We’ve all heard the Apollo 13 story right and probably seen the movies, haven’t we?
The story is pretty simple, a computer failure led the astronauts and their compatriots in Houston to have to do incredibly complex math by hand in order to save the shuttle from overshooting Earth and never being seen from again.
I thought of this story when I was talking to the guy who owns my cheap wine club the other day and we was telling me that most vintners now use computer programs to track sugar levels in their fruit as well as fermentation after the fruit is picked.
Is this really the easiest and most effecient way for our wine to be made? Ok, probably so, but what happens to an entire years worth of grapes if the technology fails? Do wineries and vintners have the skills to keep themselves afloat?