Really impressive gathering, Chris. It’s fun to read about a great wine dinner that so many members of the board were able to attend in person.
A few other tidbits from my memory of the evening’s discussions:
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Joe has been actively searching for the right sites and conditions to try his hand at an Arcadian sparkling wine.
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I believe he is also looking around to possibly add another pinot noir vineyard source in the Santa Rita Hills, but has yet to find exactly the right one or for the right one to have matured sufficiently.
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Joe talked about the evolution of yeasts from the 1980s to present, and how they have a significantly higher conversion ratio from sugar to alcohol. I think he said something like how you used to convert Brix to Alcohol at a rate of just over .5, and today it’s often just over .6. I had never thought of this, and I’m curious if anyone can either elaborate on this and/or confirm that I’m remembering that correctly from the discussion. Maybe it’s a topic for a separate thread.
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Joe also talked about evaporation and its effect on alcohol levels, but I didn’t follow that well enough to attempt to relay it. Frank, I think you were part of the conversations about yeast and about evaporation, do you remember more that you can share?
Yes, Counselor. To the point about evaporation, he said in those wineries that have the ability to control humidity, where it can be elevated by the winery, that the evaporation rate is lower and thereby the alcohols are lower. If I understood it correctly, then what occurs is that wineries without it will see their % alcs be higher. This is my recall, maintained through my 48 year old memory.