It’s often said that great wines are grown, not made. Our readers demonstrate that concept perfectly: two out of three wineries that read Wine Business Monthly own vineyards.
This issue includes a few articles focused on the vineyard. Nitrogen content in grapes is of interest to winemakers because it plays a major role in the kinetics of alcoholic fermentation and in the wine’s aromas. Another article in this issue delves into the role specific viticultural practices play in affecting nitrogen content. A 10-year study looked at nitrogen and canopy management.
The wheels of academia and research grind slowly but, as another article indicates, progress has been made in the quest to create vines that are resistant to powdery mildew, part of the VitisGen project. That’s a big deal: Powdery mildew is the most significant vineyard disease of all in terms of expenses for control and potential losses. More chemicals, sulfur and other fungicides are used to combat powdery mildew than to manage any other vineyard problem.
Another piece discusses recent findings on how the third iteration of the VitisGen3 project leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The report from the recent Vinitech show in Bordeaux highlights innovations. Not all of them are available in the U.S. market, yet, but the article provides a snapshot of what could be coming. Much of it involves information technology and automation.
I always enjoy reading the annual selection of “Hot Brands.” The list has evolved through the years but always includes an interesting selection of up-and-coming wines, winemakers and regions. There’s a rundown on various varieties and styles but also discussion of the paths people take on their journeys into winemaking. For some, it’s a family tradition, but most of these winemakers were in other professions. One winemaker on this year’s list was in politics, another in restaurants, another was in mortgage lending, while still another was with the Air Force. One is making wines with students from a local high school, mentoring them on growing the best grapes—in this case Cabernet Sauvignon—possible.
March 2023 • Volume XXX No. 3
Editor Cyril Penn
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Contributors L.M. Archer, Bryan Avila, Richard Carey, Christopher Chen, W. Blake Gray, Mark Greenspan, Michael S. Lasky
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Bruce Reisch
grape breeder and leader, VitisGen2, Cornell University, “Powdery Mildew-resistant ‘Renstack’ Vines Released to the Public Domain”, page 52
Xavier Zamarripa
Co-founder and President, Vara Winery & Distillery, Albuquerque New Mexico, “VARA: A Collaborative Vision,” page 16
“Before marker-assisted selection, we could only observe whether or not powdery mildew was infecting our grapevine selections. Reliable DNA markers allow us to know which resistance genes are present in each seedling we test.”
“To have the highest expression of what you are going to make, you need to provide your artisans with the best tools and materials.”
Paula Harrell
owner, P. Harrell Wines, “Hot Brands of 2022”, page 12
Brent Stone
COO and winemaker, King Estate, Eugene Oregon, “Oregon Sauvignon Blanc Enters the Flagship Fray,” page 22
“You have a blank canvas because there aren’t a lot of expectations for what an Oregon Sauvignon Blanc should or shouldn’t be.”
“I would love to create a handbook for somebody who wants to get into this business in this way because putting all those pieces together was just challenging. I mean, it took me some years.”
Ben Riccardi
Tegan Passalacqua
owner and winemaker, Osmote Wine, “Hot Brands of 2022”, page 12
winemaker, Turley Wine Cellars, Amador and Paso Robles California, “Old Vines Begin to Capture the Wine World’s Attention,” page 40
“I took everything about the Finger Lakes—bracing acidity, fun hybrid, old vineyard—and I turned it up to 11 in one wine.”
NEW TEXT TK
“The big wineries didn’t want [the Historic Vineyard Society] to happen. They like paying not so much for old-vine grapes.”
Remy Drabkin
Amanda Barnes
owner and winemaker, Remy Wines; Mayor, McMinnville, Ore., “Technical Review: Remy Wines”, page 34
author, The South American Wine Guide, “Old Vines Begin to Capture the Wine World’s Attention,” page 43
“You have to be OK that not everything has to be perfect all the time. That’s part of finding beauty in the shadows, which is not hard to do.”
“Most of the producers in South America are paying at least double what they would for grapes from younger vines as a gesture and to try to retain these old vines.”
Jordan Kivelstadt
managing director, Tubes USA, “Single-Serve Wine-in-Tubes Brings Tasting Room Pours to the Consumer’s Home”, page 72
Herve Duteil
“The wine consumer’s behavior is changing and this idea of both sampling and small consumption, of having a glass instead of a bottle at a time, has fueled a lot of the innovation in the industry over the last few years.”
chief sustainability officer for BNP Paribas Americas, parent company of Bank of the West, New York, NY, “Sustainability Meets Finance,” page 76
“We moved from financing the green [leaders] to financing the greening of the economy. We moved from niche to universal.”
Damian Doffo
general manager, Doffo Wines, “Hot Brands of 2022”, page 12
Erica Landin-Löfving
chief sustainability officer, Vintage Wine Estates, Santa Rosa, CA, “Sustainability Meets Finance,” page 76
“Sustainability is moving from storytelling to data.”
“There’s a concerted effort among wineries that really care to change the stereotype of Temecula Valley. Several are taking the right steps to make change.”
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Breakthru Beverage Group, the nation’s fourth largest distributor, signed an agreement to acquire Wine Warehouse, enhancing its national footprint. Wine Warehouse is a multi-generational, family owned and operated, wholesale distributor of wine, beer and spirits. The company was established in 1973 and grew to be the third largest wholesaler in California, a top 10 wholesaler in the country. The deal was Breakthru’s third acquisition in the past year following Major Brands in Missouri and J.J. Taylor in Minnesota.
E. & J. Gallo Winery awarded its retail chain distribution business in California to Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC), the country’s second largest wine and spirits distributor, and is closing Gallo Sales Co. Inc., which formed in 1933. According to media reports, at least 355 workers across seven sites are affected, but Gallo said most employees would be interviewed and offered similar opportunities with RNDC.
The 1,300+ acre collection of vineyards and land known as the Paicines Vineyards in San Benito County, Calif., was sold to The Wine Group. “The Paicines Vineyards offer a great blend of water security, scale, production, quality, and overall value as an asset to produce coastal red and white winegrapes for our wine programs currently met with strong demand,” John Sutton, CEO of The Wine Group, said in a press release. The Wine Group, headquartered in Livermore, Calif., is America’s second largest wine producer by volume.
Rombauer Vineyards announced the acquisition of a vineyard with 54 planted vine acres in the Sonoma Valley, Calif. appellation. The vineyard, called “Carriger Two” by the Rombauer team, has been a primary source of Sauvignon Blanc since 2014. It sits adjacent to the Carriger One Vineyard, acquired by Rombauer in 2022.
Favia’s Andy Erickson and Annie Favia are partnering with the Huneeus family to build a winery in the Oakville AVA in Napa Valley. They plan to build it on an 86-acre parcel between Opus One and Groth. The property, formerly owned by Clark Swanson, was purchased by the Huneeus family, owners of Quintessa, among other wineries, in 2018.
Scott Laboratories, a winery supplier, became a Certified B Corporation as it entered its 90th year of business. Scott Laboratories was founded by Robert Scott, grandfather of Zachary Scott, current director of Scott Labs. “I believe that B Corp Certification not only validates what we do, it provides a framework to go further,” Zachary Scott said. “The best way to honor our legacy is to challenge ourselves to do more.” The B Corp framework expands the ways in which a company must evaluate itself. Beyond standard business evaluations of inputs versus waste and quality versus efficiency, B Corp Certification forces looking beyond the numbers to reveal the broader impact of business decisions.
Erin Kirschenmann, DipWSET, is the managing editor for Wine Business Monthly and has been with the company since 2012. In addition to production responsibilities for the monthly trade magazine, she writes about business, technology, sales and marketing, and also oversees content and programming for WBM’s symposiums. She speaks on wine industry trends at numerous conferences, including the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium and the World Bulk Wine Exhibition, and guest lectures on wine, media and public relations. In 2022, she joined the Napa Valley Wine Academy as a WSET Level 1 and Level 2 instructor. Erin has served as a judge in the international Concours Mondial de Bruxelles wine competition since 2016 and at several regional competitions. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in communications with a journalism emphasis from Sonoma State University. Find her online via her Instagram, @erinakirsch.
Our Hot Brands surprise us every year. Sometimes, finding the brands we’d like to feature is a challenge—having been in the wine industry so long it’s easy to become jaded, or feel like there aren’t anymore original stories. Family winery? Heard that one. Left the crazy tech world to return to their roots? That’s become pretty common in the North Coast.
But then, there are times when coming up with the list is a cinch. We’ve either been to the winery or stumbled upon a fantastic story. Family winery? Let’s plant a vineyard at the local high school to get more students interested in agriculture. Left a tough industry? She started blending other people’s wines before deciding to do it on her own.
No matter how simple or difficult it may be, our Hot Brands list always attempts to encompass the latest trends in the American wine market.
In 2022, Wine Business Monthly ended up choosing a number of wineries from east of the Rockies or in regions that aren’t always celebrated. We chose wineries that are determined to do well by their communities and be a catalyst for change in a “heritage”-based industry. We found wineries that are using hybrids, a wide array of fermentation vessels and making the best of limited space.
This was certainly an enterprising bunch. Not one of these brands are static—they are all pushing the status quo in their own ways. All of them, though, are dedicated to producing high-quality, premium wines that taste delicious and are more accessible to the average consumer. These aren’t wine geeks’ wines (though wine geeks would certainly enjoy them). They’re meant for everyone to enjoy, to feel a part of the wine community.
The men, women and wines you’ll meet in the following pages are the embodiment of all that is great about this industry. Whittling their stories down to a page was an impossible feat, but we hope you take the chance to try a few of their wines and let the bottles tell you the rest!
2021
Wines
Wine
• Bodkin Wines
• Ulloa Cellars
• Eden Rift Vineyards
Cellars
• 2019
• Dot Wine
• Gonzalez Wine Company
• Walsh Family Wine
• Parra Wine Co.
• Andis Wines
Domaine Drouhin Oregon
& Vineyards
• La Pelle Wines
• 2Hawk Vineyard & Winery
• Sharrott Winery
• Early Mountain Vineyard
• Tarpon Cellars
• Alara Cellars
• Onesta Cellars
• 2020
• Scheid Family Wines
• J. Wilkes
• Thacher Vineyards
• Aridus Wine Company
• Sangiacomo
Amista Vineyards
Vineyard
• Sans Wine Co.
• Ankida Ridge Vineyards
• Stewart Cellars
Cohn Cellars
Winery
• Syncline Winery
• Fujishin Family Cellars
• Presqu’ile
• L’aventure
• Marynissen Estates
• Four Vines Peasant
• Rivaura Winery • SMAK
• Bodega Pierce
• Devium
• Sokol Blosser Winery
• Land of Promise Wines
• The Hilt
• William Chris
• Elk Cove Vineyards
• Smith Story Wine Cellars
• Band of Vintners
• Vidon Vineyard
• Illahe Vineyards
• 2018
• Intrinsic Wine Co.
• 2017
• Wade
• Obvious Wines
•
• Acquiesce Winery
• Lagier Meredith
• Alexandria Nicole Cellars
• Bella Grace Vineyards Winery
• Winery Sixteen 600
• 2016
• Infinite Monkey Theorem Winery
•
• Parrish Family
• Amavi Cellars
• LVVR Cellars
• Dan
• Mi Sueño
• Bartholomew Park Winery
• Becker Vineyards
• Marilyn Remark Winery
Vineyards
• Tangent
• Gruet Winery
Gladiator
• Red Tail Ridge
• Trio Vintners
• Clos Du Val
• 2006
• Bedell Cellars
Wine Cellars
Swanson Vineyards
• Raffaldini Vineyards And Winery
• Sojourn Cellars
• Purple Wine Company
• Kutch Wines
• A to Z Wineworks
• Solorosa
Andretti Winery
Angeline Wines
• Coro Mendocino
• House Wine
• Artesa Vineyards & Winery
• Cheapskate
• Esser Vineyards
• Rock Rabbit
• HRM Rex-Goliath
• Velvet Red
• 2004
• Domaine Drouhin
• 2007
• 2008
• Graziano
• Jeff Runquist Wines
• Willamette Valley Vineyards
• J.R. Storey
• Liberty School
• Black Star Farms
• Incredible Red
• Red Truck
• Three Thieves Bandit
• McManis Family Vineyards
Jewel Collection
• L’ecole Nº 41
• Shannon Ridge
• Ceja
• King Family Vineyards
• Twenty Bench
• Buena Vista Carneros
• Hard Core
• Cartlidge & Browne
• Sofia Mini
• Kunde Estate
• 2005
• Cycles
• Parducci
• Hitching Post
• Seven Deadly Zins
• Screw Kappa Napa
• Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery
• Tin Roof
• Three Thieves
• Jest Red
•
• Oliver Winery
• Graceland Cellars
• Castle Rock Winery
• J Garcia Wines
•
• 2003
• Black Oak
•
As the climate continues to change , and weather fluctuations become wilder, many in the wine world have begun to consider new varieties. In Bordeaux, a slew of new clones and grapes have been approved. In vineyards across the United States, viticulturists are trialing more Spanish, Italian and other warm-climate varieties.
And it’s amidst this altered landscape that some have even looked to French-American hybrids—or even the more traditional all-American varieties.
However, there are wineries and vineyards east of the Rockies who never gave up on these grapes, and one of the most prominent is Chrysalis Vineyards in Middleburg, Va. Proprietor Jennifer McCloud is proud to grow Norton, and might be one of the largest Norton growers in the U.S.
For many in the wine industry, Norton is simply viewed as “lesser than”. First cultivated by Daniel Norton in the early 19th century, Norton is of the vitis aestivalis species and doesn’t have the typical characteristics we would expect from vitis vinifera—but it also doesn’t have the “foxy” characters of other hybrids. What it does have is a lot of anthocyanins and produces deeply colored, rich red wines.
Norton is widely considered “America’s grape” and is a staple in states like Virginia and Missouri, where it has been commonly grown for more than a century.
It is this indigenous variety that Chrysalis Vineyards is dedicated to growing and growing well. McCloud is steadfast in her belief that Norton can produce premium, dry wines. Yes, more international varieties, including Albariño, Nebbiolo, Petit Verdot, Tannat and Viognier, are part of the portfolio, but they certainly are not the focus.
Norton has proven to be one of the more resilient grapes—a necessity in harsh Virginia climate. In 2020, a hailstorm ripped through the vineyards in
late summer, just before the harvest on the white varieties began. While some of the Albariño, Petit Manseng and Viognier shattered, Norton, a late-ripening variety, was still tough enough to withstand the pelting ice.
The Locksley Reserve is Chrysalis Vineyards’ flagship wine. At $45 it is also one of the most expensive Nortons on the market. Blended with a little bit of Tannat to add chocolate, raspberry and slightly earthy tones, and “a splash” of Petit Verdot, this wine is meant to showcase just how special this grape can be. With just 12 months barrel aging, it is not an overtly tannic wine, but is it certainly suitable for long-term aging.
As the Virginia wine industry continues to mature, the wines coming out of Chrysalis Vineyards have demonstrated that Norton can be part of its future.
The Doffo story began back when Marcelo Doffo emigrated from Argentina to the United States, settling on a piece of land in Temecula. In homage to his Italian roots, he became a garagiste, a home winemaker producing wine out of his garage. In 1997, he purchased an old cattle ranch, installed trellis and irrigation systems by hand, and planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah with some Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc as well. Four years later, he released “Mistura”, a blend of all four varieties.
Today, his son Damian has taken the helm as the general manager and has made Doffo Wines a truly family affair: his sisters Brigitte and Samantha are the tasting room director and events director, respectively.
Taking over for their father wasn’t an insignificant task. Damian recalled all the excitement and dedication for wine and for family Marcelo showed. In addition to being a winemaker, Marcelo was also a single father.
“We want to exude passion in wine and most everything we do,” Damian stated. “We don’t know any other way—that’s how we were taught by Dad.”
It’s a mindset that has carried through the generations, and even Damian’s nephews have started to become involved in the business, serving as bussers or hosts until they reach legal drinking age. The family takes pride in their work.
“We want everything to be well-manicured and taken care of,” Damian said. “It speaks to our quality mindset—even our crews take pride in what we do. It’s all in the details and the details carry through to our winemaking.”
After all, he said, it’s his family’s name on the bottle.
But the Doffos are also committed to Temecula Valley, supporting the community and trying to raise the profile of the region as a place for premium wines.
“We are adamant about using local fruit and showing that you can make good wine from it,” Damian said. “There’s a concerted effort among wineries that really care to change the stereotype of Temecula Valley. Several are taking the right steps to make change.”
As part of that change, Damian knows that it’s essential to keep talent local. Inspiring the next generation to become viticulturists or start a career in wine
has been a challenge in regions across the country—agriculture isn’t nearly as glamorous and certainly does not pay as well as many other positions. Many children watched their parents push through the back-breaking work and decided it wasn’t for them.
Damian wants to change that perception, and he knew that he would have to introduce this career path to young adults much sooner than in college.
The 2020 Val Verde Yote 980 is the first vintage of wine produced from vines tended to by students at Orange Vista High School. Working with the Val Verde School District to launch a viticulture program, Damian and the Doffo team mentored students through a growing season, teaching them how to grow the best Cabernet Sauvignon possible.
Fifty percent of sales will go directly to the Val Verde Viticulture Program, ensuring the continuation of the course.
Synergy is a word used often in the wine world. Typically, it’s used in reference to tannin and acid being in balance with the aroma profile, or finding a brand that resonates perfectly with a certain consumer base.
Sometimes, it’s simply the perfect combination of two people who just want to make really good wine.
Such is the case with eSt Cru, founded in 2020 and run by Paul Muñoz, a marketing and operations expert, and Erica Stancliff, a winemaker known across the North Bay for her dedication to premium wines.
Muñoz, a former marketing manager at Michael David Winery and director of marketing for Oak Ridge Winery in Lodi, is the general manager and uses his experience making brands like Seven Deadly Zins and Freakshow popular to create new labels. Stancliff is the winemaker for her family’s winery, Trombetta Family Wines and consults in her spare time with wineries like Stressed Vines and Pfendler Vineyards.
Muñoz and Stancliff set out to build a brand that would highlight their creativity, shared values and eagerness to produce a wine that would make drinkers say, “Holy shit!”
Sustainability and showcasing wines from areas that don’t receive the recognition they deserve are at the core of this new wine company.
“We’re working with farmers who really care about what they’re doing, who are good stewards of their land and who are actively trying to make a good product without sacrificing the integrity of the vines and the fruit.”
Of course, they also want something that is both fun and high-quality, with as much attention to detail made as if it were an ultra-premium priced bottle—but far more reasonably priced so that anyone can be part of their wine community.
“This project has given me the creative freedom as a winemaker to make wines that I think will have mass appeal for the right reason,” Stancliff explained. “I don’t have a mold that I have to put it into because we’re creating
this from scratch. I get to play with it and make something that I enjoy and that I hope other people are going to enjoy.”
To do all this, eSt has committed to working with anything by Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. Instead, they want to use fruit from varieties and regions that have not traditionally been considered “prestigious” in the past but produce very high-quality wines.
Most of the fruit is coming from Lodi and Clarksburg, where they source Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Teroldego, some Chenin Blanc, Grenache Blanc, Albariño and a Cabernet Franc for a Rosé. From the Dry Creek Valley, they’re bringing in Grenache and Mourvedre, and some Syrah from Santa Ynez. By using these grapes from these regions, they’re able to keep price points in the $20 to $45 range while bottling premium wines.
“These growing regions deserve so many more accolades for what they have to offer,” Stancliff said. “They are for serious wine drinkers. They are fun and they are approachable, but they are for people who love wine.”
No Middle Ground is one of the anchor brands, and it’s the marriage of Muñoz and Stancliff’s wine ethos and philosophy—and love for the movie “The Big Lebowski”. They refuse to compromise the integrity of their wines and will always work at the highest standard. It’s the line in the sand they refuse to cross, a reference to the movie and the inspiration for the label.
With No Middle Ground and other core brands, like Clothesline and Staring at the Sun, eSt Cru hopes to show a wider audience that wine can be so many things: exciting, affordable, non-pretentious but expertly crafted, good for the land and for growers and, above all, something to be enjoyed.
“We wanted to stand up and show people that Clarksburg is so much more than Chenin Blanc, that it has serious wines to offer, while also showing this fun, creative side we have,” Stancliff explained. “Paul makes these super-creative labels that make you want to check it out. Then you’ll go home and drink it and be like, ‘Holy shit! That was really good for $35.”
Mathew Bruno grew up as part of a winemaking family—he learned the ins and outs while spending time in his grandparent’s homemade root cellars. His grandfather would pour Bruno and his brother a small glass of 7-Up and add a teaspoon of his wine to turn it a pink hue. It sounds silly, but it made the boys feel like they were part of the winemaking process.
And it worked. In 2008 Bruno decided that he wanted to make some homemade wines as well. He ran out to purchase as many books he could find on the process to make sure he knew what he was doing. He went up to Oak Knoll, hand-picked some grapes, had a winery destem and crush them and he brought them home to ferment and mature in his garage. Bruno caught the wine bug and wanted to make it a career.
“After that first pick and the first fermentation and secondary fermentation at home, I was like, ‘Okay, we’re going to do this in 2009,’” he explained. “I thought about waiting a year, but we jumped right into it.” He received a tremendous amount of support from the family; Bruno’s father, a fellow entrepreneur, supported any project his children begin and served as a cheerleader.
“I learned so much of about business and relationships during the ages of 10 to 18 years old, going to business meetings with my dad,” he said, recalling lessons to, “Treat your clients and employees as they are family and always deliver a product and service that exceeds the highest standard. Most of all with honesty and integrity.”
The product that would exceed the highest standard? For Bruno, that meant making wine from the premier site at the time: Napa. Though his family hails from Central California, he noticed that there aren’t all that many differences between the two—at least when it came to turning to friends for help. “Napa Valley is just another farming community in the sense that neighbors help neighbors. Being a guy coming into Napa, I expected there to be more pushback from locals, but I never had a discouraging word,” he reported.
In fact, Bruno found encouragement and a winemaker in someone he went to junior high and high school with: Stephens Moody. He and Moody played baseball and football together and now, along with Dr. Nichola Hall, have embarked on the latest stage of their friendship.
“I had no idea he had winemaking training and the background he did,” Bruno said. “We hired him from day one and he and Nichola have been with us since. It’s just been a great working relationship and rekindling of a good friendship.”
The three set out to make the first vintages of Mathew Bruno Wines and looked to their neighbors for inspiration, as well as the top vineyard sites.
“Before we make any new variety, we always taste other wineries’ wines and come to a conclusion on the style we want, alcohol content, barrel profile, etc.” he said, adding that once they come to an agreement, they seek out a vineyard that can produce that style, or go directly to the winery to see if there is any extra fruit available.
For the Chardonnay, he didn’t want a 100 percent stainless steel ferment with no barrel, but also not a wine that was over-oaked. He hoped to showcase the mineral characteristics you can find in some Chardonnays.
“We wanted fruity characteristics in our Chardonnay and not one dominant attribute,” he explained. “We wanted a very approachable Chardonnay that had fruity characteristics, a nice blend of alcohol and a hint of the different barrel profiles we have.”
Now, Bruno has also expanded into Sonoma County for his Pinot Noir, doubled production and opened a new tasting room. Bruno recently purchased 5 acres of vineyard land in Oakville, across from Silver Oak and between Opus One and Groth Winery. He’s planting it to 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and it will be his first estate wine.
After many years traveling around the world making wine, Finger Lakes native Ben Riccardi started to feel homesick, and moved back to the area just as the region had reached a pivotal turning point. Riccardi and many others would push wine quality further than it had gone before, using new research and production methods alongside traditional varieties to make it happen.
Of course, the route to his success was not straightforward. At first, Riccardi studied chemistry at the Air Force Academy. He ended up returning to New York to study vineyard management at Cornell University and fell in love with winegrapes and winemaking. Upon graduation, he worked at local wineries on Long Island before hopping down to Chile to learn from winemakers in the Maule Valley. For years, Riccardi traveled between the two hemispheres, working one harvest after another.
“Once I had unlocked this combination of a career path, fun, learning and travel and I was excited about learning more about wine, it just all came together,” he recalled
So, after some time spent at Williams Selyem in California and Craggy Range in New Zealand, he moved to Manhattan to work at City Winery New York. And at this point, in 2013, Riccardi recognized that the Finger Lakes had reached an inflection point and wine quality was only getting better.
“I saw opportunity and I wanted to be part of it,” he recalled, thinking his experience making wine in warmer climates could be beneficial to the region. “I saw the potential here, but I also realized that maybe people weren’t doing some of the things I had learned, some of the techniques that I had learned abroad. I just got really excited about the opportunity here.”
The first vintage of his brand, Osmote, produced less than 200 cases of 2014 barrel-fermented Chardonnay. Ten years later, he’s branched out to other varieties and styles of wine, including the hybrids the Finger Lakes are known for, and has his own winemaking facility.
It hasn’t always been easy; like so many others in the region, he’s struggled with finding affordable equipment and sourcing grapes. And, producing a traditional method sparkling wine had always been out of the question—with limited storage space, keeping bottles en tirage for years was impossible. Then he learned about the pétillant naturel style, which definitely was feasible.
“When I started it, I hardly even knew what Pét-Nat was, but I learned about it pretty quickly and thought it was a really interesting opportunity,” Riccardi said. “I saw a tremendous response and it’s become a major part of my winemaking. Working with Cayuga White was a way to be totally unique, totally Finger Lakes and Pét-Nat seems absolutely the right style for that grape.”
In Cayuga White, Riccardi found not just an exceptional grape for a sparkling wine, but a little bit of history to share as well—the grape was developed at his alma mater.
When talking about the wine with consumers, Riccardi emphasizes this heritage: a grape from Cornell University that really only grows in the Finger Lakes, is sourced from a vineyard planted in 1973 and kept in the owner’s family and taps into an old tradition of New York winemakers producing mainly sparkling and fortified wines.
“That’s why I put the Spinal Tap amp dial on the front label,” he explained. “I say to people, ‘I took everything about the Finger Lakes—bracing acidity, fun hybrid, old vineyard—and I turned it up to 11 in one wine.” To ensure a crisp, clean wine, Riccardi disgorges the sparkler.
Riccardi also produces premium wines from more traditional grapes. “I take a lot of pride in making refined Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc and Riesling,” he said. “But it’s also an exploration of where we came from and where we can go with hybrids.”
Ou r Journe y B e gi ns H er e for Enh a nced Na tu ral Cork Q u ali ty
M.A . S il v a's N atu r al Cor k is vertic ally i ntegratedan d f u lly t racea ble. Once ha rvested, thecor k is treat ed usi n g M. A . Sil va 's state of t h e ar t techn ologie s , w hich f urther en hanc e t h e qu a li t y a n d e xp er ie nc e of yo ur fi na l cor k s t oppe r . We i n vi t e y ou to contac t us a nd l ear n mor e abo ut o u r na tura l cor k t od ay!
Paula Harrell fell in love with wine culture while on a student exchange program in Madrid. So, when she returned to San Francisco, she started venturing north into Napa, meeting winery owners and winemakers, building a network of friends and refining her palate over the years. Eventually, she did what nearly every wine lover does—wonder whether she could make wine herself.
Harrell started her winemaking career in a rather unorthodox fashion. “I got into this bad habit of blending other people’s wines at the dinner table,” she recalled. “My family would get so mad at me because we’d go out to dinner and I’d order tastes of different things to try, and then I felt that they were good, but two of them would be better together.”
Her uncle, a wine connoisseur himself, was one of the first to recognize her talent. Even though he’d rib her for blending finished wines at the dinner table and discourage her from the practice, he soon joked that she might benefit from a different career path.
“He goes, ‘You actually have a knack for this. Everything that you’ve put together is better than anything else that we’ve been drinking, but might I suggest you make your own damn wine and stop blending other people’s?’” Harrell said. “When he said that, literally this light bulb went off my head and I was like, ‘Ah, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to make my own wine.’”
Using the connections made through her many visits to the Napa Valley over the prior 10 years, she researched and eventually found a place to do custom crush, grapes for sale, and a winemaker to help her produce wine to her exact specifications.
This was back in 2009, when finding facilities, especially in her hometown of San Francisco, wasn’t so simple, and was a long, arduous process she had to face in addition to the usual challenges of starting a wine company. Thankfully, Harrell could rely on her network of not just wine professionals, but those in the real estate and mortgage business—the industry she had spent her career in. She could reach out to restaurants, retailers and event planners to help sell her wines.
“I would love to create a handbook for somebody who wants to get into this business in this way because putting all those pieces together was just challenging,” she said. “I mean, it took me some years.”
Now, Harrell has hit her stride, increasing production from 500 cases to nearly 3,000 cases, and expanded from two bottlings to five. She has contracts with Chase Stadium in San Francisco as well as an airline, and wine club membership has quadrupled since she started. Harrell said that all the hard work at the beginning, even trying to figure out which licenses she would need, was worth the trouble as she has now seen her dream realized.
Through all this, she remains immensely humble and always finds ways to bring her family into the business. Her Three Fifteen Zinfandel, a blend of 85 percent Dry Creek Zinfandel and 15 percent Petite Sirah, is a direct reference to 315 Santa Ana Avenue in San Francisco—the home she grew up in.
“315 was this place that was a melting pot of friends and family and people building genuine relationships and supporting one another,” Harrell described. Her mother, an immigrant from Panama, and her father, a transplant from Oklahoma, would sponsor family members looking to move to the United States, so it always felt like a full house. “It just seemed like it was a fitting name for that wine—and my favorite wine is Zinfandel and Petite Sirah.”
Harrell has lofty goals for the future. When she makes her first Cabernet Sauvignon, she wants to name it “Gregory”, for the uncle who inadvertently inspired her. “I’ll continue to go after big contracts, more airlines,” she added. “I still want to stay a boutique-ish wine company. I don’t need to be the biggest wine company in the world. That’s not really my goal. I’d like to be able to still have a personal touch to it.”
Within the modest exterior of Six Eighty Cellars, you’ll find every winemaker’s dream: A facility that boasts one of every kind of fermentation and maturation vessel imaginable. Not only that, but the winemaker, Ian Barry, also has the opportunity to work with varieties that are uncommon to the Finger Lakes region and treat them with processes most commercial wineries wouldn’t dare to use.
This experimental winery is the brainchild of Dave and Melissa Pittard, Finger Lakes natives and the owners of Buttonwood Grove Winery. Agriculture has always been in Dave’s blood; he grew up helping on the family orchard, Beak & Skiff Apple Farm in Lafayette, NY, which produced apple wine, cider and vodka. It led him to pursue an education at the Cornell College of Agriculture.
In 2014, Ken and Diane Riemer, the former owners of Buttonwood Grove Winery, decided to sell the property and the brand. The Pittards saw this as their chance to enter the wine business. Since then, they have continued the legacy by building a new winemaking facility, expanding the vineyards and creating new hospitality opportunities with a summer music series and on-site cabins for overnight stays.
Departing from the norm, Pittard also wanted a brand that was devoted to creativity, to playing with offbeat vinifera varieties as well as winemaking techniques and vessels. He looked to a piece of land just down the road from Buttonwood Grove that rises 680 feet from Cayuga Lake and in 2020 purchased the perfect spot to establish Six Eighty Cellars.
The Pittards are committed to farming sustainably, even in such an extreme environment. While spraying is a common, and necessary, practice, Dave is trialing an organic, algae-based fungicide to protect the grapes. The hope is to preserve the land for his kids and boost the reputation of the Finger Lakes.
Centered on the premise that the past can inform the future, the Pittards and Barry are determined to use traditional winemaking methods and vessels and bring them into the 21st century. While there are some barrels and stainless steel tanks, the beauty of this cellar is in its wide array of fermentation vessels: A terracotta cigar, cocciopesto opus, clay clayers, and a concrete tulip from Italy; vin et terre sandstone vessels in egg and jarred form from France; and an appetite to trial any vessel they can get their hands on.
Some of those offbeat varieties (for the region) that the two plant and ferment include Chenin Blanc, Gruner Veltliner and, in the future, Gamay. The hope is to not only differentiate their portfolio but to see what else the region has to offer. Barry uses minimal intervention on these varieties to highlight the bracing acidity and fresh fruit inherent to the grapes and the region.
Of course, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Riesling are also planted; but in these typical Finger Lakes varieties they use atypical methods to produce rather unexpected styles. Think a semi-carbonic Cabernet Franc, a Merlot made as a Pet-Nat, or a Riesling that was wild-fermented in a sandstone egg.
Take the 2020 Cabernet Franc Appassimento, for example. In the traditional Valpolicella style, grapes are partially dehydrated prior to fermentation. The wine is then split between two older French oak barrels and an Italian terra cotta “cigar” before being blended again. The Cabernet is mostly dry, with just 2.2 percent RS.
While working in politics, Jill Osur realized that at every great event she attended, there was some great wine on the table. She immediately began a quest to find her preferred style and instead discovered that wine can be a conduit to great conversations, community building and fundraising.
She left the political landscape for a much tougher industry: distribution. Osur found employment with a small distributor working to build brands and compete against the larger players, like Southern Wine & Spirits.
One of the brands she helped grow was Myka Cellars and Osur eventually left the distributor to work directly with the winery. They built two brands, employed 54 people and quickly became the fastest growing wine group in El Dorado County.
“But then, like so many people, it took a crisis to change your path,” Osur said. She, like so many Americans, followed the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and while sitting at home under COVID lockdown asked herself, “What am I doing as a leader in the wine industry to be part of the solutions I wanted to see.”
Growing up in a Jewish family, Osur said she was taught tikkun olam—repair the world. “I was very used to standing up and speaking out for social and racial justice issues, and yet I found that I had become very tame in an industry that is steeped in tradition and dominated by men,” she said. Then, after she posted about the Black Lives Matter movement on the winery’s social media page, she was asked by the winery’s largest investor to resign.
It made her rethink how she uses her voice. Osur turned to the numbers: 10 percent of winemakers across the country are women. Only 0.1 percent are Black. Female winemakers make 70 cents on the dollar to their male counterparts. All this and yet women make 67 percent of wine purchases.
She wanted to disrupt the industry, and be the change she wanted to see. After giving herself permission to do something daring but that truly aligned with her integrity and voice, she launched Teneral Cellars, a 100-percent
woman-owned and -run company on a mission to reshape the wine industry to reflect its largest consumer and give back.
Teneral is the moment in which a dragonfly comes out of its cast and is in its most vulnerable state; Osur chose this as the winery’s icon because it represents the transformation she wants to see. “Its wings are colorless, and it can’t fly, but within a few days it gets its full colors and spreads its wings and takes off with amazing power, grace and grit,” she explained. “We all have that power within us. We just have to claim our power, spread our wings and fly.”
Her company only uses sustainably farmed grapes, purchases supplies from companies that are owned by women or people of color, works with a female-owned distributor and donates 10 percent of profits to organizations that empower women and fight for gender and racial justice—attempting to harness the power of business for good.
Every quarter, her advisory board, made up of an incredibly diverse group of women, helps her choose a new theme based on the charity they would like to support. In 2021, the first full year of operation, the company gave more than $51,000 to organizations like the National Women’s Law Center, the Endometriosis Foundation of America, Generation W, World Central Kitchen and several local charities. Themes for these El Dorado wines centered around influential women like former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and tennis great Billie Jean King.
“I feel like I can use wine as a conduit for change. We do a lot of virtual experiences. We even bring in some diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging training because wine allows people to relax a little bit so they can open up to have those necessary conversations,” Osur said. She’s working to find a home for Teneral in the Sierra Foothills, a place for women to gather for wine and wellness retreats or for community events.
“I love hosting and using wine as an amazing vehicle for creating the kind of change I want to see in the world.”
Like many college students, Joshua Klapper worked in restaurants when not in class at the University of Southern California. Unlike others, however, he worked on the sommelier team at Sona, an establishment that had just received a grand award from Wine Spectator for its wine list. Because of the tasting opportunities this afforded, Klapper knew that he wanted to do more in the wine business and looked to other sommeliers, like Michael Bonaccorsi, MS, for inspiration.
“I just felt like I wanted to explore something different,” he said. “An easy jump at the time was to start making a little wine.” Klapper then followed in the footsteps of other Los Angeles-based sommeliers branching out into enology.
He reached out to some well-connected friends in the industry to purchase grapes and, with the help of another winemaker, began making blends in 2004 out of his garage. When he graduated in 2006, he had already spent years visiting wineries in the Central Coast, bottling his own wines, and knew that restaurant work, while fulfilling, was not the way forward.
“I decided to take a sabbatical from the restaurant business and worked my first harvest. That was when I fell in love, and I realized I wasn’t just going to buy juice from other people or have other people make my stuff. I wanted to be the chef,” he said. “I was 26, I’d been working 60 hours a week in restaurants, going to school full-time, working really hard. I was like, ‘If I work hard doing anything for myself, at least I’ll be in control of my own destiny. It may take me longer to make money or be successful, but I’ll ultimately be happier.’”
Klapper knew from the outset that he wanted to make Burgundian-style wines—those with lower alcohol—and chose Santa Barbara County as his home, thinking that would be the easiest place to do so. Following a conversation with some of the best winemakers of the Central Coast, he concluded that only Burgundy can be Burgundy, no matter the alcohol level. This realization about terroir led him to instead seek out sites where “magic happened”.
“I can’t exactly put my finger on what it is, but I know that the wines are exciting from those places,” he said. “I like making wines that are generally
interesting, that have tension, that have that balance of acidity, richness, deliciousness and complexity, but I don’t like interesting for interesting’s sake. Interesting has to be delicious.”
For something to be nteresting it must also have character—whether it’s a sense of place or sound. In 2012 Klapper named his brand Timbre, which means the character of sound, or what makes our voices sound different. “Five hundred decisions are made for even a pedestrian wine. When you make it a fine wine, maybe it’s even more decisions,” he said. “All those decisions as a winemaker add up to your voice.” This is the idea behind Timbre.
Leaning into this theme, each wine has a musical term as its name. Klapper thinks of the 2019 Lead Vocals like Mick Jagger or Madonna—someone who is iconic not just for their voice, but for their personality as well.
“That’s how we’ve always thought about Bien Nacido Vineyard. Lead Vocals came from own-rooted vines that were planted in 1973,” he explained. “Finding own-rooted Pinot Noir is very rare. It was just this unique thing because it is so old, and it has a unique expression.”
The 2019 vintage, however, was the last from these old vines, as the block was torn out and replanted for the next vintage. This last bottling is a special one for him.
“You’ll never see a sale on that wine at my winery, or any of the Lead Vocals wines I made over the years—just like you wouldn’t see a sale on RomaneConti. It’s a special place and time in a bottle.”
For 12 years, Remy Drabkin, owner and winemaker at Remy Wines, made all of her wine in a rented facility in McMinnville, Oregon. When her landlords informed her in 2021 that they would not renew her lease for the 2022 harvest, she was left with a difficult decision. Should she scramble to find a new place to rent? Or should she finally move forward with her long-held intention of converting an old barn on her property into a winery?
Drabkin opted for the latter, even though she had only a year to get the project done. But Drabkin, who is also the mayor of McMinnville and the co-founder of Wine Country Pride, is no stranger to overcoming challenges and mobilizing people to make things happen. She quickly built a team to meet the goal of having a functional winery in place by September 2022. In the process, she also helped spur the creation of a new concrete formulation (dubbed the Drabkin-Mead Formulation) that is billed as carbon negative—making it possible to transform one of the most potent greenhouse-gas-emitting products in construction into a carbon sink.
Drabkin’s mother was the first culinary director of the International Pinot Noir Festival and stayed in that position for 15 years. Many of her parents’ friends were winemakers. Given that, it’s perhaps not surprising that Drabkin began telling people she planned to be a winemaker when she was only 6 years old. Her dream was helped along by her parents’ purchase of a 29-acre property in the Dundee Hills AVA in the mid-1990s. Though they had no intention of making wines themselves, they understood the property, which has patches of Jory soil and is located near big names like Sokol Blosser and Archery Summit, was a good investment. Drabkin suspects they were already thinking about her future and believed the property was an investment in her as well.
However, making the property habitable kind took a tremendous amount of work. It had been abandoned and in foreclosure for several years. Everything was overgrown with blackberries. There was an antique apple orchard that had to be taken out. (Some trees were so fragile that if you picked an apple, the whole tree often fell over, Drabkin recalled.) The site had also been used as a dumping ground. “We pulled something like 30 tractor tires off the property,” she said, along with railroad ties and numerous other bits of detritus.
Slowly, the family unearthed the property and the 1900s-era house, which they then both lived in and rented. Drabkin made some of her first wines in it, and the home currently serves as Remy Wines’ tasting room. The building didn’t have enough room for a full-scale winery, which is what led Drabkin to her warehouse in McMinnville.
The property outside of McMinnville also had an open-sided garage that was built around 1940. In the 1960s, a pole barn was constructed over the top. Drabkin’s long-term plan was to build a winery there—a goal that became a necessity in 2021.
Drabkin had known John Mead, a local contractor and owner of a concrete surfaces company called Vesuvian Forge, for years and has always loved his aesthetic. He had also walked the property and discussed the project previously, so he was the first person Drabkin called about the potential winery project. He was confident he could make the project happen in the timeline and began pulling a full team together.
As she thought about out her goals for the winery, Drabkin was clear that she wanted functionality and the ability to improve her winemaking process. She also wanted to focus on sustainability, but “sustainability is not just environmental,” she said. “It’s about workplace safety, workplace happiness, and equity and diversity. It’s about getting out of small pockets of culture and being really intentional about being cross-cultural. It ties in with how I live my life and try to build a community that lets people thrive.”
While the building has several notable features that make it welcoming, the environmental sustainability features are the ones that are most readily apparent when looking at the 5,000-square-foot facility. The winery is made with the principle of adaptive reuse in mind, meaning much of the building features many salvaged and second-hand materials.
Rather than tearing down the existing barn, the construction team saved as much of the existing structure as possible. In addition to adding exterior walls, they build a second story on existing load-bearing walls inside and reinforced the existing trusses by sandwiching them between new trusses. That made the roof strong enough to hold a water collection system to feed the fire suppression pond and support the future installation of solar panels if Drabkin chooses.
When possible, materials from the original structure that were removed found homes elsewhere. A pair of pillars that used to be in the main structure were put to use holding up an outdoor utility porch. Large pieces of concrete were repurposed into a bench.
The stairs to the second story are made with metal grating that was found on the property and welded together by students in a technical education class at local Dayton High School. The railings and banisters are made from old pallets.
Pallet wood also lines the walls of Drabkin’s office. She first got the idea for using it when she built out baR, a now-closed tasting room in McMinnville. At first, she was nervous to cover the walls with second-hand wood, she recalled. “But as we started picking out pieces of pallet wood, that’s when we noticed these pieces with ink, with numbering, with all these little details that were from the life of that product. They had all this beauty.” It speaks to the idea that “you have to be OK that not everything has to be perfect all the time. That’s part of finding beauty in the shadows, which is not hard to do.”
The centerpiece of her office’s décor is an old riddling rack mounted with custom metal braces. Before starting her own company, Drabkin worked at Argyle Winery, Oregon’s first sparkling wine house. During her brief tenure, Argyle was switching from traditional riddling racks to machines and sold some of the old wooden racks. “I bought this for $50,” she marveled.
The staff offices were built between the building’s original trusses, making them long and narrow. The builders added gables so the offices have plenty of natural light, which cuts down on energy costs and also makes for a more enjoyable work environment. Reclaimed doors salvaged from the property were hung to make barn-style rolling doors. The offices are lined with reclaimed wood that came from the garage demolition and another project.
The interior doors for the lab and other parts of the building were purchased at the non-profit ReBuilding Center in Portland. The sinks are almost all second hand. (The bathroom has a decorative sink made by Mead’s Vesuvian Forge.) The windows are new but have a high U-value, and the walls and ceilings contain around a foot of insulation. When the ductless heat pumps throughout the facility are turned on, it should maintain a fairly consistent temperature with minimal energy usage.
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carbon dioxide that’s been sequestered is chemically released back into the atmosphere,” Mead said.
Heating the limestone and other ingredients takes a tremendous amount of energy, most of which is created by burning fossil fuels, so there’s a double whammy of emissions. For every pound of cement that’s produced, a pound of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. According to the Global Cement and Concrete Association, concrete alone produces 7 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, making it the biggest carbon culprit in most construction projects.
Concrete companies know they have a big part to play in reducing the carbon footprint of their product, both for the long-term survival of human civilization and the short-term survival of their industry, said Michael Bernert, vice president and co-owner of Wilsonville Concrete and a major partner in creating the new concrete formulation. Holcim in Canada has already developed several products, including OneCem and NewCem Plus, that have significantly shrunk the emissions associated with making concrete. But there’s only so much any technology can do to because breaking apart virgin limestone and heating it to high temperatures is always going to cause enormous carbon emissions. Concrete is one of many products that must look to net carbon emissions—finding ways to sequester or trap more carbon in the built environment than they release into the atmosphere—as the solution to the environmental damage it causes.
One way to do that is to mix in biochar, which the International Biochar Initiative defines as “a solid material obtained from the carbonization theremochemical conversion of biomass in an oxygen-limited environment.” Biomass is organic waste that often comes from things like agricultural and forestry waste, yard clippings and food scraps. If these carbon-rich items are left laying out in places like fields, forests and landfills, they slowly decompose and emit gases such as carbon dioxide and methane—a gas that has a warming capacity 80 times higher than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
To avoid these emissions, this organic matter needs to be removed from the carbon cycle. That’s where biochar comes in. When organic waste is pyrolyzed (burned at a very high temperature in an oxygen-starved environment), most of the volatile compounds that would cause it to offgas are burned off. What remains is the energy created from the burning (enough to carry out the
General contractor Mead estimates the cost for all the sustainability features made the project about 1.5 percent more expensive than it might have been otherwise. The fact that Drabkin preserved so much of the original structure helped cut down on overall expenses. Recycling materials, such as metal and wood, lowered disposal costs. Those cost savings made it possible to include slightly more spendy features such as the high-efficiency windows and added insulation. Noting that 1.5 percent is the amount someone might spend on high-end countertops or appliances, he called green construction “totally accessible.”
To help Drabkin fulfill her goals around worker safety and increased efficiency, the facility has numerous utility hookups scattered throughout the winemaking area. Instead of wheeling around tanks of CO2 and nitrogen on hand trucks or running long hoses for hot and cold water, employees can attach lines to these hookups and get access to most of the things they need.
Drabkin is particularly proud of her “equity bathroom,” which has multiple stalls, is ADA compliant and is accessible from both the interior and exterior of the building. When harvest crews come to work, they will have full access to the facilities instead of relying on portable toilets. “This is a basic human function. We should all be able to wash our hands,” said Drabkin.
When Mead committed to working with Drabkin on the winery project, he also asked if she would be willing to try out a new concrete formulation that included biochar. He had been experimenting with biochar in concrete for products such as his countertops and fireplaces, but his formulation wasn’t strong enough for structural uses.
Developing a carbon-neutral or carbon-negative concrete, he knew, had the potential to revolutionize the industry and construction as a whole. Concrete is made with a mixture of sand, gravel and cement. Cement is responsible for binding the mixture together, and the main ingredient in cement is calcium carbonate, which comes from natural deposits of limestone. The shells of the fossilized sea creatures that make up the limestone have absorbed and trapped carbon for centuries. However, “when the limestone is baked at 2,500° F, the
pyrolyzation process again) and a solid but porous substance that looks a lot like charcoal.
To further sequester these sources of atmospheric carbon and other gases, the biochar needs to find an economically viable use. It has been used in agricultural applications for years because it can be buried in the ground, which removes it from the carbon cycle and also makes the soil better able to retain water and nutrients. Alternatively, “it turns out building with concrete is one of the things that’s happening on a big enough scale to make a difference for our atmosphere,” said Mead.
The challenge with developing a biochar-laced concrete for structural purposes was getting a building owner to accept the risk of using it. It’s difficult to be the first to try an experimental product—especially if that product is a foundational component of a very expensive construction project. But Drabkin signed on as a partner from the get-go, and Mead put the wheels in motion to develop what would become known as the Drabkin-Mead Formulation.
Mead knew that Bernert had been working on strategies to get the carbon footprint of concrete as low as possible. The two started comparing notes and came up with the technical pathway of using biochar in concrete. They reached out to other people, including experts at Holcim, Oregon State University and the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute, who offered advice, reviewed technical specifications and helped them refine their plans.
One of the people they contacted suggested using a specific type of biochar called Our Carbon in their formulation. While biochar can be made from many things, this one come from drying and pyrolyzing municipal waste, which includes both human and food waste, Drabkin said.
For her, using biogenic carbon would help with another problem beyond the need to shrink concrete’s carbon footprint. Due to her time in elected office, she was acutely aware of the cost for disposing of food and human waste. Her small town recently signed a seven-figure contract with a company that provides waste disposal services. If this waste could be transformed into a resource, it would save cities a tremendous amount of money. Those dollars could then be reinvested in the technology to dry and pyrolyze waste.
“My lens isn’t just wine,” said Drabkin. “I’m always thinking about how we fold things into larger system.” While it wouldn’t make sense for all cities to invest in the technology to create biogenic carbon, they could become part of cooperatives or regional partnerships that run the machinery and return the finished product to communities. With a ready source of biogenic carbon, cities could then rewrite their design standards to require carbon-fixing concrete in municipal projects—and provide the biogenic carbon and instructions for using it at little or no cost to contractors.
“It creates this closed loop where the city can say, ‘You have to use a carbon-neutral product, but we’re creating the source,’” she said. “You can put an RFP out to your normal suppliers, so you’re not cutting anyone out.”
Mead and Bernert sourced their biogenic carbon from the Bioforcetech Corporation in California. They were delighted to find that its addition improved the concrete’s performance as well. “When we started doing our tests, all of a sudden our concrete was setting faster and testing harder,” and performing on par with conventional products, said Drabkin. Those results remained consistent even as the concrete was exposed to a variety of stressors,
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including heat, cold, abrasion and submersion in wine and cleaning chemicals. (The biggest test that remains, Drabkin pointed out, is the test of time.)
The performance benefits of the Drabkin-Mead Formulations are in active research right now, Bernert said. “What we can definitively say is the biogenic carbon increases the durability of concrete because of a mechanism called internal curing. Cement needs water to be hydrated. Once you combine cement and rocks, you add water and that makes it stick together.” As the concrete sets, that water begins to evaporate, and it leaves the concrete at the top more quickly than it does in the middle. That causes faster shrinkage on the outside edges of the concrete than in the middle, which can weaken the finished structure.
“The beauty of using biochar in concrete is it absorbs massive amounts of the water,” said Bernert. “It’s two times greater than lightweight sands that are specifically added to concrete for their water absorption capacity. That water slowly leaves the biochar and hydrates those cement particles, so you get uniform hydration.”
Mead said working with the concrete, which makes up the 5,000-squarefoot slab floor at Remy Wines, was easy. “The concrete went in like any other concrete. The fact that it was different was not obvious when you think about things like the workability, the transport and getting in through the concrete pumps. The Solid Carbon adds a little bit of pigmentation, but other than the color, it behaved like any other concrete.”
The biggest difference is its impact on the planet. “Remy’s slab sequesters over 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide,” Mead said, and should do so permanently.
From the beginning, the team planned to make the Drabkin-Mead Formulation open source so others could copy it. “We weren’t looking for a product to keep close to our chest and capitalize on,” said Drabkin. “We were looking for a product that could make a real impact on the environment.” Anyone interested in learning about the formulation can get technical specifications on the website for Solid Carbon, a new joint venture by Mead, Bernert and others to create zero carbon concrete products in the built environment.
Bernert said he can’t stress enough how important her commitment was to making the project happen. “Her courage allowed us to demonstrate we can do this. That Remy was willing to take a risk means every project after this is easier.”
For her part, Drabkin said it felt like the right thing to do. “I believe that we really all can make a difference,” she said. “Sometimes you just have to do that. You have to show people it’s possible.” WBM
When I was given the opportunity to collaborate and learn about barrels and wood from such an experienced team, I thought: why should I not do it?! Only progress can come from that.
Owners/Principals
503-864-8777
Appellation
Dundee Hills AVA
Vineyard Acreage
7 acres planted (29 acres total)
Varieties Grown
Pinot Noir, Lagrein
Sustainability Certification(s)
LIVE Certification
Sustainability Practices (not certified)
No till, overseed, dry farm
Soil Type
Jory Silty Clay Loam, Carlton Silt
Loam
Rootstocks
3304
Additional Varieties Purchased
Dolcetto, Sangiovese, Carmenere, Malbec, Tempranillo
Tons Used vs. Tons Sold
100% Used
Year Built
Original part in the 1940s, added on in 1960s, adpative reuse building complete in 2022
Size (square feet)
5,000
Architect
Bruce W. Kenny
Contractor
Vesuvian Forge
Stryker Roofing - Roof (woman-owned)
Simpson Electric
Interior Design
None
Landscape Architect
Remy Drabkin
Flooring
Made with the Drabkin-Mead Formula in partnership with Vesuvian Forge, Lafarge Labs, and Wilsonville Concrete
HVAC
Husky
MACHINERY
Deleafer
Harvesting Equipment
Tractor Mowers Mower
Pre-pruners
By-hand
Pruning machinery
By-hand
Rotary tiller/cultivator
WINEMAKING
COOPERAGE
Barrels
Cadus
Françcois Frères
East Bernstadt Cooperage
Quintessence
Giraud
Used Barrels
Used barrels are sent to ReWine for refurbishment/ reuse
WINERY EQUIPMENT
Bottling Line
Small lots hand-bottled
Bottling Line
Casteel Bottling
Fermentors
1.5 ton fermenters
Filtration System
Willamette CrossFlow WINEMAKING No enzymes
Label Design
Nectar Graphics
Label Printing
Press Packaging
Warehousing(Case Goods Storage, Pick, Pack & Ship)
OnSite
Banking
Citizens Bank
PR Agency
Play Nice PR
Vinitech-Sifel, France’s largest wine industry tradeshow, took place in-person in Bordeaux for the first time since the pandemic forced organizers to host a virtual event during COVID-19 lockdowns. About 42,000 visitors and 750 exhibitors attended the event held Nov. 29 to Dec.1, 2022 at Bordeaux’s Parc des Expositions-Lac.
Robots designed to cultivate, spray and harvest returned en masse. So too did barrels, tanks, cultivating tools, glassware, packaging and other goods. Topics discussed at Vinitech included climate change, labor shortages, global supply chain costs, inflation costs and vineyard land conversion into other uses. Vinitech is an opportunity to showcase emerging new products and this year was no different.
Here is a sampler of products a jury of experts recognized with silver and bronze medals and citations. Instead of a gold medal, the jury awarded an innovation prize and €5,000—about $5,400.
Vinitech’s special jury prize—and recipient of a €5,000 check—went to Mo.Del. The company presented Viti-Tunnel, an automated covering system designed to protect multiple rows grapevines from rain and disease pressure, as well as hail and frost.
Viticulturist Patrick Delmarre, who once worked in the Napa Valley, came up with the concept in 2016 so that his grapegrower clients would no longer
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have to rely on pesticides to protect their vines from powdery mildew and other diseases.
Testing, which has taken place for the past four years at 10 sites around Bordeaux and validated by the French Wine and Vine Institute / Institut Français de la Vigne et du Vin (IFV), has indicated that fungicide use can be reduced by as much as 90 percent. The company may be ready to sell its first Viti-Tunnel in two years, Delmarre said.
The system entails a retractable 120-micron cover commonly found in agricultural fields, held tent like. The cost is about €30 to €40 per linear meter— about $32 to $43 per 3.4 feet. The goal is to reduce this cost to €15 to €20 per linear meter—$16 to $21 per 3.4 feet.
Delmarre said the special prize announcement has drawn interest from investors. Mo.Del may even have enough money to experiment Viti-Tunnel in the United States and other countries, he said.
Taransaud embedded a thermoregulating system in the staves of the barrel and earned a silver medal for the creation. Water runs inside a silicone tube incorporated within the staves to control the liquid’s temperature. The barrel is connected to a water source.
The system’s goal is to ensure that temperature inside the barrel remains homogeneous, thanks in part to the large wine/barrel surface, explained Thierry Six, who works in research and development at Taransaud. No additional equipment to regulate the temperature is needed, which makes cleaning easier and improves sanitation.
The thermoregulating barrel can hold anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 liters and has been tested for about a year. Six said that it may be on the market by late 2023 and larger barrels may also be produced.
Taransaud North America (TNA) distributes Taransaud products in the U.S. The French company is based in Cognac.
Flex-key’s smart hose system was awarded a silver medal. The system monitors the hose, including when it’s connected, disconnected and maintained. Goals include increased safety, pollution prevention and cost savings.
The product was not in the U.S. as of late 2022. Its worldwide distributor is Trelleborg.
Scientists from the French Wine and Vine Institute, in collaboration with colleagues from France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) have created an automated micro-fermentation system for red wines, managed by a robot.
The new system—known as Vinimag received a silver medal. Vinimag, created in 2022, allows scientists to quickly obtain data on multiple samples of red wine, all at once. The robot manages up to 60 micro fermentations contained in French-press like containers.
The system overcomes one challenge: how to deal with must and red wine extraction when the amount of fruit is limited, said Marie-Agnès Ducasse, Minicave project coordinator at IVF. Fruit samples can be frozen for a year under a set of protocols.
Previous micro-fermenters created two decades ago handled juice only— white or rosé juice samples without must.
One of the stated goals is to select varieties adapted to climate change conditions. Other applications include yeast selection.
The team of French scientists was inspired by work carried on by The Australian Wine Research Institute. The product is not available in the United States.
Parsec received two medals for its new programs: A silver medal for Quadr @ and a bronze medal for Nectar.
Quadr @ monitors wine production data thanks to a native-web software and tracks all operations in the cellar.
Nectar monitors CO2 recovery and re-use during the fermentation process and then analyzes the wine’s fermentation.
Parsec’s U.S. distributor is ATPGroup.
“Knowledge in Your Pocket” or KYP by Vyvelis is a new digital notebook for the winemaker. It received a bronze medal.
The digital notebook shows data, including temperatures and tasting notes, organized in a simple way to help winemakers make decisions, explained Pau Inzirillo, Vivelys’ solutions developer. Modeling gives precise data on the fermentation and a history of the data in the cellar, Inzirillo explained.
The program, introduced in 2022, has been tested in Argentina, Chile, France and the United States, Inzirillo said.
The sustainably manufactured Wild Glass™ range o ers a natural glass look and organic and deliberate aesthetic imperfections. Nearly all of the Wild Glass™ material is Post Consumer Recycled (PCR) glass.
Bronze medalist Flavy FGC is a large-capacity filter system for big wineries designed to save energy. water and cleaning chemicals, according to the company. Flavy FGC also recovers more wine than other filtration system. It was designed for wineries or bottling plants that filter wines at less than 100 nephelometric turbidity units (NTUs). The machine is expandable.
The filtration system initially relies on pressure from the head tank—instead of its pump—to operate the filter. It saves energy by not running a pump immediately, said Benoit Murat, a Bucher Vaslin representative based in Bordeaux. A sensor monitors the pressure. The pumps kick in when pressure runs low.
Flavy FGC operates on low pressure. As a result, the membrane does not plug as much as other machines, Murat said, thereby making cleaning the membrane faster and easier. The larger filter is for the wine while a smaller filter continuously filters the retentate. The permeate is used to backflush the system. At the end of the cycle, the liquid left inside the filter is pumped and filtered to minimize wine losses.
The first two Flavy FGC systems were installed in Bordeaux late 2022, Murat said, and should be available in the U.S. in 2023. Bucher Vaslin’s distributor for filtration systems in the United States is Gusmer Enterprises Inc.
AMB Rousset won a silver medal for one of its new products: a multi-purpose tractor implement to pull and replant vines in one tractor pass. Vitipince could also be used for other tasks, such as planting trees in forests, the creator said.
The multi-functional tool is the brainchild of winemaker Fregeat Remi, who initially designed the tool for his 25-acre vineyard at Coteaux de Glanes in the Lot in the middle of France. He said he designed “Vitipince” as the multi-functional tool to simplify his job and save time.
AMB Rousset manufactures and distributes the mechanical tool, which as of November cost about $3,000. Vitipince reached the market in 2021. So far, Vitipince has not been exported to the United States.
Jo is a robotic, autonomous crawler to farm narrow vineyards planted on 25-degree-or-less slopes with tight turns. Jo is guided by GPS RTK, an all-electric system. The machine is 68 cm wide—or about 27 inches—and weighs about 1,900 pounds. The Jo project, which was awarded a bronze medal, began in 2016 in Champagne to help farmers cope with a labor shortage, according to Naio Technologies.
Ten machines were produced in 2022 and the company says it plans to produce about 15 machines in 2023. Jo has not been imported to the United States. Another Naio farm robot, Ted, was introduced last year in the United States.
VentiGel, a mobile, anti-frost system manufactured in Bordeaux, where vineyards have sustained brutal frost events since 2017, received a bronze medal. Its electric-powered, rotating ventilation system mixes cold air when temperatures drop and humidity levels increase.
The machine, which can be transported by tractors, mixes air to prevent humidity from settling on the vines dry. Dry vines can withstand frost-like conditions between 40 minutes and 1 hour before the machine’s fuel-powered system produces warm air, explained Vincent Jourzac, a VentiGel representative. The machine is not automated for right now.
Philippe Ferrier, a grapegrower from Medoc region, and Pierre Perrinet, an engineer and Setag president, designed the machine to protect vineyards efficiently.
Setag is the company that distributes VentiGel while Polypoles is the manufacturer, said Jourzac, the Ventigel representative. The machine is not distributed in the United States. One reason is that the electric system would have to be adapted for the U.S. market, he said.
About 100 VentiGel machines were sold in 2021, primarily in Bordeaux. Costs range from €28,000 to €30,000, or $30,000 to $32,000.
Lamouroux has developed an automated monitoring system to mix pesticides. The phybiomatic machine, which was introduced a few years ago, was recognized with a bronze medal. The machine has not been sold in the U.S., representatives said at Vinitech.
Lehopar showed a robotics system that can both store bottles in boxes and grab bottles from boxes to place them onto the line. Lehopar was awarded a silver medal for its innovation. The new system is designed for small producers, a company representative said. The cost is about €95,000 to €100,000—or $100,000 to $106,000. It is not distributed in the U.S.
Lithobru produces leather bottle labels out of salmon fish skins for the luxury market. For its eco-friendly innovation, Lithobru received a bronze medal. A master tanner in the Bordeaux region produces the leather, said Vanessa Chavanneau, commercial and marketing director at Lithobru. She said salmon was chosen because its fish skin is wide enough to produce labels for wine bottles. Lithobru then buys the leather from the master tanner and designs the labels using an in-house proprietary technique. The labels are decorated with natural pigments, Chavanneau added. The company can produce these luxury labels for up to 500 bottles.
We safeguard
We safeguard the tradition
Without you our success would not be possible. Thank you!
Chavanneau, who came up with the idea after watching a television program on the art of turning fish skin into leather, located and contacted the master tanner. The project began in 2022, and the first labels were slated to be sold late 2022. The company ships worldwide.
The labels were first recognized at Monaco’s Luxepack salon in October. Lithobru is based in Cognac and Epernay.
“Easypeel” capsules by Amcor were recognized with a citation at Vinitech. These one-piece aluminum capsules allow consumers to open bottles more easily with a bottle opener, along a clean line.
The “Easypeel” capsule was developed for the American market so that customers would not cut themselves and has been on the market since 2019, said Juliette Presse, communications manager for Amcor. These capsules are becoming increasingly popular in France, she said.
Amcor operates three factories in France, one in Canada, one in Chile and another in America Canyon in south Napa County. WBM
VA Reduc�on
EA Reduc�on
Smoke Taint Reduc�on (free & bound)
4EP/4EG Reduc�on
Alcohol Adjustment (on and off site)
Crossflow Filtra�on
Sulfide Reduc�on
Pyrazine Reduc�on
Rose Taint Reduc�on
Gas Control Technology
Wine Concentra�on
pH Adjustment
Lees Filtra�on
Equipment Manufacture
Equipment Leasing
Membrane Supply
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in Geneva, NY. Bruce Reisch, is a professor of horticulture, plant breeding and genetics at Cornell AgriTech. Matthew Clark is a professor of horticulture at the University of Minnesota in St Paul, MN. Craig Ledbetter is a research geneticist for the USDA-ARS Crop, Disease, and Genetics Research Unit of the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center in Parlier, CA. Surya Sapkota is a post-doctoral research associate with the USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit at Cornell AgriTech. Lance Cadle-Davidson is a research plant pathologist for the USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit at Cornell AgriTech.
Timothy
Public and private grape breeders will soon have access to new powdery mildew-resistant grapevines produced by the USDA-funded VitisGen2 project. Eight “Renstack”’ vines that incorporate four to six different powdery mildew resistance loci have been released to Foundation Plant Services at the University of California, Davis (FIGURE 1, FIGURE 2)
These eight vines are the tangible product of a decade of progress in incorporating advanced DNA sequencing to identify DNA markers associated with powdery mildew resistance and use them for marker-assisted selection. Breeders have used resistant sources for variety improvement for more than a century but have not had an efficient way to screen new seedlings to identify the resistant ones without introducing the pathogen.
“Before marker-assisted selection, we could only observe whether or not powdery mildew was infecting our grapevine selections,” said Bruce Reisch, Cornell University grape breeder and leader of the VitisGen2 project. “Reliable DNA markers allow us to know which resistance genes are present in each seedling we test.”
Using marker-assisted selection, breeders are now able to “stack” several different loci and combine them into vines that have multiple sources of powdery mildew resistance. This strategy, it is thought, should make the resistance more durable (as each gene has a unique mechanism) and less likely to be affected by the chance occurrence of novel powdery mildew strains that can overcome the resistance.
To date, 15 powdery mildew resistance loci have been identified, originating from several different Vitis species native to the Caucasus regions of Europe, North America, and Asia (FIGURE 3) 1 Studies from 24 F1 mapping populations (siblings of crosses between susceptible and resistant vines) have localized these distinct loci on eight of the 19 grapevine chromosomes (chromosomes 2, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, and 19).
A marker for the first resistance locus, called Run1, was identified in 2000.2 “Run” refers to Resistance to Uncinula necator. Following the revision of the scientific name to Erysiphe necator, subsequent resistance loci were identified as “Ren” followed by a number. As DNA sequencing techniques and mapping populations have progressed over the last 15 years, the rate of discovery of additional loci has accelerated, with the most recent locus described in September 2021 called Ren11.3
The VitisGen2 project brought together grape breeding programs at four institutions to make the crosses that produced the Renstack vines: Bruce Reisch’s program at Cornell University, Craig Ledbetter’s table grape breeding program at USDA-ARS Parlier, Andy Walker’s program at University of California, Davis, and Matthew Clark’s program at the University of Minnesota (FIGURE 4) . 4, 5
Foundation
University
Reisch’s program at Cornell supplied a vine with Run1 and Ren1 loci selected from seeds obtained from Dr. Pal Kozma, a Hungarian grape breeder at the University of Pecs. Walker’s UC Davis program provided the other parent, containing the Ren6 and Ren7 loci from V. piasezkii, an accession from China. Walker and Dario Cantu’s programs identified the two novel loci in 2016.6 The cross, made at Cornell AgriTech, resulted in four Renstack1 sibling vines containing all four resistance loci.
The Ledbetter program supplied a vine resulting from a 2014 cross that combined the Run1 and Ren1 loci with the Ren4 locus, identified by Ramming, et al in V. romanetii, another wild species from China.4 This was crossed with the University of Minnesota’s MN1264, which included the Ren10 locus (discovered by the first VitisGen project from the interspecific hybrid variety Seyval Blanc5) and the Ren3 and Ren9 loci originating in the German-bred cultivar Regent.
The cross, made at the University of Minnesota, resulted in four Renstack2 sibling vines containing all six resistance loci.
Seeds resulting from the two crosses at AgriTech and the University of Minnesota were planted, and the resulting seedlings were tested with the VitisGen-developed rhAmpSeq platform to confirm the presence of markers for the four (Renstack1) or six (Renstack2) resistance loci. Four sibling vines from each of the two crosses were then grown in the greenhouse.
To confirm that the vines were indeed resistant to powdery mildew, researchers Lance Cadle-Davidson and Surya Sapkota inoculated leaf tissue with 10 different isolates of powdery mildew and tracked the response with precision leaf disk and computer vision tests.7
The 10 isolates represented different strains of Erysiphe necator collected in Eastern North America, the center of origin for the powdery mildew pathogen.8 It was important to test the Renstack vines with these different strains, because some of them had been able to overcome resistance and reproduce in vines with just the Run1 locus, which is one of the earliest and strongest resistance loci identified.
Incorporating disease resistance into grapevines is a challenge in that the resistance must last the life of a vineyard, which can extend for 30 years or more. Any one source of resistance will exert strong selection pressure on the pathogen and the powdery mildew pathogen, Erysiphe necator, is well equipped to evolve rapidly with a short generation time (7 to 10 days) and thousands of spores produced on each infected leaf. From the introduction of the benzimidazole fungicides in 1973, resistance to each new class of fungicides (DMI fungicides, strobilurins) has been detected within 4 to 6 years of their introduction. Resistant varieties need to last much longer, and the selection imposed by resistant varieties may be even more intense than that of fungicides, because it is always ‘on.’
Therefore, pyramiding or “stacking” several different sources of resistance is important. One resistance mechanism can be overcome by a single mutation. However, multiple sources of resistance that involve different mechanisms will require multiple genetic changes in the pathogen to overcome the resistance and make it dramatically less likely to happen. The Renstack vines exemplify this approach.
Budwood cuttings from the Renstack vines were transferred to Foundation Plant Service (FPS) at the University of California, Davis in September 2021. According to FPS director Maher Al Rwahnih, six of the eight accessions have been successfully propagated, and plant material or pollen should become available to public and private grape breeding programs in two to three years.
It is important to stress that the Renstack vines do not represent new varietal releases for planting by growers, but rather are resources that will be available to breeders who want to incorporate robust powdery mildew resistance into their breeding programs. Aside from the stacked resistance genes, the Renstack vines have not been characterized for other important horticultural traits.
The VitisGen2 project brought together scientists from throughout the United States to discover DNA markers associated with powdery mildew resistance and evaluate them using advanced high-throughput phenotyping (evaluation) techniques. A key advance that made this possible was development of robust genetic maps that identified 2,000 DNA markers, covering 98 percent of the grape genome.9 This platform, along with 16 mapping populations, allowed researchers to associate DNA markers and traits and then test seedlings to determine which markers (traits) they contain.10
The resulting ability of marker-assisted selection is what allowed breeders to “stack” several resistance traits in the crosses, resulting in the Renstack1 and Renstack2 vines. For the first time, different modes of powdery mildew resistance originating in Asia, eastern Europe and North America have been brought together in the Renstack1 and Renstack2 vines.
Varieties with durable powdery mildew resistance offer a solution to an intractable issue with traditional European grape varieties—their extreme susceptibility to that disease. Following the introduction of Erysiphe necator to Europe as an invasive species in the mid-1800s, producers were forced to adopt multiple sprays of sulfur, at 7 to 10 day intervals, to manage powdery mildew. For over 150 years, grape production depended on widespread use of sulfur and other fungicides.
A recent study estimated that powdery mildew represented 74 percent of pesticide use in grapes.11 California growers were estimated to spend $239 million to manage powdery mildew, with up to 14 sprays applied, including
31 million pounds (about 15,000 tons) of elemental sulfur.12 Widespread adoption of powdery mildew-resistant varieties would offer potential savings of $63 million to $150 million annually on California’s 590,000 acres of grapes.
In Europe, political demands for reducing pesticide use are prompting reconsideration of government regulations that dictate which varieties of grapes are used for wine production. The European Union’s Farm to Fork policy envisions a 50 percent reduction in pesticide use by 2030. Following 70 years of restricting interspecific hybrids, authorities are starting to embrace new disease-resistant varieties as a strategy for meeting this goal. This includes four varieties that were recently released by France’s INRA (National Insti-tute for Agricultural Research) and incorporate two downy mildew and two powdery mildew resistance genes. Management recommendations are for two fungicide applications rather than the typical 10 to 15 applied to Chardonnay.
However, the goal of reducing vineyard inputs is hampered by the inherent disease susceptibility of international V. vinifera wine varieties, along with market demands for traditional varieties with name recognition. Whether growers are conventional, organic, or biodynamic, they all are faced with the need to apply inputs to manage powdery mildew and other diseases. Disease resistance offers great potential in decreasing the number of sprays and making the wine and grape industry more sustainable.
Marker-assisted selection has offered grape breeders new tools to incor-porate disease resistance into high-quality wine and table grape cultivars. But breeding new varieties is still inherently a long-term process, requiring a minimum of 10 to 15 years from the initial cross to release. The payoff to widespread adoption by growers may span decades.
For these reasons, it is important to note the tangible and enduring new resource represented by the Renstack vines. Grape breeders will be able to use pollen from these vines to introgress disease resistance into their breeding programs for adaptation to their regional or market goals. They will have access to germplasm that brings together multiple resistance genes from three continents and several wild Vitis species.
Collaboration by the four breeding programs at USDA-ARS Parlier, UC Davis, the University of Minnesota and Cornell University, along with supporting bioinformatics at Cornell and the Geneva-based USDA Grape Genetics Research Unit, made this possible.
In addition to a pipeline of advanced breeding lines that may become cultivars or parents of cultivars, the Renstack1 and Renstack2 vines are the most tangible “sticks in the ground” product of the 10 year VitisGen and VitisGen2 projects funded by the USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative.13 They are now in the public domain and will serve as an enduring resource to public and private breeders and geneticists for decades to come. WBM
References
1. Sosa-Zuniga, V., et al. (2022). “Powdery Mildew Resistance Genes in Vines: An Opportunity to Achieve a More Sustainable Viticulture.” Pathogens 11(6): 703. (This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/.)
2. Pauquet , J., et al. (2001). “Establishment of a local map of AFLP markers around the powdery mildew resistance gene Run1 in grapevine and assessment of their usefulness for marker assisted selection.” Theoretical and Applied Genetics 103(8): 1201-1210.
3. Karn, A., et al. (2021). “Discovery of the REN11 Locus From Vitis aestivalis for Stable Resistance to Grapevine Powdery Mildew in a Family Segregating for Several Unstable and Tissue-Specific Quantitative Resistance Loci.” Frontiers in Plant Science 12
4. Ramming, D. W., et al. (2011). “A Single Dominant Locus, Ren4, Confers Rapid
Non-Race-Specific Resistance to Grapevine Powdery Mildew.” Phytopathology® 101(4): 502-508.
5. Teh, S. L ., et al. (2017 #136). “Genetic dissection of powdery mildew resistance in interspecific half-sib grapevine families using SNP-based maps.” Mol Breed 37(1): 1.
6. Pap, D., Riaz, S., Dry, I.B. et al. (2016). “Identification of two novel powdery mildew resistance loci, Ren6 and Ren7, from the wild Chinese grape species Vitis piasezkii.” BMC Plant Biology 16(1): 170.
7. Martinson, T., and Cadle-Davidson, L. (2019). “The Phenotyping Bottleneck: How grape breeders link desired traits to DNA markers.” Wines & Vines. January.
8. Brewer, M.T. and M. G. Milgroom (2010). “Phylogeography and population structure of the grape powdery mildew fungus, Erysiphe necator, from diverse Vitis species.” BMC Evolutionary Biology 10(1): 268.
9. Martinson, T., Qi Sun, C. Zou, and L. Cadle-Davidson (2019). “Grape Breeders Search for Reliable DNA Markers: Why the Pinot Noir PN40024 Reference Genome is Not Enough.” Wine Business Monthly, December.
10. Martinson, T., B. Reisch, and R. Wiepz. (2021). “The Central Role of Mapping Populations in Marker-Assisted Grape Breeding.” Wine Business Monthly. February.
11. Sambucci, O., et al. (2019). “The Pecuniary and Nonpecuniary Costs of Powdery Mildew and the Potential Value of Resistant Grape Varieties in California.” American Journal of Enology and Viticulture 70(2): 177-187.
12. 2018 Data Summary Pesticide Use Report Program. Sacramento, California Department of Pesticide Regulation.
13. Van Zoeren, J. and T. Martinson, “Grape Selctions from the VitisGen and VitisGen2 Projects.” https://vitisgen2.org/home-2/grape-selections-from-the-vitisgen-and-vitisgen2-projects/
• Optimized for your vineyard design
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The USDA, top university researchers team up to breed new downy mildew resistant grapevines using robots and VitisGen AI to speed up the process.
Bryan Avila
the Vintners Institute. The Vintners Institute brings wine industry producers and allies together, online and in-person, to innovate with nature, educate the workforce, and inspire good leaders. A freelance writer for Wine Business Monthly’s Trials section, Bryan covers advancements in viticulture and enology at the university level and the applied research trials that viticulturists and winemakers use to implement them.
Bryan Avila is a
Co-Project Director/Spokesperson: Dr. Lance Cadle-Davidson, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Services (USDA-ARS), Geneva, New York. Dr. Lance Cadle-Davidson is a research plant pathologist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service at the Grape Genetics Research Unit in Geneva, NY. For the past two decades, he has led a research program focused on fungal pathogens of grapevine and has co-led the VitisGen grape breeding project since its inception. His collaborative and multi-disciplinary research program translates new technologies for genetics and trait analysis for use in grape breeding and disease management.
AI/Machine Learning Expert: Yu Jiang, Ph.D., associate professor at Cornell University, Geneva, New York. Dr. Yu Jiang is an assistant professor of systems engineering and data analytics for specialty crops at the Horticulture Section, SIPS, Cornell AgriTech, Cornell University. His research aims to address grand challenges in agrifood systems by full-chain optimization through integrated solutions consisting of multimodal sensing, robotics, and data analytics. His recent focuses are in agricultural robots and AIbased data analytics for digital viticulture with an emphasis on grape disease.
Downy and powdery mildew are some of the most pervasive plant diseases in the world. Unfortunately for grape growers, these filamentous fungi have an affinity for Vitis vinifera. These biotrophic water molds are parasitic organisms that live off plant cells. This means that their hyphae, in search of nutrients, destroy leaves and grape tissues leading to secondary infections of native yeast and bacteria which readily feed on the exposed juice, compounding rot conditions on the vine and finally resulting in increased microbial loads on harvested fruit. Once in the winery, even though these molds need oxygen to live, their secondary infections can lead to elevated volatile acidity numbers which may require additional sulfites, de-VA treatments or force changes in winemaking style. which can further compromise wine quality—in addition to any moldy flavors imparted by the mold itself. Prevention is key.
According to the UC Davis Integrated Pest Management program, regarding downy mildew, once the cordons or canes are wetted, infection occurs after 10 to 13 hours of leaf wetness when temperatures remain between 50°F and 80°F. If lesions are found about a week after the initial infection, then monitoring for disease development is recommended. Depending on the severity of the infection, the UC Davis Powdery Mildew Risk Index helps the grower determine the magnitude of the disease pressure as well as the frequency and type of fungicidal sprays needed to control the outbreak. When spraying fungicides, it is recommended to alternate usage between different types of fungicides that have different mechanisms of action to reduce the chance of fungicide resistance. In other words, it takes a lot of different fungicides to get things under control once powdery mildew takes hold.
A new generation of farmers are reevaluating their industry’s relationship with nature and the value of ecological biodiversity. According to the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA), pesticide usage wipes out soil and plant biodiversity, which decreases crop resilience, decreases pesticide efficacy, and increases pest pressure, triggering even more pesticide applications. Pesticide use begets more pesticide use.
So why don’t humans just drink wines made from grapes that don’t spoil so easily? Unfortunately, these hybrids have been deemed as “less than” because they tend to be overwhelmingly aromatic, or “foxy”, rather than complex. This is where breeding comes into play as a solution, only now, it’s more advanced than monks pollinating crosses with paint brushes. Breeding for specific traits is not like genetic engineering where the genes of your choice are inserted into a host organism like a cassette tape. Breeding takes two to three decades of methodically crossing parent and progeny strains until the right characteristics are achieved. However, with some advanced genetic insights and rapid screening technology, this discovery time can be compressed. This is where project VitisGen comes in.
As stated on the VitisGen website, VitisGen projects, “are multi-disciplinary, collaborative projects focused on decreasing the time, effort and cost involved in developing the next generation of grapes. Incorporating cutting edge genomics technology and socioeconomic research into the traditional grape breeding process will speed up the ability to identify important genes related consumer-valued traits like disease resistance, low temperature tolerance and enhanced fruit quality. Identifying these genes will help grape breeding programs from around the world to more rapidly develop new grape
varieties that will appeal to a wide range of consumers, while also addressing grower and producer needs.” VitisGen, a USDA program, “represents a new model of scientific collaboration. The integration of the needs of multiple interests, breeders, growers, fruit processors and consumers, into a single outcome will result in novel grape varieties that are beneficial to producers, processors, and consumers.”
This article discusses recent findings on how the third iteration of the VitisGen3 project leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning technology (AI) to speed up this process. The results in this paper are based on interviews from the scientists that published this recent work in the scientific journal, Frontiers in Plant Science titled, “Deep semantic segmentation for the quantification of grape foliar diseases in the vineyard”. Dr. Lance Cadle-Davidson is the USDA co-project director and Dr. Yu Jiang is an AI and machine learning specialist who provide commentary in the Q&A section below. According to Cadle-Davidson, “Our goal is to identify breeding lines that are more disease resistant and require less fungicide than our current varieties.”
This trial measures how an artificial intelligence (AI) system measures up to an expert human field scout at detecting and quantifying powdery or downy mildew risk in a vineyard. This information is used to select for disease resistant seeds to speed up the selective process in breeding programs. This technology may have broader commercial vineyard application in the future, but this is not currently the primary purpose for the technology.
infection of downy mildew with a side-by-side comparison of human and HMASS detection (interference). Yellow circles show the effects of poor lighting.
The AI system used a custom 20-megapixel stereo camera optic to take pictures and use them as a data source to pinpoint downy and powdery mildew on a grapevine canopy to direct breeding operations. Strobe lights were used to provide a consistent light source to minimize variability in factors such as shading, cloud cover or time of day. Images are processed using Hierarchical Multiscale Attention Semantic Segmentation (HMASS), in which algorithms
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help turn two-dimensional camera data into three dimensional results that could be correlated to the relevant disease, the magnitude of its presence and the GPS location of each frame (FIGURE 2)
In the field of deep learning, segmentation is a method that processes camera pictures in a way that groups pixels based on their similarity. Algorithms that use neural networks can be employed to split these picture groups into segments which correlate to usable information once they are “calibrated” using annotated images to train the network. Once the network is trained, they are validated to check that the performance is acceptable using a metric called Intersection over Union (mIoU).
This processed data is then used to compare AI results to that of a human collector and is represented in the color-filtered results shown in figure 3, below, which shows what the camera or human field scout sees (left), what the human field scout records as data (center) and what the HMASS model records (right).
Experimental vineyards were infected with downy and powdery mildew at an infection rate anywhere between 0 and 100 percent. This trial sought to improve the method of data collection using MHASS technology and to compare the difference between human and HMASS technology in determining the assessment mildew infection.
This trial demonstrated that the ground imaging system used for computer vision, coupled with HMASS processing technology—its “brain”—was a good tool to assess foliar disease in a high throughput manner. This will prove useful in fungicide trial evaluation, genetic mapping, and breeding programs. As reported by the journal’s authors, the results that support these findings are as follows:
• “Experimental results showed that the HMASS model achieved acceptable to good segmentation accuracy of downy mildew (mIoU > 0.84) and powdery mildew (mIoU > 0.74) infections in testing images, demonstrating the model capability for symptomatic disease segmentation.“
o mIoU is a metric that takes into account how AI models are performing versus a known standard. These algorithms review factors such as pixel accuracy, how overlapping leaves can be distinguished from each other and how the data is compared.
• “With the consistent image quality and multimodal metadata provided by the imaging system, the color filter and overlapping region removal could accurately and reliably segment grapevine canopies and identify repeatedly imaged regions between consecutive image frames, leading to critical information for infection severity calculation. “
• “Image-derived severity rates were highly correlated (r > 0.95) with human-assessed values and had comparable statistical power in differentiating fungicide treatment efficacy in both case studies.”
(FIGURE 4)
Based on the results above, the authors concluded that “the developed approach and pipeline can be used as an effective and efficient tool to quantify the severity of foliar disease infections, enabling objective, highthroughput disease evaluation for fungicide trial evaluation, genetic mapping, and breeding programs.”
Are there any specific grape varieties that you are using for this experiment? If so which grapes?
Cadle-Davidson: The goal of this project is different than any standard vineyard project. We are looking at huge amounts of plant data from all types of wine grapes with collaborators from across the entire U.S. contributing data. While this helps us build a database of how powdery mildew manifests itself across many different environments across the country, this makes the challenge of finding the disease even greater. Our goal is to identify breeding lines that are more disease resistant and require less fungicide than our current varieties. This technology is being used in grape breeding programs across the U.S. which focus on the varieties relevant to their region. These are breeding programs supply new varieties for nurseries which, in turn, will propagate, distribute and sell them to growers.
What is the VitisGen project and how is it connected to robots?
Cadle-Davidson: VitisGen is a 15-year, $20 million project to build powdery mildew resistance across the country. Every public grape breeder at a federal institution is part of the project. We have a strong stakeholder in the National Grape Research Alliance.
For the last five years we have been imaging powdery mildew at a microscopic level. We have recently gained a 60-fold increase in the research that we have been able to accomplish. It’s really revolutionized our science by increasing the rate of screening new seedlings. We want to deliver a disease-resistant varieties. Now we are taking that robotic technology to the vineyard.
Who are all the groups working on this and what is the USDAARS’s role?
Cadle-Davidson: There are 25 researchers on the VitisGen project with about 30 collaborators in total, as well as an organization called Breeding Insight, a program that specializes in high tech breeding services which the USDA-ARS
programs funds through Cornell University. There are 13 different university researchers participating in activities such as grape genomics, AI services, field trials, breeding, extension and, of course, economics and communications. For this development with the robots, Yu Jiang of Cornell University provided expertise in AI and robotics.
How do robots work in the vineyard and how do you design a trial to see if they work? What did you measure?
Cadle-Davidson: Whether it’s a human driving a quad or a robot, there are two things required: you need them to navigate up and down rows and a camera to capture the images. For our trial designs, the breeding is different than a commercial trial. We look at everything from no disease to high disease. We designed two types of vineyards:
1. Breeding which combines diversity for disease susceptibility and resistance.
2. Fungicide trials which compare highly effective chemistries and biologicals versus an untreated vinifera (the control)
In both types of trials we have a severity range from 0 to 100 percent and this data helps us build “calibrations” for our AI.
What is a phytopatholobot and why are they used in the vineyard?
Cadle-Davidson: Hah! Maybe you can help us with naming that in the future. The phytopatholobot (PPB) is essentially a camera on wheels that goes up and down vineyard rows and takes pictures of grapevines. We use data analysis and AI to look at the pictures and quantify how much disease there is. This robot takes more pictures than a human would. We find that PPBs can spot disease as well as a human and can do so with a much higher coverage than a human expert. It’s the robot technology affixed with a specialized camera that makes it fully automated. There are a lot of high-tech components to this project.
Did you encounter any complications or difficulties?
Cadle-Davidson: The greatest challenge is that powdery mildew often grows under the leaf surface, where it is difficult for a camera to see. This is especially the case in places like California, where the UV light is intense.
Did you or your colleagues have any predictions about the conclusions?
Jiang: There have been many advancements in robotics since the early days of its deployment at General Motors decades ago. Initially, we focused on the imaging side. We needed to really see what was happening in the environment for vineyard management. Some of the things that we had to figure out during this process were:
1. Lighting. Just like good lighting is important to taking good pictures on your cell phone, it is especially important when collecting and processing imaging data. We were surprised at how large of a factor lighting is on imaging. I can make AI to do a lot of things but without a good, reproducible image you can’t do much. We had to figure out how to adjust to different light conditions. We added a strobe light to the camera to provide a constant source of illumination.
2. Differences in terrain. Researchers have maybe 30 years of experience using GPS, and with using robots in the field but we failed to navigate the robot in the field. The added dimension of the bumpy soil surface plus the loss of traction threw off some of our route calculations in the vineyard.
3. Hard obstacles. How does the robot know when a hard object is just a bump that requires a little more power to get over or a vine?
What conclusions can commercial growers and vintners use in their vineyards?
Cadle-Davidson: The primary goal of this research is to provide the grower with vines that are more resilient to downy and powdery mildew. These are some of the most troublesome diseases for grapes and many other crops. The primary use of this research is to provide disease resistant varieties to nurseries to propagate and sell to growers.
Yu Jiang: A secondary focus could perhaps lead to robots scouting for various diseases in commercial vineyards but a lot more work needs to be done to make it commercially available. The user experience would need to be simplified. Modifications such as simplified maintenance parts for easy servicing, etc. Before we went there.
What are the next steps with this research? How is a technology like this scaled?
Cadle-Davidson As mentioned, the greatest impact that we can have on the industry is through first focusing on the needs of grape breeders. A successful seedling can be rapidly scaled into production once it is sent out to the nurseries. Once achieved, these advances can profoundly impact a grower’s quantity and quality of yields. Powdery mildew is only one strain but there are many other pests and pathogens that we can help quantify down the road once we develop a successful platform.
A typical grape breeder will generate anywhere between five and 10,000 new seedlings every year. They are limited by the number of seeds that they can screen, and this is where AI really shines. We need to make decisions about whether to keep them or throw them away. Probably more than 99.9 percent of these seeds will be thrown away. AI helps speed up the assessment rate between the good seeds and the bad. WBM
Grape Nitrogen Content at harvest plays a decisive role in the kinetics of alcoholic fermentation and in the formation of wine aromas, particularly in the case of white wines. Viticultural practices have evolved considerably in recent decades towards less use of herbicides and more grass cover. In this context, nitrogen deficiencies in musts have been observed repeatedly in certain vineyards. How can vineyard management be adapted to take into account this competition for nitrogen?
The presence of certain forms of nitrogen in grape must at harvest is necessary to ensure a smooth fermentation and has an influence on the final quality of the wine. In white winemaking, a must is considered deficient if it contains less than 140 mg/L of yeast assimilable nitrogen (ammonium + amino acids).1 Fermentation is then slowed down and may even stop before the complete conversion of sugars into alcohol.
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Amino acids are also involved in the formation of wine aroma compounds.2 Wines made from nitrogen-deficient musts are often less aromatic and taste more bitter and astringent. Addition of 10 to 20 kg per hectare of urea on the leaves at veraison is often suggested as a temporary solution to correct the yeast assimilable nitrogen content in grapes.3 However, this solution is prohibited in organic farming and undesirable in a context of limiting inputs in the interest of more sustainable production. It is essential to adapt cultivation practices to promote accumulation of nitrogen in the grapes.
Several studies have shown the impact of the ratio between the vine leaf area (source) and crop load (sink) on the carbon metabolism, and more precisely the link between the photosynthetic activity of the leaves and the accumulation of sugars in the grapes.4,5 But the leaf-to-fruit ratio also influences the nitrogen content of the vine and particularly the grapes.
A 10-year study showed the strong impact of canopy management on the nitrogen content of the vine by varying the trimming height (between 60 cm and 140 cm) in Guyot-pruned Pinot Noir and Chasselas vines.4 Less intense trimming induced greater canopy height and resulted in a decrease in the nitrogen content of the vine, comparable to a dilution of nitrogen in the volume of the biomass. In some years, the excessive leaf area even caused yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) deficiency in the must, despite the good
availability of nitrogen in the soil.5 Oversized canopy (+31 percent dry matter) led to a decrease in the total nitrogen concentration throughout the plant (−17 percent), and more particularly, a decrease in the YAN concentration in the must (−53 percent).6
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A trial was set up in the Agroscope experimental vineyard in Pully, Switzerland, to show the impact of the trimming height on the nitrogen composition of the must at harvest and on nitrogen fertilization efficiency. In a uniform plot of Chasselas, two variable factors were put in place: fertilization (two levels: an unfertilized control and addition of 20 kg per hectare of leaf urea at veraison), and canopy height (three levels, 80, 120 and 150 cm). Canopy height was controlled by varying the trimming height. The trial was repeated in four consecutive years (2013–2016). The musts were analyzed at the time of harvest. The exposed leaf area (in m2) was estimated in August on a fully developed canopy, using the following formula:
Exposed leaf area = [(2 × height + width) × (1 – percent porosity)] / inter-row width.
FIGURE 3: Results of principal component analysis on the parameters related to vegetative growth and must composition at harvest (mean values over four years). FIGURE 3A shows the correlations between variables: the YAN in the must is negatively correlated with the leaf area of the vine. FIGURE 3B shows the similarities between observations. Circle = leaf urea addition; square = unfertilized control; blank = 150 cm canopy; hatched = 120 cm; filled = 80 cm.
The exposed leaf area varied from 1.1 m2 (80 cm foliage height) to 2.0 m2 (150 cm height). The average yield was constant at 1.3 kg/m2 regardless of the canopy height. The leaf-to-fruit ratio thus varied between 0.9 m2/kg (80 cm) and 1.5 m2/kg (150 cm). The chlorophyll index—an excellent indicator of the foliage nitrogen content—was lower as from flowering in the 150 cm variant (FIGURE 1) . Leaf analyses (limbs + petiole) at veraison confirmed a significant drop in nitrogen content in the 150 cm variant (1.9 percent of the dry matter compared with 2.1 percent in the 80 cm variant).
Insufficient canopy height delayed ripening of the grapes at harvest: the must of the 80 cm foliage variant had an average sugar content of 18° Brix (approximately 180 g/L), that is a significant reduction of 0.5° Brix (approximately 5 g/L) compared with the 150 cm variant. These musts also had an average malic acid content of 2.8 g/L, a significant increase of 0.3 g/L. Regarding the nitrogen in the must, the 80 cm variant had 252 mg/L of YAN compared with only 164 mg/L in the 150 cm variant (FIGURE 2) . The canopy height did not influence fertilization efficiency: the addition of leaf urea resulted in an average increase in yeast assimilable nitrogen of 57 mg/L in the must at harvest, whatever the canopy height (FIGURE 2) .
Correlations between the variables are shown in FIGURE 3A . The leaf area was strongly correlated with the sugar content of the must and negatively correlated with the nitrogen in both the plant (leaf nitrogen) and the must (YAN). As shown in FIGURE 3B, the different treatments (canopy height × fertilization) could be distinguished according to must composition and canopy height. The main distinction was linked to both the vintage and the grape maturity. A second distinction within each vintage was linked to the canopy height and nitrogen supply. The impact of leaf fertilization was low compared with the impact of vintage and trimming height.
The leaf-to-fruit ratio is an essential criterion for the physiological balance of the plant, for both carbon and nitrogen. The canopy height did not influence the efficiency of leaf fertilization. Nevertheless, a leaf-to-fruit ratio less than 1.0 m2/kg was not sufficient to guarantee a proper grape maturity each year. Conversely, a leaf-to-fruit ratio greater than 1.5 m2/kg resulted in a moderate YAN deficiency in the must.
The leaf area had no influence on the amount of nitrogen assimilated by the plant. The amount of nitrogen in the plant therefore remained constant and hence its concentration was reduced in the volume of the biomass. In the temperate climate of the Swiss vineyard, a leaf-to-fruit ratio of 1.0 to 1.2 m2/kg is therefore recommended to guarantee both a full grape maturity, a suitable must nitrogen concentration and a sufficient nitrogen refill by storage organs.
Good canopy management represents a sustainable solution that limits nitrogen deficiency in the must while minimizing the need for fertilization.
1. Verdenal, T., A. Dienes-Nagy, J.E. Spangenberg, V. Zufferey, J.L. Spring, O. Viret, J. Marin-Carbonne, and C. van Leeuwen. Understanding and managing nitrogen nutrition in grapevine: a review. Oeno One. 2021, 55, 1-43.
2. Bell, S.J, and P.A. Henschke. Implications of nitrogen nutrition for grapes, fermentation and wine. Austr. J. Grape Wine Res. 2005, 11, 242-295.
3. Hannam, K.D., G.H. Neilsen, D. Neilsen, A.J. Midwood, P. Millard, Z. Zhang, B. Thornton, and D. Steinke. Amino acid composition of grape (Vitis vinifera L.) juice in response to applications of urea to the soil or foliage. 2016. Am. J. Enol. Vitic, 67, 47-55.4.
4. Kliewer, W.M., and N. Dokoozlian. Leaf area/crop weight ratios of grapevines: influence on fruit composition and wine quality. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 2005, 56, 170-181.
5. Verdenal, T., J.E. Spangenberg, V. Zufferey, F. Lorenzini, A. Dienes-Nagy, K. Gindro, J.L. Spring, and O. Viret. Leaf-to-fruit ratio affects the impact of foliar-applied nitrogen on N accumulation in the grape must. J. Int. Sci. Vigne Vin. 2016, 50, 23-33.
6. Spring, J.L., T. Verdenal, V. Zufferey, and O. Viret. Nitrogen dilution in excessive canopies of Chasselas and Pinot noir cvs. J. Int. Sci. Vigne Vin. 2012, 46, 233-240.
The original article was published in IVES Technical Reviews
Michael S. Lasky
Single-serve wine containers for wine have been around for decades but it seems that their popularity has reached a tipping point. Since the pandemic, there has been more interest in the packaging from wineries, resulting in the development of more sustainable, small-format packages from manufacturers.
One format, wine in tubes, has served European wineries and distilleries since 2015, offering glass and recycled plastic tubes in 50ml and 100ml capacities. Now, the company has expanded its operations to the United States with the construction of a new production facility in Napa, Calif.
Tubes USA recruited single-serve maven Jordon Kivelstadt, founder of Free Flow Wines, as its managing director for his expertise in the expansion of alternative packaging.
“I think that the wine consumer’s behavior is changing and this idea of both sampling and small consumption, of having a glass instead of a bottle at a time has fueled a lot of the innovation in the industry over the last few years,” Kivelstadt said. “More frequently people want a glass of wine, rather than a bottle of wine.
“There are a wide variety of wineries and consumers at the end of the day interested in small-format wine consumption, whether it be to sample wines
they haven’t tried before, or to enjoy a glass of wine at home without the entire bottle going bad.”
Thus, the concept of a 100ml, sample-size tube seems like a perfect fit “It’s certainly more expensive to put your wine in a smaller format product,” Kivelstadt admitted. On the other hand, he pointed out that Keurig coffee and similar mass-market products have proven a company can actually charge more to the customer on a per liquid ounce basis if it offers them the opportunity for variety and ability to pick and choose.
So yes, it will be even more expensive on a liquid-ounce basis to package wine in tubes, but a certain segment of consumers has shown a willingness to pay for that option. Tubes’ European business has demonstrated there definitely is demand in the marketplace for this. What’s more, Kivelstadt pointed out that U.S. based Vinebox, a subscription that sells wine in tubes, offers another great example of consumers willing to pay a premium for sample-size containers.
The Tubes sales pitch touts the benefits to this 100ml alternative. The tube, which by its sheer size and weight is more sustainable, is easier and more affordable to ship, and provides a convenient way for new customers, wine club members or retail buyers a chance to taste wines before committing to full-size bottle purchases.
“We’re not trying to take over 5 percent of the wine bottle business. Tubes services specific market niches, and we’re okay with that,” Kivelstadt said. The first, and perhaps most obvious benefit, is the ability to sample. Retailers, according to Tubes, aren’t as interested in single-serve tubes. Instead, they want multi-tube kits, like five tubes from Sonoma County or six tubes from various Argentinean wineries. Kivelstadt has seen merchants’ desires to offer customers a tasting adventure, rather than a single bottle. It’s the idea of
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sampling and exploration that drives consumer behavior right now, and this package serves that need well.
Sampling kits with varying quantities of tubes have proven popular in Europe. Robert Parker’s company is an important partner of Tubes and has sent out hundreds of sample kits—many with luxury-priced wines—for wine lovers who want to taste before committing big bucks a bottle purchase. [Editor’s note: European postal laws are more lenient than the U.S., enabling this type of shipment.]
The second benefit is the ability for consumers to collect an assortment of tubes at home and pick a single glass of wine. “For example, I really want a white wine, so I pour a tube of white. Okay, I’m having ravioli with red sauce for dinner, I’m going to have a little Italian and have a glass of that with my dinner. I’ve moderated my consumption, but I’ve also had the ability to pick and choose what I want to consume and how I want to consume it,” Kivelstadt
WBM that filling 100ml glass tubes works almost identically to a traditional bottling line, and the entire process takes about 60 days, from first call to delivery of the finished tube. Wine is either brought into the Tubes facility in bulk or in previously filled 750ml bottles. If shipped in bottle, Tubes has a high-speed decanting line that automatically removes the wine from the bottles, transfers to tank, and then into tubes. The tube fill is administered with a state-of-the-art quality control system.
“We silk screen almost all the tubes. That’s because on a small-diameter vessel applying labels is obviously a little bit challenging,” he added. “We do have the ability to label, but our strong preference is silk screen, and we have some really good partners here in the U.S.,” Kivelstadt explained.
The patented tubes are comprised of glass produced by plants in France and Germany. The company is now in talks with domestic glass producers but has not reached the scale needed to bring production to the U.S. (For more details on the tube-filling process see sidebar “The Tube Tests.”)
For Tubes, the biggest costs are the patents, the specialized filling equipment and the custom glass mold. “Having an elegant, sleek tube that’s also hermetically sealed and can withstand the rigors of shipping and handling took time to perfect,” he noted.
No matter the costs, the ultimate mission is to offer a new way to engage customers outside of the tasting room. Kivelstadt believes that this is the future of wine sampling. WBM
The following was provided by managing director Jordan Kivelstadt and explains how the alternative packaging is filled and shipped.
Step 1: Before we can agree on a partnership, we perform a thorough test in our lab to see if your wine is suitable for bottling in tubes. If the result is positive, we can get started.
Step 2: Your wine can be delivered to our production facility in bottles or in bulk. Once we have received the wine, we will perform oenological tests and a technical analysis to determine our starting point. This way we can compare the wine once bottled in tubes to the wine that was delivered to us and make sure we have maintained the quality of your product.
Step 3: In our certified production facility, the wine is transferred to our bottling machine.
Step 4: In the meantime, the tubes have been silk screened with a design of your choice.
Step 5: Now we are ready for bottling. Quality is most important to us and to ensure a high level of quality, we work according to certain standards and specifications. Our facility has a Higher Level IFS Certification and we are certified to bottle organic goods. During this process our production team performs regular quality checks.
Step 6: Once finished, a few samples go to our lab for a final test.
Step 7: Your tubes will then be packed according to your preference and now they are ready for pick up. The minimum order quantity is 1,000 tubes per wine or spirit/SKU in Europe and 2,000 tubes per wine or spirit in the USA. Cost per tubes generally runs $1.50 to $2.50 each.
Tubes can package your tubes in four ways: Single tubes in cartons per 100 pieces, in luxury gift boxes with a window and magnetic closure (three or five tubes), in cardboard boxes that fit through a mail box (Europe only), and in wine calendars of 12 or 24 wine tubes.
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The label of Clover Pond Vineyard’s Premiére series of wines features a painting inspired by winery founders Jim and Joyce Besha tending to their 16-acre vineyard located outside of the city of Albany, N.Y. The couple’s daughter-in-law, Susan Thomas, thought the pair looked like “little farmers” and Clover Pond is a small, family-owned, and operated winery.
Entered into the Classic category of the 2022 Pack Design Awards contest, the label (which judges praised for its “folksy, personal appeal”) conveys a wine produced at a DIY, family-run estate but Clover Pond is hardly a hobby vineyard. Jim Besha is also the owner of Albany Engineering Corp., which designs, builds, and maintains hydroelectric energy generation systems. The winery is situated on the shore of Watervliet Reservoir where Besha’s firm operates a plant, and in an interview with Wine Business Monthly he said he soon hopes to power his family-owned winery with energy generated by the family’s other business.
Besha has applied his more than three decades of experience as an engineer to other aspects of grapegrowing and winemaking to create what he describes as one of the most mechanized small wineries in New York if not the United States. The winery produces around 1,500 cases a year but with another 8 acres of estate vines expected to bear fruit this year, Besha figures that will grow to 3,500 cases or more in a year or two. “We’ve tried to mechanize as much as we can because labor is so hard to come by and we think it’s the best way to do things,” he said.
The couple planted their first vines in 2015 and the entire vineyard is planted with cold-hardy hybrid varieties that Besha said have thrived and have produced yields of around 4 to 4.5 tons per acre. The 2022 harvest yielded 30% more than the previous vintage. Nearly all vineyard work is done by machine, and Besha purchased a new
Designer: Susan Thomas
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tractor that can operate autonomously guided by GPS. Ripening grapes are also protected with a laser bird deterrence system. Grapes are harvested with a vintage, Vectur grape harvester that Besha originally purchased for its parts. “I had visions of actually building my own harvester and I bought the old one thinking I could learn from it and adapt it,” he said. When harvest arrived after Besha had purchased the machine, he had a crew of employees from the engineering firm ready and waiting to pick when they decided to fire up the old harvester “just for the hell of it.” The machine started up just fine and Besha said after he and his crew watched it pick one full row in mere minutes followed by another row, they all decided to just let the machine keep going. Besha said the machine picks clean as well as quickly. “We’re shocked at this old harvester,” he said. “For what we have, it’s wonderful.”
The production area of the 9,000-square-foot winery was completed in 2021 with the tasting room finished in 2022. The crushpad equipment was purchased new from Prospero, and the small winery lab includes a spectrophotometer and everything else needed for full-panel wine analysis. Wine ferments and ages in stainless steel tanks with oak alternatives and micro-ox as needed.
Clover Pond produces four whites and three to four reds, most of which are blends, and everything is sold out of the tasting room. The winery is also equipped with a cross flow filter from Scott Laboratories and all bottling is done in house. Besha said he decided to buy his own automated bottling line following the onset of COVID-19 as didn’t want a crew bottling everything by hand in proximity. He found a used GAI line with a labeler and rebuilt it himself. He said it had been used for bottling spring water so getting it ready for winery work didn’t require too much retrofitting. “I’m an engineer and I like the predictability of things,” Besha said.
“Winemaking is an awful lot of science and I like to be able to predict and have consistency.” WBM
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Off-premise table wine sales were unchanged versus a year ago at $1.6 billion in the four weeks ended Dec. 31, NielsenIQ scan data showed. Sales stabilized versus a year ago thanks to the boost from holiday spending. This saw sales in the latest 52 weeks total $15.9 billion, down 3 percent from last year. Growth in the period was strongest for table wines in glass priced $15-$19.99 a bottle, with sales up 6 percent to approach $221.4 million. Box wines priced $4-plus per 750ml saw the second-fastest growth at more than 5 percent. Wines priced $11-$14.99 a bottle ranked third, pointing to a shift in growth toward sub-$20 wines.
Off-premise table wine sales volume fell 4 percent versus a year ago in the four weeks ended Dec. 31 to 13.9 million 9L cases. The latest 52 weeks saw volumes decline 6 percent to 152.6 million 9L cases. Volume growth in the latest four weeks continued to be in just two price tiers — box wines priced $4-plus per 750ml and table wines in glass at $15-$19.99, both of which gained 4 percent to 728,792 9L cases. This marked in acceleration in trends from the latest 52 weeks, with $15-$19.99 wines benefitting the most.
Retail wine sales are undergoing a bifurcation, and while the high road looks attractive; retail wine sales seem set to make friends in low places as sales growth shifted over the latest 52 weeks into lower price tiers. Sales at prices less than $15 a bottle have seen the pace of declines slow, with value down just 5 percent versus a year ago, according to NielsenIQ data, less than half the 11 percent decline reported last year versus 2020. Meanwhile, the pace of growth in the $15-$19.99 tier doubled, and higher price tiers saw sales growth slow and even reverse at the $25-plus tier.
In the past 52 weeks, all price segments recorded increases in average bottle price for an overall increase of 4 percent to $10.22 a bottle. The least-expensive and most-expensive price tiers saw the strongest growth in average prices, underscoring the bifurcation in the market. This is a shift from a year ago, when progressively higher price tiers saw a greater escalation in average prices and peaked at the $25-plus tier. In the latest 52 weeks, average bottle price growth shifted to the lower price tiers, peaking in the $4-$7.99 a bottle range. The most dramatic shift was seen in the $8-$10.99 price tier, which saw flat price growth a year ago but 2.5 percent growth this year. Consumers may be trading down, but they’re spending more per bottle within those lower price tiers when they do. WBM
Source: NielsenIQ Latest 4 weeks — ended Dec. 31
Sourced from NielsenIQ, these figures represent off-premise retailer wine sales to the consumer aggregated across a variety of channels nationwide, including grocery, drug, mass merchandisers, convenience, dollar, military, as well as a selection of warehouse clubs, and liquor channel geographies and liquor channel retail chains. NielsenIQ figures are updated and released every four weeks.
Armand Gilinsky, Jr. is the F J Korbel & Bros. Professor of Wine Business at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, CA. He can be reached at gilinsky@sonoma.edu. Researchers for this study include: Kristen Rinck, Ph.D. candidate, University of Houston, Houston, TX, KristenRinck@gmail.com; Adele Santana, professor of business, Sonoma State University, santaade@ sonoma.edu; Caroline Bailey, founder and CEO of Premier Growth: The Business of Family, Sausalito, CA, caroline@premiergrowth.com; Tim Wallace, MBA, instructor, wine business, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, USA, wallacti@sonoma.edu; and Jean-François Coget, dean, School of Business, Sonoma State University, cogetj@sonoma.edu
Winery owners, managers, and winemakers that came of age in the 1970s are likely to retire in the third decade of the 21st century and how to craft a sustainable leadership succession in a turbulent environment is more relevant than ever before. While most recent studies that investigate sustainability focus on the “triplebottom-line,” that is, people, planet, and profits, none directly consider company succession planning as a sustainability driver. Is leadership part and parcel of any sustainability strategy, or in other words, is leadership succession potentially the “fourth bottom line”? If so, what skills will leaders of successive generations need upon the retirement of the Baby Boom generation (born from 1945 to 1964)?
To find the answers to these questions, researchers at Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute conducted three focus groups from August to November 2021. Each group consisted of eight leaders for a total sample size of 24. Participants were selected for invitation based on their leadership positions in a wine business, prominence in the industry, and familiarity with the Wine Business Institute. Participants were contacted via email and LinkedIn messaging and were required to provide informed consent in writing regarding the voluntary nature of the focus group. All participants were guaranteed anonymity of names and affiliations. Sessions were conducted virtually via Zoom and led by a professional moderator, who is also a member of our research team. Composition of the three focus groups is listed in ( TABLE 1) .
as the COVID-19 pandemic, the necessity of having a diverse workplace to bring different opinions and skills has become more prevalent. Several leadership traits were prominently identified by the focus group participants. These traits included:
1. Support the next generation. What stood out in the focus group discussions was the importance of being a mentor or champion for one’s employees. Effective leaders should be planting the seeds for successors or younger staff members by providing them an opportunities to have a voice in the company. Mentoring fosters teamwork and accountability. Furthermore, leaders need to assign credit to the next generation when they come up with actionable, innovative ideas.
2. Display emotional intelligence. Another point that was brought up was how crucial it is to recognize different personality types and their varied needs/wants in the workplace. Leaders then need to be prepared to lead these varied personality types. Having this skillset of emotional intelligence would better allow an organization to support the needs of their employees, resulting in higher worker performance. One participant proposed the idea of implementing mental health checks as a way to ensure that all employees felt supported in the workplace. Even if these practices may move industry leaders outside of their comfort zones, they should still be able to do so to lead effectively.
Note: Numbers may not add up to 100 percent since one participant reported working in two of the above categories.
The wine industry is rooted in history and tradition; thus there can be resistance when adapting to a new reality. One focus group participant commented, “Life does not follow a textbook”, which aptly summarizes the importance of pivoting alongside the evolving industry. With the onset of recent events, such
3. Know your industry. Leaders must have knowledge of their industry, the competition, and their customer base. For instance, it is crucial to understand that the wine industry today faces substantial issues, such as competition from other beverages, consumer confusion, accessibility, and supply chain constraints. Only after leaders possess that knowledge can they work towards demystifying wine, allowing more people to explore wine under their own terms.
4. Be a superior communicator. Leaders need to practice active listening to make complex and ambiguous information translatable into action. Along the same lines, leaders need to help their teams understand why particular business decisions need to be made, then back that decision up with numbers, by communicating and interpreting complex data. A good leader does not need all of the answers but should at least be able to analyze market data to raise the right questions. Furthermore, a leader should communicate with leaders in other disciplines or industries who may have unbiased perspectives on the challenges the wine industry faces.
At the end of each focus group session, the moderator asked, “Can leadership can be taught or are there specific personality types that are better suited for leaders?” The consensus was that leadership “can be taught,” even though each person may have a distinct leadership style and there is no one specific way to be a successful leader. Anecdotal information from the transcripts from the sessions revealed ten common themes regarding how a wine business leader should act, as shown in TABLE 2 , “Ten Common Wine Industry Leadership Traits.”
A wine business leader should….
• “Be able to take complex and ambiguous information and distill it down into doable actions.”
• “Be resourceful.”
• “Create a shared vision for the business.”
• “Develop soft skills.”
• “Do research and not bring bias into business decisions.”
• “Have emotional intelligence.”
• “Have financial aptitude.”
• “Have knowledge of your industry, competition, and customers.”
• “Know what, how, and when to speak.”
• “Place value on diversity, inclusion, and equity.”
How leadership is imparted to the successor generation of wine business owners is not necessarily consistent across all businesses in the wine industry. Two case vignettes, “Succession Planning for Rich Family Winery” and “Succession Planning for Block Family Winery” were contributed by two of our co-authors. These cases were drawn from experiences in consulting to wine businesses.
A wine entrepreneur hoped that his son and daughter would inherit the winery he had founded. The winery’s founder considered himself to be a “hands-off” manager of this business. What had started as a luxury-tiered wine passion project of the father and his winemaking daughter eventually morphed into a family project that included the son, who had experience in sales and was said to be marketing-oriented.
A period of slowing sales and declining profits threatened the viability of the business. With his father’s encouragement, the son developed a revised plan to drive profitability. However, 18 months into the pivot, the father and daughter had become increasingly dissatisfied with the brand repositioning. Although brand repositioning had improved the winery’s price-competitiveness and profitability, the result was inconsistent with the owner and winemaker’s original intent for a luxury brand.
Their rejection of the results confused the son, causing him to feel so diminished that he resigned, to the dismay of all family members. His son’s departure was an “aha!” moment for the founder when he realized that what was missing from the start of the winery’s transition to his children were documented, consensus-driven statements of mission, vision, and values as well as a strategic plan that defined success. Had this structure and alignment existed, he observed,
business operations, yet were uncertain how to do so. Since the founders continued to live at the winery and as not all of their children showed interest in working in the family business, the founders were deeply concerned about how to step back and still keep pace with the growing business in order to sustain their family legacy.
A discovery process was initiated, and comprised of structured interviews with family and business managers, as well as an assessment. The consultants used a Family Enterprise Assessment Tool (FEAT) to obtain anonymous perspectives from all family members, whether they worked in the family business or not.3 The compiled data, in tandem with industry best practices, helped the consultants and the owners craft a plan for sustainable succession. Highlights from the assessment of individual respondents are plotted as line graphs shown in FIGURE 1 and it can be inferred that direction and development along with continuity and succession appeared to be key opportunity areas.
perhaps the family could have developed a vision that made the business more competitive and positioned the family for the desired succession.
Block Family Winery, a small family-owned business located in the North Coast region of California, built a reputation for producing award-winning wines and providing high touch, personable experiences for customers. However, the founding owners reached an age at which they wanted to relinquish day-to-day
The compiled data, in tandem with industry best practices, were used to craft a plan for sustainable succession, which included shifting the founders to strategic roles under a formalized governance structure, preparing the next generation for leadership and initiating a transition plan to meet business and legacy needs.
These two case vignettes illustrate divergent approaches to the leadership skills needed for a sustainable succession plan. As seen in the first case vignette, the potential for sibling rivalry can also pose a major challenge to succession (managing conflict). The second case vignette demonstrates the importance of proactive planning and formalizing a governance structure for the family and business to ensure successful transition to next generation leadership. In both cases, engaging external experts to manage potential generational conflicts that may have their roots in nonfamily business environments and may increase the probability of a successful succession. Without the wholehearted commitment of the incumbent (and the family) to the process, it may be better to plan to sell the business than to plan for the transfer of leadership to the next generation. Based upon a synthesis of the results from this investigation, it is apparent that wine business leaders who are planning succession should:
1. Start with an organization chart. Determine where the missing pieces of the organizational puzzle are first.
2. Make diversity, equality, and inclusivity part of the plan. An effective succession process should involve inclusiveness. Bring non-family staff into the decision-making process to signal to non0-family members that they are valued contributors to your company’s success.
3. Learn up! A workshop in a classroom setting can legitimize the free exchange of ideas without judgment, promote expression of aspirations, stimulate excitement and commitment by introducing alternative visions of the family enterprise that may not only be more engaging to the next generation, but also soften any natural resistance to change.
Based on our findings wine leaders should begin to put in place some of the above “strategic guardrails” within which important traditions are preserved yet innovation can thrive, and embed those practices in the core values of the business. Successive boards of directors and executive teams will be responsible for approving and implementing these strategies. The upcoming generations surely need to be aware of what is worth preserving from the past and what is worth changing in the future so that a wine business can stand the test of time.
WBM
The “Succession Planning for Rich Family Winery” case is based on actual events even though the actual names of the organization and its members have been disguised at the company’s request. This case was researched and written by Tim Wallace. Used by permission from the author.
The “Succession Planning for Block Family Winery” case is based on actual events even though the name of the organization and its members have been disguised at the company’s request. This case was researched and written by Caroline Coleman Bailey. Used by permission from the author.
FEAT® was created to provide family-owned business with a snapshot of the current state of family and business enterprise dynamics. FEAT is the first virtual researchbased assessment tool specifically designed to anonymously gather and assess family stakeholder perspectives in a simple and safe environment. Developed by Dennis T. Jaffe, PhD and Caroline Coleman Bailey, FEAT is used as a foundation for family governance and legacy planning.
Tried and tested in a M7.8 earthquake, ONGUARD is the first – and only – seismic system designed and proven to protect liquid storage tanks from earthquakes.
The winery direct shipping market appears to have begun a new post-pandemic era as total shipments for the past year declined 1.6 percent by value and 10.3 percent by volume. While the declines are unprecedented in the more than 10 years Wines Vines Analytics and Sovos ShipCompliant have tracked the channel, they are not that surprising given the equally unprecedented 27 percent increase in total volume seen in 2020.
Released just prior to the global outbreak of COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdowns and disruptions of March 2020, the annual report on shipment activity in 2019 described a “mature” market in which growth could be expected to be much more modest than in previous years. At the time, the dominant trend had been strong year-to-year growth thanks to the opening of new states to direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping. Yet after Pennsylvania fully opened to shipments in 2018, there were no longer any major markets left to open and a period of robust year-to-year growth via legislation came to an end. Shipment data from 2019 confirmed that trend with the channel growing by 7.4 percent in value and 4.7 percent in volume.
But like everything else, the pandemic changed the market and DTC shipments served as a vital lifeline for wineries through 2020 and into 2021 when total shipments enjoyed a 1.4 percent increase in volume on top of the record high set during the worst of the pandemic.
The past year has been a return to what “normal” may have looked like, at least in terms of DTC shipment value and volume, if COVID-19 hadn’t happened. Total shipment value came to $4.1 billion and volume at 7.6 million cases in 2022 compared to total DTC shipment value and volume in 2012 represents an average annual growth of 10 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Total shipment volume in 2022 was 16 percent higher than in 2019 and value was up 28.5 percent.
While the declines seen in the past year don’t suggest a general pullback from direct shipments by both wineries and consumers, the steep drop in December shipment volume coupled with a 10 percent decline in value indicate that inflationary pressures and economic worries crimped the all-important fourth quarter sales period. In 2021, wineries enjoyed a boon in DTC business from holiday gift-giving from individuals and companies, some of which organized virtual tastings as COVID-safe holiday parties, leading to a value increase of more than 14 percent in October and 17 percent in November.
This past year, wineries reported holiday gifting appeared down and many wine club members have paused some club shipments because they accumulated so much wine in 2020 and 2021. Many wineries in Napa and Sonoma counties also need to be strategic with how they allocate wine into the various sales channels because the past three harvests have been lighter than normal. Back in 2020 many had excess inventory because of the bumper crop of 2018.
Those factors will all remain in play during the coming year as the DTC channel begins to reflect the wider U.S. wine market. Sales growth will be a challenge and wineries will need to be even more aggressive in a market
that is poised to have fewer consumers than in 2020 or 2021 because of a revived on-premise sector, less demand for lower-priced wines to be shipped direct and layoffs among white collar workers. Shipping and material costs aren’t likely to decline even if price increases moderate through 2023, further
reducing margins on direct shipments. The complete 2023 report is available for download at www.DTCwinereport.com.
Cabernet Sauvignon reasserted its dominant position in the channel as the only key varietal to enjoy a significant increase in shipment value and a comparatively small decrease in volume. The varietal accounted for 30 percent of total channel value in 2022 after increasing 6 percent to $1.26 billion for the year. By volume, Cabernet accounted for 17 percent of the total channel with 1.27 million cases followed by Pinot Noir and Red Blends that both had a share of 14 percent after volume declines of 10 percent and 12 percent respectively. Red blends saw a 2 percent increase in total value to $675 million.
While the popular varietals and wine types lead in DTC just as in retail, the significant share of the “other” category in value and volume demonstrates the potential for consumers to acquire the alternative wines that may not be so easy to find in other channels. In 2022 the “other” category accounted for 15 percent of total channel value at $619 million (down 9 percent from 2021) while nearly a quarter of volume at 1.75 million cases (down 13 percent from 2021).
Considering the leading position and value growth of Cabernet and red blends, Napa County was the only major region to see an increase in shipment value, rising 3.2 percent to $1.95 billion. Napa wineries accounted for 47 percent of entire channel value in 2022, while Napa shipment volume declined
9 percent. Oregon had been a standout in terms of DTC growth in recent years but in 2022 the state’s wineries saw value decline by more than 2 percent to $279 million and volume fell 9 percent to 509 million cases. The biggest decline in shipment volume, 14 percent, occurred among shipments by Sonoma County wineries, but Sonoma had seen phenomenal volume growth of 38 percent in 2020 followed by a 2 percent increase in 2021.
While total value and volume rose and fell in dramatic fashion over the past three years, the regular trends historically seen in the DTC channel remained in effect. For example, the market still hit its traditional, seasonal highs in value and volume in March and October and the regular lows during June and July. This consistency can also be seen in shipments by winery size. Small wineries, defined by Wines Vines Analytics as producing between 5,000 and 49,999 cases, have long been the backbone of DTC shipments and these wineries accounted for 47 percent of all shipment by value in 2021 and 48 percent, or $1.83 billion, in 2022. By volume, the key difference in 2022 can also be seen in total shipment volume of small wineries that fell 14 percent or roughly 519,000 cases. Limited production wineries, or those making fewer than 1,000 cases, also saw an 18 percent decrease in total volume to 152,000 cases but these wineries only account for 2 percent of total channel volume.
In another similarity to the total U.S. wine market, growth in DTC has been bifurcated by price and the overall decline in volume is even more dramatic when segmenting by price. By value, total shipments of wines priced less than $50 fell 13 percent to $1.55 billion while total value of wines priced more than $50 rose 7 percent to $2.59 billion. The most expensive price tier of more than $200 grew by 32 percent to $664 million. By volume, wines priced more than $50 increased 1 percent to 2.11 million cases while those priced less than $50 fell 14 percent to 5.37 million. Lower priced wines do account for a significantly higher share of volume with wines priced less than $50 accounting for 74 percent of all cases shipped and 70 percent in 2022. By dollars, wines priced more than $50 accounted for 58 percent of total channel volume in 2021 and that share grew to 63 percent in 2022. While the 166,927 cases of wines priced at more than $200 accounted for just 2.2 percent of channel volume, they claimed 16 percent of total value.
The top destination states also remain similar to previous years, with California accounting for 33 percent of shipment value at $1.35 billion followed by Texas with 8 percent share at $341 million and Florida at $267 million or 6 percent value share. Shipments to Ohio grew by 10 percent in value from $64 million to slightly more than $70 million and volume also increased 13 percent to more than 131,000 cases. The Buckeye state was the exception as every other major state saw declines in both dollars and cases with California shipment volume declining by 5 percent to 2.34 million cases. WBM
Dr. Iggy Calamari, inventor of the Wine Powered Pacemaker, shivered while rinsing Jake Lorenzo’s glass carboys. The gusty breeze didn’t help, and its wind chill effect made the 38° F temperature feel a lot colder. Bundled up in a heavy overcoat with a wool scarf draped around his neck and a wool knit beanie pulled down over his ears, the good doctor looked like a rotund model for a winter coat sale at Macy’s.
Dressed in layers, starting with a flannel shirt, a fleece vest, and a quilted puffer jacket that made him look like a Latino version of the Michelin Man, Chuy Palacios shed tears and sniffed at his runny nose. “I’m colder than a chunk of ice stuck in a margarita slush,” he complained. “My people are not meant to work in this kind of weather. We should be resting in hammocks swinging over a warm Mexican beach looking at the ocean.”
“Buffalo Bob” Dubanowski laughed crazily. His Bills Mafia t-shirt fluttered in the wind and his very white legs glowed below his plaid shorts until they settled into his red and blue flip flops. A longtime friend of Chuy’s, Buffalo Bob is legendary around Buffalo, New York because of the crispy chicken wings and homemade kielbasa sausage he serves at the annual Bills Mafia tailgate party before Bills games. One of the original Bills Mafia members, Buffalo Bob was visiting Sonoma for the first time to help Chuy raise money for a charity taking care of indigenous people migrating here from southern Mexico. “You want to know about cold, come visit us in Buffalo when we are in the playoffs this year,” he teased.
Jake Lorenzo has seen January football games from Buffalo on my television. Winds are howling, snow is swirling, and footballs fall from the sky like wounded ducks even when thrown by Josh Allen’s cannon-like arm. This detective is no sissy, but nothing about Buffalo in January strikes me as fun. I’m in agreement with Chuy on this one. I’d rather pass the winter on a warm Mexican beach sipping palomas and munching on fish tacos.
That’s why we are struggling in the Sonoma cold today. I had to get my wine racked and off the tartrates that had dropped out in my barrels since harvest so Jakelyn’s mom, Chuy and I could get down to San Pancho for a much-needed vacation. Iggy and Buffalo Bob agreed to help me clean my carboys: Iggy for the opportunity to try Buffalo Bob’s kielbasa and Buffalo Bob to taste Chuy’s birria and drink some Guerrilla Vino Pinot Noir.
Good food has always been a driving force in this detective’s life. Whether in a fancy fine-dining place, a simple food truck, or at a friend’s home table, delicious food has been one of my life’s greatest pleasures, especially when accompanied by wine. As much as I love a home-cooked meal, I miss the whole dining out experience. Venturing out after COVID lockdowns, I see that prices have escalated dramatically. The idea of Jakelyn’s mom and I spending $200 on a simple meal with a decent bottle of wine scares me to hell.
With the demise of Happy Dog, the cheapest hamburger in Sonoma is $16. Small pizzas start at $22. Oysters come in at $4 each. The cheapest wine at most Sonoma restaurants starts at $45 per bottle, and it’s something we would prefer not to drink. If the two of us go out for lunch, just burgers or pizza with a bottle wine, we are over $100. Semi-retired detectives don’t have that kind of money. Then again, Jake Lorenzo has never had much money. It didn’t seem important. I am creative though, and I’ve come up with a new plan for dining
out. We are going ethnic. Seeking out ethnic food trucks, pop-ups, and home kitchens exploits my detective skills to their utmost. Looking for the best barbacoa or queso birria tacos? Then find a Mexican neighborhood and look for lines of people standing in someone’s driveway. Take a day trip to Chinatown to shop for fresh duck, squab, and frog’s legs in the bustling markets. Once you’ve purchased your bounty and tucked it into your ice-chest, try out the nearest dumpling house or Cantonese restaurant.
Ethnic restaurants don’t exist by themselves. They are more likely to reside in ethnic neighborhoods. Find one good Vietnamese restaurant in Oakland and you will likely discover several more within blocks. Visiting ethnic neighborhoods and searching out good food is like traveling to foreign countries, except most people speak English and can help. Prices in these restaurants are very reasonable and the food can be exquisite. One rule this detective follows in ethnic restaurants is to order at least one dish that I’ve never heard of before. These are easy to find. You just point to what all the locals are eating and say I’ll try that.
Sadly, wine is not readily available in most ethnic establishments, especially if they are in someone’s backyard. Jakelyn’s mom came up with the answer. We use one of our old six-pack canvas wine bags: the ones we used to carry our wine whenever we went on a trip before TSA disallowed liquids. We’ll select two or three bottles and place them in the slots. Wine glasses fit into the other empty slots. We lay a chill pack on top, toss a corkscrew into the front pocket and we are good to go. Owners of ethnic restaurants may think we’re crazy when we show up with our wine, but they kindly bring glasses and rarely charge corkage.
Today, we have finally finished racking the wine, cleaning the carboys, and putting everything back into the winery. We make our way into the warm house and start with a streaming bowl of Chuy’s birria followed by Buffalo Bob’s incredible kielbasa sausages. That’s ethnic dining at its eclectic finest. We pause after just two bottles of wine split amongst the five of us so we can deliver a comforting experience to Buffalo Bob.
We’re taking him to a winery that is filled with tanks being cold stabilized. The tanks will be covered with ice and the winery will be freezing. It is our hope to remind Buffalo Bob of home. We’re even bringing an old table if he feels the need to jump on it and break it. He is Bills Mafia after all. WBM
“Jake Lorenzo has never had much money. It didn’t seem important. I am creative though, and I’ve come up with a new plan for dining out.”
Donald M. Hess, entrepreneur, vintner, and art collector, passed away peacefully in Bern, Switzerland, on January 30, 2023, at 86. Arriving in Napa Valley in the late 1970s, hoping to expand his European mineral water business, he was instead captivated by wine – a love affair that changed the course of his life. Hess first acquired 700 acres of land on Mt. Veeder in 1978 and established The Hess Collection that year, developing 200 acres into vineyard land. The first Hess Collection wines were produced in 1983, and in 1986, he secured an additional 70 acres on Mt. Veeder, which included a historic winery dating back to 1903. Over the last 45 years, The Hess Collection has become a cornerstone of sustainably grown California Cabernet Sauvignon. Today, the winery owns four estate vineyards within the Napa Valley, totaling approximately 900 planted acres.
Clay Gregory, the former president and CEO of Visit Napa Valley, passed away peacefully on Feb. 1, 2023 at the age of 65. During the past few years he had suffered from complications related to a form of early onset Alzheimer’s. In 2019, Gregory retired from Visit Napa Valley, the official tourism marketing organization for the Napa Valley. In 2010, with support from the county’s hospitality community, Gregory established the Napa Valley Tourism Improvement District (NVTID) to ensure that funding for marketing and promotion of the Napa Valley as a globally recognized destination was maintained at competitive levels. He positioned VNV to support the entire valley, to ensure each town was equally represented. Prior to his role with the Visit Napa Valley, Gregory served in key wine industry leadership roles, including as president of Jackson Family Wines, and vice president and general manager of Robert Mondavi Winery. He also had his own wine label, Inherit the Sheep.
Michael Martini passed away at the age of 73 in January following a short battle with lung cancer. Martini retired from Louis M. Martini winery in 2015, after 40 years of making wine for his family. Louis M. Martini winery was founded by his grandfather in 1933, but Martini started working in the cellar in 1974, after some time spent in the military. He completed his fermentation science degree from UC Davis and in 1977 became the head winemaker, replacing his father, Louis P. Martini. The family sold the winery to E. & J. Gallo in 2002, but Martini remained in the winemaker position until he retired in 2015. He has been active in the wine community, serving on the boards of the American Society for Viticulture and Enology, California Wine Institute and Napa Valley Vintners.
Theorem Vineyards named Andy Jones as winemaker. With some 15 years of winemaking experience, working with some the region’s most celebrated labels and vineyard sites, he is the ideal person for this role. Originally from Jackson, Wyoming, Jones migrated to the Napa Valley to further his career in the restaurant industry. A management position at a Michelin-starred restaurant soon proved transformative, opening his eyes to the world of fine wine. In 2008, determined to learn more, he accepted a cellar internship at Outpost Wines with Napa Valley winemaking legend, Thomas Rivers Brown, and never looked back. Over the next 15 years, with Brown as his mentor, Jones immersed himself in winemaking, gaining extensive knowledge and respect for technique while simultaneously assuming ever-increasing responsibilities.
Craig Becker, general manager, co-founder and director of winemaking of Priest Ranch, announced that Cody Hurd has been appointed winemaker. Previously assistant winemaker, Hurd has been part of Priest Ranch’s vineyard and cellar team since 2010. Working under Craig Becker’s direction, Hurd develops all winemaking protocols and oversees production while managing the longtime cellar crew. As winemaker, his focus is maintaining a portfolio of distinctive wine blends that are reflective of the full diversity of the vineyard. A native of Washington state, Hurd relocated to Napa Valley in 2009, and was invited to join Priest Ranch’s cellar team in 2010. Mentored by Craig Becker, he worked his way up over the next ten years to cellar master, assistant winemaker, and associate winemaker.
Jill Goodrich joined the Shannon Family of Wines sales team as region sales manager west. Goodrich brings more than 30 years of experience in sales and sales management in the wine industry and is responsible for overseeing the western region sales efforts for the entire Shannon Family of Wines portfolio. Prior to joining Shannon Family of Wines, Goodrich’s extensive career background includes leadership roles at A to Z Wine Works, most recently as vice president of sales, west zone, in addition to progressive leadership roles with The Hess Collection, Diageo and Philip’s Wine & Spirits.
Terlato Wines promoted Christa Rachlin to the role of vice president, national accounts, off-premise. Rachlin joined Terlato Wines in 2020 as director of trade marketing/commercial center of excellence. Prior to Terlato, her career had her at Diageo and Treasury Wine Estates where she held senior roles in sales, operations and trade marketing, calling on Target, Sam’s Club, Albertson’s Corporate and Amazon. Rachlin reports to Chris Miller, senior vice president of sales and will be a member of Terlato’s leadership team.
Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits welcomed Lisa Catanzaro as its new head of human resources. She reports directly to president, Tom Steffanci and works closely with Deutsch’s executive team. In this role, Catanzaro oversees all aspects of human resources including recruitment, learning and development, recognition, retention, diversity, and compensation and benefits. Catanzaro has dedicated the last 20 years of her career to supporting the most important asset of any organization: its people. For the seven years prior to joining Deutsch Family, she was the senior vice president of human resources for U.S. and Canada at Breakthru Beverage Group. Prior to joining Breakthru, she spent 15 years at Diageo, in multiple roles including senior vice president of human resources for North America.
The seventh annual Rich Smith Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions to the American grape and wine industry was presented yesterday to Marty Clubb, co-owner of L’Ecole No. 41, a premium winery in Walla Walla, Washington, and a major contributor to the Washington and American wine industry. Clubb has been deeply involved in both the Washington state wine industry and on a national level with WineAmerica for decades, in both cases serving in key leadership positions. His involvement starts with the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance and the Walla Walla Community College Viticulture and Enology program which is engaged in research and extension. On a state level he has served in key roles at the Washington State Wine Commission and Washington Wine Institute, and on the national level he has served as treasurer, vice chair and chair of WineAmerica’s Board of Directors.
“Due to our deep commitment to sustainability I have been reading and digesting all the articles on alternative packaging produced by Wine Business Monthly. In the December issue Richard Carey wrote “Flexible Packaging for Wine”. As a small producer we may not be able to leverage some of these technologies but as the industry evolves it is in our and everyone’s interest to consider what we can do. In a much broader perspective the article by Dr. Richard Smart in the August 2022 edition
‘The Climate Crisis, Carbon Neutrality and the wines in America’ takes a 30,000-foot view of the industry by someone who has been around it for almost half a century.
“I have to admit I really like the hard copy but, in an effort to walk the walk, I should commit only to the digital issues. Perhaps this will be my 2023 New Years resolution.”
Winery name and location: Blue Grouse Estate Winery sits on top of one of the oldest vineyards on Vancouver Island. Pioneering BC viticulturist John Harper planted an experimental vineyard on the Blue Grouse site in 1986-87 trailing upwards of 150 different types of grape vines, some of which are still in production today. The Bacchus, Black Muscat, Gamay Noir, Ortega, Muller-Thurgau, Pearl of Csaba, Pinot Noir and Siegerrebe are more than 20 years old and the Pinot Gris is 35 years old.
Annual case production: 7,000 cases and growing
Planted acres: 15 acres producing and 15 more in third leaf with 35 more being planted in 2023
Career background: I began my career in winemaking 23 years ago after a 25-year career as a chef. I was fortunate to have some fantastic mentors who allowed me to explore the craft and hone my skills—plus there were also many transferable skills from the culinary side I was able to lean on. When I joined Blue Grouse 10 years ago, I began to drive the process to have the Cowichan Valley recognized as a distinct viticultural area (which we accomplished in 2020 as a new sub-geographical indication) and I now sit on an advisory panel for the industry in BC.
What has been your biggest professional challenge? The biggest challenge currently is working in a small market without the ready access to colleagues (which is why Wine Business Monthly is such a fantastic resource). The obvious other challenge is that we are in a very cool climate and on the edge of where grapes grow easily, so my relationship with Mother Nature is always a complex dance.
Varietals that your winery is known for: Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and, increasingly, Chardonnay
