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GRAPEGROWING WINEMAK Whaley chiller provides outside cooling. Las Positas uses a wide range of yeast strains, none of them particularly exotic. The winery's Chardonnay gets barrel fermentation, the other whites are mainly tank-fermented with a portion barrel-fermented. Winemaker Amos aims for relatively cool red wine fermentations peaking no higher than about 80º F. As he explained his feeling that higher temperatures can result in baked flavors, Lisa Maier added, "which I really do not like." Harvest and fermentation numbers are tracked by a small but efficient lab facility, which handles Brix, TA, pH, sulfur, alcohol and harvest YAN measurement. If the need arises for more specialized analysis, samples go to Enartis Vinqury. Reds that are ready to press get pumped upstairs with an Elipompa pump, pressed and returned downstairs to the barrel room for aging. Amos employs quite a battery of coopers, mostly French but also American and eastern European. Forests and toast levels are matched to different varieties and lots. The winery is experimenting with oversize puncheon barrels and with custom barrels designed for red wine fermentation. Amos wants the oak to be a spice, not a flavor, and overall he utilizes less than 50% new oak. says he has never encountered a barrelfermented Chardonnay that needed bentonite. Many reds self-clarify through barrel aging, though some may need minimal 5-micron filtration with the winery's Velo plate-and-frame setup. While many small wineries utilize mobile bottling services, figuring that an in-house bottling is a big capital investment for something used a few days per year, Las Positas has its own—or rather its own two GAI monoblocks, for different sized lots. Why? "Because," says Lisa, CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIA Sacramento San Francisco Las Positas Vineyards Pacific Ocean Attention to the details In the fermentation and barrel rooms, a lot of attention has gone into avoiding nails and splinters and scratchy surfaces that can make cellar life miserable. The polyurethane floor covers by Cornerstone Flooring are part of that; in addition, barrel racks and wine pallets are made of plastic, not metal or wood. Formerly wooden steps were replaced with tile. The resulting production environment isn't sterile or antiseptic, just clean, smooth and largely devoid of hiding places for bugs or molds or TCA. Barrel cleaning is done with an Aquatools steam generator, which also gets used for tank cleaning on tanks that have not been sitting empty for long. Lisa Maier jokes about how her husband gave her a forklift for her birthday. "That one was this year's birthday," she says of a Toyota forklift near the crush pad. "The one you saw downstairs was for another birthday." She hastens to add that her husband is perfectly capable of delivering more romantic presents as well. White wines get finished with cold stabilization in the Transtores and sterile filtration with a Millepore membrane filter. Some get bentonite fined, though Amos Win es & Vin es F EB Rua ry 20 14 53 NV