Making wine would possibly sound glamorous to you and me, however it’s a troublesome job. Right here, former winemaker Ben Chan – now a member of our BBX staff – remembers a usually continuous day within the cellar.
“Beep! Beep! Beep!” It have to be 5am; it looks like I solely closed my eyes just a few seconds in the past, however right here we go.
It’s a heat autumn morning in countryside Australia. After a fast breakfast I’m on the vineyard and catching up with Drew and Katerina, the evening shift staff.
They’d a great shift, problem-free. The press has solely half-hour left of its cycle and the subsequent 10 bins of Chardonnay are weighed and able to go. “Good one. See you tonight.”
Jean arrives. He’s the classic intern. His household have a winery within the South of France and he’s right here to learn the way we do issues Down Beneath.
Alcoholic fermentation is underway in a few of the tanks. I ask Jean to verify the temperature and sugar degree of every of them. Managing the fermentation is one in every of my major considerations. These checks assist me to observe how every tank is progressing and make any changes as vital.
I am going to the workplace to see the boss, who lets me know the winery staff are machine-harvesting Merlot and hand-picking Pinot Noir.
The press cycle has completed, and Jean is again. I ask if he’d reasonably clear the press or begin the pump-overs and punch-downs for the pink wines. He chooses the reds, so it appears to be like like I’m getting moist.
I empty the skins from the press, unplug it, then hop in and hose it out. Subsequent, I bounce on the forklift and fill the press with the remainder of the Chardonnay. I join this to the free-run tank, begin the urgent cycle and accumulate a pattern for laboratory evaluation.
Again within the workplace we have now a style of the Chardonnay juice and take some measurements. After tasting, we determine it might do with just a little extra acidity for stability and freshness, so we’ll add some tartaric acid. It’s greatest so as to add it earlier than fermentation because the end result can be extra harmonious.
Jean has laid out samples of all of the tanks. All of them style nice aside from one, which is a bit pungent. Throughout fermentation, yeast can generally get careworn and produce sulphides, which odor of rotten eggs. We verify the chart; this one remains to be within the first half of fermentation, so we are going to give it some air by doing a rack, splash and return. The air will assist blow off a few of the sulphides and provides the yeast a little bit of a lift. Hopefully it will clear it up.
We inoculated a tank of Chardonnay yesterday, and we will see that the sugar degree has dropped a bit. We’ll switch this one into smaller oak barrels. Fermenting in barrel provides higher oak integration with the fruit, however we need to be certain that the fermentation is already going sturdy. Inoculating in barrel may be riskier as you have got a number of vessels to handle.
It’s been some time, so I ought to verify the press. As soon as I style a rise in bitterness or a lower in acidity, I’ll make the lower over to the pressings tank.
I’m hungry; have to be lunch time.
The primary truck from the winery arrives with the Merlot. Again on the forklift, I unload the selecting bins and weigh them. Jean has set it up in order that the grapes go from the sorting desk, via the chiller and right into a fermenter tank which holds about 10 tonnes. We’ll hold the should chilled round 4 levels Celsius for a day or two earlier than warming and inoculating it with yeast. This chilly soak will permit larger extraction of color, fruit aromas and flavours from the skins with out including an excessive amount of astringency from the tannins.
Subsequent up is the Pinot Noir. We’ve obtained simply three tonnes of it, so we’ll use smaller open-top fermenters. Open fermenters permit us to make use of a portion of complete bunches in addition to de-stemmed fruit. The entire-bunch ingredient will improve the brilliant red-fruit character of the Pinot Noir. These vessels additionally permit extra exact management over smaller batches; we will gently work the cap by hand for lighter extraction.
Jean and I begin to barrel down the Chardonnay and clear the processing tools. Again within the workplace there are some grape samples from the winery: extra Chardonnay and Merlot, and a few Shiraz. We crush them up, do the chemical evaluation and style. The Chardonnay and Merlot are each able to be picked, however the Shiraz is just a little low in sugar and tastes a contact inexperienced, so we’ll depart that to ripen additional.
The winery staff have introduced extra fruit for processing, so I’m again on the forklift and unloading the truck. I’m most likely not going to get to crush this lot, nonetheless, because the evening shift have arrived. It have to be 6pm.
As a member of our knowledgeable BBX staff, Ben Chan helps our prospects take advantage of our wonderful wine trade. Discover out extra about BBX right here.
