Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/705606
w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m J u l y - A u g 2 016 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 4 5 organic grapes or wild yeasts, or experimenting with unfined and unfiltered wine in various ves- sels. Dumayne is among them. He conducts trials for every vintage, using the same grapes and juice across concrete, oak, stainless and amphora. Varieties change each year. Those experiments haven't swayed Dumayne from his prefer- ence for concrete. "Concrete tends to add many layers of complexity to the aromas. The palate is texturally enhanced and adds a significant creaminess along with vitality and fresh, juicy acidity to the wine," he says. "I leave wines on gross lees for as long as possible to add to the pal- ate weight and complexity. Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris stay in tank for 11 months. Sauvignon Blanc can be eight to 10 months. Rosé comes out after about six. Concrete tanks are fantastic, as I can have red wine in them, empty and rinse, and have white wine in them immediately with no color staining." AMPHORAE A t B e c k h a m E s t a t e V i n e - yard, there's an unusual synergy between the tanks and wines as Andrew Beckham crafts both the wines and the vessels in which they're made. He's making a mod- storing and prepared with a very acidic solution. Additionally, some users may find them cumbersome and too fragile for commercial use. A n a d v a n t a g e t o b o t h m a k- ing and using the amphorae, says Beckham, is that "if there's a microbial problem, we have access to kilns. We can nuke anything that ern clay amphora with properties "similar to concrete because of porosity." Beckham says, "I'm ter- ribly excited about how our wines are coming out of our containers. This is something that's very new for Oregon and the United States. Very few vineyards are making commercial wines in clay vessels." Beckham is quick to add that his work is "not an experiment." He and his team are using techniques practiced for thousands of years and are making vessels at his Sher- wood studio as large as 200 gal- lons. "The amphorae are marvelous insulators. They stay cool for 21 to 30 days versus 10 days. The wines are very different. They have more energy and tension due to the cool- er, prolonged extraction." The wines Beckham is making aren't additive wines and he uses organically farmed grapes: Ries- ling, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Malbec and Grenache. Some of these are very delicate, says Beckham, "if you clobber the fruit with other components, it starts to impede the characteristics." He notes that white wines, for exam- ple, "do really well in the beeswax- lined vessels. We're trying to let the fruit be super expressive." Care and cleaning associated with clay vessels is more intensive. They have to be fully dried before Winemaker Andrew Beckham of Beckham Estate Vineyard crafts amphorae vessels for his wines. www.flextankusa.com 877 407 3348 | sales@flextankusa.com Proudly designed and manufactured in the USA. Tanks are manufactured in and ship from Vancouver WA 98682 ® ...and the New A Full Line of tanks for start-ups to large scale expansions ORION 528 Gallons / 2,000 Liters Principally designed as a 2 ton closed fermentor the ORION™ tank may also be used for long term storage. As a fermentor the ORION offers a number of advantages over open bin ferments. A current trend in winemaking is the Egg shaped tank. Winemakers report superior fermentation results in these tanks due to the shape promoting both internal convection mixing and cap concentration.