Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/105709
photos by by melissa hansen Grapes are piped overhead from the crush pad on the right into the winery for processing. Notice the abundance of windows and full-length glass doors that take advantage of natural lighting. "Smaller wineries don't have the luxury of all the equipment we have here because of the cost and economies of scale," he said, pointing to a centrifuge they use to remove solids and clarify wine in a manner gentler than crossflow filtration. Crossflow filtration technology eliminates the disposal problems associated with using diatomaceous earth filtration, but Forsyth believes the technology is harsher on the wine than the centrifuge. Zirkle Wine uses a 400-gallon yeast rehydrator, technology that he hasn't seen used before in the state. Wineries need to rehydrate the freeze-dried yeast before adding it to juice to start fermentation, he said. "We want our yeast happy, rehydrated at the right temperature and with the right amount of nutrients so the yeast will be more viable and result in stronger fermentations." The rehydrator technology automatically controls temperature and rehydrates yeast in a couple of hours. "When you do it manually, it takes a long time, and it's usually not done right, because the person doing it was pulled off the job to do something else." First crush When the Good Fruit Grower visited Zirkle Wine in mid-November, harvest had ended and workers were cleaning crush pad equipment. Gewürztraminer wine, ready for final blending, had already been processed and shipped out, and other wines were in the process of fermentation, storage, or shipment. The length of time needed for winemaking varies by variety and customer. Turnaround time can be as short as two days for customers just wanting the grapes to be pressed into juice and chilled or several months if they want a more finished product, Forsyth said. Red wine will be in the tanks for five to six months before it's ready for shipment. He said their first crush went well, and they were busier than expected. "The vintage was the biggest ever, and because of the nice, long fall, winemakers pushed harvest out as far as they could. Tank space in the state was pressed to handle so many grapes all at once," he said, adding that they were able to accommodate a number of wineries in addition to Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, their primary customer. • Winemaker David Forsyth stands near a 15,000-gallon tank. Larger tanks holding 32,000 gallons are at the back of the winery, which has a total of 63 stainless steel tanks with a winemaking capacity of 1 million gallons. www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER FEBRUARY 1, 2013 23