Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/1019591
WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT 42 WINES&VINES September 2018 barrels from Nadalie, Demptos and Canton. "I am more comfortable with French oak and more comfortable with the coopers that I have been working with, but in saying that you still kind of need a sub-$1,000 barrel to be your workhorse barrel," she said. The barrel room, which is as sophisticated as the rest of the operation, has 22-foot ceil- ings. It is where Michaud's quest for bound anthocyanins comes into play. "I had to figure out how to get to bound anthocyanins. And the way you do is being able to heat to kind of bind up the pre-antho- cyanins. So all these barrel rooms have the ability to be held at 80 degrees should I want to, and I probably will," she said. While the room will normally be at 55° F, ancillary heaters hanging in the corners allow Michaud to raise the temperature as needed. The barrel room also features four Aerocide units, originally developed by NASA to ensure a supply of fresh air for astronauts. Twice a day, ultraviolet light will process the air in the barrel room and get rid of airborne yeasts, bacteria and other microbes. Primarily de- signed to prevent problems from starting, the system also aims to allow higher humidity levels in the barrel room without encouraging microbial development. It "feels like a pretty nice insurance piece that we have there," Michaud said. "It also means we can turn our humidity up more and have less evaporation, less topping losses, be- cause we're not worried about a higher humid- ity, which would mean, normally, more mold." Supporting the controls on heat and humid- ity are high-performing concrete sandwich- panel walls that have an R value of 25 to withstand the harsh winter conditions of the eastern Washington desert. The sandwich is formed by embedding a layer of insulating foam between two concrete wythes to form a single panel 14 inches thick and indistinguish- able from any other tilt-up assembly. Rounding out microbial control is a Tom Beard unit that washes, steams and treats bar- rels with ozone in a single pass. Rinse water recirculates to become wash water for the next set of barrels. Casey McClellan, who became involved with the design process following Seven Hills' acqui- sition in 2016, is impressed. McClellan contin- ues to oversee the making of Seven Hills' small-lot wines at its home winery in Walla WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT T he state of Washington's development of a general permit for winery wastewater dis- charge has vintners giving wastewater systems greater consideration. Double Canyon has made a point of being savvy about water use, using nitrogen to push must through pumps and recirculating water elsewhere. Its location at Red Mountain Center was clinched by a municipal wastewater system that addresses new state requirements. Since wastewater enters the municipal system, winer- ies don't require a permit. Roscoe Slade, public works director for West Richland, said the system monitors for bio- chemical oxygen demand (BOD), soluble materials and pH, taking these issues off indus- try's plate. "What seems to be coming in here first are wineries," Slade said. Besides Double Canyon, Pacific Rim Winemakers, Sugar Horse Cellars and Black Heron Distillery have all taken space in the 320-acre industrial park.