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Postmodern Winemaking CL ARK SMITH Thinking Like a Grape by leaving his seat to jump into private practice. "I saw an entirely new level of thinking about vineyards and needed to dedicate myself to implementing it instead of just talking about it." Dr. Wample now serves as a plant physi- A ologist for STI (Soil and Topography In- formation Inc.), a Madison, Wis.-based fter reaching the summit of his academic career as department chair of California State Uni- versity-Fresno's Department of Enology and Viticulture, Bob Wample shocked the industry high-tech ag startup firm that he is assist- ing with breaking into the wine industry. At the origin of this radical move lies a fascinating series of events leading to a fun- damental breakthrough in winegrowing with far-reaching consequences for post- modern winemaking—both for the main- stream varietal conformist and the fringe terroiriste. Indeed, in retracing Wample's steps we will need to visit vineyards both vast and tiny in California's most and least chic regions, employing heady statistical methodology to merge high-tech farming with the purest winemaking art. There are a lot of precision viticulture systems in place today. GPS-located, time- dated data maps represent one of today's most rapidly growing agricultural in- novations. Knowing exactly where and when a measurement was taken adds tre- mendous power to data interpretation, guiding vineyard variability to steer the grower's hand. But Wample has gone beyond measure- ment. The model he is working on seeks to predict grapevine response to actual conditions, link it to metrics we can actu- ally measure and, more importantly, con- Wines & Vines sePTeMBeR 2011 55