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WI ne MAKI n G to concentrate on JC Cellars in nearby Oakland, where he focuses on Zinfandel and Rhône-style wines. Cohn also consults for several California wineries including SummerWood in Paso Robles. Wines & Vines: How do you select your yeasts for fermentation? Are you choos- ing them for flavor characteristics, grape variety or something else? Jeff Cohn: I use about eight commer- cial yeasts—some years more. I select my yeasts by really getting to know each of the vineyards I work with. I try to highlight the positives of each vineyard and at times tone down certain aspects so other areas can shine more. Each vineyard I work with is a chance to bring out the best in flavors and aromatics. This process begins by tasting the vineyard as it starts to ripen and getting a better grasp of what it might present, almost like an art- ist and his palette of colors. OR CALIfoRnIA Mendocino CALIFORNIA Pacific Ocean Napa JC Cellars San Francisco Oakland San Jose Monterey Let's take the Zinfandel, for instance, from the Iron Hill Vineyard in Sonoma. The vineyard is in an amphitheater setting and planted on volcanic rock, not much dirt to speak of, with a very large laven- der patch right next to the vineyard. This vineyard, planted with the Cooke selection of Zinfandel, produces a Zinfandel that is more in tune with the Northern Rhône than it is with Sonoma Zin. It has a very black/brick red color with aromatics of lavender, air-dried meats and black cherry, red and black cracked peppercorn and bittersweet chocolate. It has a core of min- erality. This wine is always very lush in the front and mid-palate and is very focused on black cherry and chocolate-covered blueberry components and a burst of the iron minerality and dried meat characteris- tics once again. A very exotic style Zinfan- del. To highlight the pepper components, I would use the D80 yeast from Scott Labs. To highlight the blueberry components and chocolates, I like to use Syrah yeast, and to highlight the black cherry and mineral NV aspects of this vineyard, I like to use RP15 (Rockpile yeast). I also like to use many different sizes of fermentation vessels. For this particular vineyard, we will use half-ton bins and three-quarter-ton bins. I feel this process provides good cap management and a way to get the most out of this fruit. Each bin is inoculated with a different yeast, and I let one go indigenous. The indigenous fermentation is always an experience. Sometimes they go fast, some- times slower—and sometimes they may get very slow, and we need to re-inoculate to finish. But indigenous always adds another layer of aromatics and flavors to the pro- gram. It's interesting as a puzzle piece. I like to use Syrah, RP15 and native in four- to eight-ton tanks, whereas I use the other yeasts in half-, three-quarter and one-ton vessels. These decisions are made when I taste the fruit. The yeasts do not need a specific temperature to get proper results—it is a matter of taste. I like warmer ferments for some fruit and cooler for others. I may use the same yeast for both cooler and hotter ferments. This will give me Go to the next LeveL TM the first sequential inoculation yeasts for a higher level of aromatic complexity Torulaspora delbrueckii 291 1st level Saccharomyces cerevisiae 2nd level Sigrid Gertsen-Briand • sigrid@lallemand.com Shirley Molinari • smolinari@lallemand.com Gordon Specht • gspecht@lallemand.com www.lallemandwine.us Wines & Vines APRiL 2011 39