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7 4 V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T | N o v - D e c 2 014 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m Leveque of Napa Valley-based WALT, the sister label of Craig and Kathryn Hall's HALL Wines. What Leveque is doing, how- ever, is not only labor-intensive, but downright clever. He's lightly roasting the stems and sapping a bit of that green quality out of them before he adds them to the fermentation. He gently separates some of the stems from bunches of pinot noir, gently roasts them in a chile roaster, and then adds them back. It's a fairly brilliant, quintes- sentially Californian solution to an age-old problem. Leveque explained that there are a few things that tend to occur in a tra- ditional whole-cluster fermentation: "Usually people throw the whole clusters in first and then put crushed fruit on top to try to break up those berries (on the whole clusters)," he said. "But more often than not, almost all of those berries remain intact, so you have a condition where Steve Leveque conducted many experi- ments to try to gain more complexity in his wines from stems, without adding bitterness. VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION www.americantartaric.com ENOLOGY - Yeast - Yeast Nutrients - Malolatic Bacteria - Enzymes - Enological Tannins - Fining - Cleaners - Cellar Chemicals - Filtration Supplies - Rotary Vacuum Filtration - Cross-flow Filtration - Filtration Consulting - Equipment Service and PM - Replacement Membranes - Continuous Presses - Crushers Destemmer - Pneumatic Presses - Vacuum Presses - Centrifuges - Flotation - High Solids Cross Flow Filter - Pressure Leaf - Rotary Vacuum - Sheet Filters - And More PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES GROUP Introducing our New Process Technologies Group Building on our Commitment to Provide the Wine Industry with the Best in Class Service and Innovative Equipment Solutions. WEST COAST SALES 1230 Shiloh Road Windsor, CA 95492 Tel 707.836.6840 Fax 707.836.6843 1625 Commerce Way Paso Robles, CA 93446 Tel 805.237.1223 www.americantartaric.com you get carbonic maceration, which is what people in Beaujolais are try- ing to do. It doesn't have the benefit of having juice on the outside that extract on the outside. Consequent- ly, you are making wines that are more floral and more forward in their fruit and lighter in style. "The second thing, which is very different, is that you have stems in the mix. They contribute ... contrib- ute tannins, and secondarily, it real- ly changes the flavor profile." In other words, there are pros and cons to stem inclusion. L e v e q u e 's t e c h n i q u e w a s inspired by some studies in which he participated with Oregon State University's Dr. Stephen Price, when Leveque worked at Robert Mondavi Winery and Price was brought on as a consultant. "He and I devised a lot of experi- ments on whole-cluster inclusion," Leveque said. "We looked at 0% whole cluster, all the way up to 60%