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WINERY ter that establishes quickly and results in a clean fermentation without influencing or dominat- ing the vineyard traits. "VIN 13 (Anchor Yeast) works well in our juices, rarely requiring nutritional additives which, I believe, influence final wine flavor," she said. In order to retain site-specific characters, Sperling added that careful yeast selection is particularly important for whites that don't go through malolactic fermentation. "We make sparkling wine from chardonnay, pinot noir and a rare clone of pinot blanc that produc- es hauntingly classic sparkling cuvees," she explained. "For these For prestigious red wines Due to frequent power outages, Andrew Meggitt of St. James Winery in Missouri chooses yeasts that do well with higher temperatures. straints. "In certain wines we will focus on fruit purity, and in others the ability of the yeast to manipu- late this. Vintage variation can also have an influence," he said. A par- ticular working condition unique to the region is also considered: "We lose power a lot, so I tend to select yeasts that are happy at higher temperatures." Currently, Meggitt has seven go-to yeasts in his program and 10-12 others that he phases in and out. He also conducts a large num- ber of spontaneous natural fermen- tations, which are influenced by the quality of the fruit and the specif- ics of the vineyard site. St. James Winery maintains 36 SKUs with varieties such as Norton/Cynthiana, vignoles, Concord, Catawba, cham- bourcin, Cayuga and seyval as the basis of its production. Ann Sperling, winemaker at the 45-acre Sperling Vineyards near Kelowna, B.C., touched on the importance of preserving terroir when selecting wine yeast. "Wine- making is knowing how to let the site speak and recognizing how much or how little to intervene," she said. For white wine, Sperling selects a reliable, neutral, strong fermen- WWW.VWM-ONLINE.COM Lalvin Clos® has been selected by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Facultat d'Enologia) from the Priorat D.O.C. area where alcohol and polyphenol levels are usually very high. Lalvin Clos® ferments over a wide temperature range, tolerates high potential alcohols and respects the organoleptic and varietal complexity of the top-of-the-range red wines. www.lallemandwine.us JULY - AUG 2012 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT 61