Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/684435
June 2016 WINES&VINES 35 WINEMAKING if only tangentially related advice: "Never hook a hose to a tank until you have physically opened the top. Never rely on a pressure valve." And, "When offloading a flatbed truck, balance the offload from side to side." A consulting winemaker's perspective Bryan Avila owns Winecraft and is the consulting winemaker for sev- eral Napa Valley boutique wineries. He consults internationally in chal- lenging appellations such as Valle de Guadalupe in Mexico, Yeong- dong in South Korea, and Vietnam. He has made wine for 16 years and was the principal winemaking in- structor at Napa Valley College. Avila sees planning for harvest as a four-step process: 1 Forecast: You have a sales forecast that drives a com- prehensive planning spread- sheet with varietals, tonnages, rough harvest dates, etc. Make sure that required tonnage = owned + contracted tonnage. 2 Wine style: Avila says, "Your wine styles will dictate how you will use your facility." In- corporate them into production planning. For example, if a wine style requires extended maceration time or cold fermentation temperature, your tanks will turn more slowly during harvest. So you may need more tanks, access to plenty of T- Bins, or a relationship with a good custom-crush facility that allows you to manage peak tank usage. Another example: Barrel-fermented Char- donnay means your barrels must be in-house and ready to use earlier than if you are only barrel aging. 3 Equipment prep: "Once you have tonnage and wine styles, then check that you have the correct process equipment and that it is ready to go." For this reason, Avila has his clients' wines made at Laird Family Estate, where they have superior equipment like Bucher XP 150 and Puleo SF45 presses, a Defranceschi optical sorter and a P&L Specialties shaker table. He also stresses preventative maintenance. "If you can't get your press professionally serviced, make sure press membranes are disas- sembled, cleaned and free of cracks," noting that this should already have been part of the post- harvest protocol. He has even seen power cords that were chewed up by rodents during the winter. 4 Staffing: If you want the best college interns, you should start hiring in April by plac- ing ads and contacting enology schools. He noted that some winer- ies start as early as November. In addition, Avila makes these suggestions: Grape deliveries: Make it clear with your growers who is responsible for delivery. You want to avoid this scenario: "The grapes are here, where's your truck?" Bottling planning: Not every- thing that happens during harvest is about winemaking. You may have a January bottling, so blending and other planning needs to happen as well as keeping an eye on aging wines from previous vintages. My closing thought: Create and execute your harvest plan. Not only will your crush opera- tions run more smoothly, knowing you've planned well will let you enjoy your well-researched sum- mer vacation that much more. Andy Starr, founder of StarrGreen (starr green.com), is an entrepreneur, market i n g m a n a g e r a n d w i n e m a k e r w h o provides strategy, management and business development consulting ser vices. A resident of Napa Valley, Calif., he holds a bachelor's degree in fermenta tion science from the University of Cali fornia, Davis, and an MBA from UCLA. He lectures about the importance of business plans at Napa Valley College. www.scottlab.com "Cleanliness is the basic condition for wine quality." - Emile Peynaud BENEFITS OF AIRD CLEANING PRODUCTS • Signifcant water savings since no citric rinse is required • Specially formulated for the wine industry • Effective at low doses over wide temperature ranges • No chlorine, other halogens, phosphates, silicates or fillers • Do not require hazardous shipping • Safer, less environmental impact than bulk chemical cleaners Lay out your equipment prior to harvest as a full line, as though you were crushing grapes. It will help you to see what is broken or missing. S U P P O R T R E S E A R C H & W I N E I N D U S T R Y N E E D S T H R O U G H T H E AMERICAN VINEYARD FOUNDATION AMERICAN VINEYARD FOUNDATION Finding Solutions Through Research P.O. Box 5779, Napa, CA., 94581 • T: (707) 252-6911 • Visit our web site at www.avf.org for information on funding and current research projects For a wealth of useful viticulture and enology research and information, visit AVF.org, ngwi.org, ngr.ucdavis.org, asev.org, or iv.ucdavis.edu For a wealth of useful viticulture and enology research and information, visit AVF.org, ngwi.org, ngr.ucdavis.org, asev.org, or iv.ucdavis.edu