Last class was full of interesting (and sometimes conflicting) comments from Thibaut and Ivo, but I thought Prof. Rapp made one of the most interesting observations of the class when she pointed out that not all wineries are fortunate enough to have a winemaker with the knowledge, experience, and sheer talent of Ivo. I thought this was a great point and it got me thinking about how wineries can better store and transfer knowledge. Biodynamic and organic farming obviously require adherence to strict preparation and cultivation practices, but so much of what Ivo was talking about seemed to be based on "feel" and an uncanny understanding of their soil. Ivo's skill in these latter areas was evident in the two wines we tasted, but it wasn't obvious to me how well he could pass this knowledge on. Furthermore, he said it would take several years to understand how to best farm a new piece of land in China so clearly his knowledge is somewhat specific to Grgich Hills Estate. This stood out to me as a potential benefit of family owned wineries that are passed from generation to generation.
Although Ivo resisted Thibaut's technology because he didn't think it created much value for him, I think it could be extremely useful for Grgich Hills moving forward since it could help quantify some of these factors that Ivo seems to innately understand. He was able to easily recall some of the factors that caused their 2011 vintage to be below average, but will the next generation winemaker be able to do the same?
Matt I totally agree that there is an opportunity to better capture and share wine knowledge on to the next generation (whether within the family or not). One of the sources of resistance to me is that the quantification of winemaking runs counter to what many of these winemakers, like Ivo, feel is less a science and more an art: feeling the soil, feeding the soil, feeling that connection to the earth, learning by doing not from a textbook.
ReplyDeleteHello Catherine,
Deletein the spirit of bringing some constructive thoughts, I wanted to share the following:
I often have to explain that collecting vineyard data does not kill the art of making wine. In fact it helps revealing what makes plant response unique. Also, too often, we tend to think that a vineyard site is unique mainly because of its soil composition. While soil properties play an important role at shaping fruit composition, I think this view reduces abusively the complexity of plant responses to other environmental factors. For instance, we typically overlook the effect of temperature variations caused by topography within one single vineyard ... However, the connection to the vineyard is just as much a connection to the climate than it is to the soil.
2011 in Napa was a low heat accumulation year with almost no water deficit. Those conditions slowed down sugar and color accumulation rates. In 2016, it was possible to use this historical knowledge to better predict fruit maturation rate. In fact this was the very topic discussed a few days ago with some key leaders of the wine industry (https://www.vintagereport.com/en/napa-2016-agenda).