring Winemaker
T i m P a tt e r s o n
The Skinny on Skin Contact for Whites

ome aspects of commercial winemaking, as Donald Rumsfeld might observe, are knownunknowns. We know, for example, that a lot of wineries use Velcorin to sterilize their wines, but we have no idea how many or how often, since neither winemakers nor the supplier will talk about it in public. Then there are the unknown-unknowns, including practices that are out of official favor but still in some use anyway. It can be easy to assume that these practices fall into the nobody does that anymore category, yet they persist and even grow. There are, for example, far more wild fermentations conducted every harvest than you might imagine, and even though such uncontrolled microbial orgies are considered dangerous to your wine, most of them succeed anyway. However many that may be. In that same Rumsfeldian space is the officially unfashionable technique of intentional skin contact for white grapes and juice. Its high on the not the best practices list, but a lot of people do it anyway. It doesnt show up on the label, it shows up in the wine instead; when it works, it means intensified aromatics and fuller body, and possibly more aging potential. Now you might ask, if this is an unknownunknown, how do I know about it? Not from talking to winemakers, though I did some of that, but from talking to enzyme suppliers and looking through their catalogs. Turns out they do a brisk business in products explicitly packaged for use with white wine skin contact, which suggests somebody out there must be soaking their exocarps.
Fear of phenolics
Abe Schoener ferments white wine varieties with the skins for the Scholium Project.
Modern white winemaking protocols just say no to skin contact. Skin shunning is a
core element of the reigning textbook approach, along with commercial yeast inoculation, cool fermentation temperatures, reductive strategies, squeaky-clean sanitation, heat and cold stabilization and sterile filtration. While that package may sound somewhere between conservative and paranoid, it has, to be fair, resulted in a massive upgrade in the quality of the worlds white wines. As recently as a couple decades ago, plenty of white wines were flat, oxidized, murky, funky or some combination of the above. Today even low-end box wines are fresh, fruity, sparkling clear and fault-free. Clearly, the modern approach works. Inevitably, successful innovations in winemaking go from experimental to trendy to dominant to something more like dogmatic. Somewhere along this continuum is the advice offered in this excerpt from the lecture notes to Enology 124, Introduction to Wine Production, at the University of California, Davis: The goals for white wines differ from red wine production in several respects. Generally little to no skin contact is desired.
This is because the principal flavor and aroma compounds are located in the pulp of the grape with the skin providing little other than bitterness and astringency. Many white wine styles are designed to be consumed relatively young (less than five years of age), which is insufficient time to allow polymerization and softening of the phenolic content. In addition to bitterness, phenolic compounds lead to off-color production under oxidizing conditions. This color change is generally undesirable in white wines Skin contact refers to the length of time the juice is left in contact with the skins and seeds. The longer the time of contact, the greater the extraction of the components of the skins into the juice. In contrast to red wine production, the majority of the important sensory components of white grapes are in the pulp, not in the skins. Since the microbial flora of the grapes is located on the skins, skin contact also increases the contact of these organisms with the juice. If the skins are separated from the juice quickly, the microbes also are separated, minimizing their numbers in the primary fermentation.1 (See related article on page 65.) I dont mean to pick on Davis here; Im sure the lecture notes at Montpelier or the guidelines at the AWRI say pretty much the same thing. But this advice, however well
Highlights
P re-fermentation skin contact for white grapes runs contrary to current winemaking doctrine, but many winemakers use the technique anyway. W hite grape skins yield both aromatic and phenolic compounds, a mix that can make wines more intense or simply coarse. S kin contact holds promise particularly for aromatic whites and is relatively common in Alsace and Bordeaux.
winemaking
intentioned, seems a bit one-sided on at least two counts. First, it suggests that all you get from white skin contact is phenolics, though in fact the skins of at least some varieties are home to a wide range of aromatic goodies and goodie precursors. And second, it suggests that all the phenolics can add is bitterness and astringency, when in fact they can also add positively to mouthfeel and perceived body. Surely there can be excessive phenolic extraction with white grapes; but then, that can happen with reds, too, and that doesnt stop us, does it? So why the ban on showing some skin? In Wine Science, Canadian researcher/writer Ronald Jackson provides some intriguing historical context for the emergence of grape skin phobia as the introduction to a section about white grape maceration.
The shift to light, fruity white wines in the 1970s resulted in minimizing skin contact.
Ronald Jackson
The shift to light, fruity white wines in the 1970s resulted in minimizing skin contact. This trend was encouraged by the widespread adoption of mechanical harvesting. However, depending on the tendency of the grapes to rupture, some inevitable maceration occurred on the way to the wineryits extent depending on the duration separating harvest and crushing/ pressing and the temperature of the grapes. Reduced maceration also diminished the uptake of heat-unstable proteins, decreasing the need for protein stabilization products. Unfortunately, minimizing or eliminating maceration simultaneously reduces the uptake of varietal flavorants located in the skins, such as S-cysteine conjugates in Sauvignon Blanc. For wines dependent on aromatics extracted from the grapes, this became increasingly important with the adoption of gentler pressing, such as provided by pneumatic presses or whole-grape pressing. To offset this deficiency, use of the first and second press-run fractions increased. This option is often easier to manipulate than maceration, due to the complexities of temperature and duration on extraction, precipitation and degeneration of compounds during maceration. Nevertheless, the addition of press fractions augments the wines phenolic content.2 Jackson nicely captures what got lost in the transition to hyper-gentle, fruit-fixated white winemaking, and he is on the mark about how pressing techniques help to
winemaking
make up for what maceration doesnt extract. Along the way he also touches on the Catch-22 of rampant skin avoidance: Its impossible. Machine harvesting guarantees some level of juice ooze on the way to the press; hand-harvested grapes piled atop each other in bins do the same, and even whole-cluster-pressed grapes mix skins and sauce during the press cycle. (Notice the color in cluster-pressed pink wines.) In fact, Wines & Vines hereby offers a cash prize (amount to be determined) to any winemaker who can extract the juice from
a ton of grapes without incurring any skin contact. In other words, the right question about skin contact is not whether, but how much, and under what conditions and toward what stylistic end?
Extraction roulette
Jacksons next sentence is, Like most choices in winemaking, each decision has its pros and cons. True enough: Intentional white skin maceration yields a more complex bundle of the good, the bad and the hard-to-tell than the simple strategy of
avoidance. Chances are any skin soak will mine some combination of the following: Aromatic compounds: Fully formed aromatic compounds are scarce in grapes, with most of them requiring fermentation to develop. But the skins of certain grape varieties can be home to substantial concentrations of monoterpenes (linalool, geraniol) and grassy methoxypyrazines, things you might want (or not want) in your wines. Aromatic precursors: This is the bigger treasure trove for skin contacters. These include carotenoids (which can morph into rosy damascenone), cysteine conjugates (which lead to the thiols in Sauvignon Blanc) and glycoconjugates (sugar-bound potential volatiles). Just to keep things interesting, many of these compounds take their time in maturing, potentially creating an aromatic bloom well after fermentation is finished or even later in the bottle. Phenolics: Here we get from white skins flavonoid-type phenols, catechins and the like. Unlike the case of red skins, anthocyanins are not to be found, except in small concentrations in pinkish/gris grape varieties. (Color modification in skin-contact whites comes from carotenoids and other non-anthocyanin compounds.) Catechin monomers can produce bitterness, the factor that gives skin contact its bad reputation. More important, the absence of anthocyanins changes the normal rules for how tannins polymerize, how those polymers react with oxygen, how they precipitate and how astringent the tannins aremuch less so in whites than reds. White skins also contain some amount of hydroxycinnamic esters (coutaric, caftaric and fertaric acids), which function as precursors for later volatile phenols. Elevated phenolic content may also help with the ageability of white wines made with skin contact. Nitrogen: Skins are the biggest repositories of nitrogen in grapes, and by extracting amino acids, skin contact increases the pool of available nutrients during yeast fermentation. Potassium: Skins are rich in this substance as well, and skin extraction can raise pH and lower aciditya good reason not to try skin contact on already high-pH juice. Lipids: These fatty acids can be friend or foe, depending on their concentration and composition. The good news is that they become less prominent and less problematic as grapes approach full maturity. Microbes: As the Davis discussion notes, skins bring all manner of bugs into the mixand not just earwigs or fruit flies. Since the general practice with skin contact
winemaking
is to postpone sulfur dioxide additions until after pressingthe presence of SO2 increases phenolic extractionferal critters that come in on the skins will have a few more hours to play. Winemakers have to judge whether thats a plus, potentially adding a touch of complexity, or a minus, potentially adding a whiff of yuck. How much of what comes out depends, of course, on grape variety, composition and health. Skin contact is generally practiced on already aromatic varieties like Muscat, Riesling, Gewrztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc, since those are the grapes that have noseworthy stuff to extract. For more neutral varieties, the value isnt so clear. Veteran winemaker John Buechsenstein remembers a fad for skin contact with Chardonnay in the 1980s, an approach that yielded no aromatic boost but did extract enough phenolic material to require fining for drinkability. Fruit also needs to be fully ripe, but not overripe. For underripe fruit beset with green flavors, the addition of bitter phenols is no help. For overripe fruit, already headed for high pH and high alcohol, reverse osmosis may be more appropriate than skin contact. Once skin contact is under way, the drivers of extraction are time and temperature. Contact time varies from a few hours to overnight to maybe 24 hours, with most practitioners on the low side. Enzyme-aided skin contact times are even shorter, since extraction rates are higher. Temperatures are generally held quite cool, well under 60F, which slows down the pace of extraction and keeps spontaneous fermentation activity at a minimum. Most of the major additive suppliers offer an extractive enzyme specifically recommended for use with skin contact regimens. The universe of such products is all derived one way or another from the versatile fungus Aspergillus niger, and all of them do a mix of things besides pulling goodies out of the skins, including increasing juice volume and speeding clarification. In a sense, they do what natural grape enzymes do, only more so, which can mean more lovely aromatics, more troublesome phenolics, or both. All of this is a different path from the road to so-called orange wines (some of which are not orange), which hold onto their skins all the way through fermentation. This is, for the record, how white wines were made for thousands of years. Orange winemaking offers a comprehensive alternative to the conventional white wine wisdom; the skin contact techniques discussed here are simply a variation on the modern theme, but one that can have definite impact on flavor and texture. Think of it as a Pinot Noir cold soak, only in this case we can actually measure what it accomplishes.
Worth a trial
press, with the outlet valves turned off, for eight to 12 hours. Santa Barbara Viognier queen Morgan Clendenen, on the other hand, gets rid of the skins ASAP, since Viognier can so easily get out of balance and become overbearing. At the Scholium Project, winemaker Abe Schoener does full-on fermentations with the skins on some whites, sometimes producing wines that are undrinkably coarse when young but come around nicely after four years or so in barrel. Talking with Shirley Molinari of Lallemand and Peter Salamone of Laffort, skin contact is alive and well out there in winemaking land. And not just in the more experimental small wineries but now and then with the big boys, too. Salamone describes the practice as not mainstream, but known and increasing. One more thing that makes white skin contact an unknownunknown is that theres not much research done about it. Ever since the method earned the status of nobody does that any more, it gets less attention, and a lot of puzzles are left unsolved. Key among the gaps is a full understanding of how white skin phenolics behave and transmogrify in the absence of anthocyanins, particularly over time. By the time you read this, white grapes may have been harvested in your area, but there is plenty of time to rig up a trial on some promising batch of grapes next year. Tim Patterson is the author of Home Winemaking for Dummies. He writes about wine and makes his own in Berkeley, Calif. Years of experience as a journalist, combined with a contrarian streak, make him interested in getting to the bottom of wine stories, casting a critical eye on conventional wisdom in the process.
Winemakers are all over the map regarding the value of skin contact. Skin contact is common for the aromatic whites of Alsace, and its one reason why those heady wines are so heady and why many of them deliver a trace of bitterness on the finish, sometimes masked by residual sugar. Its common as well in the trendier precincts of Bordeaux for both Sauvignon Blanc and Smillon. Jackson notes that the categorization of German whites according to their harvest ripeness also happens to correlate nicely with their phenolic content. In the Finger Lakes, Morten Hallgren at Ravines Wine Cellars includes a portion of skin-contacted fruit in most of his white wines, the percentage is higher in warmer/riper years and lower in cooler ones. His favorite method is to leave crushed grapes in the
References
1. A vailable online at http://enologyaccess.org/Resources/VEN124/VEN124_07.htm. 2. Ronald S. Jackson, Wine Science, Academic Press, 2008, 336-7.
NE W S O F GRA P E S AN D W INE S IN EA S T ERN NOR T H AMERI C A
Tasting Wine Grape Cultivars by Region

Researchers in the Northeast evaluate wines from the multi-state NE 1020 project
eneva, N.Y.Thirty-three winemakers, growers and industry researchers eschewed time in the vineyard or the lab Aug. 15 in favor of attending a wine tasting in Geneva. The Cultivar by Region tasting provided the first opportunity to taste and compare wines made from grape cultivars grown at various sites in New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut as part of the
the U.S. Department of Agriculture). The NE 1020 project, a comprehensive study Cultivar by Region tasting was set up to exthat involves researchers in 24 states from plore the site differences between California to Vermont. winesandvines.com several varietal plot vineyards. A For the past two years, reLearn more: Search keywords total of nine flights were arranged searchers at Cornell, Penn State NE 1020. by variety and by processing trials and the Connecticut Agricultural such as different yeasts, and they included Experiment Station have worked together to 46 wines made from v inifera and hybrid produce wines for the project (initially funded through the Viticultural Consortium via (Continued on page 88.)
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WineEastNews
(Continued from page 88.)
grapes. Participants in the tasting were requested to give sensory input about the various samples such as each wines likeability and its commercial potential. The wines made at Cornell involved several wine yeast trials, including wines fermented with Vin 13, a yeast strain that is known for its ability to release thiol-related volatile compounds that are important to aromatic varieties. Other yeasts including Cross Evolution, Elixir, EC 1118, Top Floral,
GRE, ES 488, Rhone 4600, ICV Opale and NT 116 were evaluated in wines from all three states. Denise Gardner, extension enologist at Penn State, looked at the differences between a monoculture (a single commercial yeast strain) and dual culture (inoculation with two commercial yeast strains at one time) in the Cabernet Franc ros wines. Vidal Blanc was the only flight where the wines came from all three states, and they reflected the differences in climate of
Cultivar participants taste Pennsylvania Cabernet Franc ross and Cabernet Sauvignon.
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each region and differing grape and wine chemistries. The fruit from Erie County in Pennsylvania was higher in sugar (21.4 Brix) than that from either New York (17.7 Brix) or Connecticut (18.7 Brix), and the total acidity in the finished wine varied from a high of 9.08 g/L in the Pennsylvania wine to a low of 7.3 g/L in one of the New York wines. The Connecticut wines were much higher in malic acid than tartaric acid, which seemed to make them show fewer characteristics typical of Vidal. The Pennsylvania and New York wines, on the other hand, had the light peach-citrus flavors and crisp finish often associated with Vidal wines. One of the attractions of attending the Cultivar by Region tasting was the chance to taste samples of wine made from two recently named New York hybrid grapes, the white varietal Aromella and the red varietal Arandell. The Aromella wines were quite aromatic, with floral and Muscat characteristics. The two wines made with the Vin 13 yeast strain definitely reflected that yeasts reputation for enhancing the aromatic qualities of the resulting wines. The wines in the Arandell flight came from two vintages, 2011 and 2012. The variables under consideration in these wines were whether the vines were own-rooted or grafted and which trellising system the vines were grown onVSP or high-wire cordon. The wines from 2011 included samples from both own-rooted and grafted vines grown on each training system, while in 2012 the wines came only from grafted vines. The wines made from grapes grown on grafted vines on high-wire cordon in both vintages had berry fruit flavors with some hints of black pepper as well as a good tannin structure. The researchers associated with the NE 1020 project in the three states have not yet determined when or how the data from the tasting will be compiled. Additional information about the NE 1020 project is available at extension.psu.edu/enology. Linda Jones McKee
WineEastNews Arkansas Winery Swept Away by Flood

New tanks looked like beer cans a giant had stepped on, owner says
ureka Springs, Ark.A small winery in rural northern Arkansas was swept away during a flood Aug. 7, washing away the building, winesandvines.com almost all equipment Learn more: Search keywords and even its vine Railway Winery. trellises, cordons and grapes. All that is left at 500-case Railway Winery are the trunks of the vines. The winery sat on 15.5 acres, half of which was planted to hybrid vines with a bit of Cabernet Franc planted in 2009. Owners Greg and Vicki Schneider had just received three new stainless steel fermentation tanks the week before, and they were destroyed along with their existing tanks. We found some of the tanks downstream. They looked like beer cans a giant had stepped on, Schneider said. He found one fermentor and pounded it back into approximate shape. We can use it to ferment Waterloo_Nov10.qxp 8/26/10 11:36 AM fruit wines.
Railway Winerys 4-foot foundation couldnt keep it safe from a flood in northern Arkansas.
All other winemaking equipment, case goods and memorabilia in the winery were destroyed or missing except for a basket press Schneider was able to salvage. He found parts of it downstream. Schneider lived through another flood of Butler Creek a few years ago, which he was told was the flood of the century. Because of the earlier flood, Schneider built the winPage 1 ery, a converted workshop and storage area,
on a 4-foot foundation. It didnt help: This onslaught was three or four times higher. Of the thousand bottles of wine that went downstream, the Schneiders found fewer than a dozen. The floodwater also washed gravel out of the creek bed and deposited it on part of the vineyard, burying the trunks of the vines. Schneider hopes that the vines will regrow. He had 1,100 grapevines planted and 400 cuttings growing in a nursery. Schneider said he will rebuild, but he plans to do so on higher ground. Doug Hausler and Edwige Denyszyn, the owners of Keels Creek Winery, the only other winery nearby, have offered space for Schneider to make and sell wines, which will have to be made with purchased grapes. A fund to help Railway Winery recover from the flood has been established at Cornerstone Bank. Paul Franson
Establishing a Noiret Vineyard

Vine training program, spacing and root system impact yield and fruit composition By Justine E. Vanden Heuvel
WineEast
Grapegrowing
oiret is an interspecific red hybrid wine grape that was released by Cornell University in 2006. The original cultivar description (Reisch et al. 2006) describes the growth as semi-upright to semi-trailing and reports that Noiret is smaller than both Concord and GR7 with respect to yield and vine size. However, anecdotal reports from Finger Lakes growers suggest that Noiret vines can be vegetative and unruly. Many growers are interested in planting this cultivar, but there is little research to provide guidance about the appropriate viticultural practices for Noiret. Should the vines be own-rooted or grafted? What training system should be employed? How close or far apart should the vines be spaced? The objective of this field study was to investigate the impact of training system, vine spacing and rootstock on vine growth, yield components, fruit composition and consumer preference for Noiret wines produced from a young vineyard. Materials and methods Vineyard site and experimental design. The planting was established in 2007 at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., in a block with deep, well-drained Honeoye fine silt
loam. Rows were spaced 9 feet apart and oriented north-south. The experiment was replicated five times. The treatments were training system, as the main plot high-wire cordon (HWC) vs. low cordon with vertical shoot positioning (LVSP), and vine spacing as the subplot (6 feet vs. 8 feet), with root system (own-rooted vs. grafted on 101-14 Mgt) randomized among the sub-plots. Panels were 24 feet
Wine East HIGHLIGHTS

A New York field study about the recently introduced red hybrid wine grape Noiret investigated the impact that planting and training decisions have on grape and wine production. High-wire cordon was compared to low cordon with vertical shoot positioning; vine spacing was 6 feet vs. 8 feet, and root systems were own-rooted vs. grafted on 101-14 Mgt rootstock. Early results suggest that the inherent vigor and downward growth habit of Noiret make it unsuitable for a VSP trellis system in the early years of the vineyard.
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Fruit composition. The 20-cluster sample was thawed at room temperature and crushed by hand. The slurry was pressed through cheese cloth to yield a juice sample. Soluble solids, pH and TA were determined using standard practices. Winemaking. Field replicates for each grafted treatment (grafted HWC/6, grafted HWC/8, grafted LVSP/6, grafted LVSP/8) were combined and then separated into two lots for replicated fermentations. Fruit was destemmed, crushed and treated with 50 mg/L sulfur dioxide added as potassium metabisulfite. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) was added at a rate of 1 g/kg, Fermaid K at 0.1 g/L and Goferm at 0.15 g/L in 2009. When yeast-assimilable nitrogen was measured in 2010, all lots were found to have at least 200 mg/L, so no nitrogen supplement was added beyond the GoFerm Protect (0.3 g/L) at yeast rehydration. The must was brought to 20C and inoculated with ICV-GRE to 0.27 g/L. Fermentation was performed with skin contact in 114-liter jacketed stainless steel fermentors with automated temperature control. During the first three days of alcoholic fermentation, the must was warmed slowly from 20C to a maximum of 30-35C, after which the temperature was held between 20 and 30C. Cap management consisted of manual punch down performed twice daily throughout fermentation. When residual sugar reached <0.5%, as measured by Clinitest tablets, wines were dejuiced, racked into standard 5-gallon glass carboys and inoculated with Alpha to start malolactic fermentation (MLF). Upon completion of MLF, potassium metabisulfite was added to maintain 40 mg/L free sulfur dioxide. Wines were cold stabilized at 2C.
Noiret clusters were not fully ripe in mid-September 2013.
in length and contained either three or four vines, depending on the vine-spacing treatment. A panel of guard vines was planted at the end of each row, and drip irrigation was installed in the planting. Vine survival was excellent, and all vines were established on the training systems by September 2008. Due to the significantly smaller size of the own-rooted vines, data was collected for grafted vines only in 2009, but for all vines in the experiment in 2010. Yield components. Fruit from each vine was hand harvested Nov. 4, 2009, and Oct. 22, 2010. Yield per vine was quantified using a hanging scale, and cluster number per vine was recorded. A random sample of 20 clusters per experimental unit was collected at harvest and stored at -40C until analysis. Vines were pruned during the winter to five nodes per foot of canopy during the spring of 2009 and six nodes per foot of canopy during spring 2010; pruning weights were also collected.
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Treatment Yield (Tons per Acre) Cluster Number per Foot Average Cluster Weight (Pounds) Pruning Weight (Pounds per Foot) 2009 Training System LVSP HWC 2009 Vine Spacing 6 feet 8 feet 2010 Training System LVSP HWC 2010 Vine Spacing 6 feet 8 feet 2010 Root System Own-Rooted Grafted /101-14 Mgt. 3.6 4.2 5 6 0.26 0.31 0.66 0.64 2.4 3.1 3.6 4.2 6 6 0.26 0.31 0.70 0.61 2.4 3.1 3.1 4.7 6 6 0.22 0.35 0.67 0.63 2.1 3.4 4.9 4.5 9 7 0.22 0.24 0.67 0.51 3.6 3.8 4.9 4.6 9 8 0.22 0.24 0.57. 0.60 3.9 3.5
Grapegrowing
Impact of Training, Vine Spacing and Root System
Cropload Ratio Soluble Solids (oBrix) pH TA (g/L)
17.6 17.7
3.56 3.46
10.1 12.3
17.5 17.9
3.51 3.52
11.3 11.2
18.3 18.2
3.62 3.55
5.7 5.8
18.3 18.2
3.60 3.57
5.8 5.6
18.2 18.3
10:59 AM
3.56 3.62
Page 1
5.9 5.5
LVSP: low cordon with vertical shoot positioning; HWC: high-wire cordon; Cropload ratio = yield/pruning weight, an indication of vine balance.
H&W_Dec10.qxp
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1/22/09 9:47 AM
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In 2009, titratable acidity was adjusted to 6.5 g/L through the addition of potassium carbonate prior to cold stabilization; in 2010, the same acid level was achieved with the addition of tartaric acid post-cold stabilization. The wines were screened for faults by an expert panel prior to bottling in standard 750ml glass bottles closed with screwcaps. Consumer wine preference. For each vintage, wines produced from the four treatments were compared through preference ranking. Twenty-six sensory panelists were selected from a list of volunteer subjects maintained by the Cornell Enology Extension Lab based on their availability and frequency of red wine consumption; all panelists reported consuming red wine at least once per month. As we were not interested in preferences for one vintage over another, wines produced in 2009 and 2010 were evaluated in two separate flights of four wines each; each panelist evaluated both flights during a single session, with a five-minute break between flights. Wines from both vintages were evaluated over two days during late July and early August 2011. Panelists were seated in sensory booths and presented with 30ml samples of each wine, served at room temperature in 300ml ISO tasting glasses labeled with random three-digit numbers and covered with petri dish lids. Wine serving order was randomized within and across participants. Panelists were asked to smell all the samples prior to indicating aroma preference by ranking wines from one (most favored) to four (least favored). Wines were not ranked for gustatory properties, as research wines are generally unfinished so that viticultural differences among treatments are not masked by cellar practices such as oak exposure or tannin additions, and in our experience unfinished red hybrid wines are generally poorly rated by consumer panels. Results Yield components and vine growth. Yield components were minimally impacted by training system or vine spacing in 2009, likely due to vine age; vines had been minimally cropped during their second growing season to encourage vegetative growth, so there was little carryover effect of treatments from the previous growing season. In 2010, vines in the HWC system produced approximately 1.6 tons per acre more fruit than vines growing in the LVSP system by producing bigger (not more) clusters. Yield was 0.6 tons per acre greater in vines spaced at 8 feet compared to those spaced at 6 feet as a result of having larger clusters. Pruning weight was 0.9 pounds per foot lower in the 8-foot treatment, and the crop-load ratio (an indication of vine balance) was greater. Grafted vines produced 0.6 tons per acre more fruit, and the crop-load ratio was higher compared to own-rooted vines. Fruit composition. Training system and spacing had little impact on fruit composition in either year of the study, but fruit from grafted vines was 0.4 g/L lower in TA compared to own-rooted vines, while root system had no impact on soluble solids or pH (see table on page 92). Consumer wine preference. Sensory analysis of the wines using a tool called rank sum analysis indicated that wines from the 2009 vintage produced from the HWC/8 treatment were significantly preferred to wines produced from the LVSP/6 treatment based on aromatic preference. Wines from the two HWC treatments were ranked first and third preferentially, while wines from the two LVSP
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Noiret on HWC/6-foot spacing exhibits excessive vigor.
treatments ranked second and fourth. Analysis of wines produced in 2010 indicated that the wine from the HWC/6 treatment was significantly preferred to wine produced from LVSP/6 and ranked first and fourth, respectively.
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Discussion In 2010, training system, vine spacing and root system all impacted yield and the crop-load ratio with LVSP, tighter vine spacing (6 feet) and own-roots, all resulting in lower crop-load ratios and lower yields through reduced cluster weights. Vertical shoot positioning has been repeatedly demonstrated to reduce yield as a result of excessive canopy density in other hybrid cultivars unless the canopy is divided with a training system such as Scott Henry. In this study, yield per foot of canopy increased with greater spacing, which differs from results reported for other hybrids, where increased spacing had limited influence on yield of Chancellor (Reynolds et al. 1995) and reduced yield of Seyval Blanc (Reynolds et al. 2004). However, pruning weight per foot of canopy was considerably lower in those studies compared to the pruning weights reported here for Noiret. This may indicate that vines in this study were considerably more vegetative than those in comparable studies, a suggestion supported by the exceedingly low crop-load ratios reported here (approximately 3-4) compared to those reported for Chancellor (five-year average of 11-16) (Reynolds et al. 1995) and Seyval Blanc (five-year average of 18-22) (Reynolds and Wardle 1994). Pruning weights in this study suggested that Noiret vines can grow much larger than initially reported in the cultivar description. Yields reported here for HWC were in a similar range as those reported by Reisch et al. (2006). However, yield of LVSP was considerably lower than HWC in 2010. Compared to other hybrid pruning weight data reported in the academic literature, Noiret in this study was larger than every hybrid cultivar other than Corot Noir and Chancellor. Crop-load ratios in this study were in a similar range to those reported in the cultivar description for a New York planting, but were considerably lower than crop-load ratios reported for Noiret in Vincennes, Ind. (7.5), and West Lafayette, Ind. (6.4), over a six- and 10-year period, respectively (Reisch et al. 2006). Although the cultivar release bulletin suggested that cluster thinning may be helpful in some years, the young vines in this study were overly vegetative and did not produce enough fruit. While there is no specific recommendation for an appropriate crop-load ratio for Noiretor for hybrids in generalrecommendations have ranged from 8 to 12 (Bordelon et al. 2008). Management practices to increase the yield of Noiret need to be pursued.
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The significant preference of the panel for the aroma of an HWC wine compared to the aroma of a LVSP wine in both years, combined with the lower yield and crop-load ratio reported for the LVSP in 2010 compared to the HWC, suggests that the preference for the HWC wines may be a function of the higher yield. We found the LVSP on 6-foot vine spacing to be exceedingly difficult to manage due to the general propensity of Noiret for vegetative growth. The LVSP canopies required multiple hedging passes (minimum of three passes in each growing season), as shoots would grow over the top catch wire and then downward, resulting in complete coverage of the fruiting zone with downward growing shoots. Additionally, the raising of catch wires in the LVSP system generally resulted in unintended but significant leaf removal as the foliage was so dense and confined. Due to the excessive vegetativeness of vines in the 6-foot spacing treatment, every other vine was removed from the 6-foot vine-spacing treatment in the study in early 2011 to investigate the impact of 12-foot vine spacing with this cultivar. Conclusion Noiret vineyards planted on fertile soils in regions with ample precipitation can be extremely vigorous with low crop-load ratios. These early results provide the first guidance about choosing a training system and vine spacing for Noiret, and they suggest that the inherent vigor and downward growth habit of the cultivar make it unsuitable for training to a vertically shoot-positioned system during the early years of the vineyard. Preference testing conducted with wines from this study also supports the suggestion that vertically shoot-positioned systems be avoided, as the consumer wine panel preferred the aroma of an HWC wine to the LVSP/6 wine in both years of the study. Greater vine spacing should also be considered for Noiret, as in our study vines in the 8-foot spacing treatment had lower pruning weights and greater yields on a per foot of canopy basis. W E Justine Vanden Heuvel, is an associate professor of viticulture at Cornell University, where she is actively involved in both research and teaching. Her research is focused around improving both the environmental and economic sustainability of wine grape production systems in cool climates.
References
B ordelon, B.P., P.A. Skinkis and P.H. Howard. 2008. Impact of training system on vine performance and fruit composition of Traminette. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 59: 39-46. R eisch, B.I., R.S. Luce, B. Bordelon and T. Henick-Kling. 2006. Noiret grape. New York State Agricultural Experiment Station bulletin 160. R eynolds, A.G. and D.A. Wardle. 1994. Impact of training system and vine spacing on vine performance and berry composition of Seyval Blanc. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 45: 444-451. R eynolds, A.G., D.A. Wardle and A.P. Naylor. 1995. Impact of training system and vine spacing on vine performance and berry composition of Chancellor. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 46: 88-97. R eynolds, A.G., D.A. Wardle, M.A. Cliff and M. King. 2004. Impact of training system and vine spacing on vine performance, berry composition and wine sensory attributes of Seyval and Chancellor. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 55: 84-95. V anden Heuvel, J.E., S.D. Lerch, C. Coquard Lenerz, J.M. Meyers and A.K. Mansfield. 2013. Training system and vine spacing impact vine growth, yield, and fruit composition in a vigorous young Noiret vineyard. HortTechnology. 23(4):505-510.
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B O T T L E S

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Bridget Williams Publishing Information Barbara Summer Volume 94, Number 10

BROWSE current and archived issues

Win es & Vin e s O C TO B E R 20 13 5

OCTOBER BOTTLES AND LABELS ISSUE

BOTTLES AND LABELS

Contributors 4 Editors Letter 8

Bottles, Labels and Wine making. By Jim Gordon

Wine Industry Metrics 10

Most Effective Labels 42

Conference explores design, planning, materials.

Protect Your Reputation 44

Lessons from the Anti-Counterfeiting Seminar.

A Winery With Personality 46

Orders Herald Optimism 52 Ross Cobb on Subtlety 55

Tasting Room Focus 21 Product News 28

Faces & Forums 30

Wine Library Association Annual Tasting; A Family Affair In San Francisco.

Asking for the Sale 58

Inquiring Winemaker 82 Advertisers Index 98

Twelve tips for tasting room customer service.

The Skinny on Skin Contact for Whites. By Tim Patterson

WINE EAST IN WINES & VINES

News from Eastern North America 86

Cultivars by Region; Arkansas Winery Swept Away by Flood.

NORTHWEST CENTRAL CALIFORNIA EAST

Establishing Noiret Vines 90

REGIONS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE

Trellising, spacing and root systems impact fruit.

COVERING NORTH AMERICA

Bottles, Labels and Winemaking

Good luck with harvest

Wine Industry Metrics

533,075,041 Domestic Wine Sales

DtC Shipments Lead Positive August Metrics

Direct-to-Consumer (DtC) Shipments

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DtC Cabernet Sauvignon Sales by Price Segments

$40 100 100100 $0

Cabernet Grows in Sales, Volume

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, Wines & Vines

52 weeks through Aug. 11, 2013

The Flash Report

Latest Flash Data

Flash Offers Drop to 2011 Level

$26.89 $23.31 $30.08 $21.69 $17.79 $25.44 $16.10 $18.75 $15.46

Source: Wines Vines Analytics, winesandvines.com/flash *Source: Compete.com, Aug. 2013