Determining when a grape has reached peak maturity is increasingly the job of field technicians trained to recognize the sensory characteristics of grapes, but Dr. Nick Dokoozlian, vice president, viticulture, with E & J Gallo Winery in Modesto, California, wants to give vineyard managers and winemakers a better understanding of what makes a grape ripe. This would help avoid grapes with optimal sugar levels from being harvested before they’ve been on the vine long enough to develop the compounds that give them optimal flavor, Dokoozlian told growers attending the annual British Columbia Wine Institute viticulture conference in Penticton, B.C., in […]