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18 WINES&VINES October 2017 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS QST offers its clients……. Professionally fabricated stainless tanks 35 years of tank fabrication experience Performance & reliability guarantees Custom designs & modern features Quick & competitive tank project pricing On site tank repairs & modifications Special application tanks of all sizes "In stock tanks" from 500 to 10,000 gallons 510 Caletti Ave. Windsor, Ca. 95492 Phone 707-837-2721 or Toll-Free 877-598-0672 www.qualitystainless.com Company Website winetanks@aol.com email contact/sales info Custom Fabricated Tanks for the perfect size & fit… or Ready to Ship "Stock Tanks" Either way QST is ready to assist our clients! Call QST today for information or pricing! QUALITY STAINLESS TANKS S an Luis Obispo, Calif.—In addition to the frenetic work of harvest, student intern Michael Overholt is busy conducting a research study to quantify the impact of shade cloth on vines at Tolosa Vineyards & Winery in San Luis Obispo County's Edna Valley AVA. The study will follow specific blocks of vines and their fruit from vé- raison through harvest, vinifica- tion, pre- and post-bottling. Overholt is a student at Cali- fornia Polytechnic State Univer- sity, San Luis Obispo, working with Tolosa's new winemaker, Fred Delivert, as well as Mesa Vineyard Management (which farms the vineyards) and viticul- ture consultant Randy Heinzen of Vineyard Professional Services to evaluate the effect of shade cloth on the evolution of grape maturity. The project is also under the academic oversight of two assistant professors at Cal Poly: Federico Casassa, Ph.D., and Jean Dodson Peterson, Ph.D. Overholt said the idea for the study was born out of a Cal Poly class visit to Tolosa. The original concept was to uncover whether shade cloth creates better fruit and allows vines to reach matu- rity with less water. "The goal of shade clothing is to decrease morning and early afternoon temperatures, lower- ing light exposure in the fruit zone," Overholt wrote in the project proposal. "This results in delayed maturity and, poten- tially, increases in the concentra- tion of aroma, aroma precursors, p h e n o l i c a n d o t h e r f l a v o r compounds." Using Kestrel DROP wireless e n v i r o n m e n t a l d a t a l o g g e r s placed throughout 12 regions (four trials with three regions per trial), Overholt monitors and ag- gregates the temperature, humid- ity and dew point with and without the coverage of shade cloth on both a plateau and a hill- side of Tolosa's 20-year-old Edna Ranch Vineyard. The study samples from a total of 120 Pommard clone Pinot Noir vines at multiple mile- stones: véraison, véraison plus two weeks, véraison plus four weeks and harvest. Furthermore, Overholt and Delivert plan to partner to vinify the fruit from the trial blocks and evaluate the resulting wine chemically and with sensory analysis. In an early presentation at Cal Poly, Overholt reported prelimi- nary results from véraison and post- véraison stages of his re- search "indicate no clear effects of shade cloth on Brix, pH and TA. Fruit grown on the hillside showed lower acidity, potentially indicat- ing higher light exposure." Yet grapes beneath the shade cloth on the plateau portion of the vineyard exhibited "reduced berry size as well as the proportion of solids, particularly seed weight." —Jaime Lewis Evaluating the Use of Shade Cloth on Wine Grapes Shade cloth covers vines at Tolosa Winery's Edna Ranch Vineyard near San Luis Obispo, Calif.