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WINEMAKING Exhaust, biscotti and Black Angus something unexpected: The characteristics of the flash water can tell winemakers a lot about the area surrounding a vineyard. A load of Pinot Noir from Carneros pro- I duced flash water that smelled like car exhaust; the vineyard is next to a high- way. Malbec from Ripon generated flash water with aromas of almond biscotti; there's a flood-irrigated almond orchard next door.These are components in the grapes, Gnekow says, "that we didn't know were there." Then there was the load of Amador County Zinfandel that produced particularly nasty flash water. "We voted it as the worst flash water of the vintage so far," Gnekow says. He subsequently found out that the n his work with flash extraction during the 2010 vintage, winemaking con- sultant Barry Gnekow also discovered blending tool, it's an excellent option to have." He has also tried adding unfer- mented Pinot that was pressed right after being flashed to a tank of Pinot that was being fermented traditionally. Although the wine was still fermenting when we talked, he was pleased with the early results, saying that it had good Pinot mouthfeel. vineyard is surrounded by grazing Black An- gus cattle. Gnekow has been saving flash water and plans to visit the vineyards to check out their surroundings. "You know that what's in the air gets in the grapes," he says. —L.D. Flash technology differs from tradi- tional thermovinification, because the traditional method doesn't involve a vacuum (no exploding grapes), and there is no flash water produced as a byprod- uct. Winemakers familiar with both say the tannin extraction with thermovinifica- tion is also less. Laumann says that flash does everything thermovinification does, and does it better, in addition to removing pyrazines. "I'm not using (other thermov- inification) very much anymore now that I have flash," he says. Some fear that use of flash extraction may lead to the loss of varietal character, although several winemakers mentioned that flashing the grapes seems to intensify fruitiness. It's a question that research- ers at the University of California, Davis, have been studying, using samples from Monterey Wine Co. QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #2314 40 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2011