Innovative Fermentation Technology at Palmaz Vineyards
Wine Business Monthly | BY Paul Fronson | ARTICLE LINK
The winery adds crown to remarkable facility–comprehensive fermentation monitoring displayed on cavern wall.
The winery adds crown to remarkable facility–comprehensive fermentation monitoring displayed on cavern wall.
See President Christian Palmaz interviewed on Cheddar TV’s Closing Bell to discuss the future of winemaking and the exciting technology featured at the winery and in the vineyard.
Whether you’re looking for a classic winery, word-of-mouth indie or an off-the-beaten-track destination, this is your guide of Napa Valley wineries to see.
UNIQUE WINE EXPERIENCES
In California, wine lovers have literally thousands of options for touring and tasting. It’s that access that drew chef Tyler Florence to make California his home.
The Palmaz Winery is a flawlessly engineered labyrinth of cave tunnels burrowed deep inside Mt George created for the single purpose of making a great wine. It’s complex structure spans over 100,000 square feet, 18 stories underground and nearly 3 city blocks deep. Understanding it’s overall architecture is quite challenging even for those who visit in person much less those who visit the website. The solution was to take the CAD drawings from the engineering team and recreate the facility and mountain in 3D. Over the years, with the help of brilliant 3D render artist Lance Hitchings, the models have become more and more life-like.
It has been an honor to receive such recognition by press and industry colleagues for our various innovations. Salon Magazine recently called us “the most technologically advanced winery on the planet and Life Refined said we “flawlessly meld futuristic innovation with ancient winemaking techniques.” Additionally it has been a pleasure to share our experience and technology with visitors from all over the world.
Earlier this morning at 6 AM we officially finished harvest. Although tomorrow evening threatens to bring the first significant rainfall of the season, the team brought in the last two parcels from 1,400′ with calm and poise. Excellent planning, good forecasting, and a little help from nature helped make the 2016 growing season predictable and unexciting. The fruit quality is consistent, excellent, and abundant. We greatly look forward to seeing this vintage evolve through fermentation and barrel aging.
For businesses around the globe, there isn’t a single day that the innovation challenge doesn’t rear its head. Disruptors, new buying preferences, and new demographic and geographic shifts are all constantly impacting the way business has to be done.
Palmaz Vineyards melds futuristic innovation with ancient winemaking techniques
FROM SELF-DRIVING CARS TO 3-D PRINTERS, advances in technology get a lot of buzz in the news—as they should. Some, like cancer-detecting blood tests or holographic computers, have world-changing potential. When it comes to winemaking, however, the scienti c breakthroughs are relatively quiet. In a romantically antiquated fashion, winemaking is done much as it has been for thousands of years—leaving it to fate and the elements to determine taste and quality. The progressive-thinking Palmaz family, however, thinks otherwise; they believe wine and technology, like a crisp Sancerre with oysters, are a perfect pairing.
GROWING UP IN TEXAS, it was not surprising to have pies and flowers show up to the house when arriving to a new neighborhood. As a child, I remember my mother being constantly interrupted on moving day by neighbors just dropping by. On that day while she may have felt inconvenienced by the interruptions, the lasting impression of being personally welcomed by our neighbors bound us to that community forever. Some people call it Southern Hospitality, but after having met Margrit Mondavi, I can call it Wine Country Hospitality as well.