Posts Written OnDecember 30, 2005

Last summer, Osprey’s Dominion Vineyards was named New York’s “Winery of the Year” at the 2005 New York Food and Wine Classic by winning seven medals, including two double golds, one gold, two silvers and two bronzes. Winemaker Adam Suprenant, a graduate of the much ballyhooed U.C. Davis enology program, was and is proud of the accomplishment, but he’s certainly not resting on his laurels. Wines from the 2001 vintage (and a 2004 rosé) earned the winery all those medals, but the winery’s first three 2002 releases, a cabernet franc, a reserve merlot and a 2002 edition of the “Flight”…

Can a computer tell if a wine is good or bad? A professor from Carnegie Mellon University (where I went to graduate school) seems to think it’s possible. He’s focusing on yeast and its behavior and hopes to" "…help vintners avoid "stuck batches" – batches that spoil and are thrown away when fermentation stalls, leaving too much sugar. Biegler hopes to make winemaking more efficient, consistent and, ultimately, profitable. Similar computerized systems are routinely used at chemical plants, oil refineries and pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, he said." Obviously, one can debate the merits of "consistent" wine…but this kind of scientific investigation…