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COVER STORY On the other hand, he admits that they're not the easiest equipment to maintain. Emerson treats them with SO2 and hot water with citric acid monthly. He also puts an ultraviolet lamp in them a few times a year—just in case. "I found that the UV lamps we use in the caves fit in the door." Emerson also has stainless steel and concrete tanks, and he's comparing the results long term. In addition to fermenting Cabernet in oak, Emerson also ages all the winery's estate Zinfandel in 500-liter oak barrels. "The wine has softer tannins. The tanks match Zin well." He ages wine for 20 months, then knocks out one end, cleans them and uses them for fermentation of Pinot Noir. Jean Hoefliger, the winemaker-general manager of Alpha Omega Winery, also in St. Helena, Calif., is a native of Switzerland, where he had experience with large oak formats—some of them dating from the 1700s and still in use. When he came to the U.S., he worked at Newton Vineyards, which aged wine in 1,000-gallon oak tanks. They were 11 to 15 years old, so they didn't contribute oak flavor, but mostly microoxidation. He replaced half of them with stainless steel and switched to replacing the oak tanks after six years. In 2001, he started fermenting red wines in standard-size barrels; the same barrels can be used for aging, but he does not use the large vats this way. They're also expensive. Wood is a good insulator Gilles Nicault of Long Shadows Winery in Walla Walla, Wash. (see Technical Review, page 44) uses big tanks and barrels as requested by the winery's winemaking partners. Nicault explains, "Michel Rolland has asked me to use the 55hL Radoux wood Storing large vats dirty J ean Hoefliger of Alpha Omega says that the biggest challenge of large-format oak tanks is maintaining them. He diverges from many of his colleagues on how to store them when not in use. He found that leaving them "dirty" after removing the skins and seeds worked best. "Just leave the yeast in them and burn sulfur in the tank or barrel. The lees seal the wood." He cleans them just before use, using hot water and ozone. Even so, he knows that the wood contains bacteria after so many years. "No amount of ozone, dry ice blasts or steam will help. The only thing that works is water and SO2." Unfortunately, with today's increasing restrictions on water, using 1,200 to 1,600 gallons every few weeks to clean and soak tanks may be a luxury that many can't afford. P.F. tanks for his Pedestal program at Long Shadows Vintners to ferment his Merlot. The wood being a good insulator, it keeps the temperature more constant, especially toward the end of fermentation, and contributes to a healthy fermentation. "Plus," Nicault continues, "the wood provides tannins and oxygen. Wood tannins will help the structure and texture of the wine but will also protect the grape tannins from oxidizing. Win es & Vin es F EB RUA RY 20 13 33