Moving within the wine cellar
Some statistics say that moving is the second most stressful thing you can do in your life. (The most stressful is a divorce, but that's not our topic today.) In fact, there are very few people who like moving. No wonder, since everything is being shaken to its foundations and rearranged.
Wine is no different: the more often it moves from barrel A to barrel B, the worse its mood becomes. Because it too is torn from its beauty sleep, shaken up, forced through narrow tubes and has to get used to its new surroundings.
Well, says the clever winemaker, we'll just let the wine slumber wonderfully in the cellar and not disturb it. But it's not quite that simple (that was obvious). In addition to filling and bottling (the first and last steps), a wine has to go through at least two processes in its life: filtration, which takes place before and after alcoholic fermentation.
If that were all, life would be easy. But unfortunately there is also "wine Tetris" (we just invented that term). You may know Tetris: It's a game in which individual blocks are pushed back and forth until everything fits together without gaps. And that is exactly what is important for winemakers. Because we always have to fill our barrels to the brim (or to the top, as the winemakers say) without gaps (i.e. without oxygen), so to speak, to the top of the lower lip, because oxygen is another thing that makes wine hysterical. And this clever back and forth movement of the wine is an art in itself...
Photo: digital wine cellar at the Graf von Weyher winery
Here in Weyher we have 36 stainless steel tanks of various sizes, with a capacity of 200 to 10,000 liters. In addition, there are around 35 barrique barrels of 225 liters each. This means we can store around 150,000 liters of wine at the same time. We can fill a maximum of 9,000 liters (around 12,000 bottles) per day, but due to storage capacity reasons, we cannot always fill everything at once. So if half a tank is left over, it has to be combined with another wine (i.e. a cuvée is created) or the wine has to be transferred completely into a smaller tank. In any case, it means stress for the wine: Another move!
We therefore have to weigh up every step carefully: How many liters do we fill? Is there wine left in the barrel? If so, where can it be transferred? Or can we perhaps avoid another transfer altogether? Moving management in the cellar is therefore an important part of the art of winemaking. We are still waiting for the program that will use artificial intelligence to tell us that the Scheurebe in the back left will have a nervous breakdown if we move again, while the Riesling in the front right will remain completely relaxed if it moves into the neighboring barrel.
To keep track of all the moves (and to keep the authorities happy), there is the wine book. It is our bible, because it contains everything we need to know:
Photo: Excerpt from the wine book
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How many kg of grapes were harvested?
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How many liters of juice came from the grapes?
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And how much wine ultimately came out of the juice? (Due to filtration, congestion in the hose and constant quality control, there is always some loss)
But that's not all. Every intermediate step is also precisely documented. Incidentally, this is a task that our senior boss Otmar still does by hand. The complete list records every process: filtration, bottling, transfer (from tank A to tank B, etc.). With every transfer, the quantity is documented before and after, the action is described, and the new barrel number is noted. This is a job that requires a certain passion for accounting - and practice.
Only after bottling does another monitoring system come into play: AP analysis (we have written more about this here) .
The wine books themselves are special books with pre-printed pages. They must be kept for 10 years after the wine bottles have been filled. In other words, if the wine is in the cellar for 25 years, the corresponding wine book must also be kept for that long. We currently have 8 thick wine books in the safe.
So next time you have to move, remember: keep calm and drink wine. At least you won't be forced through tubes.
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