Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/1031957
78 WINES&VINES October 2018 GRAPEGROWING WINE EAST any other wine is added to the Pinot Gris, it is agitated, and the filtering and bottling fol- low in about a month. The wine is first rough- filtered with 2.5-micron Becopads in a plate and frame, and has its final, sterile filtration with a membrane filter. Arras determines his final free sulfur amount depending upon how long it will sit before release and after looking at the pH curve, and he has found the free sulfur to average 40 ppm in the Pinot Gris. He uses his mobile bottling line, which is steam-sterilized prior to bottling. The line uses a GAI 12-spout filler and corker, sourced from Prospero Equipment, which can fill about 160 cases per hour. The 750-ml bottles are stoppered with DIAM 5 corks made by G3 Enterprises and sourced from Hauser Packaging. Because of its fresh, crisp style and rela- tively low free sulfur, the Pinot Grigio doesn't get a lot of bottle age. Arras prefers no more than two months. The 2016 vintage was bot- tled early, in February, to fill the supply needs that followed a relatively small production from the 2015 vintage. The 2017 vintage was bottled in mid-May of this year and was sched- uled for release by midsummer. The wine retails for $16 per bottle, and Arras said, "We're known for our dry red wines, but this is one of our biggest sellers." He views the wine as an effective entry- level product at Damiani and is pleased that its freshness and overall simplicity make it the perfect "summer sipper." Winemaking at Anthony Road Wine Co. Peter Becraft is currently the winemaker at Anthony Road Wine Co., where he oversees average annual production of approximately 16,000 cases. His education and work back- ground were in fine arts in the New York city area. Like a number of people in the business, his wine career began with a visit to a Finger Lakes winery tasting room — in his case, at Anthony Road in 2006. There he met wine- maker Johannes Reinhardt, who took a liking to Becraft and invited him to work the crush that year. Becraft and his wife moved to the area fol- lowing the crush, and he spent the next two years working April to September in the vine- yards with Peter Martini, and October to March in the winery with Reinhardt. He was made assistant winemaker when Reinhardt was tran- sitioning to establish his own winery. Reinhardt left Anthony Road in 2014, and co-owner John Martini named Becraft head winemaker. After harvest, the grapes move into the press via a Bucher Vaslin conveyor, with no destemming, crushing or sulfur addition. The press is a Willmes WPP 6000, which can han- dle about 7-8 tons of grapes at one time and was sourced from Scott Labs. The press cycle is two hours, with the first hour primarily gently rolling low pressure (up to 0.2 bar), and in the second hour the pressure is eventu- ally increased to 1.7 bar. Becraft tastes the juice during the cycles to determine "at what point is the juice losing its vibrancy, or becom- ing a bit stemmy," he said. The regular bottling of Pinot Gris contains only free-run and lightly pressed juice, while the higher press fractions are separated into another tank and are used in the winery's Devonian White blend. Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates Market Intelligence for the Wine Industry · The Gomberg-Fredrikson Report: Put your business in context with wine industry market trends. · WineData Wine Pricing Report: Make competitive price positioning comparisons. · Distributor Market Service: Gain a competitive advantage by analyzing the wholesale market www.gfawine.com • 707.940.3922 • inquiry@gfawine.com We perform extensive market research and data collection to create the wine industry's leading databases and reports. Our reports reflect real-world factors and provide business leaders consistent information on which to base decisions. "I believe there is power in blending, and I like to have different compo- nents to play with." —Peter Becraft, winemaker, Anthony Road Wine Co.