Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/1019591
8 WINES&VINES September 2018 FILTRATION HAS COME A LONG WAY over my measly 11 years in the wine industry. The new technology becomes better each year, resulting in wines that have less negative filtration impact (thin, papery, hard, etc.) and "bounce back" more quickly post filtration. For myself, personally, moving from a production winemaking facility in Washington state to an artisan winemaking facility in Amador County, California, I've been able to move away from filtration. In production, we utilized lees filtra- tion, diatomaceous earth (DE) filtration, plate and frame pad filtration, crossflow filtration, sterile filtration and, at times, reverse osmosis (RO) for the removal of volatile acidity and/or alcohol. Of all of these, the biggest strides I saw were in crossflow filtration and the "removal technologies." In my first experiences with VA and alcohol removal, the result- ing wines tasted flat and had pH issues that were hard to resolve. In my more re- cent experiences using newer equipment, they are far gentler on the wines and are redeeming for many reasons, even using alcohol removal on high tier blends to achieve the ideal alcohol balance. Moving to Terra d'Oro Winery, I have been able to focus on wine quality, re- sulting in reduced filtration in my wine- making practices. I am able to clarify my wines through natural settling, for the most part. Still utilizing a crossflow in wine prep for bottling and a sterile filter on the bottling line as a security blanket for stability of bottled product. A member of Wine Communications Group Inc. ADVERTISING Vice President and Director of Sales Jacques Brix jbrix@winesandvines.com (707) 473-0244 West Lydia Hall lydia@winesandvines.com (415) 453-9700, ext. 103 Midwest Hooper Jones hooperhja@aol.com (847) 486-1021 East (except New York) Laura Lemos laura@boja.com (973) 822-9274 New York and International Dave Bayard dave@bayard.com (973) 822-9275 Advertising Production Manager April Kushner ads@winesandvines.com (415) 453-9700, ext. 114 DIGITAL EDITION All print subscribers now get digital access to Wines & Vines. You can: • DOWNLOAD pages or full issues • BROWSE current and archived issues • WATCH videos • ACCESS via desktop, tablet or smartphone • SEARCH by keyword or table of contents • NAVIGATE by topic or page thumbnail • QUESTIONS? Contact customer ser- vice at custserv@winesandvines.com or (866) 453-9701 Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. PDT. 32 WINES& DISTRIBUTOR MARKET 2018 Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits Headquarters: Miami, Fla. States served: 45 Offices: 123 U.S. wineries represented: 1,141 Chairman: Harvey Chaplin Executive vice chairman: Bennett Glazer CEO: Wayne Chaplin President: Sheldon Stein Republic National Distributing Co. Headquarters: Grand Prairie, Texas States served: 23 Offices: 46 U.S. wineries represented: 820 President and CEO: Tom Cole EVP and COO: Robert Hendrickson CFO: Nicholas Mehall A shortlist of the top 10 wine distributors and their executives, ranked by importance to U.S. wineries 1 2 Wayne Chaplin Tom Cole QUESTION OF THE MONTH QUESTION FOR SEPTEMBER : How have your filtration methods evolved during your time in the wine industry? THIS WILL BE MY 18TH HARVEST and wine filtration has been an irrita- tion since day one. We sterile filter most of our wines to minimize the potential for problems in the bottle, with a few exceptions. Since the early 2000s we've used a plate and frame filter and double passes to do a rough and then sterile filtration. It's so ir- ritating to have wine dripping out of those pads! Oxidation of the wine is always a worry for me. We tried getting a longer filter frame and a crossover plate, so we could load both rough and sterile filter pads and do both passes at the same time, but with poor results — the back pressure on the sterile pads made the rough pads leak like crazy. When the lenticular filters became available we were pretty excited at the potential for zero leakage and low oxygen pickup, but I've heard mixed reviews. Mostly the cost of the filter car- tridges seemed prohibitive, so we never went that way. Finally, about three years ago, we tried using a crossflow filtration service pro- vided by DT Mobile Wine Services in San Jose, Calif., and have never looked back. The cost of the crossflow service is far outweighed by the convenience and the quality of the filtration. We hope to buy a small crossflow of our own in a few years. AT RAMEY, we don't own a filter and have never filtered a Ramey wine. I am aware, though, of the evolution of filtration technology, which goes from DE filtration (not a good technique in my opinion), to plate and frame with pads (better, but still removes solutes (flavor, aroma, color) from wine (along with particles) to lenticular discs (pretty good, if you have to filter) to crossflow (the current state of the art). Still, if the wine is dry and has completed malolactic fermentation, then with the aid of traditional fining agents (isinglass, casein, bentonite) one may polish a wine to bottle-ready clarity. It's a shame that "unfined and unfiltered" have been joined at the hip — fining has been used for centuries to craft handmade wines, while filtration is a modern, industrial process. Many winemakers feel safer filtering — at the expense of flavor, in my opinion. For Cabernet Sauvignon, we use egg whites, an old-world method, to clarify the wine and eliminate filtra- tion. A secondary benefit is to spe- cifically target tannins; this polishes, refines and finishes the wine, making it more supple and silky. The third is to remove unstable tannin and color which may otherwise throw a deposit after two to three years in bottle. For our Chardonnay (100% malolactic), we fine with isinglass and milk or casein to achieve the same clarity and supple texture we strive for in our red wines. Emily Haines winemaker Terra d'Oro Winery Amador, Calif. David Ramey owner and winemaker Ramey Wine Cellars Healdsburg, Calif. Tim Slater proprietor and winemaker Sarah's Vineyard Gilroy, Calif.