Making Stonehaus Wines
Fay Wheeler realized that the wine industry would be based upon American varieties and French hybrids. He refused, however, to accept that as a limitation. Borrowing from certain European wine traditions, especially from Bordeaux, he realized that blending could add complexity to wines. Fruit quality in the wine is critical to Stonehaus’ proprietals. Wines achieve their character from the various fruit qualities of the constituent varietals. Fruit is everything to this style of wine, and Stonehaus’ wine-making process has always recognized that fact.
Using Pasco Poly cooling panels in Criterion polyethylene tanks, wines are fermented at a slow rate and at a temperature Western wineries might consider impractical, if not impossible. Wines are slowly fermented over months, not weeks, by keeping the tanks at a constant temperature below 50 degrees Fahrenheit at the mid-tank thermometers.
Fermentation air-locks never come off the tanks and head spaces are allowed, which would be frightening in still wines. Standard practices, such as racking, are conducted at these low temperatures, indicating that even some settling occurs during such slow fermentations. The consistent sub-50 degree temperature provides needed cold stabilization. The long periods below 50 degrees apparently substitute for the lower temperatures often thought necessary to drop out tartrates.
The objective of this unique cellaring is better retention of fruit quality in the wine. Stonehaus’ cooperage may also aid this goal. Stonehaus wine tanks are mostly white polyethylene Criterion tanks provided by Pasco Poly Tank. Stonehaus is equipped with 79 Criterion poly tanks, which Fay Wheeler found preferable to the stainless tanks he used in his first winery. Research conducted at the University of Bordeaux found that poly tanks reduce wine. That is, they eliminate the oxygen that is known to be the enemy of fruit flavors in wine. While the chemistry of this observation is not fully understood, Fay Wheeler believed the results may be valid. Poly may indeed help retain fruit character in wine. While the impact of poly tanks upon fruit retention may still be speculative, other characteristics of Stonehaus’ Criterion tanks are less so. Fay noted that the tanks are easier to clean and he especially liked the way the tanks easily display wine levels. They are also much more cost effective when compared to stainless steel. We do have several large stainless steel tanks, totaling more than 15,000 gallons.
Filtration
In the very early days of Stonehaus, Fay Wheeler was in search of a filtration method that would accentuate the flavor and quality of his wine as well as improve the efficiency of his winemaking. In the research process, Fay discovered the Memcor Company which was experimenting with crossflow technology, the same technology used in kidney dialysis machines and internationally in many large water treatment plants. Wines that are filtered through crossflow filtration in contrast to traditional pad filtration taste better and are more chemically stable thereby improving shelf life. Fay purchased one of the 10 prototypes from Memcor. At the time, only two wineries in the continental U.S. were using the technology. After 15 years of faithful service, this machine was replaced with a new, higher-capacity machine, a Koch WF-6 that can filter 15 gallons per minute at .2 microns.
Bottling
When we opened our doors, we offered five wines produced from the first crush of 25 tons of Tennessee grapes yielding 3,300 gallons of juice. All wines were sold on site. The wine production in the yearly years was very much a manual process with little automation. The grapes were crushed on site in a three-ton per hour crusher de-stemmer. The grapes were then pressed with 1,500 pound capacity basket presses. Additionally, the wines were bottled by hand.
Over the years, we have seen many changes in our operations. Somewhere around 2005, it became evident we needed to make some changes, as it became increasingly difficult to continue our early processes and keep up with the increased demand for our wines. Specifically, we found a great need to add space for more tanks for wine production and wine storage. In 2005, we added a 4,000-square-foot addition (this would be our fifth addition since our initial opening). Additionally, we needed to be able to bottle more wine at a time than our bottling line. In 2006, we purchased a GAI 2505 TOP / GAI 6060 bottling line made in Italy. This bottling line allowed us to bottle up to 3,000 bottles of wine per hour. This has vastly improved our efficiency in the bottling process.
Stonehaus wines can be found in liquor stores and grocery stores in Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Tri-Cities, and all points in between.