Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/60007
WINEMAKING SIMEI is a vast and varied display of European innovations, a city whose streets swell with winemakers touring neighborhoods of viticulture, vinifica- tion, filtration, analysis and packaging. from my colleagues in the international press corps, I was aided in my quest for the best by the selections of SIMEI's Innovation Prize Committee, composed of technical specialists from wineries as well as university researchers. In addition to the four top innovation awards, the committee designated 12 works worthy of special mention. Let's put ourselves in perspective. The number of U.S. wineries has grown from 200 in 1970 to more than 7,000 today. Meanwhile, Italy alone boasts more than 80,000 wineries, and Europe as a whole supports half a million, few of which operate in English. Bottom line: Americans are way behind the innovation curve. Walking around the fairground, I was like a kid in a candy shop. Gleaning my personal picks, I have organized this embarrassment of riches into six categories. Viticulture An ingenious and well-designed system to automate the pre-pruning operations of vineyards cultivated in Guyot or arched cane systems, the VITECO Cane Pruner presented by Niederkumbd, Germany- based ERO deserves a mention, even though these systems are rare in the U.S. After a preliminary manual pruning, this machine uses two contra-rotary stars Wines & Vines FeBRUARY 2012 57