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TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT WINEMAKING January 2016 WINES&VINES 67 The wine ages in 100% French oak, and a good portion are older, neutral barrels. "I defi- nitely like oak; it's a really nice tool and en- hancement to a wine, however, I am more focused on the fruit and what's that doing with a wine." Some of Bridenhagen's preferred coopers include Tonnellerie Radoux, Francois Freres, Damy, Tonnellerie Remond and Tonnellerie Rousseau. The winery has two barrel rooms, one of which can be warmed or chilled as needed. The main barrel room can house 400 barrels, which rest on Western Square racks. At one end of the barrel room, which faces the hospi- tality area, two Schweiss bi-fold doors provide visitors a glimpse into cellar operations. Barrels are cleaned and sanitized with an Aaquatools washer, ARS/Swash steamer and DEL Ozone machine. Once the wine is ready for bottling, it is filtered with a Bucher Vaslin Flavy X2 and then bottled from one of the tanks with AT Mobile Bottling Line out of Napa, Calif. All of the Pinot is packaged with Saxco glass and Stelvin screwcaps. Construction on the winery finished in June 2015, and Bridenhagen said the crush equip- ment came through the doors just in time. The winemaker said she told equipment suppliers a mid-August delivery date, only to have har- vest arrive early. "We were picking by Aug. 16, so some of our first fruit had to go to Sonoma, because we didn't have our sorting table yet. So then the day we got it, we started rocking and rolling here." Bridenhagen splits her week between the two wineries, while cellar master Taylor Boyd- stun is at the Healdsburg winery full time. "I have two different facilities and two really great crews," Bridenhagen said. "They can be bringing in 50 tons of Chardonnay, and we can be bringing in our max Pinot on the same day, and I'm not worried about this is red day this is white day, so it's actually given us a lot of flexibility." Steve MacRostie built his brand's reputa- tion on quality wine and a national Chardon- nay program out of an improvised warehouse space. The current owners' goal of cultivating a DtC following for small-lot Pinots appears much more achievable today, as they now have a winery and tasting room to support that goal. The membrane press from Bucher Vaslin has an open design that helps aerate the wine at pressing. " You'd be surprised at how many people...say, 'Where are all the tanks?' and I'd say our barrels and bins are our tanks. I guess you're not a winery until you have some tanks." —Heidi Bridenhagen, winemaker