The American Society for Enology and Viticulture's (ASEV) two highest honors, the Merit Award and Honorary Research Lecturer, will be presented to Zelma Long and Andrew Walker, respectively, during the Society's 60th Annual Meeting in Napa, California, from June 23 through 26.
Long, the first woman to run both the winemaking and business sides of a major winery, will receive ASEV's Merit Award on June 25. Long led Simi Winery in the 1980s and 1990s, and today with husband Philip Freese owns and operates Vilafonte (Wine Estate) in South Africa and Long Vineyards in Napa Valley.
Long has received national and international awards throughout her career for her leadership positions in wine industry organizations, which have included: founding president of the American Vineyard Foundation, chair of the American Viticultural and Enology Research Network (AVERN), founding president of the Alexander Valley Winegrowers, founding member of the North Coast Viticultural Research Group, ASEV Board director and member of the local board of the International Women's Forum.
Walker of the University of California, Davis will present the Honorary Research Lecture on Wednesday, June 24. Dr. Walker is a grape breeder/geneticist in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis who has developed numerous pest and disease resistant rootstocks. He is currently involved in breeding wine, raisin and table grape resistance to Pierce's disease and powdery mildew.
In addition to research work, Walker has served as chair of the Horticulture and Agronomy Graduate Group since 1997, which oversees Master of Science and doctorate degrees in viticulture. He has also served as vice chair of the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis from 2005 to 2008, secretary-treasurer for ASEV from 1999 to 2004 and is an associate editor for the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture. Currently, he is chair of the National Grape Crop Germplasm Committee, which advises the USDA and represents grape germplasm interests at the national level. He was awarded the Louis P. Martini Endowed Chair in Viticulture in 2001.
From Trade Show to Wine Regions
ASEV's board announced in June 2007 that the trade show portion of the annual meeting would be discontinued, effective 2009. Discontinuing the trade show portion of the meeting gave the organization more flexibility in choosing venues as the show will not need to be held at a large conventional hall. "We really want to focus this meeting and future meetings on wine regions," Opus One winemaker Michael Silacci, the current ASEV president, said.
Supplier Industry Seminars Boosted
This year's meeting in Napa will feature: a high-Brix winemaking symposium, a rootstock symposium and a Cabernet Sauvignon symposium that is drawing international speakers. The meeting will also include two afternoons of supplier industry seminars, eight altogether. These panel presentations will combine suppliers and industry personnel. Topics to be addressed include cellar sanitation (in English and Spanish), emerging wine processing technologies (such as improving mouthfeel and eliminating "smoke-taint"), oak alternatives, laboratory practices, winery construction and sprayers in the vineyard.
"This is a way for us to continue to interact and work with the suppliers because they're such an important part of our group," Silacci said.
The Napa location will also allow for scheduling some unique winemaker dinners, where winemakers will interact with their peers. One will be held at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, another at Robert Mondavi Winery, another at Opus One and a fourth at a local Napa restaurant.
In 2010, ASEV's annual meeting will be held at the Convention Center in Seattle, Washington, a commitment made before ASEV elected to discontinue the trade show portion of the meeting. That meeting, though, will also coincide with the International Cool Climate Symposium for Viticulture & Oenology, which was last held in New Zealand in 2006. The Cool Climate symposium is being hosted by the Pacific Northwest Chapter of ASEV. The location for the ASEV meeting in 2010 has not been decided on, though it is expected to be held within a wine region and there's been considerable talk about a location within California's Central Coast.
The ASEV Annual Meeting was established in 1950 by a committee of industry and academic representatives who included founding leaders such as Maynard Amerine, James Guymon, Joseph Heitz, Louis P. Martini, Harold Olmo, Andre Tchelistcheff, A.W. Webb and A. J. Winkler. Registration for the 2009 meeting is open at www.ASEV.org. wbm
ASEV-East:Wines and Vines in a Changing Climate
The American Society for Enology and Viticulture-Eastern Section will hold its 34th annual conference, "Wines and Vines in a Changing Climate," on July 20-22 in Painesville, Ohio, located in the Lake Erie Viticultural Region. The program includes a pre-conference vineyard and winery tour, technical sessions covering research at various university enology and viticulture programs, social events with Ohio wines, scholarship presentations and awards.
The symposium focuses on helping winemakers and grape growers deal with climate change. "We wanted to put together a meeting about the best way to prepare and site a vineyard to cope with what might be changes from global warming, but also with the emphasis that vineyards in the future will have to be designed for mechanization to keep labor costs down," said ASEV-East board chair Tim Martinson, senior viticulture extension associate, Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "Right now we are producing very good grapes in the Finger Lakes but we use a lot of labor. That is true throughout the East where most operations are small-scale."
Alan Lakso and Art Degaetano of Cornell University will open the symposium with a talk covering the implications of global warming on climate and vineyards in the Northeast and Midwest. Other sessions include how GIS-based maps inform site-selection decisions; planning for subsurface vineyard drainage; designing a vineyard for mechanization and low operating costs; the economics of mechanization and equipment for vineyard management; quality vines and the National Clean Plant Initiative; the influence of soil pH and rootstock on vinifera; hybrid vine performance and techniques for hot and cool vintages.
More information: http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/fst/asev; Tim Martinson, tem2@cornell.edu or Keith Streigler, strieglerk@missouri.edu.
