This past week was an important and busy one in production. In the beginning of the week the team went through out Chardonnay barrels and stirred and topped each of them. The second half of the week saw the beginnings of bottling 22,000 cases of our 2007 Santa Barbara County Chardonnay. ”Every two weeks we will top,” says assistant winemaker Ryan Ralston.
This is due to the fact that when you age wines in an oak vessel about 1 pint of wine evaporates out of each barrel every two weeks. The air space in each vessel, aka the ulage, gives us the perfect opportunity to stir before we top. We stir to age our wines on the lees, which reintroduces sediment back into the wine giving a rounder mouthfeel. The lees are the solids left after fermentation that fall to the bottom of the barrel as it ages.
The other option winemakers have for dealing with the lees is to “rack” the wine into another barrel. Stirring and topping also allows the winemakers to check and monitor every barrel on a regular basis. We keep the lots pure by always topping each wine with itself.
In the Santa Barbara Winery Tasting Room during the week you can hear the clanking of the hundreds of bottles going down the bottling line throughout the entire day.
Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery
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