Impact of Climate Change on Wine Production

This assignment delves into the multifaceted impact of climate change on the wine industry. It examines how changing weather patterns affect grape growth, vintage quality, and overall wine production. The analysis also considers adaptation strategies employed by vineyards to mitigate these challenges, including water management techniques and drought-resistant varietals. Furthermore, it explores consumer perceptions and preferences regarding wines influenced by climate change.

Marketing
1
Marketing
Case Study: Mount Michael Vineyard: Choosing a High-Quality
Closure
Student Name:
Student ID:
University:

Marketing
2
Table of Contents
Q1. Importance of quality to Mount Michael's success and commitment to producing
high-quality wine.............................................................................................................. 3
Q2. Using a supply chain framework to identify the factors affecting the quality of a
glass of Mount Michael wine and explain who controls each of these steps....................5
3. How would you characterize management growth of Mount Michael vineyards? What
implication does seem to have for quality?......................................................................6
4. Critically evaluation of the cork taint problem at Mount Michael Vineyard, using a ‘cost
of quality’ framework........................................................................................................8
References.....................................................................................................................11

Marketing
3
Q1. Importance of quality to Mount Michael's success and commitment to
producing high-quality wine.
Quality is the best key to the success of any business. Mount Michael mainly
focuses on the quality of wine, which leads them to a successful business. Wine quality
is dependent upon viticultural practices and decisions. Wine production begins in the
vineyard and there are many factors that influence grape composition, which, in turn
influence wine composition and, therefore, ultimately perceived quality of the wine.
Good wine cannot be made from bad grapes. Wine quality defined as Nearness to a
specific target or ideal wine, Harmonious complexity and inharmonious notes (Crozet,
Head & Mayer, 2012). The practice of producing good quality wine will ensure
establishment high quality reputation, which in turn shall result in bringing success to
Mount Michael’s company. Nearness to a specific target or ideal wine describes the
flavor, aroma composition of the ideal wine of that type exists, and the object is to match
that ideal. The closure to the perfect matches in composition, the higher the quality of
the wine. . It has been evident that Mount Michael though produces high quality wine,
but runs it in a smaller scale. Harmonious complexity equates quality with complexity.
The goal is to produce a wine with many characters, a lot of tastes, a lot of aromas.
Harmonious means that all of those characters go together well in a pleasing format.
Inharmonious notes centre on the concepts of the importance of a lack of harmony in
wine composition. It has been observed that three of the biggest producers of New
Zealand control about 78% of the domestic market including the major exporters. For
the good quality of wine, Mount Michael follows these viticultural practices.
For the good quality of wine, Mount Michael follows these viticultural practices.
Targeted definitions of wine quality include the regional typicity, varietal typicity
and true-to-style (Palma et al. 2016).
Factors of quality include the site, aspect, shelter, clones, trellising and vineyard
layout. Sue has sought the advice of a viticulture consultant on both clone selection and
vineyard layout (Colledani & Tolio, 2012). Sue looked most for the production of wine is
‘balance'. While these needs to be a balance between the fruits, the oak, the tannins
and the alcohol and these different elements need to be well integrated, with no one

Marketing
4
element dominating the wine. Providing a high-quality wine to the consumer is a very
difficult task and a long process and almost every step could have a significant impact
on quality.
The process began with vineyard site selection. The terroir and microclimate of a
particular site were critical. Mount Michael is one among the 390 other winegrowing
organizations prevalent in the country having a share of 10% of the market after
incorporating the import factors in. The vineyard produces the same varietal for
producing grapes with quite different characteristics. Once the site is selected, specific
clones for the desired grape varietal were selected to match the site. Mount Michael
vineyard plans to take maximum advantage of the site conditions. In the initial years of
the organization’s foundation only two varieties of grapes were planted, which gradually
initiated the urge of gaining knowledge regarding greater varieties. It has also been
evident that Mount Michael being so particular about the quality factor that he did not
mind on selling away his lands, but never thought on compromising on the quality of his
products. The next process to producing high-quality wine in the vineyard is
management, which involves decisions about pruning back vines during the winter
months, canopy management practices, spraying for weeds and pests, and setting
irrigation levels so that the vines got the right amount of water. A critical evaluation by
assessing direct reviews from its customers was taken by conducting surveys in the
restaurants to ensure the consistency of their product quality. Benchmarking strategies
were put into use to make extensive utilization of information retrieved from their
regional survey, from which Sue was keen to gather more learning experiences. Sue's
wines might produce 7 tonnes/ha, but to insure quality Mount Michael vineyard yielding
only 5 to 6 tonnes/ha (Ting et al., 2014). She put emphasis on regular maintenance
such as trimming vines and thinning grape brunches to yield a relatively lower volume
but a better quality grade of outputs.
Printing added to costs and lead-times (Salinger et al. 2015). She was unsure
that having printing on the cork had any real impact on the consumer. Although there
was no sample for testing but she tested by taking a random sample of 50 or so corks
from the bales of 10,000. While Sue has not ruled out continued use of natural cork, she

Marketing
5
is quite interested in trying to find a way to reduce the incidence of cork taint in her wine.
There are three major alternatives to the use of natural cork as metal screw caps,
agglomerate corks, and synthetic corks.
Wine quality is also dependent upon the ecological practices and decision and Sue
follows all those steps, which improve the qualities of wine. Measures such as
immediately replacing the bottles of wine or by refunding the money on a complaint
being reported by the customer were taken into action. A further step was taken by
them to raise their reputation higher by publishing their wine production and customer
satisfaction review in the popular dailies and magazines of the current times, such as in
wine magazines and books of New Zealand.
Q2. Using a supply chain framework to identify the factors affecting the quality of
a glass of Mount Michael wine and explain who controls each of these steps.
Wine supply chain includes grape grower, wine producer, bulk distributor,
transit cellar, filler or packer, finished goods distributor and retailer, which are mainly
affected by climate change (Hannah et al. 2013). Framework for wine quality
assessment depends on wine quality, which has two factors extrinsic and intrinsic
factors (Estampe et al. 2013). Extrinsic factors include some subjective components as
price, producer, brand, vintage, origin, classification, critics, production, variety and wine
level. Intrinsic factors include objective pathways such as appearance, nose, and
palate.
Implications of supply chain framework depend upon the strategic level and
operational level. Strategic level includes new criteria for selecting suppliers and 3PLs,
reducing in total miles that driven for transportation or distribution activities,
improvements in energy efficiency, low energy-intensive assets which includes plants,
transportation, warehouses etc, New or less energy consuming product and services,
adoption of carbon labelling practices and re-configuration of supply chain networks.
Operational level includes the production planning, disruption, routing and scheduling,
inventory planning and control, material requirement planning and high insurance cost
(Cooper, 2016).

Marketing
6
Factors affecting the quality of a glass of Mount Michael wine when finally drunk
by a consumer are cork taint. Cork was first used as a wine closure more than 300
years ago. Natural cork comes from the bark of the cork oak tree. Cork taint is caused
by a chemical compound 2-4-6 trichloroanisole (TCA). TCA resulted from an interaction
between invisible moulds that can grow in the pores of natural cork and the chloride that
is used to bleach it before shaping into wine closure. To eliminate or detect the TCA in
cork by the cork industry is not well success. The testing process typically involved by
taking random samples of corks from the bules of 10,000, soaking the corks in the
uncorked wine for several days, and then smelling and tasting the wine for the presence
of cork taint. Sue estimated that 8% to 10% of Mount Michael wines suffered from cork
taint. A restaurant would notify Sue that two or three times a year that a customer had
returned a bottle of Mount Michael wine because it was corked.
These steps control the government, producers, consumers, and intermediaries.
In many regions of the world, wine labeling is under strict legal control (Wallner &
Cannistra, 2013). The consumer is purchasing a wine that reflects the artisan talents of
the producer (Carvalho, Cruz-Machado & Tavares, 2012). In the fighting varietal market
segment, the consumer controls the definition of quality by their purchasing decisions.
Intermediary includes wine critics, wine writers, distributors, and marketers.
The winemaker often times must rely on an intermediary to sell the wine. In this
case, the wine must appeal to the intermediary, which meets their definition of quality.
Wine critics or writer who has a loyal following the consumers. The wine writer function
on principle marketing agent, then it is necessary to match the style and composition
that will garner a strong recommendation.
3. How would you characterize management growth of Mount Michael vineyards?
What implication does seem to have for quality?
The various opportunities by which the management growth can be
characterised in a case of Mount Michael vineyards may be discussed in elaboration. In
order to conduct site-specific management of the targeted vineyards, the foremost step
is to identify the blocks and sub-blocks of the particular vineyard (Greenspan, 2015).

Marketing
7
Some specific techniques are incorporated for maintenance and management of the
vineyards such as applying sprays using the temporal system of integration where
sprays are applied only when needed to control disease and pests instead of following
calendar schedules. Removal of buds, thinking of a bunch, proper management of
canopies, trimming of leafs need to be practiced following regular roaster. Monitoring of
the quality of soil moisture and soil maps require supporting the complete preservation
of the irrigation and fertigation process.
For gaining more choices and a variety of blending options, the accurate
assortment of the possible blocks and sub-blocks for different harvesting techniques are
used by the wine makers. The managers responsible for taking care of the growth of the
vineyards must locate and determine which are the problem-free zones and which are
the problem-prone regions affecting the nutritional quality of the soil (Burns et al. 2016).
The assortment of the best variety of grapes is done by testing a number of aspects
such as the accurate level ripeness having the desired flavours and consisting the
adequate degree of noble botrytis.
One of the most effective measures taken towards growth management process
of the vineyards is the practice of traceability of products, which enables in keeping the
record of the different sources of components used for the specific blends. In order to
fulfil the long-term strategic goals of Mount Michael vineyards practicing systematic
information sharing and transparency of understanding and data prove to be a vital
support for the development of their management. It is suggestible that through the
process of improving the retainment of inputs and quality check the rate of profitability
can be enhanced.
For improving the resource management, effective usage of water by
minimizing its consumption rate by allocating only on necessary regions and during the
growing phase. Suitable remedial measures against the environmental influences can
be preserved by maintaining spatiotemporal records, which in turn affects the
accountability of the management growth. In order to develop an understanding of the
product quality such as from when has the bottle been opened can be judged on the
basis of correct information being recorded and rightful information regarding the
environmental factors. Providing spatial records can prove to be more effective than

Marketing
8
management decisions for the utilization of the relevant authorities. Measured
application of the chemical sprays stands effectively for minimizing costs as well as
environmental hazards (Reeve et al. 2016).
The different kinds of vegetative balance, soil types, and microclimatic
variations are determined by implementing the techniques of remote sensing and using
other monitoring instruments such as by taking aerial images to project a multi-spectral
view of the field area (Kazakou et al. 2016). Implementation of this technique not only
enables providing a wide picture of the plot for the determination of the different
variation of yields but also gives a vivid conception regarding the overall growth pattern
in comparison to the passing times.
In order to implement effective measures to enhance the quality of grape wine proper
selection of site is the fundamental prerequisite. On considering the significant soil types
and nutrients, a suitable vineyard layout needs to be designed. Keeping in accordance
with the particular soil type rootstocks require being selected of matching varieties.
Proper training regarding pruning techniques, a shaping of the vines, fencing, and
adequate usage of water supply to the necessary regions are involved in improving the
quality of vineyard management program (Beslic et al. 2015). The management needs
to supervise and monitor the gradual development of fruits and accordingly decide
regarding the time of harvest.
4. Critically evaluation of the cork taint problem at Mount Michael Vineyard, using
a ‘cost of quality’ framework
Issues regarding cork taint have been predominant since more than past
300 years ever since cork was used as a wine closure for the very first time. Cork is a
natural element of a tree, which is derived by the removal of a bark of the tree after
every nine years. Trichloroanisole or TCA is the chemical compound produced from the
cork taint, which results due to the interaction of chlorine that is used for bleaching
purpose and the invisible moulds growing within the pores of natural cork (Fontana,
2012). The minimum success rate is achieved even after Mount Michael Vineyard has
taken repeated efforts in detecting the hazardous effects or eliminating the TCA in cork.

Marketing
9
The Mount Michael Vineyard management that a percentage of 8 to 10 in the entire
quantity of wine suffered from cork taint content approximately estimated it. Complaints
regarding corked bottles are reported every two to three times a year and are refunded
for the same reason at Mount Michael Vineyard. The overall range of sealed corked
bottle manufactured varied widely from an estimate of about 1.5% to 15% (Correia et al.
2013). The vineyard remains liable to refund the excise tax attached to the pricing of the
bottle in case of such complaints, which amounts to almost $2.00 on each bottle. Mount
Michael Vineyard management never felt concerned regarding being at a risk of losing
the franchise from any of the restaurants with respect to addressing issues relating to
corked bottle problem. The company is aware of the fact, that there lies a mutual
understanding among the restaurant owners and the wine manufacturers, as they
understand that it is natural to produce corked bottles on a once in awhile occasion
(Slabizki et al. 2016). In order to assess the ratio of quality to costs for the products
were categorised into four typical parts such as, prevention, appraisal of their products,
identify the internal shortcomings and finding out the external causes of failure. For
raising the product standards, cost appraisal technique was incorporated, which
enables in detecting the non-conforming products. A proper inspection and
measurement was conducted to carry out this process. Instead it was a matter of
serious concern on the part of the manufacturers, that is Mount Michael Vineyard, when
there are no reports of complaint or return of wine coming from the restaurants, as it is
feared by them that the customers drank the drink despite being a corked one even
without realising it be so. It had been discovered by Sue that internal factors causing
failure of market position was essentially the cost issue. A regular evaluation also found
cork taint containing in a few bottles on the basis of monthly assessment. About 8% to
10% of their business was seen to suffer due to the same cause. In a case of any
complaint addressing the manager reaches to the authority they either send them a
changed bottle in return or propose for a refund for the mishap. Initially, when Mount
Michael Vineyard started their venture in producing the wine they maintained industry
standards by manufacturing traditional quality wines sealed with a cork. The company
took high production value and superior grade safety precautions, as the best grade
Portuguese cork was used. On addressing the external failure issues it has been found

Marketing
10
that though very less quantity of their products are refunded or returned still some
factors played essential role in causing limitations to their organization. One of the
primary external cost failures was that in case of non-conforming products, the
customers are given a return of money as compensation or are provided with a fresh
product. This acts as a cost failure for the organization.
With the vision of reducing the rates of presence of cork taint, the company
bought the best quality corks from the most reputed cork distributor company of New
Zealand. The company purchased high rated corks in bulk amount at the cost of $0.43
per cork on a monthly basis but never planned to print the company logo or name as a
print on the cork to be identified by its target customers. Not printing the company name
on the cork was the measure to make it cost effective and cheaper for the company
account. The managers or the authorities of Mount Michael Vineyard never proposed
any such measures of assessing the amount of TCA mixed in the wine content through
cork seals, as there are no simple techniques known to detect the presence of TCA in
cork. There are a number of wineries, which incorporate the use of reliable testing to
check the TCA content involved in the cork before allowing them to supply cork for their
companies (Pizarro et al. 2012). The procedure of assessing the amount of cork taint in
the cork available involved random sample selection of 50 corks at a time and soaking
them in a solution of uncorked wine stores for a large number of days (Cacho et al.
2016). Tests were then conducted to check if the wine mixture contained taint in the
form of smell and taste. Having found a large quantity of taint in the wine content the
batch would be rejected and not allowed for cork-sealed purpose (Lecat, 2016). The
companies, which incorporated the approach of assessing the cork taint rate, were
evidenced to find the lower rate of cork taint in comparison to that of Mount Michael
Vineyard. The winery under concern accounted of having some corked bottles among a
bulk of 1000 sealed bottles manufactured together which was considered as a fact of
life by not only the winery but also from the restaurant's part where the bottles were
handed over to customers and a refund complaint was addressed.

Marketing
11
References
Beslic, Z., Pantelic, M., Dabic, D., Todic, S., Natic, M., & Tesic, Z. (2015). Effect of vineyard
floor management on water regime, growth response, yield and fruit quality in Cabernet
Sauvignon. Scientia Horticulturae, 197, 650-656.
Burns, K. N., Bokulich, N. A., Cantu, D., Greenhut, R. F., Kluepfel, D. A., O'Geen, A. T., ...
& Steenwerth, K. L. (2016). Vineyard soil bacterial diversity and composition revealed
by 16S rRNA genes: Differentiation by vineyard management. Soil Biology and
Biochemistry, 103, 337-348.
Cacho, J. I., Nicolás, J., Viñas, P., Campillo, N., & Hernández‐Córdoba, M. (2016). Control
of halophenol and haloanisole concentration in wine cellar environments, wines, corks
and wood staves using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Australian Journal
of Grape and Wine Research.
Carvalho, H., Cruz-Machado, V., & Tavares, J. G. (2012). A mapping framework for
assessing supply chain resilience. International Journal of Logistics Systems and
Management, 12(3), 354-373.
Colledani, M., & Tolio, T. (2012). Integrated quality, production logistics and maintenance
analysis of multi-stage asynchronous manufacturing systems with degrading machines.
CIRP Annals-Manufacturing Technology, 61(1), 455-458.
Cooper, S. (2016). Managing Supply Chain Networks: A Framework for Achieving Superior
Performance through Leadership Capabilities Development in Supply Chain Node.
Correia, D. S. S., Pinto, M. S., de Castro, L. M. M. N., & Pinheiro, M. N. C. (2013, October).
2, 4, 6-trichloroanisole evolution during cork stabilization: The contribution of a Masters'
student internship to the resolution of an industrial problem. In Engineering Education
(CISPEE), 2013 1st International Conference of the Portuguese Society for (pp. 1-4).
IEEE.
Crozet, M., Head, K., & Mayer, T. (2012). Quality sorting and trade: Firm-level evidence for
French wine. The Review of Economic Studies, 79(2), 609-644.

Marketing
12
Estampe, D., Lamouri, S., Paris, J. L., & Brahim-Djelloul, S. (2013). A framework for
analysing supply chain performance evaluation models. International Journal of
Production Economics, 142(2), 247-258.
Fontana, A. R. (2012). Analytical methods for determination of cork-taint compounds in
wine. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 37, 135-147.
Greenspan, M. (2015). Vineyard water management under any conditions. Australian and
New Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker, (614), 43.
Hannah, L., Roehrdanz, P. R., Ikegami, M., Shepard, A. V., Shaw, M. R., Tabor, G., ... &
Hijmans, R. J. (2013). Climate change, wine, and conservation. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, 110(17), 6907-6912.
Kazakou, E., Fried, G., Richarte, J., Gimenez, O., Violle, C., & Metay, A. (2016). A plant
trait-based response-and-effect framework to assess vineyard inter-row soil
management. Botany Letters, 163(4), 373-388.
Lecat, B., Le Fur, E., & Outreville, J. F. (2016). Perceived risk and the willingness to buy
and pay for" corked" bottles of wine. International Journal of Wine Business Research,
28(4).
Palma, D., de Dios Ortúzar, J., Rizzi, L. I., Guevara, C. A., Casaubon, G., & Ma, H. (2016).
Modelling choice when price is a cue for quality a case study with Chinese wine
consumers. Journal of choice modelling, 19, 24-39.
Pizarro, C., Sáenz-González, C., Pérez-del-Notario, N., & González-Sáiz, J. M. (2012).
Development of an ultrasound-assisted emulsification–microextraction method for the
determination of the main compounds causing cork taint in wines. Journal of
Chromatography A, 1229, 63-71.
Reeve, A. L., Skinkis, P. A., Vance, A. J., Lee, J., & Tarara, J. M. (2016). Vineyard Floor
Management Influences ‘Pinot noir’Vine Growth and Productivity More than Cluster
Thinning. HortScience, 51(10), 1233-1244.
Salinger, M. J., Baldi, M., Grifoni, D., Jones, G., Bartolini, G., Cecchi, S., ... & Maracchi, G.
(2015). Seasonal differences in climate in the Chianti region of Tuscany and the
relationship to vintage wine quality. International journal of biometeorology, 59(12),
1799-1811.

Marketing
13
Slabizki, P., Legrum, C., Wegmann-Herr, P., Fischer, C., & Schmarr, H. G. (2016).
Quantification of cork off-flavor compounds in natural cork stoppers and wine by
multidimensional gas chromatography mass spectrometry. European Food Research
and Technology, 242(6), 977-986.
Ting, S. L., Tse, Y. K., Ho, G. T. S., Chung, S. H., & Pang, G. (2014). Mining logistics data
to assure the quality in a sustainable food supply chain: A case in the red wine industry.
International Journal of Production Economics, 152, 200-209.
Wallner, R., & Cannistra, R. (2013). An SDN approach: quality of service using big switch’s
floodlight open-source controller. Proceedings of the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network,
35, 14-19.