Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/877508
TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT WINEMAKING October 2017 WINES&VINES 71 cross-contamination, and there's significantly less losses of wine," Kinsman said. All of the winemaking opera- tions are run and managed by the VinWizard system, which also monitors and controls the barrel room temperature and humidity. Winemakers can program and monitor winemaking operations via tablets or do it manually. Each irrigator is also fitted with a Ven- turi to provide fermentations some air if needed. Near every tank are connections for com- pressed air as well as another gas such as carbon dioxide or argon. If a tank is only partially filled, a winemaker can plug a hose from the gas connect to then regularly gas the headspace via the VinWiz- ard system. Wine transfers are done with a Waukesha 60 pump from Carlsen & Associates and a Graco dia- phragm air pump from Burgs- tahler Machine Works. Burgstahler also supplied the miscellaneous cellar fittings, sumps and other general winemaking equipment. On either end of the central bank of tanks are large-volume Bu- cher Vaslin presses. A JLB basket press is used for reds, and a XP30 membrane press is for white grapes. Directly below the winery are two large barrel rooms and a third area that is used for barrel fermen- tation. Donley said the fermenta- tion area will likely be connected to the winery floor via a fixed line so white juice can flow directly from the press to barrel. In the meantime, barrels are filled at the winery and then taken down to storage with a freight elevator. The elevator has a capacity of 20,000 pounds and can move a forklift carrying barrels or a por- table tank or 20 stacked barrels. At first it seems like an extrava- gant touch, but Kinsman said it proved cheaper to install an eleva- tor than build a ramp from the surface down to the barrel rooms. He said a ramp could poten- tially allow storm water to drain into the cellar, and navigating it could pose a risk for forklift driv- ers. "We'd have to worry about our staff trying to drive a forklift up a ramp, potentially when it was wet and laden with barrels, so we nixed the concept of the ramp pretty quickly," he said. The elevator has doors on both sides so a forklift driver can enter from one side and exit the other, making moving between the bar- rel cellar and crush pad and win- ery level nearly seamless. An open area accessible through two sets of doors provides a space for barrel washing with the win- ery's two-barrel Tom Beard unit. While at the same level as the sub- Each tank is fitted with a pump for pumpovers.