WINE BUSINESS MONTHLY featured Palmaz Vineyards this month in a fascinating article regarding the complex art of cap management during fermentation. Christian Palmaz explains how the winery’s unique thermographic system allows winemakers to understand temperature distribution inside of a fermenter. This research has led to new understandings as to why and when certain aromas and favors extract into wine. The full article can be seen by clicking here.
USA TODAY has made a list and checked it twice — and regardless of whether you’ve been naughty or nice, Palmaz Vineyards 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon is the must-have stocking stuffer for the oenophile in your life.
NAPA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November 2, 2015 / After Four Seasons Magazine named Palmaz Vineyards one the Napa Valley’s Best Wineries, the winemaker has launched their newest project: a brand-new websitefeaturing state-of-the-art backend coding and a mobile-friendly interface.
“We thought our new site should match the meticulous care we put into harvesting our grapes. We want visitors to experience the winery through the web from the comfort of home,” explained Christian Gastón Palmaz, President Palmaz Vineyards.
TankNet might not be a household name, but for winemakers like Rodney Strong, between Healdsburg and Windsor, it is the brainstem of a technological revolution in the wine industry. From controlling the fermentation process in the tank room, to generating a 3-D image of what is going on inside the tank, TankNet has become the go-to tech for the geeks of wine and beer making. The instant control extends beyond dials on a console, or a laptop computer wired into the tank room. Winemakers from Asti Winery in Cloverdale to Korbel in West County are able to monitor, make adjustments and tinker with their wine with a smartphone app.
TankNet started out as a computer based process to monitor and control the fermentation process in winemaking, giving vintners an advantage in foreseeing and avoiding problems before they happen. To Paul Egidio, chief technical officer for Acrolon Technologies, Inc., going from a traditional desktop or laptop computer to a tablet and smartphone was “just a natural iteration of the progression” of TankNet.
When Christian Palmaz, president of Palmaz Vineyards, wants to know the temperature in one of his 24 fermentation tanks all he has to do is look up. Projected across the domed ceiling of his family’s 18-story high winery is a graph for each tank showing metrics such as temperature and brix (sugar level). It’s like something NASA might have designed, yet it’s just one of many technological innovations developed by the Palmaz family at their state-of-the art, 110,000 square foot winery, the largest in Napa Valley. “No one else has anything like this,” Florencia Palmaz, director of marketing, told me on a recent visit to New York.
The vision came from vineyard founder Dr. Julio Palmaz (Christian and Florencia’s father), a native of Argentina who spent most of his career in medicine as an interventional radiologist. He is famous for developing the balloon-expandable coronary stent, which earned him a place in the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame. His love of wine came during his residency at the University of California at Davis in the late 1970s, when he and his wife, Amalia, spent their weekends tasting wine in Napa. Although his work took the family to San Antonio, Texas, they dreamed of one day returning to start a winery of their own. Their chance finally came in 1997 after Dr. Palmaz sold the stent to Johnson & Johnson.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 at 12:00 AM | Brittany Greco
As I stepped into the elevator and began my ascent to the 14th floor of the elegant Library Hotel, I knew I was in for a treat. An evening promising tastes of delicious wines, accompanied by delectable hors d’oeuvres and a marvelous view of Midtown Manhattan-what more could a gal ask for?
We wanted this to be our “What We Did During Summer Vacation” back-to-school essay. Unfortunately, however, summer is not when we take our vacations. And if we’re telling the truth, it took almost the last two decades of summers (not what we did just this particular one) for us to build up to receiving our two most recent accolades:
