Winery Sanitation Workshop

We spent the evening at Findley Lake and when we got up the next morning, I looked out the window and told my husband that it had snowed. He didn't believe me, but it got real for him soon enough! This is really worrisome for people with vineyards because this past winter was really warm and this spring has been amazingly warm. When we visited Cameron Hosmer, he mentioned that he had to hire helicopters to buzz his vineyard to stir up the air when there was a frost warning a few weeks ago.

We arrived at the CLEREL facility in Portland, NY right on time and checked in. There were about 50 people attending the class. The agenda for the class is shown at the right. Denise Gardner began the Workshop with some sanitation terminology and the proper use of the terms, "clean", "sanitize" and "sterilize". The way to keep spoilage at bay is to maintain the proper level of cleanliness. The current sanitation protocols are moving away from the use of chlorinated agents due to the formation of trichloroanisole or TCA, the smell associated with cork taint. The water used to clean a winery should also be tested for chlorine, since this could also lead to TCA formation. Anna Katherine Mansfield followed with a session on the microbiology of spoilage, the organisms involved, the flaws that they could create in the wine and how to prevent or ameliorate the impact of the flaw. Chris Gerling's session was on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and how to prepare the sanitizers. He also mentioned the use of the ATP bioluminescence reaction as a rapid method for testing the cleanliness of the winery environment.
After a brief respite for lunch, we reconvened for the last session of the workshop which was the sensory analysis of wine flaws in both red and white wines. I really enjoyed taking this workshop.