Page 13 - Grapevine July-Aug 2020

In The Winery

ting produced faster than I
could find a place to store it.”

Before Veeam, Palmaz was
storing all of its information on
the cloud. The cost was high,
and the data was unorganized
and difficult to access. With
Veeam, data is arranged in a
chronological format. Some
data— the more important
data that needs to be readily
accessible—is stored on site.
The rest resides in the cloud.

Today, while founders Julio
and Amalia play a lesser role in The Palmaz Vineyard winery is housed in the Cave, a remarkable feat
of engineering bored 18 stories into the bedrock of Mount George in
the winery’s day-to-day oper- Napa Valley. This overview features the optical grape sorter and the
ations, Christian and his sister, fermentation tanks, as well as storage area for barrels.
Florencia, steer the ship, fol-
lowing their parents’ vision of bringing innovation and we need to study it to help us determine when
and invention to the art of winemaking. Christian is to rack, for instance, or when to the pull the wine.
in charge of all winery and vineyard operations, and It’s like Felix but for barrels.”
Florencia is CEO at Palmaz Vineyards and president
of the family’s other primary business, GoodHeart Clearly, technology is in the blood of the Palmaz
Brand Specialty Foods Company. Christian’s wife, family as the second generation follows the foot-
Jessica, is president of Palmaz Vineyards and steps of Julio and Amalia. Being bullish on innova-
responsible for the day-to-day management and tion, Christian Palmaz is sharing his data with uni-
customer experience. In total, the winery employs versities, such as the University of California, Davis,
50 people. The vineyards grow five Bordeaux vari- so oenology students see, for the first time, the
eties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, fermentation process thermographically.
Petit Verdot and Malbec), three white (Chardonnay,
Muscat and Riesling), as well as Grenache for “I hope that Palmaz gets remembered not for just
a Provençal-style Rosé. According to Christian developing tools for winemaking, but for setting
Palmaz, case production floats between 7,500 and a tone on how innovation can coexist with the
oldest man-made food product,” Palmaz told The
10,000 cases per year. “Our wines have a lot of
personality,” he said. “Each wine has an unspoken Grapevine Magazine. “The most important ingre-
characteristic that gives it a sense of place. We are dient in wine is the people, and we will always
extremely fortunate; we have a great following.” respect that. Even with innovation, wine is as hand-
crafted as a painting; it’s way past quality control.

As Palmaz Vineyards looks to the future, tech- It’s waving a wand; it’s magic. That’s what makes
nology will inevitably play a leading role. Later this the process so special.”
year, Palmaz will roll out STAVES, which stands for
Sensory Transambiental Variance Experiment, to
monitor wines as they age in the barrel. According
to Palmaz, STAVES is a suite of sensors that attach
to the barrel, measuring a host of variables. “Each
barrel is handmade, and each barrel breathes a lit-
tle differently,” he said. “We think that’s important,

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