Avenue Vine

Speakers included: Ron Barsamian, Barsamian, Saqui & Moody, California, Donna Bowman, Western Management Group, California, Phil Martin, University of California, Davis, Fred Philpott, The Stevensville Group, California, Andrew Waterhouse, University of California, Davis, Moderator: Yesenia Plascencia, Foster’s Wine Estates Americas, California.

Speakers went into great detal on subjects such as the wine industries reliance on immigration programs for labor; the need for the education and skills training of workers needed to ensure continued growth and profitability in the industry; legal ramifications for non compliant labor contractors, to year round employment--not just “seasonal workers.”

The myriad of laws that tend to restrict the aforementioned, the record keeping requirements necessary to avoid litigation–my, my so many laws, so much paperwork--what it takes to pay someone to work in your vineyard, or winery boggles the mind let alone the spirit of the thing!

The session include a discussion of ways to use compensation packages to retain workers. Ways to and best practices to attract and retain the best and the brightest personnel with an eye toward their making grape growing and wine making their careers–very informative.

The first, of two afternoon sessions, I attended was titled: “Revisiting Microoxygenation,” (MOX).

The session included a comparative tasting between various mixed MOX, barrrel and stave treatments–quite informative–totally intreguing...

The session was to be a reassessment of the world of microoxygenation in wine production with the participants from the presentation on MOX given a few years bac, but none of those participants could make it. So Moderator and – the only returning member of the original MOX presentation, Jeff McCord, Stavin, California, brought together a panel of microoxygenation practioner and experts which consisted of: Mathieu de Basquiat, Parsec srl, Italy, Jordan Ferrier, Hogue Cellars, Washington, John McKay, Winemaking Consultant, California and Marty Peterson, Francis Ford Coppola Presents, California.

They compared current techniques and results with the expectations of various methods used in the implementation of MOX technology. Discused new innovations and techniques being used in their wineries and institution.

Questions posed are listed here, I encourage you to click the links and find out more on this ever evolving technology, and what it has to do with the wines you may be drinking...

How do you use MOX? How do you go about understanding MOX? How do you go about transforming your viticultural practices by transforming systems to MOX?

Let’s start with a bit of an explination of just what MOX is:

Micro-oxygenation is the controlled introduction of oxygen into wine, mirroring the gentle oxygenation found with barrel ageing. It is a versatile new technology for the micro-oxygenation of wine. Wine consumers are familiar with the idea that red wines may benefit from "breathing" prior to consumption. This is true for many wines during the maturation process as well.

Typically a winery will hold a red wine in barrel or tank for 12 to 24 months for maturation prior to bottling. During this stage a number of important chemical transformations take place. These involve the tannins and pigments, those compounds that make red wine red; give it its special taste and are responsible for its health giving anti-oxidant properties. The best red wines are generally not very appealing in their youth. They are too raw, astringent and aggressive for most consumers. But these are the very characters that we need for these wines to develop their greatest potential. Ideally, the maturation process softens harsh young tannins; makes the wine richer and more complex and stabilizes the red color.

O2 mate is such a MOX system--How does O2mate work? O2mate works on the principle of diffusion of gas through a permeable membrane in the form of a polymer tube. By controlling the effective pressure of oxygen in the tube, we control the rate at which it diffuses into the wine. The (barrel)mate and (tank)mate systems work much like our lungs. It "breathes" by using a simple timing system to ventilate the diffusion tube at regular calibrated intervals.

How is O2mate different from other micro-oxygenation approaches? O2mate is more controllable than other micro-oxygenation systems which rely on the injection of oxygen bubbles into the wine. These bubbling systems are more complex and expensive. They rely on mechanical means to precisely measure and dose tiny amounts of oxygen. They will not work in barrels or small tanks so O2mate is uniquely placed to serve the requirements of the winemaker dedicated to the production of quality wines in smaller vessels.

What is oxygen's role in the maturation process? The right amount of oxygen is critical for the wine maturation process. Too much oxygen is damaging - excess oxygen will lead to premature ageing and even complete spoilage. But for many types of wine, too little is also a problem. Starved of oxygen, the wine will take too long, if ever, to be ready for consumption. This is frustrating for consumers who generally are not prepared to wait many years for wines to mature in bottle. And it is frustrating for wine companies which can't afford the cost of holding many years of stock while their wines reach their full potential.

And remember: MOX IS CHEAPER THAN NEW BARRELS!

The comparative tasting fooled just about everybody in the room! Many of us picked “B” as the barrel aged sample, but we were wrong. The barrel aged version was really “A,” (B) was MOX only treated, hum?

Now the “E” sample had the deadliest aroma of petroleum products and an unpleasant bitter aftertaste. Both Tonnellerie Serugue, international sales representative for “Francoise Couges,” and I had identical perceptions of (E)–she felt the “D” sample was a little on the “soft side,” and I was wondering where the Merlot went with the (D) version–chocolate?...

Oh the key to the sample treatments:
A = Barrel only
B = With MOX only
D = MOX without Staves
E = With MOX and Staves

"E" Was the companies preferred methodology...

Wines samples supplied by: Hogue Cellars, Washington

Next I went over to the “New Laboratory Procedures” Session.

There the discuss went straight to new enological laboratory procedures and advances in the winery laboratory. The focus of the presentations was on microbiology and new tools in the wine industry, which included ID techniques, visual ID, new and rapid technology for Brettanomyces and other spoilage microbe identification methodologies.

The session moderator was David Stevens, Davon International, California, presenter / speakers--Rich DeScenzo, ETS Laboratories, California, Lucy Joseph, University of California, Davis and Susan Rodriguez, California State University, Fresno.

New “Chips” for sample panels were shown for use in isolating and typing yeast strains and how forensics has found it’s way into the wine laboratories of today.

Great stuff–the things they’re doing with genetics today are truly amazing!

A very good way to get an introduction to what will be two more days of information packed Unified Wine & Grape Symposium!

See you there...