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WINEMAKING Saving Water at the Winery Napa conference taps experts for advice By Andrew Adams Highlights • Napa County sponsored a seminar in December to tackle the topic of water use and conservation. • UC Davis enologist anita Oberholster said that reusing winery cleaning water can cut usage by half. • Bill Bennett of Sustainable Napa County said wineries need to quantify exactly how much water is necessary to clean tanks rather than using guesswork. The winery at the University of California, Davis, is home to several large storage tanks used to collect rainwater and reduce overall water consumption. Davis, cooperative extension specialist in enology, said wineries can conserve a great deal of water simply by reusing rinse water when cleaning or sanitizing tanks. "Your last rinse can be your first rinse," she said. S 60 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2012 imple steps can save thousands of gallons of water in winery operations. Industry experts delivered the message during a seminar about water conservation organized by Napa County and held in Yountville, Calif., last month. Dr. Anita Oberholster, a University of California, Water leaving a tank in the final stage of a sanitizing process is often pretty clean; instead of letting it flow down the drain, cellar crews can pump it into the next tank to serve as the first rinse for cleaning out solids. "A large winery can save a lot of water doing things like that," she said. In general, it takes about six gallons of water to produce one gallon of wine, but Oberholster said that could be reduced by half. Oberholster and other experts discussed water conservation and other water-related issues during the ROBERT CaNFIELD