the voice of the wine industry

EIGHth annual technology Issue
T H E VO I C E O F T H E W I N E I N D U S T RY
W W W. W I N E S A N DV I N E S . C O M
J U LY 2 0 1 2
Tablet
To Tank
How Montelena manages fermentation 24
Micro-Oxygenation
Refined 30
Tech Consultant
Rick Jones 36
Barrel Rehab
Methods 44
PLUS
Walla Walla’s Artifex
Wine East: Rootstocks
Recent Advances at Davis
In This Issue
Thomas Ulrich
former technology
writer for HewlettPackard, Ulrich explains
how cellar staffers at
Chateau Montelena gave
up their clipboards and
installed more flexible
tank controls and powerful software to better manage and record
what happens during fermentation.
A
Andrew Adams
he air we breathe
has been the default
source of oxygen for
hundreds of years. Then
came micro-oxygenation
for winemakers who
wanted to get really strategic about the process
and use pure oxygen. Andrew Adams takes
a close look at the latest developments.
T
Andrew Reynolds
requent contributor
Andrew Reynolds,
professor of viticulture
at Brock University in
Ontario, shares recent
research about how
rootstock choices
influence wine quality
parameters, particularly for Shiraz and
Cabernet Sauvignon.
F
July’s Cover
hateau Montelena
assistant winemaker
Matthew Crafton uses a
TankNET tablet and tank
control to track and trigger essential steps in the
cellar. The software used
incorporates TankNET
and VINx2 technologies. Photo by Jamie
Thrower of Studio 13 Designs.
C
T H E V O I C E O F T H E W I N E I N D U S T RY
W W W. W I N E S A N DV I N E S . C O M
J U LY 2 0 1 2
Tablet
To Tank
How Montelena manages fermentation 24
Micro-Oxygenation
Refined 30
Tech Consultant
Rick Jones 36
Barrel Rehab
Methods 44
PLUS
Walla Walla’s Artifex
Wine East: Rootstocks
Recent Advances at Davis
4 W in es & V i ne s J U LY 2 0 1 2
A Member of Wine Communications Group Inc.
EDITORIAL
Editor
Jim Gordon
Managing Editor
Kate Lavin
Staff Writer
Andrew Adams
Senior Correspondent
Paul Franson
Contributing Editor
Jane Firstenfeld
Northwest Correspondent
Peter Mitham
Columnists
Winemaking:
Tim Patterson, Clark Smith
Grapegrowing:
Cliff Ohmart, Glenn T. McGourty
Wine East
Editors:
Hudson Cattell, Linda Jones McKee;
Writer: Richard Carey
Contributing Writers
Laurie Daniel, Jamie Goode,
Chris Stamp, Thomas Ulrich,
Wayne Wilcox, Stephen Yafa
Advertising
West: Jacques Brix,
Vice President & Director of Sales
(707) 473-0244,
[email protected]
Midwest: Hooper Jones
Associates Inc.
(847) 486-1021,
[email protected]
East: Marsha Tabb
(215) 794-3442,
[email protected]
International: Dave Bayard
(973) 822-9275, [email protected]
Advertising Manager
Christina Ballinger
Circulation
Circulation Manager
Emilee Schumer
Circulation Assistant
Alia Vander Lind
database development &
information technology
Database Manager
Lynne Skinner
Database & Web Development
PUBLISHING James Rust, Peter Scarborough
President & Publisher
Chet Klingensmith Research Assistant
Allison Bowser
Publishing Assistant
Caroline Shakeshaft Design & Production
Chairman Design & Production Manager
Hugh Tietjen Bridget Williams
Publishing Consultant Ad Prepress
Ken Koppel Deborah Roberti
Publishing Information
Volume 93, Number 7
Wines & Vines, ISSN 043-583X, a member of
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JULY — EIGHTH ANNUAL TECHNOLOGY ISSUE
24
COVER STORY
When Hardware and
Software Meet 24
DEPARTMENTS
Contributors 4
Editor’s Letter 8
Software, Hardware
and a Digital Edition.
By Jim Gordon
Chateau Montelena combines new cellar
technologies to track production wirelessly
and do away with hand-written records.
Wine Industry Metrics 10
Job Outlook Is Highest in Four
Years; Price Reductions
Accompany Dollar Sales
Growth; More U.S. Wineries
Enter Flash Market.
TECHNOLOGY
Using Micro-Oxygenation
To Improve Wine Quality 30
News Headlines 14
Remaining Ascentia Wineries
Sold Off; U.S. Wine Shipments
to Canada Climb; Grapegrowers Hear Good News; Marketing to the Next Generation;
Napa Auction Raises $7.6
Million. Plus News Bytes and
Briefs.
Winemakers and suppliers share secrets about
using precise levels of pure oxygen for wines.
Winemaker Interview:
Rick Jones Talks Tech 36
Product News 23
Latest Winery & Grower
Offerings and Developments.
Early adopter of cellar technology calls himself
a “catalyst” for advancing winemaking tools.
30
TECHNICAL REVIEW
44
Building a Custom Crush 40
Inquiring Winemaker 48
What Winemakers Are Excited
About. By Tim Patterson
Postmodern Winemaking 54
New Developments at UC
Davis. By Clark Smith
Leading figures in Washington winemaking
open custom crush site in Walla Walla.
Advertisers’ Index 66
BARRELS
WINE EAST IN WINES & VINES
Methods for Making Old
Barrels ‘New’ Again 44
News from Eastern
North America 59
ASEV-ES to Convene in Traverse City, Mich.; Nova Scotia
Winery Gains Investor.
Winemakers experiment with reconditioning
to get new oak flavor while saving money.
NORTHWEST
States’ Wine Histories 61
New books detail the pasts of Maryland and
Connecticut as well as Thomas Jefferson’s vines.
CENTRAL
CALIFORNIA
Rootstocks and Vines 63
Research reports detail how rootstocks affect
yield, vine performance and berry composition.
6 W in e s & V i ne s J U LY 2 0 1 2
EAST
REGIONS
FEATURED IN
THIS ISSUE
COVERING NORTH AMERICA
COVER STORY
When
Hardware
and
Software
Converge
CA L I F ORNIA
Mendocino
Chateau Montelena
Pacific
Ocean
Santa Rosa
Napa
NV
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco
Chateau Montelena
explores new cellar
technologies to keep
up with production
By Thomas Ulrich
W
ALL PHOTOS: JAMIE THROWER
Winemaker Cameron Parry adjusts the wireless tank thermostat that monitors and drives fermentation at Chateau Montelena in Calistoga, Calif.
24 W in es & V i ne s J U LY 2 012
inemakers have
tracked vintages
from standalone
computers for
decades. They
transferred journal
entries from notebooks and clipboards—
paperwork that Chateau Montelena winemaker Cameron Parry replaced as part of
a recent renovation at the 130-year-old
winery in Calistoga, Calif.
Parry equipped the production lab
and winery with a new generation of
electronic tools. They report data more
quickly and accurately, and they take the
information that he and assistant winemaker Matthew Crafton collect and help
shape it into a comprehensive vision for
the 2011 vintage.
During the 2010 harvest, a half-dozen
clipboards piled up on Parry’s desk when
they weren’t being passed from winemaker
to assistant winemaker and back again.
“You could see the skid marks between our
two desks,” Crafton recalls. “We’d often ask
one another: ‘Who’s got the clipboard?’”
COVER STORY
Highlights
•P
ortable computers accelerate the pace of
retrieving data and improve the accuracy
of laboratory and winery records.
•P
owerful software keeps track of production details so that the winemaker can
concentrate on improving wine quality.
•F
lexible hardware and software make
production much more efficient.
And when they finally accessed the aging
database, they would often “get in each
other’s way,” Parry says. “I’d be working on
a harvest report. Matt would be entering lab
work or work-order related information.”
Once the electronic ledger was updated
with test results and the status of each
tank, the pair tracked day-to-day operations with another stand-alone tool—a
large, laminated whiteboard. “One step
in the winery meant eight steps in the
bw.7.625x4.875.pdf
database,”
Crafton says. 11/25/08 9:49:55
The computer monitor hanging above winemaker Cameron Parry’s desk provides a comprehensive and up-to-date glance at the current status of the cellar.
And it showed.
“During harvest, Cameron would say,
‘What’s in the tank?’” Crafton recalls. “I’d
be at least two days behind” reporting the
status of the tanks and lab results.
Parry admits that the software he
AMacquired last spring has accelerated the
pace of retrieving data and improved
the accuracy of laboratory and winery
reports. Instead of recording data in
several places and waiting as many as 48
hours to review results, he can enter it
once and evaluate the information within
a few hours.
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Win es & Vi n es JU LY 20 12 25
IDL_Dir11
11/18/10
4:21 PM
Page 1
COVER STORY
IDL
Iván D. Lessner
Process Solutions Inc.
Process & Product Development
Alcoholic & Non Alcoholic
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Equipment Sales
■ R. WAGNER: Rapid SO2, TA
■ ERBSLOEH: Fining & Treatment Agents, Yeasts,
Enzymes, CelluFluxx (D.E. Replacement)
■ TRUST: Quality Hungarian Oak Barrels & Chips
■ EMD: Reflectoquant Analyzer & Kits
1164 Lee Street, White Rock, B.C. V4B 4P4 Canada
Phone: (604) 538-2713 Fax: (604) 538-4517
www.idlconsulting.com
As it happens
Today, Crafton and Parry watch over the winery from a 32-inch
screen that hangs above Parry’s desk. It displays a cellar map
that records the temperature, value and time of the last Brix
measurement, fill-level, set points, status and the lot code of 45
stainless steel fermentation tanks as fast as the cellar crew, wireless thermostats or the electronic probes can report them.
The computer monitor depicts each stainless steel fermentor as
an animated icon that shows the status of each tank. Selecting an
icon retrieves up-to-date information about its contents.
“A visual representation of the (winemaking) process allows
me to take in everything at once,” Parry says as a tank icon
changes color, signaling that Crafton has inoculated the juice.
Without armloads of notebooks and clipboards, Parry can follow fermentation from the 32-inch laboratory LCD screen. From
a tablet computer, he can follow the process all the way to the
shipping dock. Armed with software and controllers that drive
production, the desktop and portable computers present him
with a timely and comprehensive view of the 2011 vintage.
“The harvest is much easier to manage with digital, graphical representations,” Parry says. “It’s a snapshot, a moment in time. I can
see what’s already happened and decide what needs to happen next.
Such foresight reflects the convergence of flexible hardware
and powerful software—a concept that took hold in U.S. manufacturing more than a quarter-century ago.
Bye, bye clipboards
S
data-driven
continuous improvement
hortly after the 2010 harvest,
the thermostat screen, selecting
Matthew Crafton walked into
the field and entering a value.
the Chateau Montelena cellar
Say Parry wants to cool the
with three clipboards, a densi-
tank at the end of fermenta-
tometer, sample vials and hand-
tion. The cellar team gathers a
drawn
graphs.
sample. The lab reports the re-
“We’d store the information we
sidual sugar has reached 0.08%.
fermentation
gathered in several
Crafton enters the
places including a
value into the data-
fermentation card
base, which alerts
and the database.”
VINx2. The pro-
no
duction software
longer litter wine-
signals the con-
maker
trol software that
Clipboards
Cameron
cameron parry
Parry’s desk. In
•
•
•
Efficiency – Drive costs out
Performance – Maximize yield
and quality
Compliance – Streamline
record-keeping and reporting
SureHarvest Farming MIS
For Vineyards Everything in one place.
Call: 831.477.7797 Visit: www.sureharvest.com
26 W in e s & V i ne s J U LY 2 012
the winery, Crafton
and the five-person cellar team
enter information
into a program-
Tank changes and lot status used to be recorded on
a white board.
the status of the
tank has changed.
TankNET triggers a
controller to open
a solenoid. Coolant floods the fer-
mable thermostat attached to
mentation tank jacket, lowering
each fermentation tank or a tab-
the temperature of the fermented
let computer.
fruit to a set value.
They can specify a temperature
“The project is unique,” Parry
range, report a Brix measurement
says, “because VINx2 and Tank-
or record a pump over by scroll-
NET talk to each other.”
ing down a list that appears on
T.U.
COVER STORY
Parry and Crafton are among the first winemakers to integrate TankNET with VINx2. TankNET is a temperature-control
system composed of browser-accessible software and wireless
tank thermostats that monitor and drive fermentation. VINx2
is production software that captures data and helps guide the
process from receiving grapes at the winery to locating cases of
finished goods in the warehouse. Together, they track and trigger
the essential steps for producing and shipping wine.
TankNET control software and VINx2 production software
share data. When Crafton completes a work order, he records the
event on his tablet computer. VINx2 uploads information such as
when he inoculated the juice, the movement or addition of wine
and whether the tank is empty, full or somewhere in between. The
TankNET web server updates information displayed on the 32-inch
electronic whiteboard hanging from a wall in the production lab.
When Crafton inoculated the tank, for example, he entered the
information onto the tablet computer, and the completed assignment became part of the electronic record.
“Once VINx2 alerted TankNET of the change, the LCD
informed me that the status of the tanks had changed from an
inoculated to a fermenting red,” Parry says.
In the production lab or the winery, Crafton, Parry and other
members of the cellar team can use tablet computers to add
information such as analysis results to the database. Over time the
cellar team compiles a history of their wines, one vintage at a time.
Working the cellar
“We take the tablet computer into the cellar, with its water-proof
case, where we can update the database by transmitting data wireWinesandVinesFeb2012_BWquarterpagead.pdf
1 Crafton
1/8/12 says.
7:50 PM
lessly from
the tablet computer to the web server,”
Each barrel at Chateau Montelena is given a barcode sticker. When
cellar workers finish a job such as racking or filling, the barrels are
scanned and their statuses are updated in the main computer system.
TANKNET® THERMOSTATS
operate stand-alone and network with
NO NEW WIRES at the tank.
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707 938-1300
WWW.ACROLON.COM
®
Win es & Vi n es JU LY 20 12 27
COVER STORY
Before these rugged computers entered
the cellar, workers would stencil serial
numbers on each barrel. “Inevitably there
would be a problem,” Parry says. “We’d
send them back to the cellar to re-enter
the number.”
Now, staffers print a bar code and attach it to the barrel. They can identify the
barrel electronically and record information on the tablet computer. And unlike a
clipboard that merely stores information,
the tablet permits Parry and Crafton to
drive production with a few keystrokes.
With software modules that keep tabs on
everything from receiving fruit at the winery to tracking inventory in the warehouse,
winemakers can tackle broader challenges
like elevating the caliber of their wine.
TankNET hardware
TankNET offers two types of temperature
controllers ranging from $249 to $399
per tank, according to Paul Egidio at Acrolon Technologies, supplier of TankNET:
1) Tank-mounted thermostats for wineries that prefer a temperature controller on
each tank. This is the type Chateau Montelena has (PL-1 thermostats to be precise);
2) Central panel controls for those that
do not require controllers for each tank
Wine Production Software Suppliers
COMPANY
PHONE
WEBSITE
Acrolon Technologies Inc.
Foss North America Inc.
Logix Controls
Modular Information Systems
Orion Wine Software (formerly eSkye
& Vintage Consultants)
Vintegrate, a division of KLH Consulting Inc.
VINx2 by JX2 Technology Pty. Ltd.
Wine Management Systems
Wine Technology America
The Winemaker’s Database Inc.
(707) 938-1300
acrolon.com
(800) 547-6275
foss.us
(425) 828-4149
logix-controls.com
(866) 647-3757
vintnersadvantage.com
(714) 768-6199
orionwinesoftware.com
(707) 575-9986
vintegrate.com
(888) 240-4860
winery-software.com.au
(800) 656-9521
winemanagementsystems.com
(707) 703-1861
vinwizard.com
(831) 465-8310
wmdb.com
For more on wine production software suppliers, see Wines & Vines’
2012 Buyer’s Guide in print or online at winesandvinesbuyersguide.com.
(wineries like Fetzer, Concannon and others use these controls).
Having both options lets wineries
choose the best configuration for their
aesthetic and functional needs, Egidio
says. Typically, the type of system TankNET is replacing dictates which type of
controls the winery chooses. All TankNET controllers also operate stand-alone
(they do not need software in order to
function, be monitored and/or adjusted),
regardless of type.
Acrolon offers two versions of its TankNET browser/iPhone/Android control
software. Costs range from $1,295 to
$3,995. This pricing also includes the web
server on which the software is hosted,
making TankNET a turnkey solution.
Pricing is not subscription-based but
rather a one-time license fee.
VINx2 software
The two most popular options of
VINx2 software are called Base and
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28 W in e s & V i ne s J U LY 2 012
COVER STORY
A color-coded system shows each tank’s status, which can include fill level, temperature and the
last Brix measurement.
has a monthly subscription fee of $300,
and the Advanced Inventory module is
$200 per month. Outright purchase options start at $15,000 for the Base system
plus $7,500 for Advanced Inventory.
Making it better
Before Parry and Crafton launched this
Thomas Ulrich wrote a story about mech­
anical harvesting for the January issue. He
teaches journalism at San Jose State University.
Two years ago, we told the world we
could replicate the flavors of a French
oak barrel by alternative means. Experts
balked, then proved our point in blind
tastings, actually choosing our flavors
over those of prestigious French barrels.
We didn’t stop there. Today we’re offering
the tools to recreate flavor profiles of a
whole range of different barrels. Whether
they come from France or Kentucky,
Hungary or Spain. Never before have
winemakers had such a wide array of
flavor controls at their command.
®
StaVın Inc, P.O.Box 1693, Sausalito,CA 94966
(415) 331-7849 f (415) 331-0516 stavin.com
© 2010 StaVin Inc.
Inventory. VINx2 can be licensed as
a subscription service or purchased
outright, says Jamie Gilchrist at VINx2.
Prices vary depending on the number of
modules and users required.
Gilchrist says the sign-on fees for a subscription option can range from $2,000 to
$7,000. The Base wine production module
new generation of electronic tools at Chateau Montelena, the last vintage and all
the vintages that preceded it were distant
memories. “We couldn’t trace what we
did last year,” Crafton says.
“We want to capture all this data so
that we can make more accurate and
timely decisions to improve the quality of
our wine,” Parry adds.
With hardware and software that keeps
track of variables such as temperature,
pump overs, lab results and even which
batch of fruit stayed on the skins five
hours longer than the rest of the lot, winemakers can parse each vintage and learn
more from their experiences.
“Let’s look at the top 10 lots to see how
they are different (from the other wine we
make) and reproduce them,” Crafton says.
With the 2011 harvest behind them, rethinking the lab and the winery has borne
better-than-expected fruit.
“Since last June, we’ve seen a lot of
stuff for the first time,” Parry says. “Even
after the first harvest, we are much better
off than we were before.”
Win es & V i n es JU LY 20 12 29