Winemakers are no strangers to natural challenges but now faced with a unique combination of climactic and economic pressures, they’re on the hunt to expand and evolve their toolkits.
In response, the team at LAFFORT brought key results from more than 70 trials conducted in the last year to winemakers and industry professionals along the West Coast. The 2026 Rendezvous commenced in Paso Robles, Calif. on April 28 before heading north to Santa Rosa, Calif. and Newberg, Ore., in the same week.
Event organizer Lisa Strid shared that the program for this year’s Rendezvous was designed to directly address the top challenges facing winemakers today—costs, efficiencies, and combatting unexpected weather—and deliver information that was immediately applicable in the winery.
LAFFORT, in addition to supplying yeast, tannins, enzymes and other fermentation products, expanded into oak and barrel alternatives with Nobile, aromatic and flavor enhancements with Essencia, and laboratory equipment with Vinsentials.
Its latest venture, Alma Vitis, utilizes two complimentary levers in grapevine physiology and marks LAFFORT’s move into vineyard solutions, said technical winemaker Jim McMahon.
The first lever supports vine metabolism in drought years so that the plant can maintain physiological function, and is followed by a limitation of oxidative stress in the vine to protect cellular structures and preserve photosynthetic activity. Together, McMahon said, these two actions help the vine remain functional and resilient under climactic pressure.
Alma Vitis currently offers two products to combat water stress: PREVAX, a foliar spray to support vine metabolism, which can be used on its own or in conjunction with HYDROSTRESS, which addresses the oxidative stress brought on when water is limited. These products were trialed in Australia this year, McMahon said, and yielded healthier, lusher canopies and fuller clusters in drought conditions.
Solutions in the Cellar
In hotter vintages, there is also a greater likelihood of higher temperatures negatively affecting the flavor and color of the resulting wine.
This year’s featured guest Dr. Charlotte Vion, a specialist in yeast biotechnology and acidity management, who presented the findings of a tannin trial on a 2024 Australian Mataro. When measured on a spectrophotometer at three wavelengths, the wine dosed with Tannin VR Supra had 42% higher color intensity than the control and 17% higher color intensity than the same wine treated with oak; intensity and the variation between treatments remained the same throughout extended aging.
Enzymes can also aid in color stability, as well as anthocyanin extraction, tannin and polysaccharide concentration and beneficial flavor precursors, said sales manager and technical winemaker Jillian Johnson DeLeon.
Should acid concentration be the greatest concern, there are now solutions beyond cellar additions. Through successive generations of yeast breeding and experimentation, LAFFORT developed two yeast strains that can deplete or generate malic acid through the course of alcoholic fermentation, resulting in better chemical integration and saving on additives.
KLIMA, which has now been tested in more than 20 winery trials, lowers pH by 0.1 and increases TA, eliminating the need for tartaric acid additions. This is possible because of the yeast’s de novo synthesis of glucose into malic acid; as a result, the finished alcohol of wines fermented with KLIMA is reduced by 0.5% ABV. When used in place of a traditional yeast and the addition of 1.5 g/L tartaric acid, a fermentation with KLIMA was half the cost.
DEMAL, in contrast, consumes roughly 60% of malic, offering winemakers the flexibility to harvest their grapes earlier in the season to ensure lower alcohol without having to worry about higher-than-average acid.
According to Vion, a typical saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast will consume somewhere between 5% and 30% of malic acid during alcoholic fermentation. Even with this higher rate of malic acid consumption, Vion said there will still be residual malic acid at the end of fermentation for those who wish to inoculate with malolactic bacteria.
Strid and Vion also presented on enological pathways to adapt wines to better match consumer tastes, whether the goal is to create a fresher, more fruit forward wine or to create greater depth and structure.
It’s not easy to turn on a dime, Strid said, but expanding upon one’s winemaking toolkit can make those unexpected pivots a little easier.