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Saturday 28th March 2009

We have had some header boards made for a couple of the tanks.

Local carpenter, Trevor Modistach made the wooden slats to the shape of our stainless steel tanks. The boards are first waxed, and the wax is heated to ensure a good seal. This is water, or wine-proofing, the wood.

One of the reasons for the use of header boards is to maximise colour extraction.

If you can imagine squeezing oranges to make juice, and then leaving it in a glass for half an hour, you will notice a separation, with the pulp rising to the top, and the juice remaining at the bottom.

It is the same when making red wine. The grape skins rise to the top of the vat and the juice stays at the bottom. The mass of skins and seeds is called the "cap".

All of the colour is in the skins, so we need to make sure the juice is in continual contact with the cap to extract that colour. (It is possible to make a white wine from Shiraz).

The method we use to maximise colour extraction is 'pumping over'. We attach a hose at the bottom of the fermenter that is passed up and over the top of the fermenter, and a cellar-hand holds onto it like a fireman and sprays the juice over the skins. This breaks up the cap and forces it back to the bottom. This needs to be done two or three times a day, so it can be time consuming, especially as there is so much else that needs to be done at this time of the year.

To insert the header boards into the eight tonne open fermenter, we first had to drain out some of the gloriously brilliant red Heysen Shiraz wine into another vessel. You can see in this photo the slight red ring around the top of the stainless steel tank. The header boards were placed on top of the cap, and staves were placed across them, and directly under the stainless steel footings of the tank.

The wine is then passed through a chiller to cool it slightly from its ferment temperature of about 25 degrees. It is then pumped over the top of the boards, filling the spaces between and raising the cap, and consequently the header boards. The cross beams fit perfectly under the footings as it rises.

The wine bubbles away through the process of fermentation. The action of the yeast creates alcohol, carbon dioxide and heat.

And at this position at the top of the fermenter, the smell is amazing!!

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