That Said
It is vitally important to choose equipment for its function, more than its form. Wine is a delicate product, and it is very important that no money is spent unnecessarily on endeavours such as purifying your wine because the tank allowed titrates to form, or pressing your grapes too much because the press is not efficient or well designed enough to get a good yield from minimal press cycles. But if you choose a supplier you can trust to ensure the function of your equipment meets your needs, you can spend more time on how you want your winery to come across to others. Because, believe it or not, that’s important too.
The Aesthetics of Equipment
Public Interest
The general public are constantly taking more and more of an interest in the manufacture of what they consume. Whether it’s the modern interest in organics, British heritage or just general tourism, wine tours in the UK are exponentially increasing in popularity.
For example, @UKWineTours has nearly 1000 followers on Twitter, with arranged tours every single day.
That’s a lot of laypersons to impress. Of course, we all love what we do. But how do you convince a group of merely curious people that your winemaking process, with loud noises and wet floors and stainless steel everywhere, is something worth seeing?
Well, it’s not such a challenge as one might think. Much wine tour business is repeat custom. Clearly you winemakers are doing something right! But how do you increase the interest from this point?
The Approach to Increasing Appeal
Firstly, why would you want to increase interest in touring your vineyard? Mainly because the more interest there is, the more valuable your tour, resulting in what could be a very profitable weekend, particularly in the less busy months. This could not only increase your annual income, but allows you to fill those quiet periods with work and, of course, income.
Secondly, how do you increase interest? The trick is to identifying your market, and then making them aware of what you can offer them. Use social media, advertise in magazines your target audience would usually read, and use Google to promote your website. Of course, the best business you can get is repeat or recommended business, so make sure you impress every single visitor.
The Equipment You Can Choose to Help
There are small things you can do to make a factory tour even more appealing to a wine enthusiast, which do not cost much at all. At Core, we recognise that this is perhaps not your highest priority, but it is important.
Letina tanks, for example, are high quality tanks which you can trust to look after your wine through the first fermentation. Welding is expert, resulting in minimal titrate formation, and meaning that the task of cleaning your tanks after fermentation is a little less arduous. The reliability of the quality of these tanks means you can be assured that everything inside the tank works as it should, allowing you to focus on the aesthetics.
For Example
We recently supplied Simpsons Wine Estate with several tanks which Simpsons knew were going to be seen during wine tours. As the tanks were Letina, Darryl (Head Winemaker) was confident that their internal design would require minimal time and effort to maintain / clean all whilst allowing optimal fermentation conditions. Simpsons were therefore able to focus on the impression their customers would have when they saw the tanks.
The fermentation room is otherwise very industrial. There is not much for customers to see. But it is an opportunity to maintain a level of awe from customers, as they are impressed by the general appearance. As you will see from the photographs below, the slightly brushed stainless steel finish on the tanks is beautiful, and the Simpsons logo engraved on the front plate of every tank looks absolutely gorgeous. These are the small finishing touches which aid a customer’s impression of your vineyard and their own experience, and cost a negligible fraction of the total tank cost to implement in your own winery.
