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WINEMAKING ies in Toro, Spain, last year and thought about how I could integrate it into my winery. Some fascinating things that I saw were continuous contact cold-stabiliza- tion units. If they are commonplace in the United States, I haven't noticed them be- fore. But they allow you to fully stabilize a wine in an hour and a half by rapidly chilling the wine down and pumping into an agitator tank loaded with a high concentration of crystals. Bitartrate con- tinuously drops out of the wine, which is pulled off the top of the tank, filtered and ready to go. I also saw a number of beautiful brushed-steel inverted-cone fermentation tanks, something I've never seen over here. Complete automation would be nice, but harvest is still my favorite time of the year, and if I don't go home covered in skins and fermenting must, I haven't had a fulfilling day. A resident of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Laurie Daniel has been a journalist for more than 25 years. She has been writing about wine for publications for nearly 15 years and has been a Wines & Vines contributor since 2006. An opportunity for Tasting Room Suppliers LaZarre says he feels comfortable picking grapes at lower sugars because he can later use Flash Détente for optimum balance. just wishful thinking, as I am always trying to justify everything I do, but I truly love the ability to control the amount of maceration my reds get with just the push of a button. Pulsair adds the benefit of introducing ample supplies of oxygen to the ferment- ing must, which really helps the yeast. I've found that I need to use less nutrients and have seen fewer sticky fermentations than without. It's also a pretty painless method for mixing tanks, too. W&V: What sorts of technology are you incorporating into the new winery being built at Villa San-Juliette? LaZarre: We are currently finishing the new crushing facility at Villa San-Juliette Winery, and I've tried to automate as much as possible—as I am, for all intents and purposes, a 35,000-case, one-person show. I have Pulsair going in to support red fermentations. My tanks are designed with a slightly more drastic slope to allow for easier must removal. That also allows for better safety, as no one has a need to climb into a tank. I will have micro-ox plumbed in, as I have been using it for 10 years now and really believe in its ability to help achieve more consistent wines. I will be installing TankNet and the associ- ated software and sensors so that I can get mobile phone alerts off-site if some- thing goes awry. I did see some truly jaw-dropping tech- nology at a few fully automated winer- Wines & Vines JULY 2011 41 A new eNewsletter from Wines & Vines: Tasting Room Focus Sell to your target audience Contact us for more details (866) 453-9701 • winesandvines.com