Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/66152
WINEMAKING trol. His work with Ridge Vineyards now challenges him to take that capability a big step further, to move beyond color, total phenols and other specific measureable improvements and into the mysterious ho- listic realm of great wine to influence bal- ance, harmony and longevity. In a sense, Wample is orchestrating a Vulcan mind meld between man and grape. Selective harvest To understand this progression, let's go back to the 2005 vintage, during which Wample first applied some revolutionary ideas to differential harvesting. Wample's revolutionary yet disarmingly simple idea was to set up a mechanical harvesting sys- tem that could field-sort two lots based on fruit quality. In a couple acres of Merlot at the Wagner Trust Vineyard in Madera, Calif., Brix and anthocyanin content from near infrared spectroscopy (NIS) on fruit samples were mapped into high and low areas using GPS coordinates. These coordinates were used to generate geographic information system (GIS) mappings, choosing a cut-off be- tween high and low groupings that would result in the desired relative volumes of regular and reserve harvest lots. Lowest 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Highest Maps of a 2005 Merlot vineyard show poor connection between Brix, anthocyanins and NDVI biomass (except for a low spot near southeast corner due to virus, thus not interesting in build- ing a model). This study convinced Wample to look to soil for quality drivers. When the color and Brix maps did not bw.7.625x4.875.pdf 11/25/08 9:49:55 AM match (see Figure above), Wample chose simply to ignore the Brix maps, feeding only the anthocyanins data to his differ- ential harvest system. This consisted of a GIS-enabled Korvan harvester with a re- versible belt that could sort fruit into left and right gondolas, shifting belt direction as it crossed over mapped boundaries be- tween low- and high-anthocyanin areas. Wample's rationale for favoring color as a quality index was twofold. Deeper color signals quality to consumers, but high anthocyanin content not only in- C M Y CM MY CY CMY K 56 Wines & Vines sePTeMBeR 201 1 Biomass Anthocyanin mg/g Brix