Enologix
Encyclopedia
Enologix is a privately held California
corporation that designs and markets wine growing and making quality analysis, models, software and consulting products. The company's best-known products include wine quality analysis and models. Enologix created the first algorithms that predict wines market performance, including price, volume and taste scores. The most important is a taste index which predicts 100-point scores of consumer critics such as Robert Parker
. It claims that the quality of wine
can be measured chemically, and a score assessed, much like a wine critic. Clients include Beaulieu
, Cakebread, Diamond Creek, Ridge Vineyards
. Enologix's metrics have been correlated with market performance metrics, including 100-points critics' scores.
, Greek goddess of wine and Logic
, Greek for reasoning. Between 1989 and 1993 former winemaker Dr. Leo McCloskey and natural products chemist Dr. Susanne Arrhenius, both University of California
trained chemical ecologist
s; along with the advice of mathematician Dr. Marshall Sylvan, Stanford University
, created the first mathematical model for California luxury wine market performance. It was tested with winemakers in California, Oregon, Washington and France between 1989 and 1993, including Chalone Vineyard, Joseph Phelps Vineyards, Ridge Vineyards in California, Rex Hill in Oregon, Canoe Ridge in Washington and Domaines Barons Rothschild properties in Bordeaux and Chile. The most important winemaker to help Enologix was Richard Graff of Chalone Vineyard
, who insisted that McCloskey prove the model with Chateau Lafite Rothchild wines. Models were developed for traditional style, taste quality and aging potential by 1993 when it was branded and trademarked Enologix and sold for the first time in February 1994 to Peter Michael Winery, Calistoga, California. It went into widespread use in the Napa Valley.
, tannins and terpenes-and analyzing a client's wine and possibly comparing it with a "target" wine from the companies' database which include profiles of First Growth
Bordeaux wine
and other high scoring bottles. Throughout the growing season, Enologix would test and track the developing components of the grapes and can use calculation to try and better gauge the optimal ripeness of the grapes to set an ideal time for harvesting
.
By late 2005, McCloskey said that company had a database of more than 50,000 wines. Enologix has created the first wine informatics; which includes the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the engineering of information systems. Enologix benchmarks vineyard and winery samples to the customers competitive set of bottled wines for sale. In 2007 Enologix made the first Classification of Napa Valley American Viticultural Areas-to TASTE³ which brings together more than forty of the most compelling writers, thinkers, chefs, winemakers, journalists, artisans, and executives as speakers.
Enologix claims that by using their methodology that winemakers can predict with 95% accuracy the average critical scores within two and a half points and that with 80% accuracy they could predict the score within one and a half points. In addition, the consultation and testing that happens during the growing seasons and winemaking
period can provide feedback that can help a client potentially see a 5 point increase their score over their previous years' average scores for red wines and 6 points for white wine.
and essentially trade secret
s. Another criticism leveled at Enologix is that it encourages an homogenisation
of wine that matches more a wine score than reflecting the terroir
of where it was made. McClosky, of Enologix, has replied to this criticism by noting the scores aid the wine drinking consumer in knowing whether or not a bottle of wine is worth the price that they are paying for the wine.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
corporation that designs and markets wine growing and making quality analysis, models, software and consulting products. The company's best-known products include wine quality analysis and models. Enologix created the first algorithms that predict wines market performance, including price, volume and taste scores. The most important is a taste index which predicts 100-point scores of consumer critics such as Robert Parker
Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Robert M. Parker, Jr. is a leading U.S. wine critic with an international influence. His wine ratings on a 100-point scale and his newsletter The Wine Advocate, with his particular stylistic preferences and notetaking vocabulary, have become very influential in American wine buying and are...
. It claims that the quality of wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
can be measured chemically, and a score assessed, much like a wine critic. Clients include Beaulieu
Beaulieu Vineyard
Beaulieu Vineyard is a vineyard near Rutherford, California, belonging to the appellation Rutherford AVA. It was established by Georges de Latour and his wife Fernande in 1900.-History:...
, Cakebread, Diamond Creek, Ridge Vineyards
Ridge Vineyards
Ridge Vineyards is a California winery specializing in premium Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay wines. Ridge produces wine at two winery locations in northern California...
. Enologix's metrics have been correlated with market performance metrics, including 100-points critics' scores.
History
Established July, 1989 in Santa Cruz, California, and incorporated 2001, the company was previously named McCloskey, Arrhenius and Company for its first 4 years, but changed its name to Enologix to reflect the company's expansion into luxury winemaking products for Napa Valley winemakers. Enologix is derived from OenoOenotropae
In Greek mythology, the Oenotropae wine") or Oenotrophae were the three daughters of Anius. Collectively, they were also known as the Winegrowers....
, Greek goddess of wine and Logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
, Greek for reasoning. Between 1989 and 1993 former winemaker Dr. Leo McCloskey and natural products chemist Dr. Susanne Arrhenius, both University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
trained chemical ecologist
Chemical ecology
Chemical ecology is the study of the chemicals involved in the interactions of living organisms. It focuses on the production of and response to signaling molecules and toxins. Chemical ecology is of particular importance among ants and other social insects – including bees, wasps, and termites –...
s; along with the advice of mathematician Dr. Marshall Sylvan, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, created the first mathematical model for California luxury wine market performance. It was tested with winemakers in California, Oregon, Washington and France between 1989 and 1993, including Chalone Vineyard, Joseph Phelps Vineyards, Ridge Vineyards in California, Rex Hill in Oregon, Canoe Ridge in Washington and Domaines Barons Rothschild properties in Bordeaux and Chile. The most important winemaker to help Enologix was Richard Graff of Chalone Vineyard
Chalone Vineyard
Chalone Vineyard is located in the Chalone AVA south of San Francisco, California, United States, on an unusual geological formation called the Gavilan benchland. The soil is rich in limestone and calcium carbonate and also contains a significant amount of decomposed granite. Chalone is situated in...
, who insisted that McCloskey prove the model with Chateau Lafite Rothchild wines. Models were developed for traditional style, taste quality and aging potential by 1993 when it was branded and trademarked Enologix and sold for the first time in February 1994 to Peter Michael Winery, Calistoga, California. It went into widespread use in the Napa Valley.
Methods and Innovations
Enologix quality model has been used in Argentina, California, France, Long Island, Oregon, Washington to optimize taste quality to improve sales. Wine modeling, the task of building an abstract representation (a model) of wine price, volume and tasting scores had eluded enologists since the 1855 Classification of Bordeaux. In the 1990s Enologix wrote the first mathematics used to compute taste quality from statistical correlations between grape chemistry and bottled wine tasting scores. Dow Jones', Market Watch, used Enologix to exemplify how innovation by "Quants" has been extended from the financial industry to improve the Food/beverage sector Enologix approach to winemaking begins with market metrics and then linking them to a chemical breakdown of some of the flavor components of wine-including anthocyanins, norisoprenoids, phenolsPhenolic compounds in wine
The phenolic compounds - natural phenol and polyphenols - in wine include a large group of several hundred chemical compounds that affect the taste, color and mouthfeel of wine. These compounds include phenolic acids, stilbenes, flavonols, dihydroflavonols, anthocyanins, flavanol monomers and...
, tannins and terpenes-and analyzing a client's wine and possibly comparing it with a "target" wine from the companies' database which include profiles of First Growth
First Growth
First Growth status refers to a classification of wines primarily from the Bordeaux region of France.-Bordeaux reds:The need for a classification of the best Bordeaux wines arose for the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris. The result was the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, a list...
Bordeaux wine
Bordeaux wine
A Bordeaux wine is any wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France. Average vintages produce over 700 million bottles of Bordeaux wine, ranging from large quantities of everyday table wine, to some of the most expensive and prestigious wines in the world...
and other high scoring bottles. Throughout the growing season, Enologix would test and track the developing components of the grapes and can use calculation to try and better gauge the optimal ripeness of the grapes to set an ideal time for harvesting
Harvest (wine)
The harvesting of wine grapes is one of the most crucial steps in the process of winemaking. The time of harvest is determined primarily by the ripeness of the grape as measured by sugar, acid and tannin levels with winemakers basing their decision to pick based on the style of wine they wish to...
.
By late 2005, McCloskey said that company had a database of more than 50,000 wines. Enologix has created the first wine informatics; which includes the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the engineering of information systems. Enologix benchmarks vineyard and winery samples to the customers competitive set of bottled wines for sale. In 2007 Enologix made the first Classification of Napa Valley American Viticultural Areas-to TASTE³ which brings together more than forty of the most compelling writers, thinkers, chefs, winemakers, journalists, artisans, and executives as speakers.
Enologix claims that by using their methodology that winemakers can predict with 95% accuracy the average critical scores within two and a half points and that with 80% accuracy they could predict the score within one and a half points. In addition, the consultation and testing that happens during the growing seasons and winemaking
Winemaking
Winemaking, or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruit or non-toxic plant material...
period can provide feedback that can help a client potentially see a 5 point increase their score over their previous years' average scores for red wines and 6 points for white wine.
Criticisms of Disruptive New Model
Enologix solution was disruptive. Models are deterministic, with the intent of predicting market performance. Evolution of Enologix was caused due to maturation of US wine markets, as such the company added value to company financial performance. Winemakers worldwide began to use media critics’ 100-point taste quality scores to market wines for higher prices. By 1996 Enologix evolved to correlate winemakers’ to critics’ quality models. Winemakers began to use Enologix metrics to improve company performance without saying so to anyone. It was a disruptive new strategy, alternately lauded by journalists and dismissed by competing academics, but not most winemakers. By 2001 academics wanted the company to publish it’s—"Black Box Mathematics"—scientific methodologies, largely for reasons to compete. Wine writers supporting food section advertisers found the new model was an anathema to their expertise. A Wired Magazine story pointed out that Enologix legitimized consumer critics’ 100-point scores, which had replaced wine writers taste descriptors. Academics, such as Roger Boulton at UC-Davis, would question the methods Enologix uses and whether they actually work because Enologix has not publicly released their data and exact details of measurements. But the real issue was that no academic had published their model before Enologix. Enologix has replied to such criticism by noting that their methods are proprietaryProperty
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
and essentially trade secret
Trade secret
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...
s. Another criticism leveled at Enologix is that it encourages an homogenisation
Homogenization (chemistry)
Homogenization or homogenisation is any of several processes used to make a chemical mixture the same throughout.-Definition:Homogenization is intensive blending of mutually related substances or groups of mutually related substances to form a constant of different insoluble phases to obtain a...
of wine that matches more a wine score than reflecting the terroir
Terroir
Terroir comes from the word terre "land". It was originally a French term in wine, coffee and tea used to denote the special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a certain place bestowed upon particular varieties...
of where it was made. McClosky, of Enologix, has replied to this criticism by noting the scores aid the wine drinking consumer in knowing whether or not a bottle of wine is worth the price that they are paying for the wine.