The Stanford Business Reporter

      This fact not only has caused a few debates to be waged in the wine community, but also caused a spirited debate among students in a strategy (E309) class last spring.

      At the core of the debate is the fact that there have traditionally been only two main factors in producing illustrious wines--grapes and a great winemaker. Grapes take on different characteristics depending on a variety of factors from where they are grown, how old the vine is, to they type of weather they have endured. Winemakers’ major decisions are then to decide when to pick and crush the fruit, how long to store it (and how), and when to bottle it. Old World (European) countries have relied heavily on tradition and personal skill to make wines. A winemaker’s greatest tools are: a good intuition (based partly on past experience), a good nose, and good taste buds. Armed with these faculties winemakers from the Old World have been able to produce fantastic wines, though some years have been better than others.

      How Australia is rocking the boat (despite accounting for less than 3% of total world production) is that they are employing vast amounts of technology to try to understand what makes a great wine and how to use that knowledge to consistently reproduce the taste. To be fair, many wineries in Europe and America do perform rudimentary tests on barrel wines. For example, they perform acid and alcohol analysis, but it seems as though these tests only serve to confirm what the winemaker can tell from his or her nose and taste buds. There have been numerous occasions, at least in the Napa Valley, where a winemaker had gone against what the numbers were telling him because he thought a better wine might be made if he followed his instincts (and after tasting the product I can affirm that the winemaker made the correct choice!).

      Australian makers are using technology to perform an array of tests on the vine, grape, and crushed wine in order to establish guidelines. A very small list of the tests performed include: DNA typing of grapevine, glycosyl-glucose and color analysis, microbiological stability, oak flavor analysis, and spectral analysis of red and white wines to name but a few. Their scientific endeavors have produced many useful results to winemakers. For example, they now have molecular genetics to improve strain performance of both bacteria and yeast, development of yeast inoculation strategies to improve flavor complexities, and they can create additional oak flavor from precursor during bottle ageing. In short, with their ever-growing array of knowledge of wines, down to the molecular level, Australian winemakers are getting to the point where they can create the perfect wine with consistency. And, if you do not like their perfect wine, then they can add a few ingredients, mix, and come up with something that does taste like your idea of the perfect wine.

      What all of this means is that, in the long run, perhaps where a grape is grown will not be of great significance. Moreover, winemakers may no longer be considered artists. They will be technicians, checking gauges and taking their marching orders on when to pick and crush grapes, and how to age them in barrels from a computer print out. And, if a batch seems to be lacking a certain flavor or aroma, then the technician will know just what to add in the mix to make it perfect, year after year.

      However, we are not at that advanced state yet. Australian winemakers, although depending on more technology than their Old World counterparts, still rely heavily on the grape variety, their noses, and their taste buds. As I finish off my glass of an Old World wine (1995 Argiolas Turriga, that Denis Houles (MBA’01) introduced me to), I find it hard to believe that a mere scientific approach will ever match what nature has produced.

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