As is the case with making of any food or beverage product good sanitation is key to a successful final product. Stainless Steel and specifically stainless steel wine barrels naturally lend themselves to good sanitization practices because they are easy to clean and sanitize. During crush season the stickiness of grape juice and must on floors, railings and a general sense of the winery being closer to an actual workshop than something in Architectural Digest or the glossy tourist brochures. But if there’s stickiness, there’s sugar; and where there’s sugar, there’s food for bacteria, flies and a vinegary atmosphere. And vinegar isn’t something most of us want associated with wine. Microorganisms move from becoming a dormant part of a winery’s ecosystem to a problem with very few ingredients, many of which are activated by the bustle of crush: nutrients, ambient temperatures, moisture and time. Three simple procedures can help manageable problems from becoming plagues: cleaning, regular sanitation and sterilization. Cleaning is the removal of debris off the surface; you have to do that one first. Sanitation is the reduction of unwanted organisms. And then finally, sterilization, the elimination of all possible contaminants. These steps are key because 98% clean is still 100% dirty. One of the basic avenues to ensuring good winery hygiene is good design. Adequate lighting and ventilation, specific areas for cleaning barrels and building systems that deliver reliable hot water are key, as are subtle elements such as sufficient slope to the floors so that liquids flow toward the trench drain rather than pooling or—worse—toward walls, corners and crevices where they can harbor micro-organisms. Perhaps the biggest risk to winery hygiene is inadequate cleaning, and the accumulation of nutrients and then bacteria in places such as valves, locks, the threads of connections, unpolished or non-passivated welds and the undersides of tanks, barrel racks and other areas that may come in contact with wine but are seen as secondary to the actual making of wine. Hot water is handy even for simple tools like the wine thieves used for drawing barrel samples; dipping them in boiling water between barrels can limit the spread of contamination between barrels. Be proactive in the cellar hygiene, don’t be reactive. After something’s spoiled in the barrel, it’s too late. Better winery sanitation can only improve your wine quality.
Wine