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www.wineoftheweek.com
edited by Sue Courtney
e-mail address: winetaster@clear.net.nz
Virtual Vintage - A Day in the Winery
Part 1
by Sue Courtney
who visited the winery on 26th April 2000
Matua Valley Winery in Auckland's north west is a busy place at harvest time. The medium-sized winery, which produced 150,000 cases of wine last year, processes grapes grown at the home vineyard in Auckland as well as from Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Martinborough and Marlborough. The winery was state-of-the art when it was commissioned 25 years ago and has been well set up to cope with a 25 to 30-tonne truck-load.
I spent a day at the winery on the 26th April and there was plenty going on. A bad weather forecast had put pressure on getting the grapes in from Hawkes Bay and the last of the cabernet sauvignon was due, by truck, within the next half hour. Space had to be made in the winery for the last few ferments. The merlot, which had completed its fermentation in stainless steel tanks, was to be drained off with the free run juice and the pressings then pumped into another tank for malolactic fermentation. The chardonnay was to be inocculated for its fermentation cycle.
This is a photo essay in two parts. This is Part 1. Part 2 covers the 'Digging, Pressing and Tasting' episode.
| I arrrived at the winery to find the team hard at work in the tea room.
From l to r, Corey Hall (Assistant Winemaker), Toby Barlow and Matt Tolcher (cellar hands) and Mark Robertson (Chief Winemaker).
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The truck has arrived and as the gate on the back of the truck is opened the first of the machine harvested cabernet sauvignon grapes are released with a rush into a pristine receiver bin.
The colour looks good and the taste is too - delicious sweet ripe fruit with loads of blackcurrant berry flavours.
You can see the size of this huge articulated truck that transported the grapes from Hawkes Bay to Auckland, as it raises its rear trailer to empty the last of its load.
The second load is emptied and Matt, who looks after this part of the operation, climbs up to ensure all the grapes have made it to the hopper.
The last of the grapes are screwed into the crusher below. The crusher separates the stems and gently squeezes the grapes.
Here you can see the stainless steel crusher unit on the right with bins on the left to collect the stems. Note the hoses and the 'must' delivery line to the left of the crusher on the right hand picture.
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The stems that are expelled into the bins are later transported away by the local farmer. "The cows luv 'em", he says.
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The 'must', which is the juice, skins and pips - without the stems - is gravity fed into the collection tank below the crusher.
then pumped back up into the winery, through a series of hoses and delivery lines (see above)
to fill a 20-tonne tank, where it stays for a cold soak for 1 to 4 days depending on variety, wine style and pressure for space.
At this stage the wine will be pumped over occasionally to give access to samples for testing.
Sulfur was added to the must while the grapes were being crushed.
Irene works in the lab and checks for sugar and acid before the grapes are picked, then stability, sugar levels and sulfur and all the other things you have to test for before the wine gets into the bottle.
Back in the winery, the yeast is prepared for the chardonnay inocculation. Dried yeast is rehydrated in water and warmed up then the chardonnay juice is added to the yeast to get it 'started' and the mixture is stirred around.
Toby adds more juice to the yeast mixture in the container. This continues until the container is full.
With the white wines, which Toby is inocculating here, the juice which was pressed on arrival at the winery, has been supercooled, racked off the solids into another tank, and the container of yeast and juice mixture is pumped back through.
The reds are different. Once the grape juice has been added to the yeast, the mixture is sprinkled back on top - the 'direct pitch' method.
The reds are now pumped through 2 or 3 times a day until fermentation is complete.
Matt is pumping through a tank of merlot. When the red wine is fermented, it will be pressed off into another tank for malolactic fermentation, settling and storage for a length of time as determined by the winemaker
Now go to Part 2 of this story - Digging, Pressing and Tasting
Thanks to Matua Valley Wine especially Mark Robertson the Chief Winemaker and his hard working staff, for letting me watch and get in their way
Sue Courtney, 7th May, 2000.
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