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Wineries come
in all shapes and sizes. Winemakers all have their way of doing things. If
the Viticulturalist is the true value maker, the winemaker is the self
proclaimed star of the show. They carry the glitz, and attend all of the
fancy wine tasting espousing their philosophies on wine and life in general.
As the adage
goes, ‘90% of the quality of the wine is achieved in the vineyard’. So what
goes on in the winery? Well if your not careful, a years hard work in the
field can be ruined in 30 seconds in the winery. The winemaker is the
custodian of the process, ever watchful, and ensuring that should the grapes
ever waver on the path to wine, then he/she can put the process back into
line.
As Stated by Ough (1992 p92) ‘The best wine can be made from
the best grapes, but it is not difficult to make poor wine from good grapes
– The fermentation process is one of the most important steps in winemaking’
As a
manufacturing unit, the winery is a most unique place. Every year the winery
will be pushed to the limit in every way – capacity, equipment usage,
manpower. This period usually lasts about 3 months, from harvest through til
the wines have progressed through their fermentation period and have become
relatively stable and commenced the settling and ageing process.
If the winery
also bottles the wines on site, then this operation will be carried out
fairly regularly, especially if a number of varieties are being made.
For the rest
of the year relatively few winemaking operations are carried out, but winery
staff often use this period for planning, maintenance and marketing
activities.
So when
setting up a winery, thought must be given to how the winery will operate
during peak loading, especially if due to adverse conditions grapes all
arrive at once during harvest.
Generally if
one is setting up a smaller winery processing less than 100 Metric Tonnes of
grapes per year, finding investment is generally difficult and the space you
have is the space you have. However to make good wine there are some basics
you will need.
Infrastructure:
Winery
Equipment and wine itself is heavy. You will need a solid concrete base on
which to place the winery.
A good water
supply is essential. Rule of thumb is that a winery uses 10 parts water for
every part of wine produced. For a 100T winery this would equate to 1
million litres of water per year.
Waste
disposal – All that water and waste needs to go somewhere. An effective
drainage and disposal system is vital. The easiest way for a winery to
become unhygienic and harbour numerous spoilage organisms is through
ineffectual drainage systems.
For wineries
based in more rural areas, this is no small task.
A winery must
be clean. Micro-organisms are invisible, and spread very quickly. Their
endemic existence ensures spoilage. Several micro-organisms that we can do
without are Acetobacter, which will turn the wines into vinegar, and
Brettanomyces, which will leave a ‘horsey/barn-yard’ taste in the
wine. Any vessels/machinery or hosing that comes into contact with wine must
always be thoroughly cleaned with appropriate detergents.
Once you’ve
got the infra-structure in place you need to start about what equipment
needs to go into it, which will be the subject of my next article.
Article
written by:
Puneet Dhall
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