How Analytical Insights Help Craft Fine Languedoc Wine By Drinks Business Magazine In this Drinks Business article from 2024, the magazine reports on how FOSS analytical technology has helped Gérard Bertrand to maintain high quality in its award-winning wines. Putting aside the oft-referenced factors of unique terroir, prestigious grape varieties or generations of experience, how does one make fine wine? The solution is increasingly found in small tabletop equipment that look more at home in a laboratory than an ancient cellar. For the last 25 years, FOSS Analytics has been producing such technology and helping winemakers get the best from their grapes. Though the technology is complex, the premise is simple. By checking the chemical makeup of the wine-to-be, whether must, fermenting juice or a wine ready for bottling, winemakers can act quickly and precisely to make the best possible product. Using a FOSS machine, one can measure up to 30 parameters from a single sa

October has arrived but the usual clarity it gives the Northern Hemisphere harvest picture is lacking this year due to diverse fortunes in Europe – sometimes between even neighbouring vineyards – and, in California, a lag in the growing season by up to four weeks. It has been a year of noticeably unusual and unpredictable weather and while the subject of “climate change” comes freighted with politics, it certainly does feel like the weather is currently out of kilter in both hemispheres.  Take the freak midwinter heatwaves in Argentina and Chile this year, now echoed by the unseasonably warm autumns in northern Europe. It seems that winters are generally drier, springs wetter, summers hotter (sometimes alternating between heatwaves and deluges) and autumns milder. All this can take a toll on vines and grapes, and protecting them requires investment, not something that comes easy for growers and wineries in the current oversupply and slow sales environment w

This year’s Northern Hemisphere harvests are now underway and while Mother Nature has seemingly been even more capricious than usual – heatwaves, humidity, hailstorms, flooding, mildew, disease pressure – there has been little news emanating from the vineyards to stimulate an uptick in buying activity on bulk markets carrying large inventories.  Despite mildew pressure in Bordeaux and drought in western Languedoc, France as a whole is estimated to be on track for a crop of 45 million hectolitres, in line with the five-year average. A suffocatingly hot summer in Spain has taken its toll on the juice yield of La Mancha’s international varietals, but we currently do not expect the overall crop to be significantly down from last year’s 40 million hectolitres. Italy’s crop is estimated at 42-43 million hectolitres, down markedly from last year’s 50 million hectolitres due to heat and hailstorms, but this size is not unprecedented, being in line

By Nathan Wisniewski How would you define varietal / fermentative aromas? Varietal aromas, sometimes called primary aromas, come from aromatic compounds present in the grapes. These aromas are generally typical of specific grape varieties (thiols in Sauvignon Blanc, Colombard, Petit & Gros Manseng, terpenes in Muscat and Gewürztraminer..). On the other hand, fermentative aromas – also known as secondary aromas – are mainly produced by yeasts during the alcoholic fermentation and can be found in all types of wines. The most common fermentative aromas are esters – like isoamyl acetate responsible for banana flavor – and higher alcohols like 2-phenylethanol characterized by rose notes. What is the influence of yeast on the aromatic profile of the wine? On the aromatic profile of the wine, yeasts have a tremendous impact on the wine aromatic expression: in addition to their direct effect on fermentative aromas, they indirectly take part to the expression of

In October 2021, as the world started to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic amid the vaccine rollout, we reported: “The global recovery is spurring inflationary pressure across supply chains and compounding a shortage of shipping containers, shipping vessels, and efficient port operations”. A year on, each of these problems persists, but we can say – in general – to a lesser extent.  According to Drewry’s World Container Index as of 6th October, average 40ft container prices on the major US-China-Europe routes had dropped for over 30 consecutive weeks, standing 64% below their peak of 12 months ago. Although the current average price on these routes is still 160% higher than average 2019 rates – and on some routes even higher – the price trend appears to be moving in the right direction. Supply of containers is still tight on many routes but we are hearing of vessel space becoming easier to find and the shipping process growing smoother in

Decision-making on the sourcing of bulk wine and grapes continues to get more complex and difficult. April frosts in the Lodi/Delta, and in other regions of California to a lesser extent, added another challenging variable to the year. As of now, it appears the reduction in supply due to the frost affected Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in these regions the most. Time will provide a clearer picture of the 2022 crop size. In fact, recent crop projections are generally more positive than the initial forecasts after the frosts, but there is still uncertainty as to the extent of the damage. In the North Coast and other parts of California, the frost will likely have less of an impact. Bulk markets have slowed, returning to a more typical seasonal pace following 18 months of heightened demand, but still remain active. The typical spring slowdown is due to wineries assessing crop size and projected sales trends to inventories. It is more complicated this year for a few reasons. The first variable

The Southern Hemisphere harvests are in full swing and crop-size expectations vary from country to country: Argentina (frost damage, hailstorms), Chile (drought) and Australia (La Niña) are expecting smaller crops versus 2021, South Africa a crop in line with or just down from last year’s, with New Zealand’s bouncing back after 2021’s short output. La Niña has made for a cooler and in some cases more humid growing season than normal, setting picking back behind a normal schedule in many areas.  Southern Hemisphere bulk prices are – broadly speaking – trending upward due to a number of factors, each of which apply in some or all of the supplier countries: low or negligible carryover of white wines going into the new vintage; expectations of a shorter 2022 crop; inflationary pressure. Some price rises are modest, such as the 5-8% increase between vintages on South Africa’s good-quality varietal whites (despite strong demand), while o

If you had a favorite brand of cereal as a kid (who didn’t, right?), then you must remember the visceral disappointment you felt when your parents bought a generic off-brand product instead of your favorite. You didn’t even need to taste them, did you? The mere fact they did not have the familiar mascot on the box made you hate them. The fact that most of us can relate speaks volumes about the power of labels and branding. Before a customer has had a chance to try your product, they judge it by its appearance. When it comes to premium products like wine, spirits, craft beer, or cannabis products, the appearance is pretty much everything a brand has to bet on for attracting new retail consumers. THE POWER OF LABELS FOR PREMIUM PRODUCTS Branding has always been important for any product claiming to be premium. But the importance of labels has grown in recent years as new technologies have allowed us to create brand experiences even for people who have never bought the product