Experimental Wine Production

Abstract

A major portion of the wine research program at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva is concerned with the evaluation of grape varieties for suitability for wine production in New York. The viticultural characteristics of each variety or selection are assessed in the Experiment Station vineyards by the staff of the Department of Pomology and Viticulture, and enological evaluation is done by the Department of Food Science and Technology. In order to evaluate the enological merits of each variety, a wine production procedure suitable for small batches (1 to 50 liters) has been developed. The goal of wine production for this program is to obtain a consistently sound wine representative of the varietal potential. Presently, over 500 experimental lots are produced annually. This report describes the standard procedure used to produce these experimental wines.