At Napa Barrel Care, owner Mike Blom’s business is barrels. Blom oversees about 15,000 barrels in his 80,000-square-foot warehouse designed to provide barrel storage and management for 45 winery clients.

The barrel lots range from just a few barrels to a few dozen, and Blom provides racking, topping and all other barrel-management services. When it comes to washing barrels, he needs a system that provides as much flexibility as possible.

Blom says he found the answer in the barrel-cleaning units by Rancho Cordova, Calif.-based AaquaTools with KEW Poseidon power washers.

The units can provide 1,100 PSI of water pressure and handle 180° F water. “That seems to be our best fit,” Blom said. “We’ve tried a number of systems, (but) having a system with more flexibility is more important for us.”

Blom said cellar workers at California Barrel Care move from barrel to barrel, inserting power washers into the bungholes of upside-down barrels. Cleaning cycles last 3 minutes, and Blom said he could typically clean 240 barrels in a regular 10-hour shift. If a client requests it, Blom will follow high-pressure hot cleaning with an ozone rinse.

What works best for Blom, however, is not necessarily the answer for every winemaker or operations manager.

Cooling off the heat
At Testarossa Winery in Los Gatos, Calif., a 24,000-case producer of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah from the Santa Cruz Mountains, director of winemaking Bill Brosseau said he uses Gamajet barrel washers powered by a Hotsy pressure washer using softened and dechlorinated water.

Brosseau said he’s found the Gamajet units provide a full revolution of contact every 3.5 minutes, and he sets a washing cycle for 8 minutes, tracked by a timer to help ensure all debris is knocked off the interior of the barrel. “My goal is to use impingement and time versus high heat, which I feel removes oak nuances,” Brosseau told Wines & Vines. After cleaning, the barrel temperatures are around 130° F. “We know that if we do a good job of removing physical debris, we will not have any microbial pockets that will harbor nutrients when the barrel is empty.”

When faced with particularly troublesome tartrate residue, Brosseau said he soaks the barrels in a 5%-10% tartaric acid solution that pulls residual tartrates off the barrel. The process “seems counter-intuitive until you try it,” he said.

Brosseau said the winery doesn’t have the proper ventilation for ozone, but he runs multiple Scorpion PCR tests through the year and has had no positive results for Brettanomyces. He’s confident his washing system and general winery cleaning and sanitizing protocols—as well as a strict “one-way rule” for barrel sampling that prohibits pouring samples back into barrels—keep the winery clear of microbial contamination.

Other options for barrel washing include wash stations onto which forklift drivers lower two-barrel racks for cleaning as well as conveyer systems that can also incorporate racking and filling stations. Barrels essentially move down the line from racking to rinsing followed by high-pressure hot water and ozone rinses.

Steam and water recycling
Tom Beard Co., which is owned by P&L Specialties in Santa Rosa, Calif., is a specialist in manufacturing cleaning machines and systems.

P&L president Ed Barr said the company is set to release a redesigned and improved two-barrel steam unit. He said the machine now sports a better bunging system to create a tighter seal and better vacuum after the barrel has been steamed. An onboard computer also allows the user to set the hold time for the seal.

Barr said the unit features larger drain ports because the steam cleaner was generating “quite a bit more” material after each steam cycle than anticipated.

The company is also set to release a new water-recycling, half-ton bin washer for the 2014 harvest. “One of the fun things with this one is we used car wash technology, so it has rotating wands in it very similar to what you see in a car wash,” Barr said.

Vic Vasquez, owner of Barrel Blasting in Napa, Calif., continues to expand his unique system of cleaning barrels with dry ice. The system scours the inside of barrels with carbon dioxide crystals, removing wine and tartrates. “We’re the only cleaning system out there that still removes that old, dirty surface,” he said.

Vasquez said once that layer is removed, an ozone rinse, sulfur candles and sulfur-dioxide gas are more effective as sanitizers because the gas or aqueous solution can coat the wood.

He said some clients have started using barrels that are 10 or 11 years old and have undergone blasting three times. The first blasting removes the most material from the inside of the barrel (about 1-2 mm) as the dry ice is stripping out the top layer of charred wood, Vasquez said. After that, less material is removed as the wood is tougher. “We believe we’re the only guys who truly bring out a neutral barrel,” he said.

Clients can opt to have Barrel Blasting install oak staves from their preferred oak alternative supplier to give a clean and neutral barrel new oak. Barrel Blasting is now selling cleaned, used barrels that Vasquez is also sanding on the outside to make them look like new barrels.

Vasquez likened a dry ice-blasting treatment to going to the dentist: It’s a deep clean rather than daily brushing. He said he’s often blasting barrels that have been emptied for bottling to get them ready for storage.