The Vessels It’s a well-known fact in the Paso wine scene that our Winemaker, Jordan Fiorentini, has a crush on concrete. We love concrete for its clean contribution to both fermentation and aging (though not all of our concrete vessels do both; keep reading for specifics). Concrete is a neutral vessel, allowing the fruit from our estate vineyards to do most of the talking, but over time, it can add a beautiful mineral component to our wines. We have concrete fermenters in our winery, and these tanks are used solely for fermentation. They have large 36” lids that are helpful with pump-overs and punch-downs but do not work well for long term storage; as a result, we do not age wine in these concrete beauties. The tanks impart some minerality during fermentation, and the thermal dynamics of the concrete aid in the fermentation as well. The thick concrete walls hold in the warmth and/or cold when we need it. For aging, we have two types of concrete vessels: tulips and eggs. The Tulips come from Nico Velo and are made with concrete from the Dolomites in Italy. They hold 580 gallons. One is used to ferment our Grenache Blanc. The other two are for red wines, typically our Grenache based blends. Our eggs come from a company called Nombolt in France and hold 180 gallons. They are used to age our Grenache Blanc. For Grenache Blanc specifically, the concrete helps bump up the pH a bit and adds a fun mineral edge to the wine.
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