Wines & Vines

June 2011 Enology & Viticulture Issue

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WINEMAKING techniques as well as new twists. Before the red wines come over from the Allen Ranch, the grape bunches are hand sort- ed, processed with an Amos destemmer while leaving a minority of whole clusters and fermented with a proprietary yeast (Williams Selyem) isolated by Marty Ban- nister at Vinquiry. Pinot Noir and Zinfan- del are fermented in 40- to 60-year-old open-top dairy tanks with cooling jackets (these can also be used for heating). These fermentors have been adapted to winery use by American Winery Services. White wines are destemmed, pressed and settled at the Allen Ranch, then barrel-fermented at the new winery. Two Willmes and one Bucher press separate the juice from the skins and seeds. Williams Selyem ferments a small amount of Chenin Blanc using concrete eggs from Nomblot. At 3,500 pounds each, the eggs are very heavy and awk- ward to move, so the winery hired Sierra Stainless to wrap custom-made racks around the eggs to enable a heavy-duty forklift to move them when necessary. The winery is unusual in its use of pres- surized dome-topped and dome-bottomed stainless steel "beer" tanks for assembling wine before and/or after barreling. The NEW ETHANOL ASSAY AVAILABLE Also Available Potassium • Malic Acid • Acetic Acid Ammonia • Lactic Acid • Glucose/Fructose MichaelDusiWarehouse_Dir07 10/25/06 11:49 AM Page 1 T +1 304 728 2890 E marketing@randox.com www.randox.com Randox Laboratories US Limited Thomas W. Atterbury, RCE Principal 16109 Healdsburg Avenue, Suite D Healdsburg, CA 95448 (707) 433-0134; Fax (707) 433-0135; tatterbury@aol.com racks surround concrete egg fermentors so they can be moved by forklift. Each room is independently heated, cooled and humidified. unusual construction makes the tanks strong enough to carry the extra pounds per square inch needed to transfer wine using inert gas for pressure rather than by pump. It's a point of pride here. While most wine tanks can handle 3-5 psi, the 10 tanks that range from 1,500 gallons to 12,000 gallons operate with up to 15 psi, which easily pushes the wine through hoses to barrels or the bottling line. Williams Selyem uses 75% new Fran- cois Freres barrels with medium toast and toasted heads for its Pinot Noir, and Cabral credits the barrels for some of the winery's spicy house aroma. This character easily stood out during a recent tasting of Pinots from a dozen Russian River wineries. The Chardonnay ferments and ages in Marcel Cadet barrels from Dargaud et Jaegle. The five barrel rooms are independently heated, cooled and humidified. Each room has CO2 monitoring and alarms, Kreyer fan coils and Smart Fog humidifiers. The winery has developed its own barrel identification codes to better track the myriad lots of 11 vineyard designated Pinots and the other various wines stacked up to five high on double-barrel racks by Western Square. Cabral and his winemaking team—Jeff Mangahas, winemaker; Phil McGahan, asso- Full Service • Climate Controlled Bonded Wine Storage Facility • Cased Goods, Full Barrels, and Dry Goods • Centrally located in Paso Robles • Unix Inventory System Trucking, Harvesting and Warehousing Available! 3230 Riverside Ave, Ste # 150 Paso Robles, CA 93446 Phone (805) 237-9499 Fax (805) 237-9599 42 Wines & Vines JUne 2011 Wine Compliance Licensing & Permits ABC & TTB 707 • 963 • 9733 www.divinecompliance.com JIM GORDON

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