A Riesling and a Cookbook

PAlm Beach Illustrated | BY Mark Spivak | ARTICLE LINK

ANY SURVEY OF THE WORLD of Riesling (including the recent one by yours truly) would logically focus on Germany and Alsace, with a nod to upstart regions such as Washington State, New York’s Finger Lakes and Australia’s Eden Valley. California would rarely be on the radar screen, due to a warmer climate and widespread consumer apathy. And the Napa Valley? As they say in Brooklyn, forget about it.

Against this backdrop, the Louise Riesling from Palmaz Vineyards is a delightful surprise. Prior to Prohibition, the property was known as Cedar Knoll; it was purchased in the late 1990s by Julio Palmaz, a physician who invented the Palmaz Coronary Stent (possibly one of the few things better for the heart than wine). The winery focuses on producing Cabernet Sauvignon from estate vineyards. Their 2012 Cabernet ($125, reviewed here) is sumptuous and structured, a seamless match with steak, lamb, stews and game dishes.

By Christian Palmaz

OK I HAVE TO CONFESS I was a little nervous when my sister mentioned that a car manufacturer wanted to film us in a promo piece for a new car. Automobiles and alcohol should not be a perfect pairing, but she is the creative and I am the technical so I rolled with it…

WEDNESDAYS WITH WINEMAKERS – TINA MITCHELL

PALATE exposure | BY Ilona thompson | ARTICLE LINK

As with most winemakers, Tina Mitchell’s interest in wine developed early, while she was attending the University of California, Davis, as a premed student. During her third year, a friend from her hometown of Ukiah, California, opened a winery, which introduced Tina to wine. After taking a class in enology and viticulture and working a harvest in Paso Robles at Estrella River Winery, Tina knew she had found her new career path.

After marrying in 1981, Tina moved to Napa, where she worked a harvest at Rutherford Hill Winery. After harvest, she finished her last quarter at U.C. Davis and earned her degree. She then worked at Louis Martini and Niebaum Coppola, where she was able to make wine alongside celebrated winemaker André Tchelistcheff. “I feel I was very fortunate to work so closely with such a legend,” she says. “André taught me the importance of being a hands-on winemaker.”

A VINTAGE Enterprise

comcast business | contributed by wired Brand Lab | BY chris null | ARTICLE LINK

WINEMAKING HAS A REPUTATION as a sleepy, traditional, and almost boring industry – but in recent years, high-tech has hit the wine world, and hit it hard.

Want to know whether your grapes are thriving? Check out Halter Ranch, where networked vineyard sensors have helped it to reduce water usage by more than half while informing vineyard managers when it’s time to harvest. Chateau Lynch-Bages, one of the most noteworthy wineries in Bordeaux, is testing a technology to continuously monitor the conditions of wine aging inside its barrels. And vineyards of late are covered in flying drones, with California regulars like Hahn and Kunde deploying the autonomous aerial eyes to determine the right time to harvest.

NASA CONTROL ROOM OR NAPA WINERY?

THE MERCURY NEWS | BY Mary Orlin | Article Link

TO THE NAKED EYE, this 1,877-foot mountain along Napa Valley’s eastern edge seems like any other. But deep in the belly of Mt. George, there’s a five-level, high-tech winery, with a sophisticated computer system and display that rivals NASA’s Mission Control Center.

A Shared Table

trinity magazine winter 2016 | BY carlos anchondo | Full Issue (page 50)

FOR ALMOST NINE DECADES, the Henry Hagen House in Napa, Calif., lay in a state of neglect. Nestled at the foot of Mt. George, the old Victorian manor sat abandoned, presiding over an equally forsaken estate where the old Cedar Knoll Vineyard once operated. Turn-of-the-century farming equipment rusted away, lifeless in the middle of a field of vines. A time capsule of the Great American West, the estate’s future seemed bleak–until the Palmaz family discovered and unearthed its beauty.

SHIVANI VORA, a travel and lifestyle writer who is a regular contributor to the New York Times, included Palmaz Vineyards and winery’s tour and tasting in her most recent biweekly column, “Today’s Travel Hotel and Tour News.” Vora has also written for publications including the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic Traveler, T Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler and Departures.

This Might Be the Most High-Tech Winery Ever

AFAR – the wayfarer 1.7.16 | BY larissa zimberoff | ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Despite its proximity to Silicon Valley, Napa Valley wineries are shockingly lacking in tech development. Not so for this one.

THIS VINEYARD USES SUBMARINE TECHNOLOGY TO FERMENT ITS WINE

Food and wine 1.15.16 | BY MIKE POMRANZ | PHOTO BY NICOLA MAJOCCHI | ORIGINAL ARTICLE

DESPITE THE IMPORTANCE of terroir and technique, at its core, winemaking is a relatively simple process. Take the juice of grapes and let it sit until it ferments. In its most basic form, alcohol production can involve doing nothing at all (I know all the people who spend their lives making spontaneously fermented beverages will probably quibble with the notion that they don’t do anything, which is not the point—I’m just saying you can get booze by letting nature do a lot of the heavy lifting). But if you want to make good wine, that’s when more advanced methods come into play, and though some winemakers stand by traditional methods, others constantly look for the latest technology to make each vintage perfect.

Napa’s Fermenting Your Wine With Submarine Technology

WIRED MAGAZINE 9.16.16 | BY LARISSA ZIMBEROFF | PHOTO BY CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK | ORIGINAL ARTICLE

IN A TRADITIONAL wine fermentation tank, if the yeasts start acting weird, it might be days before anyone smells or tastes the damage. But at Palmaz Vineyards in Napa, California, staff can detect risk factors before they develop into wine-spoiling problems. That’s thanks to the Fermentation Intelligence Logic Control System, a Minority Report–style setup that tracks the vino at a molecular level, giving the winemaker the information needed to adjust temperatures in different parts of the tank with incredible precision (control over heat = control over yeast). The system is based on a submarine-­industry technology called sono-­densitometry: A tuning-fork-like probe inside each tank measures vibrations 10 times per second, yielding millions of data points about the density of the liquid. That tells you the sugar and alcohol levels, and thus the rate at which fermentation is occurring. Then software slurps up this cloud of data to show, say, temperature variations. That’s projected on the dome of Palmaz’s fermentation cave—a curved display of charts and graphs showing an ancient process in far-out detail. A geotagging system means that the tanks even “know” exactly which person is standing in front of which tank, so the projections a particular winemaker is working on follow them around. It’s like Big Brother for big cabs.