Page 11 - Grapevine July-Aug 2020

In The Winery

“The 640-acre property was one of Napa’s few The cave-building odyssey lasted nine years and
contiguous vineyards to retain its acreage after now stands as a technological wonder in Napa
prohibition,” Christian Palmaz told The Grapevine Valley. At 100,000 square feet, it is the largest wine
Magazine. “Henry Hagen had planted grapes at cave in Napa, as well as the largest soft-rock exca-
three different altitudes, and we wanted to retain vation in a single space in the area. In a testament
that philosophy. With so many different soils and to the Palmaz family’s commitment to sustainabili-
microclimates, the place was begging to be planted ty, the cave houses its own water treatment plant,
by terroir.” capturing and treating 1.5 million gallons of water
per year, water which would ordinarily be drawn
Before planting, the Palmaz family analyzed from the water table.
4,900 core samples from around the property to
reveal the vineyard’s geology. This data, along At the heart of the winery is the fermentation
with analysis of climate and irrigation needs, led dome, lined with 24 fermentation tanks that can
to the designation of 15 unique terroirs subdivided accommodate grapes from individual vineyards
into 46 blocks, or parcels, throughout the proper- across the estate. The tanks sit atop a carousel that
ty. Planting began in March 1998, and ultimately rotates to receive grapes from the optical sorter
included eight different rootstocks based on geo- located directly above them, exposing the grapes to
logical considerations, plus some vines grafted onto as little handling as possible. Because each tank has
various clones. Grapes were planted on 64 acres at many variables depending on the characteristics of
three elevations—400, 1,200 and 1,400 feet above the specific vineyard, Palmaz developed an intel-
sea level—to take advantage of the varied terroirs ligent winemaking assistant, FILCS (Fermentation
and microclimates at each altitude. Intelligent Logic Control System), nicknamed Felix.
Felix measures events in the fermentation process,
While the vineyards matured, the Palmaz family then adjusts the temperature and rate of fermen-
began construction of The Cave, a remarkable feat tation as needed. Essentially, Felix utilizes the lat-
of engineering bored 18 stories into the bedrock of est technologies in machine learning algorithms
Mount George. The cave was specifically designed to project real-time conditions within the tanks
Palmaz Vineyards: to accommodate true gravity-flow winemaking, onto the ceiling of the dome, giving the dome the
appearance of a space-age command center. As
which treats the grapes and resulting wines as gen-
winemakers digitally monitor what is happening at
tly as possible on their journey from the sorting
The Winery of the Future table, to the fermenters, to the
filters, to the barrels and, ulti-
mately, to the bottle.
By: Nan McCreary “When gravity-flow wineries

became prevalent, we real-
ized that all had elevators, but
the process compromised the
wines at the end—when the
wine was most delicate—by
using pumps to move the wine
through filtration,” Palmaz
said. “We believed that this
agitation could potentially
degrade the wine’s delicate
tannin polymers, so we engi- At the heart of the winery sits the fermentation dome, lined with 24
neered the winery to solve fermentation tanks that can accommodate grapes from individual vine-
that problem. That’s why the yards across the estate. The sophisticated monitoring systems for
structure is so tall.” each tank allow winery team members to project a broad range of data
(including thermal imaging) onto the ceiling of the dome.
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