Wines & Vines

46 WINES&VINES Collector's Edition COLLECTOR'S EDITION Labs for All Leveling the playing field for smaller wineries Before the 1980s, it was mainly the biggest wineries that had the money, the expertise and the space for serious winery laboratories. But as the number of wineries grew and the need for top-notch quality assurance became more pressing, independent commercial laboratories began to spring up to serve smaller wineries' needs. André Tchelistcheff, upon retiring from Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa Valley, opened a private lab as part of his consulting practice. Gordon and Marjorie Burns established ETS Laboratories in St. Helena, Calif., in 1978, and 40 years later they now run labs in Healdsburg and Paso Robles, Calif., as well as one in Newberg, Ore., and one in Walla Walla, Wash. Mary Ann Graf (see related item) and Marty Bannister started Vinquiry laboratory in 1979 in Sonoma County. It is now known as Enartis USA and operates labs in four Cali- fornia wine regions. Other labs have opened around the U.S. since then and Okanagan Wine Lab has been serving British Columbia winemakers since 1997. Labs specializing in very focused services such as Enologix in So- noma, Calif., are now well-established, too. The rise in number and growing sophistication of private labs have given small wineries ac- cess to analytical tools just as sharp as those available to the industry giants, and helped to level the playing field for achieving wine quality and consistency. Invasions by non-native pests A growing threat to the wine and grape industry Over the past 20-plus years, four new non- native pests have arrived in different parts of the U.S. that pose a potential threat to grapegrowers. Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) An invasive species of stink bug, the BMSB was first found in Allentown, Pa., in 1996. Both the nymph stage and the adults feed on grapes, and in 2010 they did extensive damage to fruit trees in Maryland. Research in that state has shown that a distinctive crushed cilantro smell could be detected at five bugs per lug, but that the odor and resulting taste in wine disappear over time. Multicolored Asian lady beetle (MALB) MALB, originally introduced to feed on aphids in pecan orchards and soybean crops more than 100 years ago, attacked Ontario vineyards in 2001, and winemakers had to dump about a million liters of tainted wine. Many acres of soybeans are planted in Ontario, and soybean aphids may have attracted the MALB. The bugs also like damaged or rotten fruit. The current recommendation is preven- tion: Eliminate soybean aphids, spray to con- trol rot and insects, and treat with oak chips if the wine has some taint. Spotted wing drosophila (SWD) First identified in strawberries in Watson- ville, Calif., the SWD was found in Pennsyl- vania in 2010 and now is a major problem in the upper Midwest. The female possesses a serrated ovipositor that can cut into healthy grapes to lay eggs and will reproduce in fallen berries. Sour rot and fungal diseases can also be introduced. It is important therefore to Hanzell, Innovation Incubator James Zellerbach and Brad Webb pioneered Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Hanzell founder James Zellerbach (1892-1963) and his winemaker, Brad Webb, created an innovation incubator at their hilltop winery above Sonoma Valley, established in 1953, from its first commercial vintage in 1957. They planted flags for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on Sonoma soil at a time when very little was being cultivated. With Zellerbach's fortune earned in the paper business and his enthusiasm for the wines of Burgundy behind the venture, Webb introduced new cellar equipment and techniques in the winery's early vintages. The quality of hillside vineyards was already well known, but few wineries before had applied so much technical care to their wine. Webb commissioned what are believed to be the first small temperature-controlled stainless steel fermenters, an early nitrogen-sparged bottling ma- chine and other rarities such as a custom stainless steel crusher-destemmer that still looks contempo- rary today, a small stainless steel basket press and an electrode to measure dissolved oxygen. (See the item on malolactic fermentation in this report for more details.) Hanzell's wines quickly became popu- lar with wine connoisseurs and no doubt inspired other winemakers to emulate the winery's artisanal but technological approach to winemaking.

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