Page 62 - Grapevine NovDec 2021
P. 62
Around The Vineyard
brackish water wells. Even in the harsh industrial lar level zero in on specific locations of individual
environment of oil production, as in the pulp mill, molecules of plant cells. Plant cells absorb these
the changing water chemistries manifested their and start creating sugars, acids, phenolics, ethonals,
effects. enzymes, montoterpenes and a host of other prod-
ucts that give the mature grape its final properties.
But as in all complex chemical reactions, simplicity
does not exist. Different atoms, due to their con-
centrations, may battle it out for molecular bonding
sites.
Elemental bonding sites are the drivers of all reac-
tions. Some chemical bonds prefer other elements
if they are available and so the final molecule may
not be the one a vineyard wants in a grape. It all
comes down to concentrations and availability of
The author in 2018, as the senior lab technologist needed as well as competing atoms.
for an oil company, using an ICP-OES (Inductively
coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer) to Chemical reac-
do elemental analysis of various types of water tions do not
samples down to the very low ppb, high ppt level. occur with the
The plasma flame burns at a temperature 2000°F grace and cho-
hotter than the surface of the sun. reography of
synchronized
Plant roots absorb the waters and simple ele- swimmers form-
ments such as iron and cobalt and along with plant ing their final
enzymes and biological catalysts, create the com- complex shapes.
plex chemicals in grapes. Throughout the compli- Instead they are
cated grape’s biological chemical processes, water more like the
chemistry changes can inadvertently modify chem- chaos found on
ical reactions and the final reaction product can the rugby field
change. where each ele-
ment tries to be
What happens in a vine is the equivalent to the the alpha and fights and blocks for supremacy and
most complicated industrial chemical processes forming what can either be a desired or undesired
known. molecule. One misallocated atom can change the
properties of a molecule and a grape.
A vine takes simple ele-
ments from the water Figure 1 is part of an actual 2019 Government lake
and soil and creates water analysis report for the local vineyard indus-
extremely complex try. If this report had been generated by a third
molecular chains that party commercial laboratory for me at my previous
would take the largest work position, I would have rejected it. Look at the
industrial facilities to number of decimal places and zeros of elements
duplicate. such as cobalt and iron. Research papers show all
the elements in the figure are important for grape
During all chemical development. This analysis was obviously done
reactions, elements and on a very basic ICP, Inductively Coupled Plasma
chemical compounds Spectrometer, found in all commercial labs.
look for reaction bonding sites and at the molecu-
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