Wines & Vines

December 2011 Unified Sessions Preview Issue

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WINEMAKING TECHNICAL REVIEW Total barrel capacity at Hunnicutt Winery is 1,465, and barrels are stacked no more than three high on Western Square racks. s the winemaker for Hunnicutt Wines, Kirk Venge manages the barrel program and chooses coopers. Venge says that the winery uses different levels of new barrels—all French oak— for its three levels of wine. It's a minimum of 50% new oak for all wines, increasing to 80% for the winery's AVA series that names specific source appellations All French oak for Hunnicutt A on the label. Reserve wines age in 100% new French oak. Venge uses several coopers regularly, including Tonnellerie Taransaud, Fab- brica Botti Gamba, Demptos, Alain Fouquet and Tonnellerie Sylvain. He specifies thin stave, medium toast plus, tight grain wood from the Allier and Tronçais forests. He also uses some other barrels. This year, Venge fermented a small lot of red wines from Beckstof- fer's Georges III vineyard in barrels. The winery removed the heads and then fermented the wines for about 12 days. "We use wild yeasts, and it takes a few days for them to take off, so the fermentation itself is about eight days." He has a cooper replace the heads, then cellar staffers rinse out the barrels and immediately refill them with wine. Venge leaves the Hunnicutt Napa Valley Cabernet in barrels for 22 months, with the reserve getting a few more months of aging at 27 to 28 months. The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered, then he tries to keep them in the bottle for three to six months be- fore releasing them, unless customer demand makes that impractical. Venge adds that customers are espe- cially eager for the winery's Zinfandel and Chardonnay, so the winery turns those wines faster. "It's good for cash flow, but also the wines are drinking nicely young." P.F. 34 Wines & Vines DeCeMBeR 201 1

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