Vineyard & Winery Management

May/June 2013

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The Ongoing Evolution of Laboratory Testing Innovations and new technologies offer faster, more accurate results BY TED ommercial wine labs are continually evaluating and utilizing new technologies and equipment to expand and improve wine analyses. New analytical technologies have increased the number of compounds and analytes (substances undergoing analyses) that can be evaluated, enabled lower detection levels of analytes, and expanded throughput of sample analyses to provide test results in less time and at lower cost. Wine labs are adapting technologies to offer more services to the wine industry and to provide consulting to better manage and interpret lab results to meet the needs of individual wineries. Coupled with computer software and database systems, new technologies offer new opportunities to manage and analyze data to benchmark wines 76 V I N E YARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT | May - June 2013 RIEGER, SENIOR FEATURE EDITOR AT A GLANCE + Automated lab analytical equipment provides more sample throughput and faster test results. + New technologies allow detection of lower levels of analytes and options to detect and monitor more analytes. + Improvements in microbial analysis allow wineries to address spoilage problems before they get out of control, and to better manage fermentations and wine style. and quality components in comparison with wines from other vintages and other producers. Commercial wine lab representatives discussed lab test innovations, technologies and trends introduced in recent years to benefit the wine industry. AUTOMATED AND PACKAGED ANALYTICAL TOOLS ETS Laboratories, based in St. Helena, Calif., was established in 1978 by Gordon and Marjorie Burns and has been a leader in adapting and introducing analytical technologies for wine industry applications. Providing a summary of the recent history of enological analyses, Gordon Burns noted that advances beyond manually performed lab tests occurred during the late 1980s, with automation using conw w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m

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