Winemaking at Glenelly
Philosophy
- We endeavor to make the wine as natural as possible, i.e. natural fermentation, no acid additions, etc.
- We pick earlier to try and achieve a lower alcohol wine with freshness, yet still having ripe tannins.
- We have a minimal intervention approach to wine making as good grapes make good wine, so intensive sorting and care is taken when receiving the grapes.
- Hygiene is of utmost importance in the cellar, and a combination of both hot water and ozonated water is used of cleaning.
Environment
- Concrete was coloured in ochre tones to match the surrounding soil.
- Growing a green vegetal curtain down the side of the building to blend it into the environment and to reduce the impact of the sun on the structure.
- Water usage in the cellar runs in a closed system, i.e. we purify bore hole water on the farm, water is then used in the cellar and passes through to be purified again and returned to our irrigation dam to be used on the vines, this in turn drains back to the bore hole.
- The roof of the winery was built using void formers which locks in air into the slab which makes the roof thermally stable as air is a poor conductor of heat.
- The cooling of the building is done by running chilled water through 15 kilometres of pipes in the structure which allows us to be far more energy efficient, a potential 70% saving.
- Changes of air occur in the build at night when the air is cold outside, the reason for changing the air is to reduce the spore counts in the building.
- We use gravity as much as possible to move the wine which leads to less usage of energy.
- Barrels are stacked on recycled plastic beams instead of wood.
- To reduce the chemicals used to wash the tanks, we use a high-pressure hot water system.
- We endeavor to recycle all waste that is generated, i.e. stems and skins go to composted, cardboard is recycled, etc.
