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TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT WINEMAKING July 2017 WINES&VINES 33 While most of the grapes processed at the winery will be machine harvested, some of the Riboli family's vineyards are planted on hill- sides too steep for even the latest generation of harvesters. "The machine harvesting will end up being hopefully 80% to 90%, but cer- tain hills are too steep, and all our vineyards here are hills," he said. For the machine-harvested grapes, Riboli invested in a new Pellenc Optimum machine that he views as an extension of the winery's crush pad. "You're spending all this money on a really expensive harvester that does a good job," he said. "Why run the grapes back through another destemmer and beat up your fruit more?" From half-ton bins to gondola loads For even larger loads of grapes—Chardonnay from Monterey County, for example—the winery has a Brix Buddy auger from P&L Specialties that can be used to load a Di- emme Velvet 150 press. The winery also has a Puleo SF70 press, which is used mainly for reds. "We wanted to make sure we could do all of it, all sizes," Riboli said of the crush pad's functionality. The crush pad, just like the rest of the win- ery, was designed with room to grow. "What we did really from the layout is we're expand- able," Riboli said. "We have 2 more acres in the back, so we can either put in a second crush pad or expand the tank room, expand the barrel room, and that was all part of the architectural plan." Inside, the winery is a gleaming expanse of Polytek flooring, white walls and brand-new stainless steel tanks from Santa Rosa Stainless Steel. The winery has 10 open-top tanks with 19-ton capacity that can also be fitted with lids to be used for storage and 40 closed-top tanks with 40-ton capacity. The tanks are fully jack- eted from top to bottom so they can be utilized for any size grape lot. All of the closed-top tanks are fitted with pumpover pumps, screened in- take valves and a dedicated irrigator. The tanks are also monitored and controlled by a TankNet system that enables the cellar team to run shorter pumpovers more fre- quently, and it also spares them the labor of having to go from tank to tank setting up pumpovers. "Not many people on the Central Coast have that," Riboli said of the dedicated pumpover system. "But when you look at the efficiency of labor, we just felt in the long run it would be efficient, and this year (2016) it did prove very, very useful." For its inaugural harvest, the winery was staffed by Mayo, cellar master Raul Uribe and another full-time cellar worker as well as a part-time winemaker and two interns who processed more than 1,000 tons. "Overall I was really pleased with the harvest," Riboli said. "Now it's just a matter of fine tuning." Fermentations in the open-top tanks are managed with a pneumatic punchdown de- Nadalié "Cooperage is Our Craft" Ad - 4.5" x 7.5" Proof 3 A large crane and auger are used for the largest grape deliveries to the winery.