EAST COAST ENOLOGY PROGRAMS

I recently read that Cornell has the only undergraduate enology program east of the Mississippi. It apparently has been very useful to the Finger Lakes wine region. Also recently, I ran across some information about the Coastal Wine Trail, which includes nine wineries from Cape Cod through the South Coast of Massachusetts and along the Rhode Island coast, all part of the Southeastern New England appellation. A third thing happened recently. The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth has acquired what was formerly known as Southern New England Law School to form the first public law school in Massachusetts, the UMass Law School.

These three bits of information caused me to wonder that perhaps UMass Dartmouth should consider initiating an enology and viticulture program. The school lies smack in the middle of the Coastal Wine Trail and there are dozens of other vineyards in New England could probably benefit from such a program. I recognize that there are practical issues involved. First, UMass Dartmouth does not have any agricultural based programs so an enology program would be a bit off its normal path. However, such a program could be an interdisciplinary one associated with Biology, Chemistry, Biotechnology and/or others.

A public program could help promote the development of vineyards in New England and help strengthen the economic vitality of an agricultural activity where preservation of agriculture is a strong goal.

GREEN VITICULTURE

The May 31, 2010 issue of Wine Spectator reports on efforts to formalize the production of wine through sustainable methods. It reports that some vineyards are moving beyond "organic" methods into more sustainability that includes use of wind power, water conservation, employee benefits, handling of materials and even providing natural habitats for birds and predators.

Apparently, Oregon is a leader in this movement. In 2009, the Oregon Wine Board introduced a program called Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine that provides certification and unified marketing. About 150 wines from 18 wineries have been certified with another 10 wineries heading for certification of their 2009 and 2010 vintages.

California has two certification programs. These are the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission and the Central Coast Vineyard Team. The Lodi has amore than 16,000 acres (out of about 100,000) certified for sustainability. The Central Coast region 11,000 acres out of 60,000 certified. Of course, as mentioned in previous posts, I am partial to the Central Coast region since I visit relatives there, providing an opportunity to tour many of its vineyards.

In any case, it is a trend I hope continues to gain momentum. This is especially true as I am reading "The Omnivore's Dilemna" by Michael Pollan.

LATEST ON SCREW CAPS

This month's Wine Spectator has another interesting article regarding the trend toward the use of screw caps on higher quality wine bottles. Long regarded as the signature of cheap wine, screw caps have been rapidly gaining acceptance for use on bottles of higher end wines.

The Wine Spectator article reports on a 10-year study  by the Australian Wine Research Institute. The test was designed to measure the performance of different types of corks, it was not specifically a test of screw caps, but the metal closures were included in the test. Thousands of bottles of 1999 Clare Semillon were sealed with 14 different closures. Some bottles were opened each year and analyzed and tested. The article featured a photograph of a set of 14 bottles after 28 months and after 10 years. In both cases, the bottle with the screw cap appeared to be the freshest as the wine in all of the other bottles had darkened (oxidized) to varying degrees. It wasn't just appearance. Blind taste tests found that the wine in the bottles with the screw caps retained its freshness while the wine in most of the other bottles were undrinkable.

Oh well. Since removing the cork is one of the important rituals of wine drinking, I suggest that designers be asked to consider new designs for screw caps that would require some sort of ritual for removing them beyond simply twisting them open with one's hand. I don't know what that might be; however, one potential element might be to add a thin cylinder of cork to the top of the screw cap as a symbol of the age-old tradition of cork closures.