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June 2015 WINES&VINES 35 WINERY & VINEYARD EQUIPMENT June 2015 WINES&VINES 35 O wners Jim Borsack and Duffy Keys are focused on creating distinct flavors by sourcing grapes from more than 20 vineyards across California's North Coast to produce varietal and blended wines. Each vineyard and wine has its own winemaking regimen. Associate winemaker Derek Taylor says, for example, that B Cellars uses a ripasso approach with its Sangiovese to produce a richer wine: "When our Petite Sirah goes dry, we drain it and add the Sangiovese at 3° (Brix) to the pomace and let it fer- ment for five days before pressing." The winery "emu- lates" gravity feed. The clusters are placed on an inclined Vaucher Beguet Model ECO 300/4000 elevator-conveyor leading to the Armbruster Rotovib destemmer. A Defran- ceschi Vibrating Grape Distribution Table leads them to a Defranceschi Protec X-Tri 150 optical sorter, and the whole berries take a Vaucher Beguet Model ECO 300/6000 elevator conveyor into half- ton bins, which are dumped into fermentation vats by rotating forklifts. "The whole berries take a while to take off," says Taylor, providing a virtual three- to five-day cold soak. The winery has nu- merous tanks to accom- modate its many lots. They include three 960-gallon, one 1,540-gallon, five 1,750-gallon and one 3,100-gallon and open-top stain- less tanks from Criveller Group. Two Nomblot 60-hectoliter (1,585-gallon) concrete tanks hold almost 7 tons each. They are used twice each for ferment- ing lots, and wines spend 16 to 20 days in the tanks. B Cellars also has a 25-hectoliter (660-gallon) concrete "egg" for fermenting wine. The Chardonnay is barrel fermented, as is the Cabernet from Beckstoffer's Dr. Crane and To-Kalon vineyards. The press is an Enoveneta 26HL. —Paul Franson B Cellars Oakville, Calif. Annual production: 7,500 cases Average bottle price: $75 O ne of the largest wineries in Missouri, Les Bourgeois Vineyards produces mainly hybrid wines in a modern, 14,000-square- foot winery that the owners built during a major expansion in 2010. When it's time to harvest, Les Bourgeois uses its own Braud harvester, a piece of equipment that director of operations Cory Bomgaars credits with greatly improving fruit quality. He said the machine gives him and wine- maker Jacob Holman the luxury of deciding exactly when to pick. The harvester dumps grapes into half-ton MacroBins that work- ers bring to the winery crush pad, which is located adjacent to the brick building that once housed the entire winery. A forklift driver will dump bins into a hopper located on a plat- form above the destemmer and press. The hopper is equipped with a screw conveyor that dumps grapes into a Vega 25 destemmer sourced from Carlsen & Associ- ates in Healdsburg, Calif., through New World Winery Equipment in Springfield, Mo. A Waukesha must pump, also from Carlsen, then sends grapes directly to a press or to tanks. The juice and must is inocu- lated with a variety of yeasts from Laffort, Lallemand, Anchor, Lalvin and Fermicru. Almost every lot ferments to dryness, and Holman says he co-inoculates all the reds with malolactic (ML) fermentation bacteria. "We started doing this four years ago," he says. "With the temperatures falling at the end Les Bourgeois Vineyards Rocheport, Mo. Annual case production: 51,000 Average bottle price: $13 In addition to the 60-hectoliter Nomblot concrete tanks, the winery is also equipped with a 25-hectoliter concrete egg. Grapes are first sorted on a Defranceschil sorting table and then run through an X-Tri 150 optical sorter produced by the same manufacturer. Grapes are destemmed with a Vega 25 and then pumped with a Waukesha must pump to either a press or fermentation tanks.