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January 2017 WINES&VINES 23 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS Eco-friEndly plastic storagE bins plastic callous boxEs for VinE clEanlinEss Wonderful nurseries' adVancEd tEsting lab Wonderfulnurseries.com Wasco 661.758.4777 santa rosa 707.542.5510 paso roblEs 805.237.8914 Premier Quality from North america's leadiNg ViNe Nursery leaders raise the bar in everything they do and that's why Wonderful nurseries continues to set the industry standards for vine cleanliness, improved irrigation methods and product selection. in the last year alone, Wonderful nurseries has completed a new, state-of the-art green- house facility to house 8 million-vines annually, changed from wood to eco-friendly recycled plastic storage bins and callous boxes, and introduced new sanitization techniques. from our 2010 Protocol mother blocks, our advanced testing lab enabling 100% scion testing for internal mother blocks, the innovative root sock and more, Wonderful nurseries strives to provide the cleanest, healthiest vines in the industry. it's how we lead. it's how we grow. Serving the Wine, table grape and raiSin induStrieS S tuttgart, Germany—Cli- mate change so far has been good to northern Eu- ropean winemakers, allowing them to make internationally ac- claimed red wines for the first time and riper dry white wines in regions traditionally considered to have cool climates. But enology professor Dr. Monika Christmann of Geisenheim University told a group of mostly German wine- makers and researchers Nov. 29 that climate change may also ne- cessitate more technological inter- vention in winemaking. One example is that German winemakers now frequently har- vest wines with pH readings sev- eral tenths higher than they did 20 years ago. "Now it's become an option in Germany to add acid," she said. "You would have been pilloried for this if you suggested it back when I was in school, but now it's a real consideration." Christmann's address was the keynote of the 62nd German Wine- growers Congress in Stuttgart. The four-day meeting runs simultane- ously with the Intervitis Interfructa Hortitechnica trade show, both at the Messe Stuttgart expo grounds in southern Germany. Christmann is also the presi- dent of the International Organi- zation of Vine and Wine (OIV), which approves enological prac- tices such as acid adjustment and membrane filtration before they can be used in the 46 OIV member countries. The members include most of the traditional winemak- ing countries and produce 80% of the world's wine. Notable non- members include the United States, Canada and China. Still, many of Christmann's points are also relevant in North America. Regarding climate change, she said that temperature change in central E u r o p e m a y b e held to a few de- grees, but tempera- t u r e v a r i a b i l i t y could be severe— and in some places it already is. T h e c o m i n g years will be more unpredictable, and when a hot year is also a rainy or humid one, it will bring extra challenges to wine growers. For one thing, Christmann ar- gued, winemakers will need to be flexible. While tradition is good, she said, all wine traditions were established because they were the best methods at the time, and tra- ditions change as new technology becomes available. "Wine has never grown in bottles hanging on trees. It's a natural product, yes, but it has always been produced with tech- nology," she said. Christmann pointed out that crossflow filters were once forbid- den for health concerns, but now they are widely accepted. Then came electrodialysis, ion exchange and other new methods of adjust- ing wine. "Certainly we will not turn back the wheel," she said. The crux of the matter is con- sumer demand and attitude. "Wine is supposed to be traditional, con- sistent, high quality and not too expensive, but some of these things contradict each other. Consumers tend to ask for everything, and some of these challenges can only be met with technological methods." —Jim Gordon Climate Change Upsets Tradition, Demands Winemaking Flexibility " You would have been pilloried for this if you suggested it back when I was in school." —Dr. Monika Christmann