COV E R F E AT U R E
More and more wineries are turning to concrete for fermenting and aging
their wines. Here are some reasons why concrete tanks are gaining favour
among Canadian winemakers.
By Mark Halsall
When Christine Coletta and her
husband Steve Lornie were
opening a brand-new winery in
B.C.’s Okanagan Valley in 2011, they asked
for advice from their consulting wine-maker,
Alberto Antonioni, on what kind of
stainless-steel tanks they should buy for the
business. His answer came as a big surprise.
“He asked, ‘Why stainless steel?’ We
looked at ourselves and thought, ‘Oh my
goodness, we’ve hired the wrong person!’”
Coletta laughed.
Antonioni’s suggestion that they opt for
concrete instead was met with skepticism
by Lornie and Coletta, who had seen some
older open-top concrete tanks in operation
before and weren’t terribly impressed.
That changed after the couple spotted
a novel, egg-shaped concrete container at a
wine trade show in California a few weeks
later. The tank, made by Sonoma Cast Stone
in Petaluma, Calif., not only had a very
distinctive look, but also contained some
appealing features like built-in temperature
controls. As they learned more about it,
Coletta and Lornie decided concrete was
the way to go.
For their new business, Okanagan
Crush Pad Winery, the couple bought six
1,800 litre ‘Classic Egg’ tanks from Sonoma
Cast Stone. “They were fabulous,” said
Coletta, adding that it only took about
five minutes to set up the tanks once they
arrived at the winery.
When the need for larger tanks arose
a year later, she says they started buy-ing
bigger capacity containers from the
noted Italian concrete tank-maker, Nico
Velo. Each of these larger tanks took about
a week to install.
Coletta says she and her husband
couldn’t be happier about their concrete
tank purchases, but recalls there were a lot
of naysayers in the local wine community
at first. That has changed in the eight years
since – Coletta estimates there are probably
Ricco Bambino
FALL 2019 § POURED CANADA § 17