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WINEMAKING Of all the equipment used at Tres Sabores, Julie Johnson is proudest of her collection of unusual, often repurposed punchdown tools (left), many of them gifts from winery interns. fort and Lallemand, and she generally in- oculates the reds with a malolactic starter culture from Laffort. In normal times, she makes little use of enzymes, oak chips or other additives beyond yeast nutrients, but in the weird and botrytis-tinged 2011 harvest season, she made use of standard industry protocols specifying additions on some suspect lots. Manual punch downs are pretty stan- dard, but Johnson is eager to show off her battery of punch down tools. Most of the tools Johnson has hanging on a large door have been given to her by friends and in- terns, including her favorite: a commercial- industrial potato masher that looks just like the one in your kitchen drawer—only 20 times larger. If fermentation tempera- tures skew low, she has a good supply of aquarium heaters on hand. Reds end up in a Europress EHA-12, which is where the Sauvignon Blanc and a small amount of Chardonnay start with whole-cluster pressing. Tank fermenta- tions for whites and a rosé get done in 550-gallon Metalcraft tanks with glycol jacketing, cooled and warmed as needed with the help of a multi-valve G&D "Fire and Ice" chiller/heater that arrived last year from Engineered Mechanical Systems. (The same setup handles cold stabiliza- tion chores for whites.) If necessary, larger tanks are rented at crush time. YOUR SUCCESS IS OUR PRIORITY Now all print subscribers get free digital access View this issue on your computer or any mobile device. DIGITAL EDITION winesandvines.com/digitaledition WINES & VINES SEPTEMBER 2012 49 MIDDLE PHOTO BY CYNDY WHITMORE