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Growers who studied and accepted viticultural research EDIT OR' S LET TER Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers annual meeting got me thinking about this topic again. Peter's report on an appar- ently lively conference discussion is summarized on page 26, in the Fac- es & Forums section of this issue, and a longer, more detailed version is available at winesandvines.com (search keywords: "startling revela- tions.") The speakers turned away from climate change as the main cause of fuller-bodied wines, and at least one called out wine critics as the culprits. S Credit to grapegrowers I think all this discussion clouds the issue and doesn't give due credit to the real players in this improve- ment in American wines: American grapegrowers. I say "improvement" because the increased ripeness of grapes over the past generation has given the resulting wines more agree- able flavor characteristics. Consum- ers had no trouble noticing and ap- preciating the differences, and they steadily built an entirely new market for dry varietal table wines where virtually none had existed before. Credit is due to the grapegrow- omething is missing from the still-simmering debate about how high-alcohol table wines came to be to- day's standard bearers. Who or what is the respon- sible party? The 100-point scale? International wine- making consultants? Climate change? Reading Peter Mitham's coverage of the recent Who Gets Credit for Riper Wines? reason why a particular wine tastes so good. The grower was run- ning the show. Not long afterward, I visited the Benziger brothers in Sonoma County before they sold their Glen Ellen brand to Heublein. They were deep into the "farming for flavors" campaign that helped educate growers around California. To grow the fight- ing-varietal Glen Ellen label to millions of cases required lots of grapes and lots of willing growers. The Benzigers wanted to help them improve their fruit quality— not just in Brix count, but also in flavor parameters. Higher quality enabled the growers to get and keep the Glen Ellen business. These were still the early years of Changes in the vineyard that seem simple and obvious today were ers for recognizing in the late 1980s that they weren't at the mercy of the weather and vine diseases. That they could change their vineyards, change the wines made from them and change the wine market itself. How? By studying and accepting the new scientific knowledge about viticulture by researchers like Richard Smart and many oth- ers and applying it to their own soil and grapevines. I remember visiting Caymus Vineyards in Napa Valley at har- vest time in 1989. The norm for harvest had been 23.5º Brix. Owner Chuck Wagner showed his estate Cabernet blocks and explained that he had begun harvesting grapes riper and later, at about 25º Brix. I recall that Wagner said he looked for leaves that were starting to yellow, and for berries that were softening and slightly deflating. The reviewers at Wine Spectator at the time, myself included, loved Caymus Cabernets in blind tastings, but this was not a scene in which a writer was telling a grower how to do his job. It was a grower sharing what he was doing, and a writer realizing one 8 Wines & Vines MARCH 2012 revolutionary at the time and quickly made a difference. vertical shoot positioning, multiple catch wires, leaf removal and other ways of getting more sunlight into the vine canopy. Changes that seem simple and obvious today were rev- olutionary at the time and quickly made a difference in reducing veg- gie-like pyrazine flavors in Caber- net and Merlot and getting more pear and pineapple characters from Chardonnay rather than lemon and green apple. After bottling, the Ben- zigers shared with grapegrowers the wine made from their grapes to close the loop on quality and help growers understand the improve- ments on (literally) a gut level. Critics not dictating That day at the Glen Ellen Winery cemented the changes in vineyard technology and farming for flavors in my mind. Again, critics weren't dictating to growers, but in this case growers and a wine writer were learning from winemakers. Higher alcohol content was one result of the new technical un- derstanding of grapegrowing; more desirable flavors and texture were others. Since this March edition of Wines & Vines is our annual Vineyard Equipment & Technology Issue, it seems like a good time to recall the contributions of the enlightened growers and winemakers who brought the American wine industry to where it is today. Members of that first modern generation of wine- growers sensed the consumer's changing taste, accepted it and then used science to grow healthier vines and riper grapes to meet that taste expectation. Many, if not most, have prospered because of it.