Australia: Winemaking

The typical medium-sized modern Australian winery is comprehensively equipped, especially in comparison with its counterpart in Europe. It has a laboratory capable of carrying out most basic analysis; a powerful refrigeration system for cooling fermentation in insulated stainless steel fermenters, probably computer-controlled; and a must chiller to cool white grapes immediately after they have been crushed (unless they were machine harvested at night). The crusher, press, and filtration equipment are usually of French, German, or Italian design and fabrication; and it is highly probable that there will be several large rotofermenters supplementing the normal array of fermentation vessels, including the Australian-designed Potter fermenters (see below).