Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/122527
TECHNICAL REVIEW WINEMAKING from the catwalk; the winery's lone pump is used to pump over fermenting Syrah. Punch downs in the oak tanks are also done by foot, from a catwalk that runs alongside the tanks. From the fermentation room, the wine is pressed with a Carlsen 2.25-ton basket press, racked to 300-gallon tanks and moved to the barrel room, where all the cooperage is from François Frères and four-year air-dried, medium toast plus, very tight grain, 228-liter Burgundyshaped barrels. Western Square made the stainless two-barrel 4-inch and 7-inch racks. Chardonnay barrels are kept in an area that can be separated off and heated. The wines are racked once for blending and then the night before bottling, when they are racked to custom-built tanks that can be pressurized with nitrogen. These are stainless pressurizable tanks: two at 2,100 gallons and one each at 240 gallons, 500 gallons, 750 gallons and 1,100 gallons. Ideaz Services made the large tanks; Product Lines Unlimited made the smaller tanks. There is no fining or filtering for reds or whites. From the pressurized tanks, the wines are pushed to the AWS/ Prospero bottling line, which can bottle two cases per minute using a GAI 1205 Monoblock and GAI 6020 PS labeler. Rhys chose antique green bottles in the Burgundy Classique style from Demptos Glass, single-origin 2-inch USS corks from Scott Laboratories, pressuresensitive labels with eggshell felt paper from Tapp Technologies and black capsules 120micron by 62mm by 30mm from Rivercap. The 1-ton oak fermentation tanks (left) were made by Tonnellerie Rousseau. The winery is equipped with a Willmes Sigma 4 press (right). ADVANCED WINEMAKING SOLUTIONS, NOW AVAILABLE ALL IN ONE PLACE. Claristar® - a natural solution for Tartrate Stability (KHT). Available exclusively from Scott Laboratories. www.scottlab.com • info@scottlab.com 50 W IN ES & V I NE S M AY 2 0 1 3