Data is a winery’s asset

In 2016, Phantom Creek Estates created a small, stateof-the-art, super-premium winery in Oliver, British Columbia. Karin Grosstessner-Hain, Phantom Creek’s winemaker, explains that to consistently make great wines, it is imperative to know everything about the wine from vineyard to bottle. The wine’s data is inseparable from the wine itself — it is what instructs and guides winemakers (and their successors) to maintain and improve quality from year to year. A data collection system needs to be in place with the first vintage in order to have a baseline for future vintages, which is what led Phantom Creek to vintrace.

Like most winemakers, Grosstessner-Hain previously worked at wineries that only used Excel spreadsheets, which she described as stressful. “It took so long to input data in and out of a spreadsheet,” she says. “It was hard to rely on your data, and I’d ask for reports less frequently because I knew it would take a long time to create.”

In addition, data was often siloed – you would have blending formulas on the lab manager’s computer or aging data on the assistant winemaker’s laptop – and staff turnover would often results in a loss of crucial data and formulas. Like the wine style, inputting wine data has to continue on after people leave. “People come and go; vineyard blocks may change. You can’t let a winemaker leave with their proprietary formulas,” says Grosstessner-

Hain. “What keeps quality up for me is the information base you build over time, which can be provided to the owners, winemakers, and other stakeholders.”

For this reason, Grosstessner-Hain and her team began using vintrace with their very first vintage. They were impressed with its powerful capability to collect data for every lot made, including growing conditions, harvest dates, winemaking protocols, lab analyses, additions and treatments, even aging records including time in barrel and barrels used. Data collection is centralized, yet easily accessible by all staff from anywhere, with painless and powerful reports instantly generated. Files and formulas will not disappear with employee turnover.

With vintrace, the Phantom Creek team track over 70 individual lots each vintage. Initially, they collected lab data, logged all wine inputs and movements, and identified all vineyard blocks. Over time they added compliance, costing, and inventory tracking.

In addition to shifting all vineyard tracking into the program, they are relying on vintrace to help them maintain quality while earning their organic certification. When going organic, yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) typically drops, so the program is being used to track YAN by vineyard block and vintage with an easily accessible year-over-year comparison on the app.

Grosstessner-Hain says that vintrace’s Trial Blend Console allows her to take a blend she creates in her head and turn it into a Trial Blend Worksheet for the lab. The program does all the calculations, allowing the winemakers to focus on tasting instead of math. “I can have 100 different trial blends made easily and accurately,” she says. “During blending sessions, we can view wine data on our laptops, instead of bringing in tons of printouts.” Once the final blend is selected, it is easily converted to a Work Order for the cellar to create the blend.

The implementation of QR coded barrels gives staff the ability to a scan a barrel with a smart phone and immediately know the contents along with its data and history. “If we notice something when barrel tasting, we can get the data right away,” she says. Notes can then be added in real time so nothing is missed.

To gain British Columbia VQA approval, volume and lab analyses must be provided for approval. Without vintrace, Phantom Creek would have to rely on the accuracy of winemaker-created spreadsheets. Now the VQA reports automatically calculate blends so that they adhere to the VQA minimums.

Choosing and using vintrace has helped Phantom Creek maintain wine quality. “Winemaking is a science,” says Grosstessner-Hain. “We want our data as scientific as we can get it.”

For more information about vintrace or to request a demo, visit www.vintrace.com. o