Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/66152
CO VER S T OR Y doors) open to showcase Riesling vines above Okanagan Lake. Another window offers a glimpse into the barrel cellar and pro- duction area below. A fire- place in the corner (more for aesthetics than comfort) and commercial kitchen just be- hind the tasting bar create the tasteful, modern environment for hosting guests. There's even a small bedroom down- stairs for guests and outlets for charging electric vehicles. Yet even more than a year after the winery opened in May 2010, LEED certification still Drawing in guests M Tantalus tasting room wasn't available, a fact that is disappointing to general manager Jane Hatch, who remarks that it prevents Tantalus from fully touting its sustainable credentials. "There are substantial additional costs involved in doing something like this," she says, estimating the additional costs at no more than 10% while saying that facilities such as the winery's water treatment plant were significant for a small business like Tantalus. "Here we are with a building that's been built to LEED standards, and we can't use it in any of our marketing," she says. "I have to say LEED, but uncertified. We would really like (certification)." Hatch says the delay was attributed to a backlog at the Canada Green Building Council, which is responsible for certifying LEED-registered projects in Canada. P.M. lytical equipment—a computer, beakers and the like—but Paterson is keen on the sophisticated VinWizard control panel. VinWizard tracks temperatures throughout the winery as well as in the tanks during fermentation. When a change in glycol is required, compressed air opens or closes solenoid valves that regulate glycol flow. "Very efficiently, I can have this at 16°F, which it is now; I can have the barrel hole at 19°F for malo and then drop it to 12°F once malo is finished. And I can keep the warehouse at a constant 12°-13°F all through VinWizard and all through just a little bit of compressed air and run- ning two pumps that are pumping glycol around the building constantly," he says, in a single breath that reflects the breadth of control VinWizard offers. Better yet, if anything goes wrong Paterson can lift a handset on the control panel and get technical support from Vin- Wizard headquarters in New Zealand. 30 Wines & Vines sePTeMBeR 201 1 "The fact that they give us such good technical support is fantastic," he says. "I'm a winemaker, not an IT guy." One of the bugbears of the Okanagan that Tantalus' new facility addresses is water quality. The region's development has boosted demands on the region's water table with residential uses priori- tized over agriculture. Moreover, water sources are not the glacier-fed pools one might associate with Canada. Rather, water is loaded with pine tannins, a fact that prompted Paterson to specify a bank of carbon filters, cartridges and UV-puri- fication processes to ensure that incoming water is as tannin-free as possible. UV purification is also part of an on-site water treatment plant (see "B.C. Winery Ferments Water" at winesandvines.com headlines) that provides Tantalus with water for irrigation or, at the very least, allows it to return clean water into the en- vironment. The plant features a compact sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system TECHNICAL REVIEW asks by Tahltan-Tlingit carver Dempsey Bob and paintings by Takao Tanabe ornament the tasting room at Tantalus Vineyards, where a panel of windows (actually discreet folding that fit neatly into a 900-square-foot hut next door to the winery. The architecture is similar, with Kingspan panels that stabi- lize the interior temperature so treatment occurs continuously throughout the year. The process is fairly straightforward: Wastewater—including process wa- ter from the winery, grape waste and sewage—enters a 12,000-liter anaerobic fermentation tank. The bacteria tackle it, and then 6,000 liters at a time are pumped through a single-batch reactor where the oxygen content of the mixture is raised to 6 milligrams per liter. The aerated mixture then enters a final 12,000-liter tank where solids drop to the bottom, and the top 6,000 liters is decanted into a third part of the system where bag filters and UV filtration kill any remaining bacteria. The system allows for a constant flow of water into the initial tank, allowing for a more compact system than many conventional systems. The whole process takes between eight and 12 hours at peak capacity, but at off-peak times the purifi- cation process is more leisurely and yields cleaner water. Misting for humidity Another water-related issue is directly connected with the local climate: The humidity in the barrel room, at the south end of the production area, has been difficult to manage because it should be about 75%, but the arid climate conspires to keep it at 71.5% in the 53.5°F environ- ment—even with misting. "To spray enough water to keep that humidity, the droplet size just seems to be slightly too large, and then if I take the droplet size down it doesn't give me enough water to keep the humidity," Paterson explains. The good news is that the building as a whole is efficient enough to give Pater- son time to consider such conundrums. "Basically, the building has enabled me to cut out a staff member," he says. "It's just myself and one other guy that run it over crush, and myself for the rest of the year.…(It) would usually be two people full time during the year. But because everything's so nicely laid out and very efficient, I can run the whole thing." Paterson says he foresees adding a sec- ond person by the time the winery reaches its goal of producing 10,000 cases, but keeping the business as sleek as the build- ing's design will still be the priority. "We'll still try to keep it as efficient as possible," Paterson says. "We've spent the money on the technology, so we shouldn't put a whole lot in labor as well."