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28 WINES&VINES July 2016 WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT crete tanks by Nomblot. Leighton said the use of oak fermentors is following in the tradition of Bor- deaux, and he believes the large vats help build the mid-palate. Leighton said he and Smith had heard about how well concrete pairs with Rhône wines, so they experimented with one in Walla Walla. "It was really giving them a lot of structure, and it kind of enhances minerality, so we liked that aspect of it." For pressing the red varieties, Leighton uses a Bucher Vaslin JLB because of its relatively gentle pressure and because he can flush the basket with an inert gas. White grapes are pressed with a Bucher Vaslin XPlus 80 press that Leighton said has been a major improvement because it helped reduce the phenols and hard tannins in the juice. The winemaker raved about the ma- chine's sequential press system. Most bladder presses run on a set cycle to hit certain pressure levels at certain times. Bucher offers the option of adding what it calls "organ" programing that employs sensors in the presses' juice channels. The machine adjusts press pressure and pressing time based on the flow of juice in the chan- nels and whatever parameters have been input by the operator. Leighton said his old press used to hit 1.6 bar, and the new Bu- cher, programed just to rate of flow, will produce the same yield of about 145 to 150 gallons per ton at just 0.8 bar. "It's really, really incredible. When the flow rate drops and it hits max bar, it just shuts off," he said. Rather than waiting for the press to finish a complete cycle, the cellar staff know when the press stops; it's done and ready to be emptied. White juice is transferred to variable-capacity, stainless steel tanks by Spokane Industries for any adjustments before being transferred to either concrete tanks or barrels for primary fer- mentation. Once primary is com- plete, Leighton uses the wine from concrete tanks to top up the barrels and puts the remainder in oak as well. Nothing gets racked at Jet City. Once wine (both red and white) is in barrels or pun- cheons, Leighton said it stays there until bottling. Rhône vari- eties age in puncheons, and some of the cooperages include Ermitage-Berthomieu Tonnel- lerie, Tonnellerie Allary and Ton- n e l l e r i e S i r u g u e . B o r d e a u x variety wines age in Tonnellerie Sansaud and Tonnellerie Boutes. The winery has four climate- controlled barrel rooms that can each hold 850 standard-sized barrels. Leighton said each room has a slight slant to the floor, so Bordeaux varieties are fermented in oak fermentation vats while Rhône varieties go into concrete. KEVIN SCOTT / OLSON KUNDIG