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SEPTEMBER NEWS Experimenting With Vine Stress Zaca Mesa replants with tighter spacing, own-rooted cuttings L os Olivos, Calif.—The production team at Zaca Mesa Vineyard & Winery is looking for the concen- trated flavors of an old vineyard by experimenting with ways to plant a new vineyard. Zaca Mesa's estate vineyard Black Bear block is comprised of own-rooted Syrah vines from Chapoutier in the Hermitage region of the Northern Rhone Valley. Eric Mohseni, winemaker at Zaca Mesa, said the 34-year-old vines could be the oldest in the Central Coast. "It's always been pretty amazing fruit," he said. In the hope of recreating some of the power of Black Bear, Mohseni said he is experimenting with planting on own-root- ed cuttings from the old vineyard as well as adopting tighter spacing and low-to- ground 20-inch trellis wire. "We thought it would be pretty neat to try something like this," he said. The new planting (dubbed Mesa C) is 18 acres, of which winesandvines.com Learn more: Search keywords "Vine stress." nearly 7.5 acres are planted with "arti- sanal" clones on their own rootstocks, and a little more than 3 acres are planted in tight rows and with low trellis wire. Mohseni said the idea is to foster vine competition and see if the tight rows and low trellis wire will help younger vines yield the complex flavors and solid, well-integrated tannin structure that he finds in the Black Bear block. "There's natural competition, so the vines are really going to struggle," Mohseni said. "There's less fruit per vine, and I think you're going to have deeper concentration." Mohseni planted with a mix of clones in the rest of the vineyard to achieve vine diversity. The original vines are virus-free, and Mohseni said it will be interesting to see if the vineyard site and tight 6-by-4 spacing will yield the concentrated flavors and lower alcohol levels similar to the Black Bear block. —Andrew Adams 16 WINES & VINES SEPTEMBER 2012 Miletta Vista Vineyards in St. Paul, Neb., is one of two U.S. wineries to burn down this summer. Blazes Devastate Wineries Experts advise: Make sure your buildings are up to code and inventory is insured at market value winesandvines.com of fire risk. But two wineries recently were gutted by early-morning blazes. On July 7 in Fair Play, Calif., the ware- house and tasting room building of Oak- stone Winery caught fire just before 4 a.m. The fire destroyed the building, causing $3.6 million in damage. A few weeks ear- lier, in late June, Miletta Vista Vineyards near St. Paul, Neb., burnt down in another early-morning fire. The owners of both wineries have pledged they'll rebuild. While fires in the wine industry are rela- tively rare, they are often catastrophic. One of the worst winery fires in recent years came in summer 2000, when a fire quickly spread through a warehouse in Calistoga, Calif., and destroyed 85,000 cases of wine, resulting in $500,000 in property damage and a loss of $30 million in wine. Guy Colonna, division manager for in- dustrial and chemical fires at the National S an Rafael, Calif.—The damp and usually cold cellars at most wineries Learn more: Search keywords "Miletta Vista." don't particularly evoke the thought Fire Protection Association, said the greatest winery hazard is probably from electrical systems and all the water used in winemaking. If a winery is operating in a converted building like a garage or house, Colonna said the owner or manager should make sure the winery complies with industrial and com- mercial codes. Brian Stephenson, the co-leader of Heffer- nan Insurance Brokers' wine group in Peta- luma, Calif., said that if a winery is in an older building, its policy may need to be amended with extra coverage if the structure doesn't comply with the most current building codes. He said estate and premium wineries should make sure to insure their inventory at full market value. Wineries aren't considered more at-risk than other commercial buildings, but Ste- phenson said there's always the risk for the "one big loss" from a fire that damages not just the building but destroys expensive equipment and years of inventory. —Andrew Adams Organic certifiers to merge C orvallis, Ore., and Santa Cruz, Calif.—Members of California Certified Organic Farm- ers and Oregon Tilth are expected to ratify the merger of both operations in October, adopting the new name CCOF Tilth. The groups, two of the nation's best-known supporters of organic growing, announced in May their intention to merge and streamline operations. Members will be al- lowed to use either of the old names or opt to stamp the new moniker on their products and promotional materials. Both founded in the 1970s, CCOF and Oregon Tilth have collaborated for decades. In the 1980s they formed the Western Alliance of Certifying Organizations to ensure integrity and consistency in organic certification. Learn more: Search keywords "CCOF Tilth." winesandvines.com —Jane Firstenfeld