Quantitification of Microbial Rot in Wine Grapes
- There was good agreement between the samples collected from the vineyard by hand and the samples taken at the sugar stand in Livingston for Chardonnay grapes.
- The Chardonnay calibration is very strong, representing nearly 500 samples taken over three very different vintages from vineyards in Bakersfield to Lodi.
- Work has begun on a four-mold calibration that includes Botrytis in addition to the other three molds. Good R2 values were seen for both Chardonnay and Zinfandel.
- PLS regressions of Cabernet and Merlot individually and combined gave high R2values.
- A PLS regression that combined Cabernet, Merlot and Zinfandel gave an R2 of 0.98, suggesting that a single calibration for red grapes is possible.
- When the PLS regressions of Chardonnay and Zinfandel samples over three years were combined, the R2value dropped to 0.82, but it is still a solid model.

