The Los Olivos Project
Conceptually born in Los Olivos, CA in 2003. Our goal is to expand the viticulture and oenology palette through the use of modern biotechnology and provide a public forum for the discussion the growing impact science has on winemaking. Our research projects take a systems biology approach using genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics to understand the evolution of wine from grape to bottle.
Oct 18th, 2010 @ 9:08 pm
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My search for the “unicorn hour” in SF was unsuccessful. Nothing but marathon PRs and pimps pleading with cops. Back to the lab for some more stem cell research and wine science with the hopes that someday I’ll find the elusive unicorn club.
Oct 16th, 2010 @ 9:49 pm
Tomorrow my mad urban SF skills will take me all over this MUNI map. Don’t even attempt what I’m about to do, leave it to us professionals.
Oct 13th, 2010 @ 10:22 pm
Life as a scientist
I’m working on a post about clones and wines. However, due to the fact I am currently working simultaneously working on 4 active research project, 2 stem cell 1 vitis and 2 of a hybrid nature while writing 3 manuscripts for publication and a grant progress report it’s going to have to wait. But look at the pretty picture a plant stem cell niche.
Knowledge of this will result in better wines, but not how you think!
Oct 10th, 2010 @ 7:52 pm
Cheese Dreamin
The world of cheese simplified.
@ 12:03 am
Bringing reality to the Los Olivos Project
Ideas, if left unchecked can be dangerous. Recently I was confronted with this very situation. I was trying to make sense of gigabytes of data when I realized, the Los Olivos project had become overextented. It had lost its way, trying to do to much at once. The initial idea behind the Los Olivos project was simple. And I found myself at a point that had assumed a simple hypothesis had been proven, which it had not. You see, in research the result you get is based solely on the question you ask and method you use. I found myself pouring over hundreds of FT-ICR spectra trying to map ten of thousands of wine compounds. I was looking for chemical similarities and differences, mainly between Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. I came across something that I did not think I should be seeing in my Chardonnay sample, quercetin 
and myricetin. 
These two flavonols are readily present in red varietals but are thought to be absent in white varietals. At least this is what I had always read. I started doing some research and started to realize that no one had really ever done the right experiment. Finally I found a series of studies by a group in Australia, who did ask the right questions and did do the right experiments. They discovered white varietals (they looked primarily at Chardonnay but also Grenache Blanc) do express the gene involved in the final step in flavonol synthesis, flavanol synthase (FLS). They also quantified the amounts of quercetin and myricetin in Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon during berry development. What they found was that late in the growing season the levels of these flavonols drop significantly in Chardonnay but remain high in Cabernet Sauvignon. These data suggest that while white varietals such as Chardonnay can synthesize quercetin and myricetin, there is a separate unknown mechanism present only in white varietals that degrades these flavonols during the final stages of berry development. Part of the answer had been solved and I thought this could explain what I was seeing. However, the levels I was observing were far greater than what had been reported. Suddenly it occurred to me, OAK! From a scientific view point an oak barrel is nothing more that a lignin skeleton. Lignin is a complex macromolecule (shown below)
present in the cell walls of all plant tissues, especially woody plants. When wine is added to an oak barrel the acidic pH of the wine solution begins to break down this complex molecule. In the process a diverse array of polyphenols are released from the oak barrel into the wine. Two of which happen to be quercetin and myricetin. Suddenly all was well with my data. And then it dawned on me just how out of hand the Los Olivos project had become. So we are currently retooling. Going back to our roots and starting a new set of experiments by asking the right questions and doing the right experiments. Often its the basics we push out of our heads in science only to be forced to relearn them before picking up the pipets and firing up the instruments again.
