Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/90739
WINEMAKING WINEMAKING IS YOUR ART, TANK CLEANING IS OURS. Pinot Noir gets sorted en route to the destemmer. At the peak of harvest, the largest floor (on the second level) holds a huge number of fermenting bins, accounting for about half of the fruit that comes in. This being a Pinot place, cold soaks are part of the program; for this Ponzi rents refrigerated shipping containers for the season. The cellar crew expands to more than a dozen at harvest time; there are a lot of punch downs to do. Fermentations for the reds and for Chardonnay go off with whatever yeast is on the grapes or in the vicinity, and Luisa Ponzi says they rarely have a stuck fermentation to worry about. Aromatic whites—Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Arneis—get inoculated with a "house" yeast strain, isolated a few years back and propagated anew for each harvest. Chardonnay fermenta- tion occurs at the barrel level, in a section separated by plastic sheeting: cooler for the fermenting Chardonnay, warmer for the barrels going through malolactic. Aromatic whites get tank fer- mentation, with temperature controlled either by glycol jacketing or by portable chillers from tank-maker JV Northwest that can be dropped into the tanks for a quicker fix. Fermentations rarely depend on enzymes or other additives—ex- cept for occasional batches of problem grapes, which in this part of the country mainly means botrytis. Ponzi does YAN analysis of every batch and adds diammonium phosphate if needed. White fermentations are cool; reds generally peak somewhere near 90ºF. Some reds get pressed with the same Europress that handles whites, but Pinot goes through a well-broken-in Willmes press, a make popular with Oregon Pinot producers. Press wine flows down to the third level and into waiting barrels. Chilling and SO2 are used to prevent malolactic fermentation in aromatic whites, but the Chardonnay and all the reds go through malo, making use only of resident bacteria. Steam-bent staves Ponzi makes use of a long list of coopers (see the tech sheet on page 44 for a full list), nearly all French oak, with a few Oregon barrels thrown in. One of Luisa Ponzi's preferences is steam-bent staves for 1-877-GAMAJET www.gamajet.com WINES & VINES NOVEMBER 2012 45 TANK AND BARREL CLEANING MACHINES AND SYSTEMS 100% Clean Every Time 80% Less Water 75% Less Time POLARA STUDIO