Pyramid Valley Winemaker Huw Kinch shares how equipment like shaker tables, destemmers, and gravity-fed fermenters contribute to precision and consistency in the winery, and why the combination of human influence alongside nature and technology make for a magic formula.
Like all things with winemaking, each step has an influence on the resulting wine. From the decision of site selection, matching a variety with that site and the care and attention given to growing the vines – these decisions, in my opinion, have the greatest impact on a wine’s potential.
Every decision throughout the season – from pruning, shoot thinning, canopy management, spraying to picking – has an impact on the wine. These are the human decisions we can control. What we can’t control is the weather.
The next step in shaping wine quality is deciding when to pick, what to pick and what to leave behind. This is even more important in more challenging years, when not every grape in the vineyard is perfect.
In the winery, deciding what makes it into the tank or press is another opportunity to shape a wine’s potential. Having good sorting equipment such as a shaker table that evenly distributes the fruit onto the sorting belt is hugely beneficial. Along the belt, people with trained eyes remove any fruit that isn’t of the best quality, as well as leaves, petioles and insects. The basic rule on our line is: if you don’t want to put it into your mouth it doesn’t make it past this point!
Transferring Pinot Noir via gravity to open top fermenters
For Pinot Noir, the fruit then goes directly into the tank if we make the decision to use whole bunches, or through a destemmer. Having a good quality destemmer that removes the berries from the stem as gently as possible, resulting in a high percentage of whole berries – without chopping up the stems – is another important tool in maintaining quality. We then gently transfer the fruit into open fermenters using gravity, which ensures the fruit enters the tank in the best condition.
There are also optical sorters available using cameras and air jets to do this job, but in both cases – whether people or machine – quality still comes down to a human decision on what is removed and what goes into the wine.
Huw overseeing Chardonnay fruit transferred from the sorting line directly to the press.
For Chardonnay, the fruit goes from the sorting line directly to the press. For Pinot Noir, the skins go into the press post-fermentation. At this stage, having a good quality press is important in maintaining quality as we aim to avoid extracting unwanted bitter phenolics in the juice or wine.
Temperature control during fermentation also helps ensure quality. Avoiding extremes makes it easier to achieve consistency. Likewise, the ability to store wines in a cool environment during élevage helps us maintain quality, especially when aging without the use of SO₂.
For me, having these technologies makes it easier to make wine with consistent quality. But as always, the most important thing is that each decision is made with deep care, thought and intent.
Huw Kinch
Winemaker and Estate Manager
Pyramid Valley