Winemaking uses water — for cooling tanks, washing down the crush pad, and keeping barrels swollen through summer. This year we rebuilt our cellar water loop so that nearly every gallon is captured, filtered and returned to the vineyard.
The numbers surprised even us. Cellar water use is down by two thirds, and the settling ponds now feed a drip system that keeps the young blocks green through the driest weeks of August.
Clean water in, clean wine out. It is the least glamorous improvement we have ever made, and possibly the most important one for the decade ahead.
