STANDARD DEVIATION

摘要

Improving consistency is a pervasive goal for the wine industry. Markets demand reliable reo'ication from wineries, so wineries demand the same fron their sucpliers. We deoerd on scientific research and technical innovation to give us better tanks, pumps, bottles and closures. Then benchmarking and the pursuit of best practices deliver us more exacting uniformity within most of tnese supply categories. So how do barrel producers defy the virtual interchangeability that characterizes many other wineryinputs? Coopers obtain wood from the same sources and employ the same tools and techniques, but their handiwork remains remarkably distinct. Medium-grained French oak barrels with medium toast from one cooperage will yield a notably different wine thanbarrels produced to the very same specification by another cooperage.