Wine Analysis at the Winery During the Harvest

During the grape harvest the value of analytical results depends on how quickly they become available. A sample sent to an external laboratory may provide an accurate result, but it is not always compatible with the winery’s decision-making timeline. In the meantime the must may evolve, fermentation may progress and certain operational decisions may become less timely.

Winemaker Giovani Verdejo explains how Callaway Vineyard and Winery, a historic winery in California’s Temecula Valley, has integrated the CDR WineLab into the winery’s daily operations, particularly during the harvest. The CDR WineLab reduces the reliance on external laboratories and eliminates the resultant time constraints and costs.

During stages such as crushing, cold maceration, pumping over and the evolution of the must during the early stages of fermentation, analytical data is not a mere formality, it’s an essential working tool. Knowing quickly how a must is evolving allows you to decide whether to intervene, when to intervene and with what priority.

For example with the previous vacuum-based method, analyzing sulfur dioxide (free and total) took about 15 minutes per sample. With the CDR WineLab sixteen samples can be analysed in the same time.

For Callaway the CDR WineLab is not simply an addition to the methods previously used, it has replaced much of the equipment used for routine analysis, transforming the in-house laboratory into a faster and more integrated part of the daily winemaking process and having a direct impact on harvest management.

During the grape harvest, the value of an analytical result depends on how quickly it becomes available. A sample sent to an external laboratory may provide an accurate result, but it is not always compatible with the winery’s decision-making timeline: in the meantime, the must may evolve, fermentation may progress, and certain operational decisions may become less timely.

9/7/26