Wine country innovation at Vinnovation

(NVR) - A chance Fourth of July meeting of two like-minded “machine geeks” has yielded an innovation aimed at improving a tedious but critical step in the winemaking process.

Alex Mitchell and Evan Schneider have developed a device that they say will speed and enhance the process known as “pumping over,” a cellar procedure required during the fermentation of red wine. Under their company name Vinnovation, the two partners designed what they have named the “Lotus” pumpover head with the help of several Napa Valley winemakers who were frustrated with previous designs.

Mitchell said the pumpover procedure is a critical and often labor-intensive part of red wine production. After wine grapes are crushed, the juice, skins and seeds are collected in a fermentation tank. The juice settles and the skins and seeds float to the top, creating what is known as a cap. During fermentation, winemakers work to keep the juice in contact with the seeds and skins, which add color and flavor compounds to the resulting wine. This is usually done by pumping the juice to the top of the cap and letting it percolate down through the skins and seeds.

“I like to think of it (the skins and seeds) like a teabag,” Schneider said. “If you had a teabag that just floated to the top and just dried out on top of your tea, you’d want to push it back down to make a good tea.”

“To get a good, high-quality wine,” Mitchell added, “you want to pull the colors and the flavors out of those skins (and seeds). It (the pumpover process) varies greatly but typically it happens between three to five times a day, for weeks on end.”

Before pumps were available, winemakers would push the cap down into the juice several times a day, a process called punching down, Mitchell said. Today, the most basic pump-over technique involves a cellar worker manually directing a hose over the cap. Mitchell said that various mechanical devices have been used to automate the process but, according to many winemakers, the technology has fallen short. The primary problem, they said, was the uneven distribution of the juice as it was pumped onto the cap.