Ever Wondered What it’s Like to Make Wine?
Check Out My Harvest Winemaking Experience in Paso Robles, California
When I decided to move to Paso Robles wine country at the beginning of the year, one of my goals was to complete a harvest internship working in the cellar of a winery. Ideally at Adelaida Vineyards & Winery – my favorite winery in Paso. I wanted to experience the production side of the business firsthand while increasing my knowledge of the winemaking process. I also felt I could gain a deeper appreciation for wine than I already have by experiencing all of the hard work that goes into taking grapes from vine to wine.
Back in June when I learned there was still a harvest intern position available, I asked the Assistant Winemaker if I could join the crew. She tried to scare me off with words like 6:30am start time, 12-hour days, all-male mostly Spanish speaking crew, and manual labor. I said I was down! And she said she would talk to the Cellar Master who I’d be working under and they’d let me know. Next, the Cellar Master came at me with Why would you want to do this, Nikki? You’re such a girly girl. And show me your nails, checking to see if I had a fancy manicure. Ha! A girly girl? Clearly, you don’t know me well. But after shooting the shit with him a bit, he said ok.
Harvest Internship 2018 – Week 1 & 2
So on August 6, 2018, I started my harvest internship. I will admit, as a historical night owl, the first week of 5:00 am wake-ups was a little rough. But by week two, the early mornings were an easy adjustment. With two weeks under my belt on the cellar crew, I have already gained a deeper appreciation for all of the people and hard work behind the winemaking process. And harvest hasn’t really begun since we haven’t even brought fruit in yet!
The Crew
Our cellar crew consists of 4 dudes and me….soon to be 6 dudes and me. Hugo is in his mid-30’s and has been with Adelaida for something like 12 years. He worked in production at other wineries prior to coming to Adelaida, so he has a ton of experience. He likes to give me a hard time, but thankfully I grew up with brothers so I can take it and dish it right back to him. José and Carlos are both in their mid-20’s and I think have both worked at Adelaida for 5 or 6 years. Both hilarious and generous in showing me how things are done.
The other intern on the cellar crew is an Italian named Marco from Sardinia who speaks fluent Italian and Spanish, but very minimal English. Marco is my age and we’ve already become fast friends. Now that I’ve joined the team, he is actually getting to practice some English rather than solely speaking Spanish with the guys. One of his reasons for coming to intern in America was to learn to speak English.
So, I’ve been trying to help him with that goal while attempting to pick Italian back up, too. When I lived in Florence eight years ago, I could speak enough Italian to order in restaurants, give directions, or have a light conversation. That Italian has since left me and it seems that most of the Italian words Marco is teaching me go in one ear and out the other. He always says – How did you ever live in Italy?! Marco has a lot of experience in winemaking. He studied winemaking at university and has a Master degree in Enology. He’s worked something like 6 harvests all over Italy and in Chile as well. With the help of Google translator, he’s been a great resource to answer my winemaking questions.
In The Cellar
The first day on the job, we were topping barrels in the cellar. Well, to be more accurate, Carlos was climbing up the racks of barrels and topping them off while Marco and I were cleaning the barrels with water and peroxy. While wine is aging in barrels, some of the wine evaporates as barrels are not completely airtight. The barrels need to be “topped off” with the same wine that has likely been stored in stainless steel tanks or stainless steel barrels. So the empty headspace that has been created in the barrel by evaporation is filled with wine. Thus, reducing the amount of oxygen the wine is exposed to, limiting oxidation or further evaporation and avoiding any bacterial spoilage.
We’re all familiar with the idea of barrel-aging wine, but do you ever really think about all of the monitoring, maintenance, love and attention the barrels of wine need over the lengthy aging process? I rarely did before now.
Leading into harvest, the name of the game has been clean, clean, clean. I learned how to sanitize the massive stainless steel tanks in the winery, which is a seven step process involving a shitload of water, potassium hydroxide, peroxyacetic acid, and citric acid. The other name of the game here has been safety – wearing gloves and protective masks while washing tanks and being sure to avoid getting splashed by chemical laced water. And also knowing where the eye wash and rinse station is just in case you do in fact manage to get splashed. I somehow managed to break the pour spout off one of the old stainless steel tanks on my third day, damnit! Thankfully, it’s fixable and with a small price tag for the repair.
In addition to sanitizing tanks, I’ve washed a lot of one and two ton plastic bins, hundreds of smaller plastic bins used to collect grapes in the vineyards during harvest, and other smaller stainless steel tanks. I swept up bugs from the perimeters of the winery and spent time scrubbing and sanitizing the floors of the winery. We even cleaned out and sanitized the floor drains outside the production area where grapes are received and processed.
Next week I have my forklift safety and certification course. I practiced a bit driving the forklift, as well as moving and stacking the one ton bins. Honestly, it’s not too difficult, but I could definitely use a bit more practice before moving around barrels full of wine and bins full of grapes. The guys fly on those things and make it look so easy! Then again, they have been driving forklifts for years and I have now operated a forklift a total of three times. Not too worried though, I know I got this!
The winemaker ordered about one hundred new barrels for this harvest. Those beautiful barrels have been coming in slowly but surely, so we’ve been taking inventory and labeling them accordingly. Marco and I have been sticking our noses in the bungholes of some of the new barrels to soak up that new oak aroma. That sounds dirtier than it is ;). It’s pretty incredible to smell the barrels and get a feel for how those aromas translate into the flavor profile of oak-aged wines.
That about sums up all of the cellar activity for my first two weeks on the job. The cellar has been a little slow as we aren’t yet receiving any fruit. Though we’re enjoying the slower days as we all know that 10 or 12 hour work days are on the way.
In The Vineyards And Lab
Since work in the cellar has been a bit slow this past week, I fortunately have been getting to spend time in the vineyards with Ryan, the Assistant Winemaker, and Darren, her lab-oriented harvest intern. Wine production is an industry seemingly dominated by men, so I love getting to work with a female assistant winemaker. Plus, Ryan is a badass. She’s super knowledgeable, smart, totally down to earth, and always willing to share what she knows about wine.
Darren is also very smart and I really enjoy working with him. He just graduated from Humboldt State University with a botany major. So in addition to fielding everyone’s questions about growing marijuana, Darren has been very generous in refreshing me on the science side of things as well as always coming in strong with current pop culture knowledge.
The vineyards are absolutely gorgeous at this time of year with full vines and grape clusters at the various stages of veraison. I have been helping Ryan and Darren with cluster counting, grape sampling, and taking veraison percentages. The purpose of counting the clusters in each block of the vineyard is to help the winemaker produce a yield estimate, and thus a production estimate, for each of the varieties planted. For a specific vineyard block of a variety, we count the clusters on 10 vines of 3 different rows of the block. An average cluster count is determined from these numbers and is then used to produce a yield estimate of the vineyard block.
Once a vineyard block is at 100% veraison or nearing 100% veraison, Ryan will start taking samples from the vineyard block. For sampling, we cut 10 clusters somewhat randomly from 3 different rows of the block. Those clusters are then weighed as a whole back at the vineyard and divided by the number of clusters to determine an average weight per cluster. This number helps with the yield estimate. The grapes are then crushed with a hand-cranked crusher and pressed through a sieve to obtain the juice for testing. After the juice has rested for an hour allowing most of the solids to settle at the bottom of the container, the Brix, pH, and titratable acidity (the best estimate of a wine’s perceived acidity) of the juice are all measured in the lab. Getting to run some of these lab tests was so interesting, though the last time I did any sort of chemistry was about 9 years ago during my undergrad courses at SDSU.
While all of these numbers are important for the winery’s historical records and for the winemaker to anticipate pick times, many winemakers (our’s included) don’t base their decision of when to pick off these numbers. The winemaker will more likely decide when to pick utilizing the ever-evolved human senses – tasting the grapes for sweetness and acidity, looking at the thickness of the grape skins and the color of the seeds, etc.
Though I loved every minute of hiking up and down the steep vineyard slopes under the hot morning sun, I definitely have a deep appreciation for all of the vineyard laborers – and all agricultural workers – who do this day in and day out.
I’ve loved every minute of this harvest internship so far. Even though the hard work hasn’t really begun, I’m looking forward to the first grapes coming in, the long work days ahead, and a deeper insight into the world of wine!
Harvest Internship 2018 Weeks 3-5
It’s hard to believe I have been working on the production team at Adelaida Vineyards & Winery for over a month already! And even harder to believe still that we have hardly processed any fruit. This year’s harvest in Paso Robles is two, if not three, weeks later than previous years. We’ve had very moderate temperatures as of late compared to hotter temperatures historically around August/September, leading to longer hang time for the grapes. Sugars aren’t yet high enough and the grapes are still maturing. Though our winemaker says this weather feels good to us and feels good to the grapes too. But I’m ready to get the party started! However, this is one of the most magical aspects of the world of winemaking. We are at the mercy of mother nature with high hopes for a bountiful, fruitful, healthy harvest. So beautiful!
The First Pick
On Thursday, August 23rd, we brought in our first pick – some Chardonnay and Pinot Noir bound to be transformed into sparkling wine. This is only the second vintage Adelaida is producing sparkling wine, though a few decades back the winery did in fact produce some bubbles. As is traditional, we toasted the first pick with the whole Adelaida crew and a bottle 1984 Adelaida Blanc de Blanc. Jeremy, our winemaker, popped the bottle like a pro and said a few words as a pseudo “blessing” for a successful harvest. After anointing the grapes with a splash of bubbles, he poured some for everyone and we all toasted to harvest. I will never forget the feeling of excitement and the energy in the air when those first grapes came in. After all the cleaning and waiting, we were so pumped to get started!
The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir both made their way to the sorting table, then went directly into our bladder press. We pressed them together, about 3 or 4 tons in total if memory serves. The juice then went into a stainless steel tank where it settled overnight.
The next day, I learned how to barrel down which is the term for the process of moving the juice from tank to barrels. The barrels are first steamed and sanitized. For the sparkling wine, we used neutral barrels from previous harvests. When selecting which barrels to use, it is always important to smell the barrels to make sure there is not a lot of volatile acidity left from previous use or other defaults that will be imparted to the wine.
Before pumping juice from tank to barrel, we gassed each barrel with a bit of carbon dioxide to remove any oxygen remaining in the barrel to avoid oxidation. Then we started pumping the juice and stuck a moisture meter in the barrel bunghole which measures when the wine reaches a certain level in order to avoid overfilling the barrels. While filling the barrels it was important to watch for any air bubbles coming through the hoses. As the juice levels neared the bottom of the tank, we slowly turned the elbow pipe inside of the tank so it would be below the juice level, thus avoiding pumping air into the barrels. As we got to the bottom of the tank, I could start to see the lees coming through the looking glass of the hose connected to the tank. That’s when we stopped because we did not want all of those lees, or the sediment which had congregated at the bottom of the tank, to be pumped into barrel. The barrels would develop lees of their own when all of the dead yeast cells are spent after fermentation.
Once all of the barrels had been filled, the Assistant Winemaker handed over a work order for how much Sulfur Dioxide we needed to add to each barrel. Sulfur Dioxide is used as a preservative in winemaking as it helps to protect the wine from oxidation and kills off any unwanted bacteria. This seemed a bit gnarly to me, especially since I needed to wear a mask to avoid inhaling any SO2 and my eyes were seriously burning a time or two, but sulfites occur naturally in all living things. So nothing to worry about. I added liquid SO2 to each barrel and then they were off to the warm room to hang out and allow for fermentation to occur naturally.
Other Happenings
In addition to our first pick of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for sparkling wine, we also processed a couple of tons of Viognier and two separate small picks of Grenache from two different vineyard sites bound for rosé.
Just this Saturday we brought in the first of our Pinot Noir from Adelaida’s vines planted in 1954. These are the oldest Pinot Noir vines in California below San Francisco. The Pinot Noir accounted for the first grapes we processed for red wine this harvest and the first time we used the de-stemmer and optical sorter. The de-stemmer is a giant machine that does exactly what its name suggests, removes the grapes from the stems of the clusters. The optical sorter is a seriously cool piece of machinery which uses a computer and camera to sort the grapes. The computer is programmed to recognize the size, density, etc. of each specific varietal. The machine then uses compressed air to blow out any bad grapes or other foreign material that goes through the sorter. Extremely fast, precise, and efficient, perfect for processing tons upon tons of fruit coming through the winery.
In addition to the lab work I mentioned above, I also have sampled the barrels of wine during fermentation. These samples are used to monitor Brix and temperature of the wine to ensure fermentation is progressing properly. We take a composite sample of all the barrels for each wine, pulling equal amounts with respect to the size of the barrel (ranging from kegs to 500 liter puncheons). Heading back to the warm room and seeing the wine fermenting is so cool!! The barrels are bubbling over from the Carbon Dioxide and heat released during fermentation as the yeasts are eating sugars and converting them to alcohol.
For some reason, it’s strangely exciting. I guess because this is the time when grape juice starts becoming wine that we all love. I have also enjoyed monitoring how the aromas develop in each of the wines during fermentation and am interested in learning more about the science behind how fermentation contributes to wine aromatics.
On days we were not receiving any fruit, I was lucky enough to head out to the vineyards with our Assistant Winemaker for sampling and counting. Something I likely won’t be doing much of in the weeks to come as more and more fruit starts to come in, so I am grateful for that time! Adelaida has about 180 acres of vineyards planted in total. The majority of which is Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah. My favorites are the Rhônes including, Viognier, Roussanne, Counoise, and Mourvèdre. On Adelaida’s Don Juliette vineyard, all of the vines are head-trained and include Grenache, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, and Alicante Bouchet.
Of the almost 2 dozen varieties Adelaida has planted, Alicante Bouchet is one I am not as familiar with. This variety is one of my new favorites because it is one of the few Vitis vinifera species whose flesh is a gorgeous red. Teinturier is the term used to describe this type of grape. The anthocyanin pigments, which are typically found in the skin of the grape, actually accumulate in the flesh of Alicante Bouchet. So when pressed, the juice is already a brilliant ruby hue!
Things are picking up this week at the winery and I am hoping we will be receiving fruit every day this week. More to come!!
Harvest Internship 2018 Week 6-8
Weeks 6-8 of my harvest internship at Adelaida Vineyards & Winery have been busy, exhausting, and so exciting! Week 6 was the first week of harvest we received and processed grapes every single day and we’ve been cooking ever since. I also thankfully clocked in my first hours of overtime – show me the money honey! I’ve been a new kind of tired at the end of each week, but so happy to experience the action firsthand and expand my wine knowledge each day. Here’s what went down!
Processing Grapes
When I thought about the winemaking process prior to working harvest, the aspects of winemaking which would first come to mind were fermentation, oak barrels vs. stainless steel tanks, blending, vineyard management, etc. What I rarely thought of was the hours upon hours of time spent processing literally tons and tons of fruit coming in from the vineyards. That is until week 6 when I spent the majority of my time on the sorting table.
First, we use the forklift to dump half-ton or quarter-ton bins of grapes into a sort of giant funnel that leads them onto the sorting table. The sorting table shakes at a speed that can be adjusted to move the grapes along. The shaking helps to remove any small debris like leaves, pebbles, etc. and catches that debris in drawers under grating on the tables. Those same drawers have a lower section to catch any juice, too. As the grapes move their way down the sorting table, we remove any leaves, stems without grapes, rocks, bugs, underripe or raisined grape clusters, mice, birds, etc.
While the sorting table is completely mind-numbing work, this is a crucial step to making high quality wines by ensuring only the best grapes move forward in the winemaking process. For the white wines and the varieties for rosé at Adelaida, the grapes go directly from the sorting table into our bladder press. For the reds, the grapes go directly from the sorting table into the de-stemmer unless the winemaker wants to leave some as whole clusters for fermentation.
Then from the de-stemmer into the optical sorter which uses a computer and camera to remove any remaining riff raff so truly only the best berries are moving forward. If the stems are green and hard or the grape clusters are moving into the de-stemmer too quickly, the machine starts to shake because it’s clogged up with stems at which point we have to turn it off, open up the hood on the machine and pull out all of the stems by hand.
Besides the boredom factor, the biggest downside of working the sorting table is all of the bees!! Everyone warned me about the bees that come around during harvest, but I could have never imagined the magnitude in which the bees arrived. It’s mind-blowing how many bees swarm the sorting table, the press, anything with the sweet sugary residue from the grapes. I just had to open my mouth and let everyone know at the beginning of harvest how I have never been stung by a bee.
So, of course, I am now the record holder for bee stings this harvest. I’ve been stung 4 times on the same hand and twice on my left foot!! Two of the stings were on my middle finger the same day. That poor finger swelled up to double its size. The nerves in my hand were hurting so badly I couldn’t form a fist, actually could hardly bend my finger or grab anything firmly with my right hand for two days. However, it was pretty hilarious having my middle finger swollen straight for a few days!
Week 6-8 Varieties
Throughout the course of week 6, we processed Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Grenache Blanc, and Syrah. The Chardonnay was beautiful fruit. Our winemaker was kind enough to buy an assortment of international wines to drink with the cellar crew throughout harvest for inspiration. On the day we brought in Chardonnay, he decided to treat us to a bottle of 2006 Joseph Drouhin Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir. Holy shit was this wine special!
First of all, Chablis is my all-time favorite style of Chardonnay. Chablis is a cool climate region in the north of Burgundy typically producing a bone-dry style of Chardonnay with high acidity, citrus and green fruit notes, and a flinty/smoky/wet stone/mineral characteristic which is a trademark of the region. This specific characteristic is due to the Kimmeridgian soils composed of limestone, clay, and fossilized oyster/seashells.
This was my first time tasting Chablis from a Grand Cru vineyard, which is the highest vineyard quality classification in Burgundy or a site deemed to produce the best of the best fruit. And yes, you can definitely detect the higher quality fruit when tasting the wine, even in a bottle of wine that is 12 years old. This 2006 Joseph Drouhin Grand Cru Chablis was heaven in a bottle. Despite its 12 years of age, the wine still tasted so incredibly fresh. Almost honeyed or sappy, yet still delicate and lovely. On the nose I found more spicy orchard fruit aromatics and some light blossom elements with just a touch of flint or wet river rocks on the palate. One of the best bottles of Chablis I have tasted yet, though I am up to the challenge of discovering a better one!
We brought in most of our Pinot Noir during week 6, finishing up all of the Pinot Noir in week 7. In one day we processed 6 tons of Pinot Noir and 2 tons of Gamay. Some blocks of the Pinot Noir looked better than others. A lot of the berries seemed quite ripe and there was a lot of juice being dumped from the picking bins in addition to the grape clusters because the berries were soft. We collected about 100 gallons of juice total from the sorting table, which the winery sells to a distillery up the road from us. The winemaker decided to ferment one of the half-ton bins of Pinot Noir as whole clusters. So after those clusters were sorted, I got to foot-tread the clusters in the bin.
Pinot Noir is a variety which tends to be less tannic with thinner skins, so utilizing whole cluster fermentation allows for extraction of phenolic compounds, including tannins, from the stems to contribute to the structure and texture of the wine. This Pinot Noir went into a large concrete tank for fermentation. I tasted the Pinot about a week and a half later during fermentation and wow! The Pinot tasted so elegant already and had a beautiful floral quality on the palate our winemaker attributed to the whole-cluster fermentation. Loved it!
The rest of Adelaida’s Zinfandel and Grenache Blanc were brought in and processed on my day off during week 6. During fermentation, one of the Zinfandel tanks had abnormally high volatile acidity, which is mostly caused by a bacteria (acetobacter) in wine that creates acetic acid – the acid which gives vinegar its characteristic flavor and aroma. Acetic acid can build up in wine when there is too much exposure to oxygen during winemaking. We sent out samples of the Zinfandel to an offsite laboratory for analysis and they found elevated levels of a lactic acid bacteria in the wine – lactobacillus kunkeei. This specific bacteria can quickly produce high amounts of acetic acid in grape juice and even cause fermentation arrest. What’s even more interesting is the same bacteria is also an essential probiotic for bees and beehive health. Seeing as how we had an insane amount of bees on and around the fruit during processing, the theory is that’s where this bacteria came from. Super interesting! You can read more about lactobacillus kunkeei here.
On one Saturday we processed 4 or 5 tons of Syrah from Adelaida’s Viking Vineyard. This vineyard is composed of steep slopes at a higher elevation than the other vineyards. The majority of the vineyard is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, but the Syrah coming from this vineyard was absolutely beautiful fruit. I think this Syrah was picked at exactly the right moment. The berries were beautiful, not too many raisins, not overripe yet easily coming off the stems, with brown seeds that smoothly separated from the grape flesh. Because there was not much juice with the berries after going through the sorting table, de-stemmer, and optical sorter, I foot-treaded 7 bins of Syrah berries. This way there was some juice available to get fermentation started rather than fermenting with carbonic maceration, or fermentation within the berry as a whole. Carbonic maceration is typically a fermentation style utilized with varieties like Gamay where a more fruity/fruit forward style of wine is desired.
Not something our winemaker was looking for with Syrah. Foot-treading is also a more gentle means of crushing the berries, as opposed to utilizing a crusher, that way you are not over-extracting tannin, etc. from the grape skins. Plus, the winemaker wanted to bleed off about 200 gallons of juice to further concentrate the wine. Once the foot-treading was complete, I put on my safety harness, climbed on top of one of our concrete tanks, and helped the cellar master who was operating the forklift fill the tank with all of the Syrah.
When it comes to Syrah, our winemaker likes to co-ferment with a bit of whole-cluster Viognier because he likes how the Viognier aids in color extraction and contributes to the aromatic profile of the Syrah. Co-fermenting Syrah and Viognier is a winemaking style of Côte-Rôtie, an appellation at the top of the Northern Rhône Valley in France. So on the first day we processed Syrah, we opened up a bottle of Côte-Rôtie! While I enjoyed the mouthfeel of this wine with its dense tannins, richness, and depth, I definitely detected some Brettanomyces on the nose with that distinctive sweaty saddle, barnyard smell. The finish was short and my mouth was left sandpaper dry. This specific bottle would have benefited from a couple more years in bottle, but it was an interesting drink nonetheless!
Weeks 7 and 8 were spent processing Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cao, and Souza for port, as well as Muscat Blanc. Additionally, we processed Grenache, Cinsault and Counoise for rosé, Picpoul Blanc, and the rest of our Syrah from Anna’s Vineyard which was a massive undertaking! On the day we finished up the Syrah, I foot-tread 16 bins of Syrah berries and 3 bins of whole cluster Viognier. Definitely got my leg work-out in that day! We now have 3 tanks of Syrah fermenting in the cellar while that first tank of Syrah has been moved to barrels.
Punch Downs and Pump Overs
During fermentation, as the yeast is consuming sugars and converting them into alcohol, Carbon Dioxide and heat are created as byproducts of fermentation. The Carbon Dioxide pushes the grapes and grape skins to the top of the tank, creating a solid cap above the juice. As we all know, heat rises so the juice and cap at the top of the tank tends to be hotter than the bottom. This cap needs to be broken in order to evenly distribute the must throughout the juice in the tank to allow for better extraction of color, tannin, and aromatics from the skin/seeds/pulp of the grapes.
In order to accomplish this, we utilize punch downs and pump overs. Punch downs involve using a long metal tool with a flat surface on the end like this to break the cap. Much more labor intensive and not quite as gentle on the wine. Pump overs involve utilizing a pump to take juice from the bottom of the tank and pump that juice over the top of the cap. Both methods allow for the must to be re-integrated into the juice and the heat to be released allowing for a more even temperature distribution throughout the tank. Pump overs tend to be used more on grape varieties with higher tannins so that tannins are not over-extracted. Punch downs and pump overs are typically done twice a day, once in the morning and once again in the afternoon.
From Tank to Barrel
Our white wines are all fermented in barrel. For our reds, fermentation occurs in either stainless steel, concrete, or wooden tanks, though I believe our winemaker likes to ferment some of the Cabernet Sauvignon in barrels. Once the reds are nearing the end of fermentation, there is a multi-step process that takes place in order to move the wine from tank to barrels. First, the free-run juice is drained from the tanks over-night into large stainless steel portas (smaller portable tanks). Free-run juice is exactly what it sounds like – the juice that is drained from the tank naturally or freely without pressing any of the grape must to extract juice. We connect hoses from the tank to the porta which is placed in the processing room a level lower than the winery. This way gravity helps the juice to flow from tank to porta overnight.
The juice then sits in the porta for a day or more to allow the lees and sediment in the juice to settle at the bottom of the tank. Then the juice is pumped from the porta into barrels utilizing an air pump. Moving the wine from tank to barrel is called barreling down and has been one of my favorite things to do during harvest. The winemaker decides on a mixture of new and neutral oak barrels depending on his desired results.
I love smelling the new oak barrels before they are filled with wine because I can detect the vanilla, spice, smokey notes the oak contributes to a finished wine. The neutral barrels are barrels which have been used for around 3 previous harvests so they will no longer contribute oak characteristics into the finished wine. When using neutral barrels, it’s important to smell the barrel for any lingering volatile acidity that would negatively impact the wine going in this vintage. The barrels are then gassed with a bit of Carbon Dioxide to push out any oxygen before pumping the wine in. The wine barrels need to be filled all the way to the top so there is no headspace for oxygen to be hanging out with the wine.
Back to the tanks! After allowing the free-run juice to be drained overnight, the next day the must left in the tanks has to be literally dug out from the tank and moved into a press. Remember, these tanks are typically filled with anywhere from around 2 to 5 tons of grapes. So this is where the fun starts! A bin is placed in front of the tank below the door while a fan is placed over the top door of the tank. The fan helps to push out any lingering Carbon Dioxide from fermentation so someone can eventually climb in the tank safely to finish the dig out. You start from the front of the tank with a rake to pull the grapes out from the tank into the bin below. This is the hardest part because the grapes are now densely packed in the bottom of the tank.
Once you have dug out enough of the grapes while standing outside of the tank and created some space inside, it’s time to climb in! Using a rake and a shovel, you painstakingly remove the rest of the grape must from the tank. What a workout! When all the grapes are out, the tank is rinsed using a hose while still inside the tank. For the concrete tanks, we also use tartaric acid to clean the tank of any remaining residue from the wine.
The grape must which has been dug out from the tank then gets moved into a basket press. The press literally looks like a giant basket with slots on the slide to allow the juice to escape and a level platform on top that gradually presses down on the must to extract any remaining juice. The pressed juice is kept in a separate container from the free run. The pressed juice will later be used by the winemaker during blending as it contains high amounts of tannins and other compounds extracted from the skins that can contribute various qualities to the texture and mouthfeel of the final wine.
Yeast Inoculation and Other Adds
Many wineries proudly claim their wines are fermented on native yeasts, meaning the wines are fermented without adding any cultured yeasts. In this case, the wines ferment naturally or spontaneously, relying on ambient yeasts that came in on the grapes from the vineyard or more likely yeasts in the air or environment of the winery. Most people like to hear that wines are fermented on native yeasts because for some reason there is a negative connotation around using cultured yeasts.
While minimal intervention seems more natural, I personally don’t feel that utilizing cultured yeasts is a bad thing. Bakers choose what type of yeast to use to bake their breads, why shouldn’t winemakers be able to choose what type yeast to use to ferment their wines? Plus, if cultured yeasts are only used one time on one tank in the winery, that yeast can linger in the winery for years following. So even if a winery claims to be fermenting on native yeasts, those so-called native yeasts may not be so native if the winery has ever previously inoculated a tank.
Yeast strains are an aspect of winemaking I’m actually super interested in researching more because the type of yeast used for fermentation significantly influences the characteristics of the final wine. Certain yeasts work best with certain varietals, some can contribute more floral notes, some can have neutral influence on flavor profile to allow the varietal to shine, some work best for wines fermenting to a higher alcohol, and so on. SO INTERESTING!
Adelaida has previously relied both on native yeast fermentation and on yeast inoculations. For the majority of the reds this vintage, we have used yeast inoculations. Basically, the process involves re-hydrating the dried yeasts in water at or below 104°F along with Go-Ferm, which is a natural yeast re-hydration nutrient. The Go-Ferm first needs to be dissolved in 110°F water. Once the yeast and Go-Ferm are allowed to reconnect for a bit, juice from the tank being inoculated is slowly added to the mix in order to temper the yeast inoculation to within 10°F of the tank temperature. That way the yeast is not killed off by a cooler temperature shock when added to the tank. Page 7 of this Scott Labs Handbook describes the yeast inoculation process in further detail. This vintage, we have used RP15, 3001, and Clos for yeast inoculations.
In addition to yeast inoculations, many tanks have also received Superfood and DAP (Diammonium Phosphate or a water soluble ammonium phosphate) adds. These both act as nutrients for the yeast during fermentation to support stronger, more viable yeasts. They are each mixed separately with juice from the tank before being added. We had one tank that got really happy after receiving Superfood and DAP additions and ended up with a beautiful overflow.
We are about 75% of the way through harvest. While exhausting and draining, the 10 and 12 hour days have been SO worth it. I’ve learned so much about the winemaking process through this experience. Now, I look forward to researching and studying the science behind it all for an even deeper understanding of enology. We mostly have Cabernet Sauvignon left to harvest, which is Adelaida’s most planted varietal! Which means I’ll be working on one more harvest recap post for the month of October. Cheers!