WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT
50 WINES&VINES March 2017
only on the tanks, but in the glycol-based heat-
ing and cooling system from Viking Refrigera-
tion Ltd. in Kelowna.
Temperature control is important not only
at the beginning of the winemaking process,
in the variable Okanagan climate, but also at
the end, when wines return to the tanks each
spring for bottling by Artus Bottling Ltd., a
mobile bottler based in Penticton.
Perched midway between the top of the
vineyard and bluffs that drop 80 feet to the
lakeshore below, the winery is ideally located
to incorporate systems that take advantage of
the 150-foot change in elevation across the
property. CedarCreek employed gravity-flow
systems, and Fitzpatrick was sufficiently im-
pressed to have them here, too. A hose con-
nects the press and Albrigi fermentors to a steel
pipe, through which a Kiesel & Liverani pump
delivers must to the cellar.
'Bullet-proof' design
Below everything sit the tanks, barrels and
sparkling line that constitute the winery's core.
While everything aboveground is on display,
what lies beneath also keeps visitors in mind.
With 11-foot ceilings, there's enough head-
space for steel tanks along the walls of the
cellar's south end, where a door opens onto
the vineyard and lets in natural light. The ad-
Winemaker Sarah Bain worked in New Zealand's Central Otago region before joining Fitzpatrick
to produce traditional-method British Columbia sparkling wines.
