I work with a winery that employs the practice of gravity-flow. Now, I'm familiar with the concept and marvel at fermented wine flowing down 38 feet to the caves, but I'm wondering...

...does this matter to the average Joe/Jill? Do people get it? And just what would you say gravity-flow is if asked?

What say you winemakers?

Thanks.


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Queenie...

Check out Portfolio if you haven't. They are the prime example of gravity flow.

Their wine does not see a single pump during the entire winemaking process including bottling.

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I can see how gravity flow would make a difference but I could also see it just being a marketing gimmick.

Is there a noticeable difference between gravity flow wine and pumped wine?

The whole goal is to treat the grapes and wine gently. This is especially true prior to the wine going in to barrels. The term "crush" is misleading since in making fine red wines, you don't want to crush the grapes but rather just break open the berries allowing the juice to escape without breaking the seeds. Broken seeds can impart a harsh flavor to the wine. Modern high-end winemaking equipment (including pumps) does a very good job of treating the berries gently. You'll often see winemakers carefully montitoring the process to ensure that the berries are being broken open without crushing the seeds and that only an acceptable level of MOG (Matter Other than Grapes) is making it through to the fermentation tanks.

As pyang explained, gravity flow wineries are designed so that you never need to pump the wine anywhere. You remove the possibilty that some seeds will be crushed by a pump. It is also gentler on the finished wine. This, in theory, leads to a better wine.

However, there's a significant financial tradeoff in going for a gravity flow winery including often higher design and construction costs and the higher operating costs necessitated by increased labor and difficulty moving the wine around. These tradeoffs, IMO, outweigh the possible slight advantage in winemaking quality that gravity flow provides.

Sure sounds good in marketing though -- "Visit our new, state-of-the-art gravity flow winery."

Make Cab, not War.

To further Babik's point, but may not exactly relate to the original topic.

I don't think there will ever be a way to get the true measure of the difference between 100% gravity flow winemaking vs. the usual way. Unless someone decides to do a comparative batch such as what Plumpjack has been doing with their Reserve Cab, screw cap vs. cork.

As far as the entire winemaking process goes, including the gravity flow design. If you get the chance, get some Cab from Hendry Winery, perferably their Block 8 if such a designate is available. Try that next to a Portfolio and the difference is night and day.

Not exactly comparing apple to apple, as the varietal blending percentage for the two wines are different. However, anyone should be able to see the vast difference between the two bottling. For my taste, Portfolio is far superior than any of the Hendry Cab.

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One advantage I can see to gravity flow is you don't have to worry about those nasty Cali blackouts.

I remember reading about Mondavi working on a gravity flow winery as well, Tokalon(?) Would be interesting to compare wines from there with their "regular" stuff.

quote:

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Originally posted by Youndo:
I remember reading about Mondavi working on a gravity flow winery as well, Tokalon(?) Would be interesting to compare wines from there with their "regular" stuff.

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That's correct as Genevieve Janssens is the Director of Winemaking for Robert Mondavi as well as the owner/winemaker for Portfolio.

Here is an article I found.
To Kalon Project

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gravity flow is a great thing.....if it logistically works. You pretty much need to have your winery built into a hill to build the various (usually 3) strata. In the middle of a valley.......oh.....it could be LODI (grrr), or on a crossroad in the middle of Napa, it's cost prohibitive to excavate that much earth.

Nice things about gravity flow: you save on pumps and hoses, less electricity used, more gentle on wine.

-Vitis Vinifera

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Thank you all, I can sleep better now knowing I'm getting a kinder, gentler wine.

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