Final Blend

Men and Machines

Sorting out the wine business, one grape at a time
By Anthony Gismondi

Most wine people I know could not wait for 2010 to arrive, if only because it meant the end to a dismal year of business in 2009.

Even now, inventories are backing up globally as both trade and industry buyers continue to reassess their wants and needs.

There is much we don't know yet, but the feeling is 2010 will not be just another vintage on the wine calendar. In fact, it is likely to be as different as any known to growers, producers, retailers and buyers since Robert Mondavi launched his boutique winery concept on Napa's sleepy little Highway 29 in the early 1960s. There is a new world order of wine upon us and with it comes challenges for everybody in the business, along with opportunities for some of its brightest and most-nimble practitioners.

One such early change could come in viticulture, where vineyard and grape prices are expected to fall to reflect plunging retail wine prices and sluggish sales. The day of the high-alcohol, $50 wine with no pedigree is gone for the moment. In some ways it presents a new opening for grape growers and winemakers to pursue new directions.

In Bordeaux last fall, I stood in a perfectly balanced biodynamic vineyard in the middle of St. Emilion that was picked days and, in some cases, weeks ahead of nearby sites. At Château Fonroque, vigneron Alain Moueix explained to me that the grape skins at his dry-farmed site had reached all-important phenolic ripeness before flavour ripeness, allowing him to pick his fruit at optimum flavour long before the alcohol climbed out of control. The result is a delicious ripe wine with no greenness and lower alcohol. Let me repeat that: the result is riper fruit at lower alcohol. That's no small achievement in a world where the biggest, blackest wines have been winning awards and most are at plus-15-percent alcohol.
Down the road at other vineyards, I was mesmerised by the latest in grape- or berry-sorting devices: the optical sorter. For a mere $100,000, you can purchase a machine that will replace your entire sorting line, including the people, and that has the ability to select berries identified as perfect for the needs of the winery.

The machine "optically" analyses a small selection of berries chosen for their perfect size and colour to set the machine's parameters. Once the berries are de-stemmed and the conveyor belt is turned on, the machine effortlessly selects the berries that match the pre-programed parameters at an amazing 22 kilometres per hour.

The value of this machine far exceeds its ability to sort quickly and reduce manpower. Its true value is in eliminating a certain kind of grape, especially the sugar-bomb raisined berries that are responsible for the upward spike in alcohol in so many wines.

That's two solutions to the difficult problem of controlling alcohol content: one by man and one by machine. How and when the wine business moves forward again is anyone's guess, but it is going to take a concerted effort by man and machine to solve some of its biggest challenges.

Personally, I prefer the slow-and-steady approach. A little more organics, a little more biodynamics. Fewer brands, more appellations, moderate pricing and lots of education are the future of the wine business. Anything less will be disastrous.
In Australia, where they take the future of wine very seriously, they are already circling the wagons. In a statement to the industry by the Winemakers' Federation of Australia, Wine Grape Growers' Australia, the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, and the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, wineries have been told: "The primary focus must be on helping businesses and regions to strategically and honestly assess their current and likely future position then make appropriate decisions. In particular. we need to address the options for vineyards and wineries that are underperforming. Some may need to leave the industry; others may need to change what they produce and how they do it."

If it sounds brutal, it is meant to. Only the best will survive the next sorting procedure.