Santa Maria, Calif. (KEYT/CNN Newsource) – Winemaker James Murphy gave a brief tour of the sprawling Central Coast Wine Services Winery facility in Santa Maria and its vast climate controlled storage facility.
Murphy said, “Ideally 55 degrees is the golden temperature for me.”
Murphy said the heat wave that’s going to blast the Central Coast wine growing region and local wineries could spell trouble for those not equipped to protect their wines.
“It is paramount, it is paramount right now, that’s a make or break especially when you’re looking at triple digits,” said Murphy. “You’re talking about perceptible degradation in any vessel that it’s in–stainless steel, wood, a bottle–it doesn’t matter. It’s going to degrade in a short period of time, a very short period of time.”
Keeping barrels, tanks and bottles out of the heat and direct sunlight is vital.
Murphy added, “Number one is climate control, any winemaker will tell you that the first thing that he’s trying to do is to just maintain quality, that’s what he is trying to do, and the biggest enemy of that is heat.”
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