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Postmodern Winemaking CL ARK SMITH NA VIGA TION Latest Power Tool Nails Winemaking Highlights sterile filtration just after World War II changed the winemaking world forever in a very short time. These technologies cre- ated new wines we could sell and increased the practical scale of our operations, shift- ing the economics of production. Sweeping consequences ensued for vine- S yards, the workforce and the global mar- ketplace. The wines we drink today, par- ticularly white wines, have little in common with traditional wines from 100 years ago. Flash Détente (flash extraction), a process newly arrived from Europe, Australia and South America, where it has been entrenched eldom appears a new winemak- ing technology with benefits so compelling that it promises to shift the entire industry. The advent of electricity, re- frigeration, stainless steel and for a decade, is now rapidly reshuffling the California wine industry's deck of cards and dealing whole new hands for all players. "It's a gift from the gods," beams savvy Monterey grape kingpin Steve McIntyre, who installed a Pera unit last year at the Monterey Wine Co. "A real game-changer for growers. Now we've got people interest- ed in blocks we thought we'd have to graft." "I must admit I was surprised. I didn't know Pinot juice could be so luscious," says enologist Kay Bogart from the University of California, Davis. If you can keep the Knott's Berry Farm boysenberry pie aromas, you'll make a killing. Amazing." Bogart is describ- ing the fruity aromas the French refer to as "amylic," also a marked quality of carbonic maceration. Amylic aromas are particularly pronounced during the liquid phase of the Flash Détente process if the skins and seeds WECO M.O.G. Sorter Optical Sorting of Stems, Jacks, Shot Berry and Foreign Material Based in California Rental and Purchase Options Sorting and Automation Solutions 1-800-984-0844 / wecotek.com 70 Wines & Vines FeBRUARY 201 1 • Proven technology that recently arrived in California gives complete control over pyrazines, rot and color extraction. • A matrix of winemaking choices enables a wide variety of styles, including some compelling new ones. • Tasting strip (or flash) water reveals a disturbing variety of defects adsorbed by grapes that end up in conventional wine. are removed prior to fermentation. "There are so many different variables to consider," says longtime technology guru Barry Gnekow, who works with Del- la Toffola's unit at Lodi Vintners alongside my former partner Rick Jones. "Once you understand all the different ways to adjust the process, it becomes apparent that you can produce a very wide range of styles."