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52 W i n e s & V i n e s O C T O B e R 2 0 1 4 clusters are dumped directly into tanks. "I'm a whole-cluster guy personally. That's how I fell in love with Pinot Noir was drinking Pinot Noirs that had a lot of whole cluster," Cronje said. He adds that the sandy soils in Santa Maria produce grapes that don't have much tannin, and rather than use new oak, he prefers to improve the tannin profile by using whole-clus- ter fermentation. "The aro- matics are more true to the terroir than new oak. Any- one can buy new oak. That's not special to me in any way, shape or form." Cronje said the best grapes undergo 100% whole-cluster fermen- tation, while the rest of the wines are comprised of 80% to 90% whole clusters. "And it ages better in my mind, too. It's not everybody's cup of tea, I know that." The grapes that do get destemmed are run through an Armbruster Rotovib destemmer and then further sorted with a Vaucher Beguet Mistral 60, both from Scott Laboratories. Aside from a minimal dose of 20 to 30 ppm of sulfur dioxide at the crush pad, Cronje said he avoids any other sulfur additions to help ensure a healthy biomass that he said leads to a successful wild fermentation. For red fermentations, Presqu'ile is set up with 20 red fermentation tanks, which are a mix of stainless steel open tops from Criveller and concrete open tops made by Sonoma Cast Stone. Cronje said one of the challenges of whole-cluster fermentation is the thick mass of material in the tank. To break that material up, workers use a heavy- duty pneumatic punch-down device designed by R.S. Randall & Co. and con- nected to a festoon system above the tanks. The plunger offers a free range of movement for the operator, ensuring that the cap is totally pressed and broken up from all angles during a punch down. The concrete tanks are equipped with glycol coils in their base and sides that make it easy to warm up the must and get fermentation started. Each lot of red wine goes through a few days of cold soak, and Cronje said the ability to heat a concrete tank is a real benefit as the mate- rial is an excellent insulator. Tank temperatures are moni- tored and controlled by a TankNet system. A small wine lab is located near the bay of white fermen- tation tanks. Murphy's sister Anna helps run basic analysis. Jonathan Murphy, Matt's younger brother, is the assis- tant winemaker. Some of the key lab equipment includes a Thermo Scientific 105 UV- VIS spectrophotometer, Raven centrifuge and a Thermo Scientific Orion 2-Star benchtop pH meter. Once fermentation is complete, the tanks are drained out to barrels via grav- ity. All the tanks are situated so their bot- tom doors are about chest high, making it easier to dig out pomace. Red grapes are pressed with two Diemme basket presses. White grapes are loaded directly into a Europress, and the juice flows through hoses to tanks below the crush pad. Cronje pointed to small access hatches Red wines are fermented in a mix of stainless steel and concrete fermentation tanks. The right meter Easy-to-use, easy-to-choose meter kits specifi cally prepared for wine applications. Whether measuring pH or dissolved oxygen in wine, we have the perfect meter kit to ensure quality results time after time. • thermoscientifi c.com/orionmeters makes all the difference © 2013 Thermo Fisher Scientifi c Inc. All rights reserved. G R A P E G R O W I N G W I N E M A K I N G TECHNICAL REVIEW