Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/830382
June 2017 WINES&VINES 33 WINEMAKING Davis also purchased Bucher Vaslin's R1 optical sorter. Destemmed and sorted grapes are trans- ferred from the winery's central crush pad with either a must pump or a custom-built machine that mimics a gentle gravity transfer. Davis worked with Wayne Burgstahler of Burgstahler Machine Works on the machine, which has a stainless steel hopper at its base and an elevated conveyor that carries berries to the top hatch of tanks. A hinge near the machine's base allows the conveyor to be low- ered so the apparatus can be moved in and out of the cellar. Investing to 'micromanage' crush To gear up for this coming harvest, the Missick family, which owns Bellangelo Winery in the Finger Lakes region of New York, purchased a sophisticated destemmer as well as a mecha- nized receiving hopper, additional forklift and a Willmes Merlin Press. The destemmer is an Armbruster Rotovib distributed by Scott Labo- ratories in Petaluma, Calif. "We wanted to take every precaution to ensure premium fruit is processed by premium equipment from the crush pad to the bottle. We also wanted to make sure that quality control could be micromanaged at every stage of a wine's development, once the fruit reached the winery," Chris Missick said in a news re- lease about the new equipment. The latest investment follows the purchase of a destemmer, crusher, must pump and tanks from Geneva, N.Y.-based Vance Metal Fabrica- tors in 2012. (The Missicks purchased the winery in 2011.) "We wanted to bring in some of the best, gentlest new equipment available to the wine industry," said Greg Missick, father of brothers Chris and Matt Missick, who over- see operations at the winery. "I'm also someone who thinks in terms of building in redundancy, and this will allow us to do that. Should a major piece of equipment go down during crush, we will only be set back in the time it takes to start another piece of equipment." At Viader Vineyards' winery in Napa Valley, director of winemaking and operations Alan Viader said he wanted to upgrade his destem- mer but not get too far removed from the Bucher Vaslin Delta E2 the winery purchased in 1998. The latest version of the Delta E2 features a variable-drive motor that Viader says lets him "really dial in the speed, resulting in better destemming at slower speeds." Viader also purchased two new destemmer cages made of polypropylene material that are gentler on the fruit and beater arms designed specifically for small-cluster, hand-harvested fruit. A new vibrating table set beneath the destemmer provides an even flow of grapes to the must pump. "We are able to remove any jacks or other MOG during this stage of the process," Viader said. "I only have one other guy working with me in the cellar, so the entire operation had to revolve around efficiency and a two-person operation. We can easily handle up to 10-15 tons per day on this system." The must pump also was updated for 2016 with a new model by Bucher Vaslin. Viader said he was quite impressed with the pump's gentle action in moving berries to tanks. "The quality that I've seen in the tank is vastly improved from before, and the overall system is seamless and easier for us to manage, even in the heat of harvest season," he said. "The berries look like a pile of blueberries in the tank instead of a mixture KEY POINTS Some wineries are investing in more ex- pensive automated equipment to save on labor costs. The Pellenc Selectiv' Process Winery and Bucher Vaslin Oscillys destemmers are popular choices for new wineries. Some winemakers prefer the hands-on ap- proach and are sticking with tried and true equipment. Filter your wine on-premises with ATPGroup Mobile Services. We'll bring our state-of-the-art equipment for Lees Filtration or Cross-Flow Filtration to your winery. Best of all, we'll do all the work, all the cleanup. No muss, no fuss filtration. To find ouT whaT we can do for you, conTacT aTPgrouP aT (707) 836-6840 or online aT www.aTPgrouP.com