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WINEMAKING and Mansfield adds that there's even less in the way of guidelines for the riparia-based hybrids she worked with a few years back at the University of Minnesota. Silva has developed a nice niche market in Iberian grape varieties, and his various Tintas and Tourigas and their kin show up in boutique bottlings at a lot of California wineries. But does anyone have a clue about how to crop Trincadeira? Any reason that should be an- other 3-ton wonder? Oregon State University in Corvallis is conducting a fascinating series of trials de- signed to connect the dots all the way be- tween side-by-side (or side-by-side-by-side) viticultural variations—cover crops, leaf removal, irrigation regimens—and finished wines, evaluated both for their chemistry and their sensory properties. That research probably won't revolutionize Oregon grape contracts, but it's the kind of work that can give both growers and winemakers more things to think about as they pursue quality. What's down the road? For my last take on the question of grape quality, I figured I needed someone to gaze into a crystal ball for me, and that meant putting in a call to Leo McClos- key at Enologix, a winemaking consult- "Depending on where you are, people may just buy by weight. We'd like people to assess quality, think of grapes block by block, not just tonnage." —Research enologist Anna Katherine Mansfield, Cornell ing firm with a stellar, high-end client list. Currently, Enologix offers a series of tests, nine in all, which can be performed while grapes are on the vine and nearing harvest ripeness; the combined tests, Enologix says, will predict finished wine chemistry, potential longevity, what market style the grapes are suited for and, by implication, how the wine will fare with critics. He de- scribes their approach, ferreting out poten- tial market value from grape chemistry, as the "Moneyball" of wine consulting. Further down the road, McCloskey thinks that "advanced farming"—farming that shifts gears nimbly to deal with seasonal vari- ations in the vineyard—will become much more widespread. Even more important, he says, is that "advanced installation"—estab- lishing vineyards to get the most out of their ecosystem of soil, climate, plant material, row orientation, irrigation, etc.—will also become commoditized, spread throughout at least the premium parts of the industry. The upshot will be that every area will be farmed up to its potential—some better than others, and some suited to Cabernet, some Pinot Noir, and so on. But while we wait for the eventual tri- umph of reliably superior grapes, which will probably occur over time, we may have to put up with a few more decades of wine- makers chewing on grapes and worrying about Brix levels. Another reason winemak- ing resists being reduced to a science. Tim Patterson is the author of "Home Wine- making for Dummies." He writes about wine and makes his own in Berkeley, Calif. Years of experience as a journalist, combined with a con- trarian streak, make him interested in getting to the bottom of wine stories, casting a critical eye on conventional wisdom in the process. Wines & Vines MARCH 2012 55