diluted. Cordons grown bilaterally, as opposed to unilaterally, have to grow only 4 feet instead of 8 feet, and this keeps the vines vigorous longer. Around the first of June, vineyard workers will position the shoots, either by hand or by machine, pulling them down toward the earth so they don’t tangle. This ensures that one cane – the fruiting portion of the vine – isn’t growing on top of another. If this happens, the nonproducing cane will suck up sunlight, blocking the producing cane below it. In most grape-growing regions, the canopy (the leafy growth) is trained to avoid excessive shading of the fruit. In Missouri, which is hotter and more humid than other areas, viticulturists want a canopy that filters the sunlight evenly onto the fruiting zones. In July, the leaves are pulled to create the desired effect, with thinner canopies on the north side of the vines and thicker canopies on the south side to shade appropriately.
LATE SUMMER & FALL As harvest time approaches, Kooyumjian heads to the vineyard to take samples of the grapes and test them for taste and chemistry. He tastes the grapes himself to assess maturity, and samples go to the lab to check sugar levels, acidity and pH balance. When it’s determined that the grapes have reached peak maturity, it’s time for harvest, which occurs between mid-August and mid-November each year. One or two days before harvest, crews inspect the vines for unripe or diseased grapes and remove them. Kooyumjian uses machine harvesting in his vineyards and believes this method results in better-quality wine. “Grapes are only at their prime maturity for a few days,” he says. “Hand-picking takes a long time, but a machine can pick a 10-acre vineyard in two to three hours and have the grapes back to the winery at their peak ripeness.” To prepare for harvest day, machinery is set up the night before. When the sun breaks just enough for crew members to see what they’re doing (around 5am), they fire up the machinery and begin harvesting. “You want to harvest the grapes at their coolest point,” says Kooyumjian. “Some people believe that’s at midnight, but it’s actually right before sunrise, after the grapes have spent the entire night cooling.” Grapes are rushed to the winery and inspected for immature fruit, debris and disease, and the de-stemmer removes grapes from the stems. White grapes, which at this point are about 60ºF to 70ºF, go into a chiller with 15ºF water to bring them to a temperature of 40ºF before they are pressed whole. Pressing the grapes at this temperature ensures that the flavors and aromas of the skins are imparted into the juice without the phenolics (which cause bitterness and off-flavors) and tannins. The juice is cooled to 35ºF and left to sit for one to two days so the solids settle. The clear juice is then transferred to a temperature-controlled stainless steel tank and innoculated with a strain of yeast conducive to its particular variety to begin the fermentation process. Forty percent of Montelle’s wines are sweet, made so by stopping the fermentation process before it has finished and leaving natural grape sugars in the wine. The fermentation process is stopped with cold to kill the yeast. The yeast is then separated from the wine using a particle separator, or centrifuge. Few commercial producers use this method for sweet wines. Instead, they complete the fermentation process and then add sweetness back into the wine with cane sugar or juice concentrate. When fermentation is complete, the wines are put through cold stabilization, where they are stored in stainless steel holding vessels for one to two weeks below freezing, at about 28ºF, to chill and remove potassium bitartrate crystals (cream of tartar), also known as wine diamonds. All of Montelle’s whites are stainless-steel-fermented, with only Vidal and Chardonel seeing a brief barreling in oak. After they are de-stemmed, red grapes are placed in fermenting tanks whole ‒ skins, seeds, pulp and all ‒ to impart color and tannins into the juice. After fermentation, the solids are removed and pressed to extract as much wine as possible. Red wines go through a second fermentation, called malolactic fermentation, to decrease the levels of malic acid and soften the wine. Sweet red wines are then cold-stabilized, blended and bottled. Dry red wines go into barrels for 13 to 24 months. Montelle gets 90 percent of its barrels from World Inspired Food Culture
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