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40 WINES&VINES April 2018 WINERY & VINEYARD EQUIPMENT Ben Papapietro, part-owner and winemaker of the Russian River Val- ley Pinot Noir producer Papapietro Perry Winery, said he chose to buy the Rotovib because it already was being used by other Pinot producers, and he was able to see it in action. He said Scott Laboratories in Peta- luma, Calif., is relatively close if the machine needs to be serviced. "The other destemmers were either too expensive or didn't offer the same ability to process Pinot Noir grapes as gently," he said. "The vibrator aspect allows for gentle berry separation that is nec- essary for high-quality Pinot pro- duction. Having used this piece of equipment, I can say that it lives up to its promise of clean separa- tion of fruit from the rachis." David Lattin, winemaker at Emeritus Vineyards, which pro- duces nearly 9,000 cases of Pinot Noir in Sebastopol, Calif., said the decision to purchase a Rotovib was made by his predecessor, who wanted to get more whole berries in the tank than what the winery's older machine could provide. Because Emeritus' setup is to destem directly into open-top tanks, Lattin said they needed something about the same size as the older destemmer. "We move our open-top tanks directly under the destemmer and needed a ma- chine that was similarly sized, operated with minimal vibration, was easier to clean and kept more of the berries intact," he said. Lattin is also working with grapes that are picked at the "low end of the ripeness spectrum" and at night, so they are crisp and potentially very juicy. He said he was very happy with how the Ro- tovib performed. At Ampelos Cellars in Lompoc, Calif., owner and winemaker Peter Work produces about 4,000 cases of Pinot Noir and Rhône variety wines per year. In 2017, he had access to a G&D chiller system. He said better tempera- ture control helped produce better wines and made harvest easier because he no longer had to move tanks into a cold room to chill them. "By using the chiller and a bunch of quick-connect hoses, we were able to keep the fermentors on the floor and just hook them up as needed," he said. "This cre- ated a much more stable fermen- tation process, which resulted in better binding of esters and other flavor components and resulted in a better wine. We also spent less time moving equipment around." Your success is our prioritY A Scharfenberger VS5 dosing hopper and sorting table similar to the one recently purchased by Van Duzer Vineyards in Oregon.