Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/450857
46 Wines&Vines February 2015 46 Wines&Vines February 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon goes into many of the wines, and the red blends include a "super Tuscan" with Syrah added to the Sangio- vese and Cabernet. Venge makes an unusual white blend of Viog- nier, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, too. Each vineyard's and wine's pro- duction has its own winemaking regimen. Taylor said that a ripasso approach is taken with the Sangio- vese, for example, to produce a richer wine: "When our Petite Sirah goes dry, we drain it and add the Sangiovese at 3° (Brix) to the pom- ace and let it ferment for five days before pressing." The winery offers both blends and single-vineyard wines, all made in relatively small quanti- ties. "We like to let visitors com- pare different vintages and varietals and blended wines," Bor- sack noted. The winery has a permit for 20,000 cases, but it is making about 7,500 cases currently. Keys hopes production will eventually reach 10,000 to 15,000 cases. "We'll grow when we need to grow," he added. The winery has an open design to encourage visitors to investi- gate its high-ceilinged rooms. The crush pad is covered with a long overhang to provide shade from the sun (and potential rain) dur- ing sorting and destemming. The winery "emulates" gravity feed. The clusters are placed on an inclined Vaucher-Beguet Model ECO 300 / 4000 elevator-conveyor leading to the Armbruster ROTO- VIB destemmer. A Defranceschi Vibrating Grape Distribution Table leads them to a Defranceschi Pro- tec X-Tri 150 optical sorter, and the whole berries take a Vaucher- Beguet Model ECO 300 / 6000 el- evator conveyor into half-ton bins, which are dumped by rotating forklifts into the fermentation vats. "The whole berries take a while to take off," admits Taylor, providing a virtual three- to five- day cold soak. The winery has numerous tanks to accommodate the many lots. They include three 960-gal- l o n , f i v e 1 , 7 5 0 - g a l l o n , o n e WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT Co-founders Jim Borsack (left) and Duffy Keys (right) with associate winemaker Derek Taylor. B Cellars' two Nomblot 60-hectoliter concrete tanks are used twice for fermenting wine, which spends 16 to 20 days in the vessels. —from page 43