Sacramento, Calif. -- Sixty-eight wine professionals looked into the future Mar. 4-8 through the annual UC Davis Wine Executive Program, and a couple of their favorite landmarks were missing from view--barrels in the winery and footprints in the vineyard. On day three of the four-day multi-discipline seminar, conducted jointly by the university's graduate school of management and its department of viticulture and enology, two professors sketched their visions.

Linda Bisson, a geneticist and expert in yeast, said the winery of the future will have a better understanding of quality, a better understanding of the consumer, and will be "not only sustainable but sustaining of the environment." Wineries will have to be cost-efficient; they will capture and sell their by-products, and they will probably be barrel-less, she predicted. She observed that many mid-sized wineries are already on the path away from oak barrels, and believes that many more will be soon. While it's well known that oak barrels are expensive to wineries as well as to the environment, her statement about the inevitability of this change appeared to make an impression on the winemakers, vineyard managers, marketing and sales directors, CEOs, bankers, prospective vintners and others who attended the seventh annual program.

James Wolpert, UC cooperative extension viticulture specialist, said the vineyard of the future will be shaped by land availability, water availability and labor availability, plus environmental regulation, which he expects to increase. The labor issue will force more mechanization, particularly in pre-pruning, pruning and harvesting, and signficant reductions in "hand passes" through the vineyard.

"We may see no one walking through the vineyard anymore, unless it's to monitor," Wolpert said. The main tasks will be mechanized and controlled via computer interface and global positioning systems (GPS). Growing conditions will be closely monitored by aerial and surface observation using geographic information systems (GIS). These tools will enable precision viticulture in which the cultural and harvesting practices are defined practically vine by vine, instead of vineyard by vineyard as in the past, or block by block as many are today.

Wolpert also predicted that the vineyard of the future will use varieties not currently known, to further avoid and control the pest and disease problems that plague vineyards today. Existing varieties from other regions that are little known may provide solutions, and possibly new varieties that arise from genetic research.

Professor Robert Smiley, of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, opened the program on Mar. 5 with a lecture that put the wine industry in global perspective. Other classes included financial management, accounting and finance, grapegrowing and winemaking fundamentals, brand marketing, leadership, marketing communications and assessment, cost management and legal issues in the wine industry.

The program costs $3,600 for three days and $4,800 for the full four days, including lodging and meals. Sponsors include Wines & Vines, Wine Business Monthly, Vino Farms, Seguin Moreau, American Ag Credit, BMO Capital Markets, Comerica, Delicato Family Vineyards, Rabobank, Silicon Valley Bank and Trinchero Family Estates. More information is available at wineexecutiveprogram.com, or (530) 754-6450.