Ampelography

Ampelography is the science/art concerned with the identification and classification of grapevines. An art in the pre-World War II era, it became a science thanks to the work of Pierre Galet who systematically assembled unique identification markers for 9,600 vine types back in 1952 in his book "Précis d'ampélographie pratique." Shapes and contours of leaves get you a surprisingly far way, but inputs such as shoots, petioles, cluser shape and color, etc., also assist in the identification process. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon has "a downy growing tip, with a deep rose-colored margin... the leaf looks like it has two eyes and a mouth [when held by its stem]," but Chardonnay has a "shield-shaped leaf, with sawblade-like teeth and... 'naked' veins."

Although an arcane skill, ameplography was once part of the core playbook of viticulturalists since it was essential to confirming that the clippings/roots for replanting and grapes/vine samples were what the grower claimed they were. As you can imagine, DNA technologies (specifically, "DNA fingerprinting") have made grapevines more easily and confidently identifiable with quick and harmless sampling and remote testing. Ampelography, therefore, is dying off.

Despite its decline, ampelography is still incredibly useful especially for wineries that source their grapes (i.e., don't own/know the vineyard intimately). When it's picking day and Gary the Grower, for example, decides to give you a different subplot and asks if it's okay, it's critical to ensure you're getting the grape you ordered and not some other careless planting. I'm glad my co-founders Corinne and Katie paid attention in ampelography class at Davis, because I was helpless in the situation.

Top photo below is our Verdelho leaf and middle is our (replacement) Carignan. Even though we don't produce it, I included a Cabernet Sauvignon at the bottom for reference - you can see how difficult it might be to make a confident identification even vs. the Carignan (not a particularly difficult comparison) especially for a novice on the fly!

Sources: Wikipedia, GuildSomm

Why is there no on-demand late night wine delivery?

Pretty much every time I have wanted to get wine (or any other alcohol) delivered, it has always been a last-minute, ASAP-type of guest entertaining need. And almost every time, I have been disappointed.

The reason was always about timing. This would usually occur in situations where I was already in the middle of hosting people at my place and ran out of wine, or in those moments of spontaneous post-event afterparty offerings. Each time, I would half-heartedly reach for my phone to open (insert booze or grocery delivery app here), and each time, I would see the same error message: "Unfortunately there are no stores in your area delivering at this time. Earliest delivery: Tomorrow, 11am."

I checked Drizzly, Instacart, and Saucey, and each of these apps' latest delivery time is 9pm. This is with the exception of Amazon Prime Now, which would deliver up until midnight within a one hour window for a $10 fee. However, I was only offered this late delivery window for the following evening, and was told there were no available delivery times for that same night when checking the app at 10pm.

Could it truly be that there is not enough of a late-night, impulse-buy booze market to make this profitable for these companies? Maybe not on a weeknight, but on the weekends I find it hard to believe that there is not a lot of pent-up demand for convenient and fast alcohol delivery. Eaze, the on-demand cannabis delivery app, has delivery times until 10pm with delivery windows as small as 5 minutes. If weed can do it, wine should certainly be able to do it too.

Especially in California, where alcohol can be sold off-premise until 2am, why are there not late-night wine and liquor store fronts that are operated primarily as late-night delivery outlets? Their drivers could drive around with a streamlined collection just like Eaze drivers do with cannabis. I think there is a huge opportunity in urban markets as well as in suburban areas where grocery and liquor stores close as early as 8 or 9pm. I suppose Amazon is the most likely candidate to get the job done here. Next time I have this issue between 9 and 10pm, I'll give Amazon Prime wine delivery a try, and I'll let you all know if I manage to receive the wine in any sort of reasonable time frame.

Vine Training 101

During my and Greg’s emerging wine region project on the Canary Islands, one of the most curious facts we learned about was the unique trellising method that is used on the islands. Centuries ago, locals there developed a signature, horizontal grapevine braiding technique called ‘el cordon trenzado,’ or the braided cord. The longest cordon trenzado vine alive today stretches over 80 feet, and some vines in this braid are thicker than a child’s wrist. Since fruit only grow from the ends of these long tresses, this design was useful in the past because the vines could be picked up and moved to make room for planting other crops like potatoes.

I found images of these ancient, rapunzel-like vines to be enchanting and imagination-provoking. The idea of so many gnarly, old vines pouring over volcanic cliffs was almost fantastical. I was not surprised to see images of the cordon trenzados on many a label of the local wines we perused from the region.

The more I reflected about the cordon trenzado and how different it was from the vineyard systems I had seen before, I realized I knew basically nothing about vine training to begin with. Why are these practices needed? Why are some styles used in some places instead of others? To help grapes grow, I figured, but I was curious to look further under the hood to gain a better understanding of this key aspect of the viticultural process.

So I did some research, and here's what I learned:

Vine Training 101

Why do we need vine training? Grapes naturally grow upwards towards the sun, climbing up other plants, trees, or physical structures. Vine training is a way for humans to control otherwise far-reaching vines, enabling us to optimize yield and making the grapes easier to harvest.

A grapevine’s performance is maximized by balancing the amount of fruit development with the amount of leaf production. The leafy part of the canopy is the energy-producing part of the vine. Too much fruit and too few leaves results in an imbalance, in which there is not enough energy produced in the vines to fully ripen the grapes.

On the flip side, too many leaves is not good either. Grape vines should be trained in a way that somewhat exposes the grapes to sun and wind. Too many leaves can create excessive shading, which inhibits grape ripening, and can trap excessive moisture, which can promote grape diseases.

When deciding what vine training system to use, growers will consider which systems can provide their desired yield control, which is best for the local climate, humidity, and wind, and which can suit any desired mechanization of tasks like pruning, irrigation, pesticide and fertilizer application, and harvesting of the grapes.

The terms ‘trellising’, ‘pruning’ and ‘vine training’ are often used incorrectly and interchangeably. ‘Trellises’ are the actual stakes, posts, wires, or other structures that the grapevine is attached to. Most ‘vine training’ deals mainly with the ‘cordon’, the woody, arm-like part of the vine, and the fruit-bearing ‘canes’ that extend from the cordon. ‘Vine training’ systems are the combination of trellising and pruning practices that are applied to the grapevine to influence the quality and yield of that year’s crop. Cordons can be trained in unilateral or bilateral fashion (one arm or two arms), and are usually trained horizontally along wire trellises. In winter, pruning determines the number of buds that are allowed to grow into grape clusters. The exact number of buds is regulated in some wine regions. For example, in France, the number of buds is controlled by AOC regulations.

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That’s far enough down the rabbit hole of vine training research for today. I hope this is helpful to other classmates that might be curious about the grape-growing process. I think it’s time to plan a vineyard trip so we can see some vines through the lens of our newfound viticultural knowledge!

Sources:

https://winemakermag.com/article/1388-backyard-vineyard-trellis-and-training

http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/grape/pdfs/Canopy%20Management%20for%20Hybrids%20-2007.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine_training#Common_vine_training_systems

Wine, Health, and Changing Perceptions

There was once an age when wine was more commonly consumed than water, as a safer and healthier alternative. Today, particularly among younger demographics, wine is seen more as an indulgent "splurge" than a daily drink. What are some drivers, particularly in the health space, behind this changing trend?

One factor I found interesting was wine's altering health perceptions within the United States in recent years. Red wine was once perceived as a heart-healthy beverage, in no small part due to the "French Paradox". The French Paradox refers to the notion, popularized in the 1980's, that drinking wine may explain the relatively low rates of heart disease among the French despite their fondness for cheese and other rich, fatty foods. This theory helped spur the discovery of a host of beneficial plant compounds known as polyphenols. Found in red and purple grape skins (as well as many other fruits, vegetables, and nuts), polyphenols theoretically explain wine’s heart-protecting properties.

According to the Harvard Health Blog, however, these claims are becoming increasingly dubious. A 2014 study of older adults living in the Chianti region of Italy, whose diets were naturally rich in polyphenos said to protect the heart, found no link between these compound levels and rates of heart disease, cancer, or death. While the benefits are far from being disproven, it is likely that Millennials are less certain of wine's health benefits, adding one other factor behind wine's slow growth among this demographic compared to competing alcoholic beverages.

Wine and Jane Austen, part two

I really wasn't planning on writing a second blog post about Jane Austen and wine (how much can there be to say?!), but I stumbled upon another connection. At home in Portland for midterms weekend, I attended Kate Hamill's clever stage adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. After poor Marianne has her heart broken by Mr. Willoughby, Mrs. Jennings offers a glass of "the finest old Constantia wine." (Marianne's sister Elinor drinks the wine instead, but that's beside the point.)

The name "Constantia" rang a bell from my reading of The Wine Bible, so I hurried to look it up. It turns out it's a South African winery with a history dating back to 1685: "Constantia produced Vin de Constance, a luscious dessert wine made from muscat blac a petits grains grapes. The wine rose to become one of the most sought-after dessert wines in all of Europe, ordered by the case by Napoleon Bonaparte and never absent from the table of King Frederick the Great of Germany" (895). And some good news: you can still get Vin de Constance today (though it's not cheap)!

Of course, this all set me wondering whether Jane Austen mentions wine elsewhere in her writings. The answer is, yes, often, especially in her letters. Some interesting things I learned about Austen from her comments on wine:

• Austen wasn't immune to overindulgence and its consequences: "I believe I drank too much wine last night at Hurstbourne; I know not how else to account for the shaking of my hand today." (Letter to Cassandra, 20 Nov 1800)
• She was not a fan of orange wine: "The pleasures of friendship, of unreserved conversation, of similarity of taste and opinions will make good amends for orange wine." (Letter to Cassandra, 20 June 1808)
• In Austen's opinion, increasing wine consumption was a definite advantage of getting older: "By the bye, as I must leave off being young, I find many douceurs in being a sort of chaperon, for I am put on the sofa near the fire and can drink as much wine as I like." (Letter to Cassandra, 6 Nov 1813)

[With thanks to the aptly named blog Drunk Austen, most particularly https://drunkausten.com/2017/06/19/jane-austen-the-wino/.]

USUAL wines

USUAL - from the same people that bring us VineBox (https://usualwines.com/) - is taking over instagram feeds and utilizing digital marketing to build their brand. With minimalist packaging (pic below) and an unusual bottle design, they are targeting millennials who want to soak up summer with their own private stash of wine. At 6.3oz, they are describing their offering as a "large glass of real wine, in a bottle" - the standard glass is 5oz (VineBox vials are 3.4oz). With nearly 8,000 followers

(https://www.instagram.com/usualwines/) their instagram features pictures a desirable lifestyle filled with parties, sunshine, and the finer things. There is really not much about the wine at all, they are selling an experience.

It is not until you go to checkout that you even find out that the wine is from California, what the varietals are, and some information about the production. At $48 / 6 glasses of red or rose, they are charging $8 / 'big' glass - which is not very cheap when compared to your average bottle. BUT - how do you put a price on your own potential instagram posts with your swanky looking bottle? Seemingly there is a strong market out there that is willing to either swallow this price or don't care to do the math and are instead buying this wine exactly for how it is marketed to them - for the experience and the lifestyle that drinking it awards them. Who knows if the wine in this $8 glass compares to a similarly priced traditional bottle (on a per glass basis), my theory is that the people buying it don't really care.

Big Data & Wine

Big data seems to be sneaking into every industry and I was curious how it was impacting the wine industry. After some research, I found some pretty interesting insights:

• Start-ups are beginning to use data analytics to predict customer wine preferences
• A start-up called Bright Cellar leads with its value proposition as the "monthly wine club with the best wine for you". It showcases that the algorithm was developed by MIT grads. When you become a members of the site, the business-model leads you through a quick quiz of preferences (What is your favorite cocktail? Candy? Time to have wine?). For me, the algorithm ultimately suggested two pinot noirs (one from Willamette Valley, which I now know a lot about from the presentations!) and a syrah. 
• Here is the wine quiz link in case anyone would like to take it! https://www.brightcellars.com/wine-quiz/

• Big data is enabling smaller wineries to "fish where the fish are" and better target sales to customers in specific locations. 
• https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/northbay/sonomacounty/8527275-181/wine-marketing-sales-big-data

• The EU has funded a big data project called "Big Data Grapes" aimed at helping European producers become more competitive in large-scale international markets
• http://bigdatagrapes.eu/

There is still significant growth potential in the wine industry for robust data analysis. As one data analyst put it -- 'wine at it's core is an agrarian business' so it's not surprising that there is still significant growth for technology and artificial intelligence adoption.