Like most everything in our world technology has influenced wine from the growing of the grapes to winemaking to how it is served and sold. The lion's share of these changes are positive for the business of wine and for wine consumers, especially the advances in how wine is stored and sold in restaurants.

Some of these innovations we can see right here in North Idaho, like the system that keeps open bottles of wine "gassed," or topped with inert gases nitrogen and argon which preserves the wine and keeps it tasting fresh, limiting waste. There is also a system that allows buyers to dispense their own wine via the purchase of prepaid cards, but of course this eliminates the advice and knowledge of a seasoned wine professional who knows your tastes or can ask you your taste preferences.

Another innovation that helps with the freshness of by the glass wine choices in restaurants is the "wine by the keg" concept. With this system small stainless steel kegs are filled with wine. The kegs are topped with inert gas and are kept topped off through a pressurization system allowing restaurants to keep wine at the peak of freshness.

Some of the "advancements" in winemaking are more troubling for us. We feel that the less wine is manipulated and the more traditional winemaking techniques are adhered to the better. We simply find the wine to be more enjoyable, more true to its varietal and terroir, showing more complexity while maintaining balance.

Opposing economic forces in the industry have resulted in two ideas on the use of oak that we find detrimental to the wine. With the challenging economy over recent years some winemakers are now using barrel staves and oak chips which they add to a stainless steel tank to impart oak flavor on the wine as if the wine had been barrel aged. In addition to saving the money on the significant cost of barrels, it also cuts the time from harvest to release as these oak "pieces" introduce the oak flavor far more quickly.

The resulting oak flavors from this short cut many times are unbalanced with the rest of the wine flavors, and are so dominant and just plain oaky that we find the flavors off putting, and the wine unpalatable. We prefer a lower oak profile in our wine which is a personal choice; we find the wine to be far better when winemakers stick to the real thing when it comes to the use of oak.

Another new idea which actually increases costs more than traditional barrel ageing techniques is the euphemistic approach of "200 percent new oak." New oak barrels impart more oak flavor than previously used ones, so winemakers will age the fermented wine in new oak barrels for six months or so, and then transfer the wine into another set of new oak barrels for the remainder of barrel ageing. This double dip of new oak is so overwhelming to the wine that it is frequently impossible to taste the other characteristics the wine might have.

Finally two of the more mechanical innovations in winemaking can cause the most extreme changes in the end product. In "racking" wine from different barrels is blended into a large stainless steel tanks and then pumped back out into barrels to complete ageing. Racking is also used to blend barrels together prior to bottling. While blending the lots of a particular wine prior to bottling is vital to a consistent product, many winemakers are employing racking on a frequent basis to manipulate flavor profiles. Racking is one of the most traumatic events for wine as it is exposed to high oxygen levels during the pumping process. We find these wines to be over manipulated and lacking in character compared to those that are less frequently put through the process.

The final "innovation" that we find limits the quality of the finished wine is a technique called a pump over. Red wines get their color from skin contact so the "cap" of grape solids must be punched down through the grape juice during the fermentation process to extract the color from the skins. These punch downs are difficult, time consuming work. To shorten the process some wineries will pump the juice out of the bottom of the fermentation tank over the "cap" instead of punching down the solids through the wine. Like racking this introduces excess oxygen to the process, producing wine that will likely not be as true to its origins and varietal composition as that made in the traditional process.

Your choice as a wine consumer will still come down to whether you like a wine or not, regardless of the techniques employed during winemaking. Knowing which wineries and winemakers employ some of these new tricks can help guide your choices though, most importantly in knowing which wines to avoid.

If there is a topic you would like to read about or questions on wine you can email George@thedinnerpartyshop.com or make suggestions by contacting the Healthy Community section at the Coeur d'Alene Press.

George Balling is co-owner with his wife Mary Lancaster of the dinner party - a wine and table top decor shop in Coeur d'Alene by Costco. George is also the managing judge of The North Idaho Wine Rodeo and writes frequently for the online version of Coeur d'Alene Magazine at www.cdamagazine.com. You can learn more about the dinner party at www.thedinnerpartyshop.com.