1. At Mills Reef Winery, Tauranga, New Zealand Kat’s Winery Industry Experience
2. Back when I had a sneaky feeling of what I wanted to do... The wonderful crew of Mills Reef took me under their wing and gave me the best experience of what winery work is all about.
3. The Winery Located in Tauranga, in thesuburb of Bethlehem, Mills Reef Winery is one of only two wineries in this region. The company has both a winery and restaurant on site which is constantly busy with functions, casual diners and wine drinkers.
32. My Involvement Cellar hygiene Racking from tanks Racking from barrels Filling barrels Cleaning tanks Bottling line procedures Wine storage procedures Additions to wine in tank Additions to barrels Monitoring DO’s (dissolved oxygen levels) Cleaning barrels Setting up gas floats Tank transfers Malolactic fermentation Lees stirring Lees recovery
33. My Favourites... Cellar work!!! Being underground, with a cellar full of barrels to tend to and a number of tanks to rack. I did many oxidative rackings where the wine would be pumped through a large open pan before being transferred to barrel. The Chardonnay cellar also became my home for sometime, moving the wine to and from barrels using Nitrogen gas. Here I learnt the valuable skill of cleaning barrels too!
34. Bottling The winery crew would often pitch in and help the bottling line complete an order. This was tedious work!!! But a radio fixes that! Mills Reef has an expansivebottling line that they usefor their own wine but alsofor other local winemakersas a contract bottling operation.
35. Thanks to the crew for the best experience!!P.S. This was my favourite wine.