Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/235941
TECHNICAL REVIEW 2 0 1 4E M N I FI IN G WIN U AK ED the primary fermentation of his Chardonnays. Grapes are whole-cluster pressed in a Europress, and the juice is sent to tall, narrow stainless steel tanks for an initial settling. "If all goes well, that juice is in the barrel by evening, so within 24 hours we've picked and pressed and it's in the barrel," he said. "It's mainly because we want hazy juice to go to barrel; we only want what we call 'the peanut butter' to come out, so that's why there is a short residence time." The barrel fermentations are also spontaneous, and so are the subsequent malolactic fermentations. Some of the Trading a pump for a crane T he gondola and crane process is de- "We were, I think may- signed to replicate a gravity-flow winery. be, the first winery to ever Instead of using a pump to fill tanks with do this in the U.S., and it must, Paul Hobbs opts to use a crane to lift took a lot of development gondolas filled with grapes up above the top on the gondola and the of the tanks. Workers then dump the must valving of it because must into the tanks from the gondolas. doesn't like to fall. You While the process is relatively sim- got to have a big throat to ple, Hobbs says it was not easy to de- get it to go without hav- sign. Grapes are treated so gently on ing to use a persuader," the crush pad that the berries are still Hobbs says while mimicking the use of an it first you don't have anybody, so you've mostly intact when headed for the tank. implement to shove berries through a valve. got to work out all the problems," Hobbs The yellow Konecranes used for dumping grape gondolas stretches across the main fermentation area. Clusters and whole berries don't flow Eventually engineers in Argentina and through valves as easily as a slurry of the United States developed a design that knows what to do." crushed grapes. would work. "The cool thing is when you do A.A. says. "Today it's simple. I mean everybody www.walterjelly.com 608.831.1405 whj wine print.indd 1 74 W in es & V i ne s january 20 14 See us at Unified booth #F2 2/6/13 5:59:47 PM See us at Unified booth #1106