Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/70670
WINEMA k ING Because many vintners make their wines at Artifex, it includes several different barrel sizes, types and coopers. Artifex has found portable tanks to be useful for fermentation, storage and transporting wines. to provide superior sanitation and cleanli- ness of the entire facility and equipment. Artifex uses ozone outside for appropriate cleaning. It sulfites empty barrels every month, and every other month sanitizes them with ozone and water. The only visible wood other than bar- rels is in the roof, but after extensive test- ing, Artifex has found no TCA. The winery offers complete fruit processing services: sorting, destemming, crushing and pressing. Pellet is a big believer in automated sorting, and he is working with a local company, Key Technologies, on an ad- vanced model using optical sensing. The processing is based on half-ton bins that are raised by electric forklifts with rotators and dumped into the fermenta- tion tanks. The processing and maturation styles are determined by each client. The winery has 50 variable-capacity tanks ranging from 1,000 gallons to 2,100 gallons made by Tersainox and AAA Metal Fabrication. All tanks are connected to glycol heating and chilling systems. Pellet bought them new from a company going out of business. He chose two Willmes 3500 Merlin presses, which he finds especially easy to sanitize. He added a moveable funnel above the press for even loading. Mobile bottling, too The winery took an interesting ap- proach to bottling. It created a separate company and acquired a trailer that it set up with a state-of-the-art Bertolaso bottling line. That company can serve Artifex clients (40,000 cases) as well as Pepper Bridge (14,000 cases) and other wineries. The company doesn't own a tractor to pull the trailer but rents one when needed. The winery also supplies a wine com- pany packaging its wine in kegs, provid- ing about 20 kegs per month. The kegs are cleaned elsewhere, however. The facility offers comprehensive labora- tory services and quality-control monitoring with a full-time quality-control enologist. Online inventory and production track- ing are available to clients, as is a tasting and work area. Artifex charges $32 per case for pro- cessing reds from grapes to bottling, not including supplies. The clients supply grapes, barrels, knowledge and bottling supplies. The charge covers the time until the bottling is done; the facility doesn't have room for case goods storage. The partners strongly believe in the importance of using sustainable practices in the winery. Any client who also follows sustainable guidelines in their winemak- ing and vineyard practices can apply for sustainable wine certification. WMS Wine Management Systems The #1 Selling Cloud Software for Wine Production Management (Say Goodbye to Spreadsheets!) Increase the value of your business using our affordable cloud (web) based production software. We're ideal for small and medium sized wineries & custom crush operations. FOR A PERSONAL DEMO, CONTACT: Pat Oates, CEO, Wine Management Systems pat@winemanagementsystems.com Tel: 1-800-656-9521 www.winemanagementsystems.com Wines & Vines JULY 2012 43