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Postmodern Winemaking CL AR k SMITH UC Davis Shows Off New Developments extension enologist Anita Oberholster, a South African phenolics guru I have fol- lowed for several years. Dr. Oberholster, who in 2011 was hired as much for her analytical and sensory research prowess as her outreach skills, co-authored Richard Gawel's Mouth-Feel Wheel1 and is well con- nected to the inter- national phenolics research scene, making her a key player to watch. Unfortunately, with T Anita Oberholster 4,000 California wineries in her purview, you are more likely to find her in the lab at Davis than knocking on your door in the tradition of George Cooke and Chris- tian Butzke. The good news is that she has busied herself working with Linda Bisson to build a comprehensive web-based re- source dubbed VENSource—(System for OUtreach, Research Communication and Extension), for which I hold high hopes. If you have specific questions in the mean- time, you will find her approachable and knowledgeable, and to boot, industry re- lations manager Karen Block has proven a willing ear for wineries seeking V&E De- partment problem-solving connections. It's not easy being green Research renegade Mark Matthews can always be counted on to stir the pot, and 54 Wines & Vines JULY 2012 his year's Recent Advances in Viticulture and Enology meet- ing addressed a wide spectrum of issues fundamental to the postmodern view. The event was hosted by Highlights • davis researchers are marrying studies of plant response to sensory and analyti- cal dependencies, clarifying surprising connections between vineyard actions and wine outcomes. • phenolics research currently under way is geared towards industry needs for a better grasp of oxygen issues, filtration trade-offs and a host of vinification research. • david Mills' nGS probes reveal a whole new world of wine microbiology and open the door for the balancing of a wine's microbial ecology. RAVE was no exception. Unlike the pre- vious generation of Davis viticulturalists, Matthews is not shy about collaborating with enology faculty (particularly Sue Ebeler, Larry Matthew and John Thorn- gate) in order to correlate viticultural variables with analytical and sensory at- tributes from resulting wines. His well- designed practical research about deficit irrigation, ripening, berry size, climate change and the downside of close spacings, under-cropping and other unsubstantiated industry superstitions should have earned him a more attentive ear in the industry, were he not continually challenging cher- ished dogma. Mark, they hate it when you do that, especially when you're right. Matthews in 2004 studied the effects of yield on 2-methoxy-3-isobutylpyra- zine (bell pepper aroma), showing evi- dence that veggie aroma and MIBP concentration increased significantly in under-cropped vines,2 the hallmark of Napa. To look at leaves as a source of MIBP in fruit, he pre-bloom grafted Cab- ernet Sauvignon clusters onto Muscat of Alexandria and vice versa. It made no difference, this demonstrating that the MIBP synthesis travels with the cluster.3 Next Matthews investigated the effect of shade on Cabernet clusters during rip- ening, showing a rapid post-veraison decline in MIBP identical in both light- exposed and light-excluded clusters, with the light-exposed peaking before rather than during veraison. There was no difference in the rate of decline of MIBP in exposed vs. shaded fruit after veraison. It thus appears that pre-verai- son is the critical time for light exposure, not later in the season. Post-veraison leaf pulling was completely ineffective, and photo-degradation of MIBP appears to be a myth. In these pages I have often criticized the practice of excessive hang time as a means to diminish vegetal aromatic notes because it occurs at the cost of aromatic distinctive- ness and profundity as well as tannin structural longevi- ty. While Matthews has established that MIBP does indeed decline during rip- ening, the most ef- fective means for keeping it low is to leave enough buds for a balanced vine, potentially supple- mented by leaf pulling immediately post- set rather than the common practice of at- tempting to make up for under-cropping by extending maturity. David Block All over the map Celebrating his 10-year research part- nership with the North Coast Growers, David Smart presented an erudite dis- cussion of vineyard variability in soil composition and aspect as they relate to