Why Hold Workshops About Maintaining Wine Equipment? 

Despite winemakers learning throughout their career the intricate details of creating a perfect wine, it appears that very few winemakers are specifically trained to maintain the equipment which can be relied on so heavily in the wine production process. 

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With most winemaking equipment coming from Europe, the best form of guidance as to the calibration and use of equipment one might expect is an (often poorly) translated instruction manual which is approximately 30 pages long and typically full of words which don't necessarily actually say anything of considerable use to the user of the machine. 

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Having accrued a substantial amount of experience in servicing, maintaining and optimising these machines for individual customers' needs, and conscious that with harvest approaching, they might not have time to assist customers in such basic maintenance this year, Core decided to give some valuable knowledge back to the industry via a series of wine workshops. 

 

How to get the best from your pneumatic grape press

Core is a distributor of Scharfenberger grape presses, which are very resilient, reliably German-engineered machines. A matter of plug-in-and-play, this seemed a logical start as it allowed Core to keep the workshop relatively quick and simple, focussing on basic maintenance techniques, particularly before using the press for the first time in harvest after it has not been used for at least 6 months. 

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Gratitude must be expressed to Rathfinny Wine Estate for allowing Core to use their venue for the workshop and to use their Scharfenberger grape press for demonstration purposes throughout the workshop. Their assistance and food provided throughout the day helped the event to run as smoothly as possible. Dieter Heckel of Scharfenberger also deserves thanks for driving from Germany to Rathfinny for this event, and sharing some of his knowledge on optimal pressing sequences respective of different desired wine types. Many of the attending winemakers were very interested to hear this information from someone so well-travelled within the industry. 

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Finally, Core would like to thank the winemakers who attended, many of whom travelled a very long way to attend this, and were very helpful in providing feedback, allowing us to understand the gaps in winemakers' knowledge as far as the equipment is concerned, providing an insight into future workshop subjects. 

 

How to get the best from your disgorging equipment

Early in 2017, Core installed a brand new, automatic Valentin disgorging line at Hattingley Valley Wine Estate. As there has been much industry-wide curiosity about this new disgorging line, Core decided that this would be an interesting opportunity to showcase the new equipment, as well as cover the important points such as maintenance of both automatic and semi-automatic disgorging equipment. 

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Held just 1 month after the grape press workshop aforementioned, the second workshop featured a demonstration of the new disgorging line, a demonstration of the lower capacity, semi-automatic equipment, and talks led by various people. 

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The workshop began with a talk from Emma Rice and Jacob Leadley, Head Winemaker and Winemaker at Hattingley Valley respectively, advising the attending winemakers on the decision-making process which Emma and Jacob went through when deciding which disgorging line to purchase, who to purchase it from, and the requirements of Hattingley Valley and how the equipment could meet their needs. 

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Next, Anke Lepinette, International Director from Valentin Thierion, talked to the attendees about what they should be trying to achieve through the disgorging process; i.e. fill levels, cork levels, other elements of consistency. Next, Anke explained how Valentin equipment, both automatic and semi-automatic, helps make it as easy as possible for winemakers to achieve a high standard of disgorging. 

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Finally, Colin Sene, Service Manager at Core, demonstrated basic maintenance techniques on both the automatic and semi-automatic equipment on display, and stressed the importance of servicing equipment according to the frequency of its use. Core recommend that disgorging equipment, which is typically used all year round, is serviced at least once every 6 months. 

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Core would like to express thanks to Hattingley Valley for hosting this event and for their help in clearing and preparing the winery for so many visitors, and to Valentin for driving over, supplying pens, notepads, USB sticks and bags for winemakers to take home, and for sharing their knowledge with everyone who attended. Finally, Core would like to express thanks to the attending winemakers for travelling such a long way, and for being so attentive throughout the presentations. 

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Hopefully these workshops will begin to save some time for Core, and therefore save some money on maintenance for the UK winemakers. 

 

Upcoming workshops

In light of harvest, there will be no more workshops for winemakers until after harvest 2017. However, Core are looking to hold another workshop in the Winter, after harvest, on the subject of Fermentation Control Systems. This will see an insight into the improvements that monitoring of the fermentation process can bring about for your wine, and into the recording capabilities of the software. 

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This event may be open to brewers and cider producers too.