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Winemaker Inquiring T iM PA T T er S on Do We Still need Winemakers? F or a glimpse of the future of wine, look no further than YouTube, where a short video reveals the automated op- eration of Siam Winery. You know it's the future because it's on YouTube, not in some wine magazine, and because it's from Thailand, yet another country getting into the wine business. We don't meet "the winemaker" in the video, but the clip does feature the Thai production engineer who speaks fluent German (a useful skill since the winery was designed by Siemens, not exactly a household name in German winemaking). If you're not sold, think about this: They knock out 20 million bottles per month. Closer to home, winemaker Sam Kaplan uses a considerable degree of high-tech automation at Arkenstone Vineyards in the Napa Valley. "I can do pump overs from my couch at home, watching TV with a nice cold beer in my hand," Kaplan says. "Wait," he added, "don't print that." And here's the scoop on the ultra- modern Yalumba winery, courtesy of the Australian division of another venerable non-winemaking titan, Rockwell International: "The primary user interface for the system is a fully redundant supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) server supported by five on-site clients, each running RSView Supervisory Edition from Rockwell Software. Winemakers and operators use the SCA- DA to specify process streams, crushing speeds and fermentation schedules—plus monitor the operational status of the entire plant. RSView Supervisory Edition provides unified site-wide monitoring and control via the RSView SCADA terminals and numerous plant- floor PanelView Plus human-machine interfaces (HMIs)." Is a "human-machine interface" anything like a "great wine To see the Siam Winery video, go to this article online at winesandvines.com. View video made in the vineyard?" Is this what all of us in the wine industry signed up for? Sensors, software and logic controllers Automated winery systems generally center around temperature control and start with tanks. Sensors monitor and report temper- ature—and, depending on the setup, control temperature so that it stays within a specified target range during fermentation and highlights • Starting with tank temperature and build- ing from there, automation is making its way into wineries around the world. • Advocates of winery automation say it cuts energy costs, eliminates many mistakes, improves wine quality and gives winemakers peace of mind. • Skeptics wonder about the demise of "hands-on" winemaking. Winemakers at New Zealand's Wairau River Family Estates use an auto- mated VinWizard system. storage. A little more wiring, and tank pump overs can be timed and scheduled. To handle the thorny issue of uneven temperature within large fermentation tanks, automation suppliers have vari- ous strategies including multiple sensors and timing temperature readouts in conjunction with tank mixing. Suppliers also are testing and developing ways to measure the progress of fermentation and fiddling with the temperature to speed things up or slow things down. The VinWizard system from New Zealand has probes for measuring Brix/density directly; the Kreyer VinInfo systems from Germany measure the rate of CO2 production as a proxy; Logix in Kirkland, Wash., lets winemakers use good old hydrometers, giving them an excuse to sniff and taste the emerging wine while they're at it. Even the simple measure- ment of temperature is enough to sniff out a stuck fermentation, triggering your choice of alerts: alarm bells, e-mails and quite pos- sibly Twitter feeds. Wines & Vines FeBRUARY 2011 65