{"id":22217,"date":"2021-04-20T08:18:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T06:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/?p=22217"},"modified":"2021-04-20T09:46:31","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T07:46:31","slug":"redheads-winery-harvesting-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/20\/redheads-winery-harvesting-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"RedHeads Winery harvesting the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Talking to Alex Trescowthick, Chief Winemaker at\u00a0RedHeads Wine<\/a>\u00a0you soon realise he’s not afraid of cutting a new path.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Alex traces his open-mindedness about winemaking to a lecture he attended in 2016 by Roger Boulton – a Professor in Chemical Engineering. Professor Boulton’s research into fermentation has solved many old questions over the years, made some discoveries, and proposed new theories for the fermentation process, and achieving stability in the finished product.\u00a0At the end of the chemistry-focussed lecture, the question most on Alex’s mind was: “Why isn’t everyone making wine in this way?”<\/div>\n
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So the offer back in 2017 to set up RedHeads Wine<\/em>, owned by the well-known Laithwaite<\/em> family of wine merchants, and located in the favoured Barossa Valley of South Australia (the Wine state); together with a licence to experiment and develop new methods and processes in the making of small-batch premium wines, couldn’t have come at a better time.<\/p>\n

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Alex Trescowthick, Winemaker<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Grape Selection<\/h4>\n
In addition to producing wine from their own grapes, RedHeads select berries from other premium growers around South Australia – choosing their grapes row by row. From peachy Chardonnay to robust Graciano; From Barossa-abundant Shiraz to lesser known varieties like Touriga – RedHeads hunt out low-yielding grapes which will be perfect for the bottling they have in mind.<\/div>\n
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When RedHeads relocated their business in 2019, they realised they had an opportunity to build a winery which would be at the forefront of innovation in the wine industry.<\/div>\n
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New Build plant and reservoir<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Solar Energy<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
Early on, an application to upgrade the electricity grid to suit their needs resulted in a much higher quote than expected. A consultation with\u00a0MyEnergy Engineering<\/a>\u00a0whose electricians and engineers have over ten years of experience of energy harvest and storage for Commercial and Residential customers, demonstrated that for the same investment they could purchase their own solar energy installation and<\/em> eliminate their electricity bills. RedHeads Wine – who say they have ‘Green Heads’ when it come to decision making – liked the idea of solar powered winemaking, but wondered whether in practice, their installation would cover 50% or 75% …or more, of their requirement. Now that it’s all up-and-running they have their answer – 97% of their energy requirement is met by their solar installation.<\/div>\n
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The Energy Storage System (ESS) at RedHeads Wine was designed by Ciaram Granger,<\/em> Managing Director at MyEnergy<\/em>, and comprises:<\/div>\n
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