Winery Experience 2010 Cracroft Chase Vineyard and Winery, Christchurch

Martin Gardner

Cracroft Chase Winery

• 5 ha pinot gris planted 1998 by Alex and Wilma Laryn, Italian expatriates

• Purpose built winery on site• All operations done on site from harvesting to

bottling• Small laboratory• Aim to produce a complex food friendly wine

• Annual crush 30-40t• Wine volume 15000-20000L• Juice treated in different ways- free run,

pressings, macerated on skins, tank fermented, barrel fermented and MLF

• Attention to detail at all levels• Blended together prior to bottling

The Winery

Equipment

• Della Toffola crusher/destemmer and must pump• Della Toffola 3t airbag press• Variety of variable capacity tanks• Several mono pumps and a centrifugal pump• 12 old oak barrels• Pad and plate filter• Gravity fed bottling line with membrane filter

inline and capped by hand

My Laboratory

• Can do Brix, TA, free and total SO2, pH and enzymatic malic acid

• Also can do protein and cold stability trials

Crusher/destemmer with basket press in the background

On the front end loader at vintage disposing of marc

The owners- with lunch!

The owners- with lunch!

Unloading the bin where grapes have been macerating into the basket press

Me sampling barrels