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a two-step approach to getting this sort of information. In addition to having its own laboratory, it will use third-party commercial laborato- ries for analyses that require more expensive equipment or techniques that just aren't possible to imple- ment in-house. IMPROVED TESTING But things are changing fast in terms of the cost and capability of analytical equipment that wineries might buy for their own labs, and also in terms of the sorts of analy- ses that are possible in commercial labs. "Analytical techniques, for- merly available only in commercial or very large labs, are finding their way down to mid-tier producers and are now being adopted as rou- tine," says Burns. Jeremy Carter of Vinquiry Laboratories by Enartis USA agrees. "We're helping many small to mid-size wineries equip themselves with labs capable of running a wide range of enzymatic testing, phenolics for grapes and wine, and even a proprietary PCR [polymerase chain reaction] for Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus with the Veriflow," he says. "The larger wineries that see higher volumes are looking to be more efficient by using discrete analyzers and autotitrators that can be very programmable. But win- eries of all sizes still rely on com- mercial laboratories for not only ne of the key tools for mod- ern winemaking is information about what's going on with a wine both during and after fer- mentation. This is especially the case where winemaking is more low-intervention, because of the various risks involved. "If you were a large winery and were willing to harvest grapes early, use a high concentration of SO 2 and sterile filter before bottling, you could conceivably make wine with- out any analysis," says Gordon Burns of ETS Laboratories. "But if you don't want to add SO 2 or add minimal amounts, and want to per- form a native fermentation, it's as though you're a parent with a small child walking near to the edge of a cliff. You need to have your hand on his or her collar. Winemakers who are most non-interventionist need to have more knowledge to know when to step in and avoid prob- lems. Many of them recognize that, and a significant part of our work comes from those who are trying to do the least." Winemakers not only want the basic information about levels of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), the most com- monly carried out winemaking analysis), acids (volatile and total/ titratable), pH, alcohol and sug- ars, but also more exotic analyses such as phenolics, volatile sulfur compounds and the presence of spoilage microbes such as Brettan- omyces. Typically, a winery will use BY DR. JAMIE GOODE reference checks, but higher instru- mentation testing such as PCR analysis for yeast and bacteria, pan- els that are required for export, and oak aroma compounds testing." "There are many discrete analys- ers in the market and, for the right applications, they can be very pow- erful," says Burns. "These have mostly replaced the previous gen- eration of automation, which was continuous flow analysis." It wasn't so long ago that there was a lot of Technological advances are rapidly improving accuracy, cost and turnaround time of both in-house and commercial wine laboratories. High-Tech Lab Testing AT A GLANCE + Things are changing rapidly regarding cost and capabil- ity of analytical lab equip- ment. + One of the big changes in recent years has been the mass adoption of molecular biology approaches for monitoring Brettanomyces. + Another new development is in-house analysis of wine phenolics. + Technologies that were previously only available through third-party labora- tories are now within reach of winery labs. 6 6 V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T | M a y - J u n e 2 016 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m