Page 44 - Grapevine May-June 2020
P. 44
Around The Vineyard
the fruit is very clean and free of MOG when it Martinez & Martinez is another Washington State
arrives at the winery. If destemming is necessary on winery in Horse Heaven Hills that started in 1981
a grape load, it will feed from the hopper through from plants gifted to the winery by Mercer Estates.
the destemmer, and the clean fruit would be sent Co-owner Andrew Martinez says his winery deploys
to tank for fermentation,” Santos said. a destemmer manufactured by Diemme.
When leaves, stems and rachis (the latter “We use a small-sized Diemme brand destemmer
described as the grape structural skeleton) tradi- with crushing capability. This small destemmer/
tionally make it into wine ferments, they some- crusher has the capacity of running about four to
times increase undesirable characteristics in wine, five tons per hour. For being a smaller unit, it is
such as vegetative flavors and aromas that wine- quite functional, versatile and industrial in its use. It
makers would just as soon do without. Richard can crush berries from a slight crush to a full berry
Hoff, Director of Viticulture of Mercer Ranches, pop. It can be run at a slow or fast pace to leave
points to technology now available that allows for stems in the fruit or not. Also, it can easily be taken
destemming huge harvests before the grapes leave all the way apart for full sanitation. The cost of
the vineyard. A combined tractor and harvester units comparable to this one would be from $5,000
performing multiple functions can cost more than to $10,000. Since our winery is still doing small lots
$400,000. of each variety, this smaller unit still fits our needs
exactly.”
“We utilize Pellenc harvesters that have onboard
Selectiv destemming technology,” said Hoff. “Each Martinez added that information on destemmers
Pellenc harvester has two bins onboard. Each bin and hoppers often comes from others in the viticul-
can hold 1.5 tons of fruit before needing to be ture industry.
emptied.”
“When deciding on equipment, the best knowl-
Hoff told The Grapevine Magazine how the har- edge comes from different vintners who have used
vested grapes are then emptied into a gondola, the equipment, so asking what others are using and
which can hold three-plus tons of grapes. He added if they like it is some of the best info you can get.
that the gondola’s technological advantage in Also, talking to the sales reps and manufacturers of
bringing grapes from the vineyard to the winery the products is a great way to find out about what
is its ability to hydraulically lift itself to dump the they have, and they can usually refer you to some-
grapes into a semi-truck trailer, which then hauls one in the industry who uses the equipment and
the grapes away to be processed at the winery. can give you insight on what they like and don’t
One gondola can cost about $18,000, and the semi- like.”
truck trailer hauling the grapes to the winery runs
an approximate cost of $38,000. Providing a variety of destemmers and hoppers is
a specialty of The Vintner’s Vault, located in Paso
Given the significant capacity needs of Mercer Robles, California. The company has its own fabri-
Ranches and Mercer Estates Winery, Hoff said that cation facility to serve a client base that stretches
the equipment, technology and costs are all in line. across the United States and beyond, including
Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, China, Nova Scotia and
“This setup works great for us at our scale. Some Indonesia. Ryan Horn is the company’s president.
smaller wineries may not be set up to receive
22-ton trailers. In those cases, they will likely “We sell IMMA for people looking for high quali-
receive their fruit from macro bins—similar size to ty, whole berry destemmers with all destemming/
what you’d see apples picked into. These macro crushing options possible. This is, by far, our most
bins range in size to hold anywhere from a quarter popular,” said Horn. “For clients on a tight budget,
ton, half-ton or one ton of grapes.” we sell units that we work with Enotecnica Pillan,
based in Vincenza, Italy, to design in such a way
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