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WINEMAKING the condensate, discard the condensate and add water or a combination. Most discard the "flash water." Smell the con- densate and you can see why: Flash water from a load of Cabernet Sauvignon at MWC had a very light pink color and a greenish, acetone aroma. When the flash process concludes, the must has been cooled to 82º. Then the winemaker has two choices for fermenta- tion. The grapes can be pressed and the juice (after clarification through filtration or a centrifuge) fermented, similar to a white wine. Or, the must can be sent to a tank for a more traditional fermentation with the pulpy skins, usually for five to six days. Della Toffola's Thermoflash unit at Lodi Vintners, a custom-crush facility in Woodbridge, Calif., uses similar technol- ogy, although the process for heating the must is slightly different and the system is more compact. The Lodi Vintners equip- ment, which the winery owns in part- nership with Hahn Estates, can process about 30 tons per hour. Lodi Vintners general manager Tyson Rippey estimates that 4,000 tons would be run through it in 2010. Rippey says he's looking at get- ting a smaller Thermoflash unit—about half the size of the one in Woodbridge— for Carneros Vintners in Sonoma, Lodi Vintners' sister operation, in time for the 2011 vintage. Carneros Vintners operated a mobile Della Toffola unit with a capac- ity of about one ton per hour toward the end of the 2010 vintage. "I have the flash water to prove it." —Barry Gnekow, winemaking consultant, on using flash technology to remove raisined characters Rippey says the total cost of the Thermoflash in Woodbridge was about $1 million, including installation and infrastructure. Laumann estimates that the Pera equipment, including infrastruc- ture—plumbing, electrical, etc.—was about $2 million. Paul Clifton, winemaker at Hahn Estates in Monterey County, has battled pyrazines in his red Bordeaux variet- ies for years. He says that when he and Gnekow first tasted a French Merlot that had been flashed, they also tasted the condensate, which he describes as "pure veg." "Barry and I looked at each other, and we just thought, 'My god, this is the key.'" Clifton subsequently put all his 2009 Merlot through Flash Détente, after October rains forced him to pick earlier than he wanted. "It saved our Merlot pro- gram," he says. He also used it for Merlot in 2010. Laumann says he's seen the best results on Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, and Clifton has used it on both. Clif- ton says he was "blown away" by the results on Cabernet from a high-quality vineyard. "I wish I would've put more through it." As for Pinot Noir, he has flashed fruit from Lodi and from Monterey County, working in both Woodbridge and King City. Clifton has experimented with sev- eral methods of vinification, post-flash. "The stuff that we fermented on skins was really intense," Clifton says. "As a QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #1417 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2011 39