Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/776679
8 WINES&VINES February 2017 A member of Wine Communications Group Inc. President & Publisher Chet Klingensmith Chairman Hugh Tietjen Publishing Consultant Ken Koppel Associate Publisher Tina Vierra Publishing Assistant Tiffany Maxwell Special Projects & Events Coordinator Johanna Rupp EDITORIAL Editor Jim Gordon Managing Editor Kate Lavin Senior Editor Andrew Adams Senior Correspondent Paul Franson Contributing Editor Jane Firstenfeld Northwest Correspondent Peter Mitham Columnists Grapegrowing: Cliff Ohmart and Glenn T. McGourty Contributing Writers Laurie Daniel, Richard Smart, Richard Carey, Chris Stamp, Andrew Reynolds, Craig Root, Ray Pompilio, Andy Starr, Fritz Westover Practical Winery & Vineyard (PWV) Editor Don Neel Wine East Editor Linda Jones McKee DESIGN & PRODUCTION Graphic Designer Rebecca Arnn DATABASE DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Vice President—Data Management Lynne Skinner Project Manager Liesl Stevenson Database & Web Development James Rust, Peter Scarborough EDITOR'S LETTER AT $900 PER BARREL for French oak and $450 per barrel for American oak, barrels are a major, major expense for many wineries. Used carefully they will, of course, be worth the money. Barrels can help immensely in elevating your wine to the highest quality that your grapes can deliver. They also can help elevate the price that customers will pay for it. But barrels are a big investment—and a rapidly depreciating investment at that. To protect and maximize that investment, winemakers and cellar masters need to take very good care of their barrels. How they do it is the subject of senior editor Andrew Adams' cover story, "Managing Your Barrel Inventory and Investment," beginning on page 34. Adams sought out three winemakers in different regions with significant barrel cellars to manage and got them to share each step of their barrel-management strategies. They describe how many they buy, how they track barrel inventory, how they clean and sanitize barrels and how they ensure a cool, sufficiently humid cellar. Next up is a rare report about oak trials at a first- growth chateau in Bordeaux. This technical article (see page 42) investigates the relative importance of oak stave origin versus oak stave tannin content on the sensory profile of red wines; it was researched and written by Marie-Laure Badet-Murat, Fréderic Desmais and Jean- Charles Vicard. Also on this subject, I want to invite you to register for the third annual Wines & Vines Oak Conference on April 26 in Santa Rosa, Calif. The theme this year is "Elevating Your Wine and Cellar." Attendees will learn about new oak research, taste winery and cooper oak trials with barrels and adjuncts, hear from experienced winemakers about how they select, use and manage their barrels, and benefit from expanded sessions on fermentation and enology products. This all comes with a small, focused trade show in a big new venue at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. Visit wvoak. com for more details. Viticulture is the subject of two more technical, highly detailed articles in the issue. Veteran Treasury Wine Estates viticulturist Michael Sipiora and Amanda Cihlar, director of vineyard operations at Hamel Family Wines, performed an exhaustive study (see page 70) on variable ripeness levels between clusters on the same vines and tied the variability to the independent way that shoots grow. While maintaining "there is little evidence that uniformity of ripeness between clusters leads to better wine quality," the authors certainly shed light on why it's difficult to coax vines toward uniformity. The second viticulture study is written up in the Wine East section (see page 82) by frequent con- tributor Andrew Reynolds and colleagues from Brock University in Ontario. Noting that large vineyards often have high-quality blocks or sections within them that are worth identifying, they evalu- ated the usefulness of what's called "high spatial resolution proximally sensed observations" for mapping yield, vigor, vine water status and fruit composition. February is a good month to raise a glass to the dor- mant vines that will soon start growing the 2017 vintage. And another to the dormant oak staves now stacked for seasoning that will soon become the barrels to hold that vintage. —Jim Gordon I want to invite you to regis- ter for the third annual Wines & Vines Oak Conference on April 26 in Santa Rosa, Calif. CONTACT US SUBSCRIPTIONS Email: subs@winesandvines.com Online: winesandvines.com/subscribe Phone: (866) 453-9701 EDITORIAL Email: edit@winesandvines.com MAIL 65 Mitchell Blvd., Suite A San Rafael, CA 94903 CONNECT WITH US facebook.com/WinesandVines twitter.com/WinesandVines youtube.com/WinesandVines1919 How to Protect Your Barrel Investment