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TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT WINEMAKING November 2016 WINES&VINES 81 A showpiece of equipment At the center of the crush pad is literally a showpiece collection of grape-processing and sorting equipment. All of the equipment on the crush pad is from Bucher Vaslin, and the French supplier used the setup for Davis Es- tates as its display at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium. Grapes are dumped from bins into a receiv- ing hopper that empties onto a vibratory sort- ing table staffed by two workers. The sorted berries are carried by an elevator conveyor to an Oscyills destemmer machine that then emp- ties to a R1 optical sorter. The sorted berries are then collected into the sumps or transferred by the must pump to tanks. The covered crush pad also serves as space for barrel work and bottling, which is done through a mobile service; the most recent job by Napa-based Top It Off Bottling. Adjacent to the crush pad is another cov- ered area that leads to the winemaking and administrative offices, though it also provides space for two presses by Bucher Vaslin: a JLB basket press for reds and an Xpert membrane press for whites. In all, the crush pad can serve four different production areas. Hot and cold water, compressed air and nitrogen stations are scattered throughout the winery and caves. A Parker Balston generator provides on-site nitrogen, and the air is from an Ingersoll Rand compressor. The RTI heating and cooling system for tanks runs off four com- pressors, while a bank Mitsubishi Electric sys- tem moves compressed Freon to individual air-handler units throughout the winery. A bank of solar panels installed by Napa Electric provides 100 kw of power. After receiving some of the first grapes of 2016, Gott said everything had been running smoothly at the winery. "The pump-over pumps at each fermentor are great and make control- ling pumpover timing and duration a wise winemaker tool," he said. "In-hose nitrogen production is stunning." A portal to the winery's 11,000 square feet of caves is also accessible from the crush pad. Dug by Glen Ragsdale Underground Associates, the caves provide space for barrel storage as well as fermentation and hospitality. All of the ventilation and climate-control infrastructure are hidden in the floors or ceil- ings of the cave tunnels, and in some chambers they do more than just move the air or keep the environment at a constant temperature. The cave features two chambers with complete temperature control for housing small-lot fer- mentations in puncheons or barrels. "These rooms have another control panel, so it can be warm or cold, take your pick," Gott said. "We can go down in to the 30°s or up in to the 80°s (F)." Gott said he's run fermentations in pun- cheons as well as standard barrels and prefers using puncheons because he can ferment a larger amount of grapes and get similar effects to small-barrel fermentation. "I've done both, but I think actually that puncheons do a better job because it's a larger fermenting mass. Is there a huge difference between the two? No." The barrels and puncheons are all from French coopers, but Gott said the wine does not age in 100% new oak. He said depending on varietal and if they are hillside or valley floor grapes, the wine can see 30% to 60% new oak. Some of the preferred cooperages include tonnelleries Taransaud, Radoux, Saury, Bel Air, Ermitage, Sylvain, Baron, Se- guin Moreau, Artisan, Demptos, Francois Freres, Damy and Billon. A nearby chamber has glycol and power connections for several portable TranStore tanks by Custom Metalcraft in Springfield, Mo., for small lots or an extra half ton of grapes from a vineyard block that had gone into a fermentor at the winery. Hospitality areas Around the corner from the fermentation area is another chamber housing what may become a signature feature of Davis Estates. Behind two large doors bearing a "V" for the winery's Phase V program is a chamber within a chamber. Davis said the room always had been planned to house a private tasting area, but in a moment of inspiration he decided it would be climate-controlled room with glass walls. In the middle of a circular chamber, an octagon of glass and steel encloses a tasting area that can be warmed to a pleasant 72° F while the rest of the cave remains at around 58° F. He said it's about providing that "wow" experience but also ensuring that guests visiting the win- ery in attire fit for an August afternoon in Napa will still be comfortable during a long tasting session in the cave. Adding to an atmosphere of special access, the chamber's doors are operated by a palm- recognition device. When a Phase V member places his or her hand on the screen, the doors swing open to the private chamber. The Phase V room is about 100 feet below the surface and set back about 250 feet from the main cellar entrance, which is behind the kugel ball. Visitors also may reach the room by walking through the cellar and then another underground passage lined with puncheons. Davis said about 70% of the winery's sales are direct-to-consumer, and he'd like to boost that to about 80% while still maintaining some wholesale sales for on-premise accounts. The tasting room is designed for sit-down tastings and also features a professional kitchen and pizza oven for event catering. A private room hidden to the side of the main tasting room is known as the "Crush Room," and Davis said it was added at the request of area hotels as a place for "high-visibility VIPs" (celebrities) to taste in private. The room has its own entrance accessible from the exterior and a private bal- cony with a view of the crush pad. The main feature of the tasting room is a terrace that provides an expansive view of the valley floor and mountains to the west. Davis said it was that view that inspired him when he was first scouting the property. "This is really the reason I bought this property," he said. "I sat here in a pickup truck in 2010 and looked at the valley and said, 'This is it,' because the view that Mother Nature had given us was stunning." Visible from the Davis Estates terrace are the white walls of venerable Sterling Vine- yards, a place that the Davises visited when they were younger and talked about running a winery. "Thirty-six years ago we were standing at Sterling and talking. She was my girlfriend at the time, and it was like, 'Wouldn't this be cool at the last half or quarter of our life, whatever that is, to do this?'" It did, in fact, turn out pretty cool. The climate-controlled private tasting area is the heart of the cave complex.