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TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT WINEMAKING November 2015 WINES&VINES 101 said. "When you're targeting a half-ton bin over the top of a tank, there's a good chance you're going to miss some of it and create a big mess." 3 FERMENTATION AND PRESSING The winemaking cellar at Law is built around a central bank of 22 concrete tanks from Sonoma Cast Stone. Grapes arrive from the platform at the top of the tanks, while the bottom hatches and racking valves are ac- cessible from an open workspace around the tanks. Large windows provide plenty of natu- ral light to illuminate the cellar. In addition to the concrete tanks, the win- ery also is equipped with 12 open-top stain- less steel fermentors by JVNW. These tanks are also filled from the top platform with the grape dumpers. The tanks are positioned be- neath the catwalk, and destemmed grapes fall directly into them via a stainless steel chute. Hawley became familiar with how well concrete works for Rhône varietals, espe- cially Grenache, while working in Australia and New Zealand. He said it's also an excel- lent tool for managing temperature. "The main advantage is the fact you're dealing with about 4.5 inches of concrete, and it's incredibly well insulated, so if you bring in fruit cold, it stays cold." The tanks at Law are equipped with heat- ing and cooling coils that can be used to moderate a fermentation that's running a little warm or heat the must up near the end of fermentation to help finish the job. During the design phase, Hawley and the Laws had planned to install oak, steel and concrete tanks. Taking into consideration the cost and effort of maintaining the oak ves- sels, and the fact that concrete insulates like double-walled stainless steel, Hawley said he talked the Laws into buying just concrete tanks. "They gave me a lot of just carte blanche, not with cost—I mean everything had to make sense—but with winemaking. They basically said, 'You tell us; we hired you for a reason. You tell us how to get to where we want to be,'" he said. The grapes undergo a cold soak of about four or five days before the native yeasts begin fermentation, which is managed with manual punchdowns. Hawley said the cus- tom-designed, unlined concrete tanks have a bit of taper that causes a slight convection current in the juice that keeps more fluid in the cap, making punch downs easier. Once fermentation is complete, the free- run wine flows via gravity to the barrel room, which is adjacent to the cellar but built into the hillside to provide a gradient for gravity flow. The pomace is removed from the tanks into the basket of a Bucher Vaslin JBL press, and press wine is also sent to the barrel room with gravity. The top hatches on all of the winery's concrete fermentation tanks are accessible from a stainless steel catwalk built by Specialty Construction Inc. VISITOR + CRUSH FERMENTATION BARREL STORAGE Source: BAR Architects