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TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT WINEMAKING June 2018 WINES&VINES 41 Valley. Deike also joined the winery in 2004 as enologist after internships at other wineries. She was promoted to assistant winemaker in 2006 and associate winemaker in 2014. Sarah Quider, who has worked at Ferrari- Carano since 1995, is the company's executive winemaker and oversees all production, includ- ing Pinot Noir at the Lazy Creek Vineyards winery in Anderson Valley under the day-to- day management of Christy Ackerman. More significant than any of the new facili- ties or changes to the winemaking team was the death of Don Carano in October of 2017. Carano was 85 when he died at his home in Reno, Nev., and left behind a long list of busi- ness and personal accomplishments as well as five children, 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Carano was a former U.S. Army officer and an attorney who founded the Eldorado Hotel and Casino in Reno before he and his wife fell in love with Northern California's wine country. Described in a Nevada newspaper obituary as "probably the most upwardly mobile individual in the history of 'The Biggest Little City,' " Cara- no's larger-than-life personality can still be seen in the near-reverence with which his winemaking staff speaks of him. All hands remember his zeal for finding new vineyards and passion for maintaining them. Even during the 2017 vintage when Carano's health was in decline, he regularly drove around his expansive vineyard holdings with director of vineyard operations Steve Domenichelli, who has worked for Ferrari-Carano since 1987. That focus on the vineyard side also helped spark the relationship between the Caranos and Brown. He is working closely with Domenichelli at select vineyard blocks in Alexander Valley and Knights Valley, including the Maacama Ranch, Don Carano's last vineyard acquisition. Ferrari-Carano now owns 1,900 acres of vine- yards spread over 24 sites in six AVAs. Deike said she is excited to be working with Brown and eager to share winemaking notes on the estate vineyards. "For me it's really a bonus to get to work with him and to see what he really focuses on," she said. Flexibility and focus Deike said she followed his recommendation and purchased a new VitiSort optical sorter from Key Technology to process grapes after destem- ming. Grapes are dumped on a vibrating sorting table where any leaves or other MOG is removed prior to flowing through the destemmer. Brown also chose a VitiSort for the Mending Wall winery that he designed and equipped in time for the 2014 harvest. Brown is a part owner of the exclusive custom-crush facility in St. Helena. Deike said she thought Ferrari-Carano might need two of the optical sorters, but one proved sufficient with a throughput rate of about 5 tons per hour. She said her crush-pad team really enjoyed working with the machine, and the results were immediate. "Everything comes out looking so perfect," she said. Destemmed and sorted berries are collected in a hopper feeding a large Waukesha pump that transfers them to tanks. The new winery is equipped with 40 new Westrac stainless-steel tanks that hold 5 to 30 tons. Pumpovers are done by air pumps through a screen and sump, and tank temperatures are monitored and managed via a TankNet system. When fermentation is complete, the pomace is dug out into bins that are dumped into a portable, cleated incline conveyor from P&L Specialties. The conveyor dumps into a Willmes membrane press. P&L Specialties also designed and fabricated a series of cast-in-slab waste augers to remove pressed pomace and stems. Half of the cellar is left empty to be used as a cold room for grapes awaiting processing. The 40,000-square-foot building also houses two warehouses that Ferrari-Carano is using for all its case-goods storage. The winery previ- ously had been renting warehouse space. The new winery might have the latest in tanks and processing equipment (as well as motion-sensor lights that turn on when anyone walks into the building), but the older winery is by no means less impressive. An incline, cleated conveyor carries pomace to a membrane press (above) and a large rotating arm with a conveyor carries destemmed and sorted grapes to the top hatches of tanks at the older facility.