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W i n e s & V i n e s M A R C H 2 0 1 4 39 tanks ringing a central work area and near the crush pad. "Having the space is by far the biggest benefit," he said. In 2010, the winery completed the 14,000-square-foot expansion and reno- vation that cost more than $2 million. The A-frame cottage is still standing today and is a popular place among locals and tourists to sip wine and while away a summer afternoon sitting on wooden decks perched above the river. The estate is also home to a stunning, glass-fronted restaurant with equally expansive views of the river and the modern winery with enough room to house a small brewery and distillery. Holmann is now part owner of the win- ery along with director of operations Cory Bomgaars, chief facilities engineer Jeff Lynch and Drew Lemberger, the for- mer winemaker who oversees bottling, packaging and the warehouse. Just last year, Holman said, work fin- ished on a lab and sensory room located on the mezzanine floor of the winery. The local firm Huebert Builders Inc. built the building with the winery's own engineer- ing staff doing the HVAC, plumbing and drains. Stephen Bourgeois, a member of the founding family and an architect, designed the restaurant on the estate as well as the new winery. Les Bourgeois currently produces more than 50,000 cases of wine and is the third- largest winery in the state. The winery pro- duces several different wines from hybrids and a few with Vitis vinifera grapes. About half of the grapes used by the winery are from the 30 acres of estate vines. The rest is purchased from in-state growers, and a small portion is brought in from California. When it's time to harvest, Les Bourgeois uses its own Braud harvester, a piece of equipment that Bomgaars credits with greatly improving fruit quality. He said the machine gives him and Holman the luxury of deciding exactly when to pick. The harvester dumps grapes into half- ton MacroBins that workers bring to the winery crush pad, which is located adja- cent to the brick building that once housed the entire winery. The old winery building still holds some barrels and tanks used for wine storage. Holman said he doesn't like to ferment in the old winery, though he'll do so in a pinch (like this past harvest, when he ran out of tank space). The old winery is home to some old, horizontal tanks that Curtis Bourgeois bought from a dairy in the 1980s. "We always called them pigs because of their shape," he said. "So one year I decided to have a welder put ears, a nose and a tail on them." The "nose" is half of a beer keg, the "ears" are from a 55-gallon drum, and the tail is rebar. Holman said the tanks are now used to hold product used for distilling (see "One stop, all types of alcohol" on page 41) and are currently full of molasses wash. A forklift driver will dump bins into a hopper located on a platform above the destemmer and press. The hopper is equipped with a screw conveyor that dumps grapes into a Vega 25 destemmer sourced through Carlsen & Associates in Healdsburg, Calif. A Waukesha must pump, also from Carlsen, then sends grapes directly to a press or to tanks. The juice and must is inoculated with a variety of yeasts from Laffort, Lallemand, Anchor, Lalvin and Fermicru. Almost every lot ferments to dryness, and Holman said he co-inoculates all the reds with malolactic (ML) fermentation bacteria. "We started doing this four years ago," he said. "With the temperatures fall- ing at the end of harvest, we always had problems getting ML completed, so I changed strains and use the heat of the fermentation to get the ML through." White grapes are destemmed prior to pressing except for certain lots of Vidal grapes that are whole-cluster pressed for the winery's sparkling wine. The Les Bourgeois crew typically pro- cesses 30 tons per day and last year did a total of 680 tons. The crush pad features two presses: a second-hand Defranceschi and a new Puelo F-70 that Holman said is his pre- ferred press because of its digital con- trols that allow him to program his own press cycles or use one of the machine's pre-set cycles. When the crush pad isn't being used to receive grapes, Holman said the area dou- bles as the winery's barrel-preparation and staging area. Barrels are washed with AaquaTools pressure washers, and when they are ready to be filled they are transferred to rooms beneath the old winery. Holman stacks the barrels on bunks with chocks, so he fills and racks them in place. The barrels are sourced from A&K Cooper- age, World Cooperage, Canton Cooper- age and Demptos Napa Cooperage. Cellar workers also rack the barrels in place with Bulldog Pup racking wands and send the wine via transfer hoses to tanks for bottling with the winery's GAI 3013 line fed with a flexible impeller pump by Prospero. Prior to bottling, all wines (except a Port-style wine) are fil- tered with a Velo Acciai unit. The wines are bottled in Vitro Packaging bottles, closed with Amorim corks and then sealed with Lafitte capsules. Les Bourgeois produces a line of a sweet Concord and Riverboat red and white blends as well as a "Pink Fox" at around $10. Norton, Chardonel and Chambour- cins sell for around $20. The winery also features a regular "Collector Series" of wines packaged with labels featuring original artwork. The 2012 Collector Series wine is a Vignoles/Traminette blend that sells for $25. Glazers distributes Les Bourgeois throughout the Midwest. Winemaker Jacob Holman started out as part-time tasting room staff and is now part owner of the winery. The winery's Braud harvesting machine helps ensure grapes are picked at optimal maturity. G R A P E G R O W I N G W I N E M A K I N G