Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/197145
W I N EM A K I N G Material significance Proper cleaning materials—not just ease of cleaning equipment—are critical to effective sanitation. During a presentation to winemakers in Penticton, B.C., earlier this year, Gordon Taylor of Daven Lore Winery in Prosser, Wash., advised winemakers to follow the WATCH rule: water, action, time, chemical, heat. "If you limit any one of these, you have to add something somewhere else," he said. "So if you don't have enough heat, then chances are you're going to have to use more chemical." But which chemicals, exactly? Boiling water may sterilize the wine thief between barrel samples, but the standby materials for Darel Allwine, winemaker at Col Solare Winery on Red Mountain in Washington state, include a generic sodium bicarbonate from American Tartaric Products Inc. (which he'll occasionally neutralize with citric acid) with sterilization completed using Vortexxbrand peroxyacetic acid and (especially in the tanks) ozone. Ozone "seems to help quite a bit, especially during harvest time, when we're time-constrained as far as trying to move on to different tanks," he said. "We can use ozone to kill the bacteria we're looking to kill, and it does a really good job for us." Thoroughly cleaning the inside of hoses and pipes depends on being able to disassemble equipment for a thorough cleaning of gaskets, clamps and valves. In the case of hoses, foam balls from W.W. Grainger Inc. are ideal, Allwine said. Pressure allows basic fluid dynamics to push the foam balls through the hose, revolving as they go and gently scrubbing residues from the inside of the lines. "It just pushes it up through to make sure the inside lining of the hoses and the pipes are cleaned very well," he said. "They're designed to actually get every inch of the inside wall surface of the hose you're trying to push through." Col Solare's cellar floor features Stonclad UT, a textured polyurethane mortar system from Stonhard in Maple Shade, N.J., that's shock resistant and stays presentable as the winery's equipment is disassembled and put back together. While various measures exist to make sure cleaned equipment really is clean— from gauges ensuring consistent and adequate water pressure to thermometers that monitor the temperature of cleaning fluids—Taylor said good management practices and observation of what's happening in the winery are fundamental. Do the right things, record that you've done the right things, then observe that things are going right, and a lot of sanitation problems can be avoided. "My first line of defense is always sight, smell and touch. If it feels slimy, if it smells bad and it looks bad, then chances are it is bad," Taylor said. The downside of gravity flow Among the hotspots Taylor singled out for special consideration when it comes to ridding a winery of bacteria are gravityflow systems. Since they're designed to carry materials downward, Taylor reminded winemakers that gravity-flow systems need to receive vigorous upward cleaning. He advised growers to have a clean-inplace system at the foot of the line that can provide adequate turbulent flow up gravityfed pipes, sufficient to lift debris and residues off the inside (he suggested a flow of 24-34 gallons per minute through a 1-inch pipe). "Push up the line and clean it because the top of the pipe will always be dirty," he said. "No matter how much chemical you throw down a gravity system, it will always be dirty because you can't clean the pipe— it's going to be open on top." Win es & Vin es NOV EM b er 20 13 35