Tour Stop 3: Production
In the fall, all of our grape crushing takes place here. We are the only winery in Walla Walla with an indoor crush pad. This allows the winemaking team ultimate control over how and when they crush. Their decisions aren’t dependent on the weather, and they can keep the grapes cool and out of the sun throughout the crush process. The crush pad was designed with a skylight to allow daylight to light the interior. This sustainable design feature reduces the need for artificial lighting by up to 60% while also balancing light for forklift operators entering the building from bright sunlight outside.
Our production facility is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. All of our grapes come in from the vineyard having been hand-harvested. They will come in as whole bunches with stems. The team will hand-sort the clusters on a conveyer belt to remove any debris or marginal fruit. This ensures only the very best grapes are used for winemaking. Once the bunches pass the hand-sorting table, they are fed into the crusher-destemmer. The grapes pass through two sets of rollers which roughly sort the berries. These rollers are adjustable and can be adjusted to the different berry sizes being sorted – for example, Malbec berries are larger than Cabernet berries. The stems are separated from the berries, which then fall into a second set of lower rollers. These rollers are set tighter so that whole berries are caught and lightly crushed into must. The must is then pumped via a large hose into the tanks. This second set of rollers is especially important, as it filters out green, underdeveloped berries and pieces of stems. Both of these are unwanted in the juice, because they can cause bitterness and astringency in the wine.
Once in tank, we will add live yeast cultures to the grapes to start the fermentation. These yeasts are the kick starter for the whole process. They will begin to eat the sugars in the grape juice, producing both alcohol and carbon dioxide. The CO2 pushes the grape skins to the surface, forming a cap on top of the wine. Those skins need to be mixed back in with the wine regularly to impart color and tannin to the wine and to make sure bacteria does not grow on the cap. Also, the yeast needs a steady supply of oxygen to stay healthy and happy. By pumping the wine back over the skins or punching the cap back down, we can continue to keep the yeast in an oxygen rich environment until all of the sugar has been converted to alcohol.
Once the wine has finished fermenting, the wine is pressed off the skins. This is a really important part of the process as it plays a big part in determining the final style of the wine. Our winemaker chose our press specifically because it allows for detailed programming of the press cycle. She is able to program the rate and degree of pressing to the minute. As we press the grapes, juice begins to run out of the press and is collected in a pan below. The quality and content of the juice changes as we press the grapes further. The free run, or first few presses, are often the best quality and will form the heart of the final wine. The more we press the skins, the more tannin, bitterness, and astringency is extracted. This isn’t always a bad thing. We keep these pressings, or what are called press fractions, separate from the other juice, and then we blend them into the final wine to add different nuances. The heavier pressings can help add texture, structure, and color when needed. Having good press fractions is key to high quality in the final wine.
To our left is the cold-storage room, where we can store grapes coming in. Trucks bring grapes to the winery in large, plastic containers. The grapes may heat up a bit during transport, especially since some of our grapes come from vineyards two hours away. Crushing warm grapes can lead to oxidation. Oxidation is the process that turns a cut apple brown, or causes an avocado’s taste to change. In wine, oxidation creates nutty, earthy, and roasted flavors. Some of those flavors may be desirable, but too much is undesirable. Having a refrigerated room allows us to cool the grapes down before crush, preserving fruity aromas and flavors while preventing spoilage of the grapes. Chilled grapes are also easier to destem fruit. If grapes arrive late in the day, the winemaking team can place the grapes in cold-storage until they are ready to sort them the next day. This is another important feature which allows extra control over the final quality of the wine, especially for white wines.