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8 WINES&VINES October 2018 THERE ARE TWO PIECES OF EQUIPMENT that are invaluable to winegrowing and winemak- ing: a winery estate's well and the winery's refrigeration system. These two pieces of equipment are equally important and without them the winery and/or vineyard estate would not function. Access to water is critical for every aspect of making wine. It is necessary for vineyard irrigation, water addi- tions, yeast preparation and, most importantly, equipment sanita- tion. We use water every day and when the well goes down, we all go down. If you're making wine with less than 20% alcohol, as most of us are, a winery's refrig- eration system is just as critical. Keeping our wines at 55° F pro- tects them from spoilage organ- isms, especially Brettanomyces, and slows the oxidative and aging processes. When tours are given at wineries they are undoubtedly shown the fancy optical sorting table, concrete fermentation tanks with automatic pumpover devices — and probably even the vineyard manager's new drone if they are lucky enough to have one — but without a functioning well or refrigeration system, you simply do not have a winery or estate vineyard. 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. 28 WINES& PACKAGING Lessons learned on wine packaging from an eventful and impactful career in winemaking EDITOR'S NOTE Randall Grahm, owner/winemaker, Bonny Doon Vineyards. QUESTION OF THE MONTH QUESTION FOR OCTOBER : What's the most underrated piece of equipment at a winery? STEAM! Our Swash steamer, by Electro-Steam, is one of our favorite pieces of equipment and we're not sure why we didn't embrace it sooner. As we all know, winemaking is 95% clean- ing and 5% everything else and the steamer is great at cleaning: It conserves water, sanitizes thor- oughly, doesn't require chemi- cals plus, it keeps you warm on cold harvest mornings — highly recommend. If we're also calling beer "equipment," big thanks to BarrelHouse Brewing, Silva Brewing, and Firestone Walker for helping us keep the fridge stocked! Harvest is an intense time of year. It's not only high- pressure, it's also tedious. We clean, then dirty, then clean again. All of our equipment. Mul- tiple times a day. By the end of it, a beer sounds good! THE TOOLS WE USE AT IL- LAHE VINEYARDS are not the same ones used in most wineries. We focus on historical winemak- ing techniques and we make a Pinot Noir called the 1899. For this, we use Percheron draft horses to bring the fruit in to the winery and use no electricity or modern winemaking equipment to actually craft the wine. Our most underap- preciated tool at harvest is the bicycle-powered destemmer. Though we do have one that works on electricity, for our 1899 Pinot Noir, the electric destemmer is off limits. We can destem a ton of grapes with no electricity in under an hour. Plus, having a few crushed berries in a 50% whole cluster ferment helps keep the ferment rolling. Riding a bike is fun, so why not destem grapes at the same time? Charles McKahn Owner/Winemaker McKahn Family Cellars Livermore, Calif. Brad Ford Owner/Winemaker Illahe Vineyards Dallas, Ore. Bob and Maggie Tillman Owners/Winemakers Alta Colina Winery Paso Robles, Calif.