Wine Techs?

“I do think you'll see better wine as this technology tends to be used more and more. But you're never going to take the art out of winemaking".- Daniel Bosch

As I put my feet up on my coffee table lean back into my couch and sip on a 2009 California Chardonay I'm caught up in thoughts about the wine industry. As a child my father grew grapes on our property and I helped with the crush, picking and bottling process. The first time I went wine tasting I was 16; now going tasting with my parents and family is expected when they visit.

My Uncle Daniel Bosch is the Director, Senior Viticulturalist at CWUS. He as worked in teh industry for 30 years. Working for Mondavi winery in Napa valley for most of his career until a company merger. At Thanksgiving he brings the wine everyyear and when my father askes "Dan how much for a case?" his response is normally along the lines of "well its around 200$ a case Mike". But between his busy job and family with three college graduates he stays extremely connected with technology. He and I are the "crackberry" users along with Macbooks and ipads and ipods staying as up todate as he possibly can.

Today wine consumers are able to access more then 1 million user-generated reviews from winery's on www.cellartracker.com or pull out an application that can scan a wine bottle's bar code to provide instant reviews. With an industry that is hugely based on agriculture developments how is digital technology changing the face of wine making and the wine industry as a whole? What sorts of technology other then apple friendly ones are out there to help? A recent article from the Press Democrat reported that "

"At Jordan Winery, the use of technoloy has become ubiquitous. Winemakers can control the temperatre of fermentation tanks from their iPhones, or host Skype Video chats with Oenophiles in Atlanda of Little Rock, and every employee conducts daily business fram an iPad"

But other then the daily business of running a 1500 acre vineyard that happens to be one of Napa's most prestigious how much has technological and digital media changed the face of winemaking? Esspeciall in a business that use to be complety based on soil and aggriculture hands manually taming the grapes.