Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/629061
8 WINES&VINES February 2016 A member of Wine Communications Group Inc. President & Publisher Chet Klingensmith Chairman Hugh Tietjen Publishing Consultant Ken Koppel Associate Publisher Tina Vierra Publishing Assistant Maria Brunn EDITORIAL Editor Jim Gordon Managing Editor Kate Lavin Senior Editor Andrew Adams Senior Correspondent Paul Franson Contributing Editor Jane Firstenfeld Northwest Correspondent Peter Mitham Columnists Grapegrowing: Cliff Ohmart and Glenn T. McGourty Contributing Writers Laurie Daniel, Richard Smart, Richard Carey, Chris Stamp, Andrew Reynolds, Craig Root, Ray Pompilio, Andy Starr, Fritz Westover Practical Winery & Vineyard (PWV) Editor Don Neel Wine East Editor Linda Jones McKee DESIGN & PRODUCTION Art Director Barbara Gelfand Summer Designer Bridget Williams DATABASE DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Vice President—Data Management Lynne Skinner Project Manager Liesl Stevenson Database & Web Development James Rust, Peter Scarborough EDITOR'S LETTER YOU WOULD THINK that something as old as the oak wine barrel would not change much from year to year. Coopers still make them from two ingredients—oak boards and metal hoops— ingeniously held together by a few nails to keep the hoops from shifting and a little paste to cement the heads. Yet they do change each year. They change in subtle ways such as different sources of wood, longer seasoning periods and new toasting techniques. As straightforward as those changes may sound, they are very complex for coopers, who may have worked five or 10 years on the adjust- ments before introducing them. Moreover, the changes, as slight as they may be, can affect the taste and quality of the wines you make. That's the whole point, of course, but as a winemaker you want consistency in your wines, so you need to know what to expect before considering a new barrel line or barrel features to your program. That's why Wines & Vines publishes the Barrel Issue each February: to keep you up to date on new research, new barrel-making trends and new barrel products and to help you shop for them well in advance of harvest. The main piece about barrels in this issue stems from research by Esprit de Dryades, a research and development company founded by Jean-Charles Vicard in 2009. The article (page 44) describes research into "Innovative Tools for Stave Selection and Toasting" and helps ex- pand the cooperage and wine industries' understanding of the impact of oak on wine style and composition. The research was conducted in conjunction with California State University, Fresno, and the University of Dijon in Burgundy. The article is deep and detailed, and well worth the reading time for any serious winemaker, enology lab person or cooper. The authors conclude that "the enological advantage of wood selection by tannin potential…is evidenced both by sensory and chemical analysis." A second feature about barrels is senior editor Andrew Adams' Product Focus article on page 56 that shows an amazing array of new twists on the age-old wine vessel. World Cooperage touts its infrared toast, Seguin Moreau offers a low-temperature toast, and Tonnellerie Orion has even added an "uber toast." The last bit about barrels right now is a reminder to register for the second annual Wines & Vines Oak Conference on April 27, when you can see and taste the effects of a lot of these in- novations in person. Learn more at wvoak.com Two other articles in this issue should not be missed. Mario Zepponi and his team at Zepponi & Co. wrote a Viewpoint piece (page 38) specifically for Wines & Vines that sizes up the prospects for mergers and acquisitions in our industry during 2016. Being intimately involved in winery deals, they know whereof they speak. Finally, kudos to Dr. Cliff Ohmart, author of the Vineyard View column since 1998, for his courageous, no-nonsense piece on the vineyard input supply chain (page 34), "Business Model for Inputs Impedes Sus- tainable Growing," which tackles one of the least- talked-about but largest obstacles to improving the sustainability of grapegrowing. As always, we would love to hear your comments about any of these articles, so feel free to email me at jim@winesandvines.com with your reactions. —Jim Gordon Barrel Makers Roll Out Surprising Innovations The article on stave selection is deep and detailed, and well worth the read- ing time for any seri- ous winemaker, lab person or cooper. CONTACT US SUBSCRIPTIONS Email: subs@winesandvines.com Online: winesandvines.com/subscribe Phone: (866) 453-9701 EDITORIAL Email: edit@winesandvines.com MAIL 65 Mitchell Blvd., Suite A San Rafael, CA 94903 CONNECT WITH US facebook.com/WinesandVines twitter.com/WinesandVines youtube.com/WinesandVines1919