The Field Blend Project

Caileen Brison

The Field Blend Project aims to converge science, art, wine, and education to provide resources for the greater scientific and wine communities.

Episodes

  1. 05/20/2019

    The Field Blend Project - Manipulation with Pete Turrone

    Hi, all! On this week’s episode of The Field Blend Project we sit down with Pete Turrone of Booker and My Favorite Neighbor in Paso Robles to talk about the concept of manipulation in winemaking and when you have crossed the line from winemaking to manipulation. Is there a line? Is this theoretical line more of a blur? What are the three primary ways we can think of manipulation in? Pete has his B.S. in Biochemistry from Cal Poly and began winemaking when he realized his love for being outdoors and interacting with this entire process. His biochemical lens and the way he approaches this conversation is evident in this podcast. If you've ever wondered what manipulation can look like, how we can categorize it, and the incredibly challenging decisions a winemaker has to make when navigating this space, this will be a great episode for you! We hope hope you enjoy this episode and have a great week! Music: “Kingsfold” by Cahalen Morrison and Eli West Please leave us a review and rate us!  Our goal in producing this podcast is to make wine and wine knoweldge accessible to everyone, so if there's anything we can do to better that experience for you please do let us know. We strive for inclusion, challenge, community, and excitement for knowing more. If we fall short on any of these or fulfill any of these please do send us a note by either rating and reviewing us or you can drop us a line at hello@thefieldblendproject.com. Cheers, friends

    51 min
  2. 04/08/2019

    The Field Blend Project - Early V. vinifera Genetics

    Early V vinifera Genetics On this week’s episode of The Field Blend Project we dissect early Vitis vinifera (V vinifera) genetics. We discuss Dr. Carole Meredith and her early pioneering work discovering the parentages of some of the most prominent grape varieties in modern viticulture and winemaking. Dr. Carole Meredith is a graduate of UC Davis and went on to be a Professor of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis. Her work uses a technique called “microsatellite analysis” to determine parentages via genetic analysis of specific regions of chromosomes.  Today we outline how microsatellite analysis works, what an experiment looks like, what the data can tell you, and what the data cannot tell you. We create mock data together, analyze the data, and explain how we find confidence in this data.  What can this kind of data tell us about V vinifera? Why should we care about parentages of V vinifera cultivars? Does this type of genetic analysis help us better understand what we mean when we say “genetically conserved, but not identical”? The paper referenced in today’s podcast: Bowers J, Boursiquot J, This P, Chu K, Johansson H, Meredith C. “Historical Genetics: The Parentage of Chardonnay, Gamay, and Other Wine Grapes of Northeastern France”. Science. 285-5433: 1562-1565 (1999). Music: “Kingsfold” by Cahalen Morrison and Eli West Please leave us a review and rate us!  We’re honestly not super sure of what it does, but it seems to be important and we want to spread the love, so we would very much so appreciate your help in doing that!

    43 min

About

The Field Blend Project aims to converge science, art, wine, and education to provide resources for the greater scientific and wine communities.