Sanitizing!

Sanitizing sanitizing sanitizing. So I’m thinking I know a little about this, have read about how and why it is supremely important, the Australians are OCD about it, what happens to wine if it’s not done properly, what chemical reactions and yeasty beasties take over, how (in some opinions) over sanitizing is the cause of sterile wines that have no character, etc on and on.

OK first of all, the tank is massive and “cleaning” it is a miniscule word in comparison to the enormity of the task. For a start more equipment that goes into “stud” category: a pump that runs on 240V of electricity yet must be safe around thousands of gallons of water, clamps, reducers, wrenches, large hoses that feel like they’re made of lead, really tall ladders, tank cleaner, citric acid, industrial strength buckets. And don’t forget your waterproof boots. I broke 3 nails just trying to get the clamps attached to the hoses. Oh an important detail, make sure you’ve got the hoses going the right way otherwise you’re sucking air through the pump and then you’ve got a big problem. Gilles has matter-of-factly warned me not to “fuck his pump”.

(top to bottom - attaching hose to pump, tank being sanitized, the hose jungle with water and electricity thrown in for fun)




OK can we talk about the ladder for a minute. I’ve hiked up 14,000-foot mountains without a problem, but for some reason scaling this ladder upside the tank makes my knees go all collywobbles. It feels like the damn thing is going to play a game of trust with me on it. I wonder if anyone’s ever peed their pants up there.


Anyway, climb up the ladder using one hand because the other is holding the hose, breathe, put the hose down through the top door peering down to make sure it's about 2 feet in, breathe, tie the garbage bag around the gapped door so that water isn't spraying all over the cellar, unfold your torso to scale back down, don't throw up. The illogicalness of how scary this feels just makes it worse. Why am I having such a hard time with this ladder business? Run water through, drain the tank, close the valves and pump tank cleaner through for 10 minutes, drain and rinse again, pump citric acid through for 10 minutes, drain and rinse again, multiple trips to the water faucet and GALLONS of water. Gilles tells me that for every gallon of wine made, at least 3 gallons of water is used! Now why did he tell me that? Doesn’t he know my guilt meter is calibrated to the Jewish metric system!

Well I feel a little less guilty about the leaky faucet in my bathtub that I almost broke with my pliers. I ended up with a full on stream instead of a harmless drip. I now understand why a little knowledge can be dangerous. Using wrenches at work does not automatically transmutate one into a plumber. But I had fun trying.

Finally deconstruct everything and dry yourself off. And that’s the condensed version. We run through it a few times until I can do one on my own from start to finish. I leave feeling pretty badass.