ComfortWinery.com

Equipment

Some of the equipment I used this year is shown here, from left to right:

1. - most importantly, the drain in the foreground (there's a lot of water and mess involved with winemaking)

- a power washer, for cleaning equipment, floors, etc

- CO2 and Argon for blanketing must, wine, and bottling.

- a punch-down tool (shown astride the two tanks of gas)

- lids for the fermenters

- food-grade plastic buckets and containers of every size

- fermentation tanks (also used for cold-soak)

The Italians seem to make the best equipment for home-winemaking, my crusher-destemmer, press, fermentation tanks, bottling machines, and cork-setter are all from Italy... 

The top-left picture is the crusher-destemmer bin (from above).  To its right are the slats from the press ("45" is one of the larger sizes for hand-presses). Each of these 500-liter fermentation tanks will hold 1,000 lbs of fruit -- which is an important size because it corresponds with the bins that premium fruit is weighed out (when purchased).  It's also about the amount of fruit it will take to fill a standard 60 gallon French Burgundy barrel...

Ciphoning to Barrels in the cellar

The last major step was completed last night when we ciphoned the wine down from the crush-room to the cellar.

The new Rousseau barrel (which is holding the 115 & 667) was pushing three bubbles/second -- the malolactic well underway!    The neutral barrel (holding the 777) has yet to start showing malo-bubbles.

Conditioning Barrels

Initiating Malolactic Fermentation

• Malolactic Fermentation was initiated immediately after the alcoholic fermentation was complete.   The yeast culture is kept in the freezer until it's combined with the wine, and it usually takes about a month to complete the fermentation, which converts malic acid to lactic acid.
• The CO2 that's produced during this 2nd fermentation, escapes through an S-stop (that has vodka in the neck to prevent oxidization and bacterial growth.

Pressing

Punchdown Technique Demonstrated by Marissa Levinson

A light tarp is used over the fermentors

When the temperature of the fermentation is under control, a tarp lies loosely over the whole operation, to keep dust and flies out.   

I have not seen *one* fly yet during production, probably because it has been unseasonably cold here in San Francisco and their #s are down temporarily...

Both fermentors are in the low-to-mid 80s.

Controlling fermentation temperature with dry ice

This mist of CO2 is the result of a temperature adjustment to one of the fermenters to bring its heat down.

CO2 created during fermentation blankets the juice below, filling the lower 3/4ths of the fermentation tank (CO2 lifts the solid skins & seeds to the top of the fermentation tank, forming a natural "cap").

The theory I prescribe to on fermentation for pinot noir is:  72-82 degrees for as long as it takes...

The fermenter with the 777 clone was spiking up over 85 degrees, so I hit it with 10 lbs of dry ice.   The other fermenter, with the 667 and 115 clones, has been happily bubbling along at 70-75 degrees.

Fermentation chugging along

There's a space-heater in the gap underneath the sleeping bag between the two tanks -- that's there to make sure things keep chugging along.    The fermentation has been nice, slow, and controlled so far (knock on wood!)...

Fermentation is underway!

A popular yeast for red-winemaking, Bourgovin RC 212 (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), was cultivated in two small metal containers (in front of a warm window, as shown) and then added to each of the fermentation vats.