ON THE JOB WITH

By Tara Ryazansky

Photos by Max Ryazansky

When you imagine the place where wine gets made, you might picture the rolling fields of a scenic vineyard. You wouldn’t be wrong. But the industrial section of Bayonne, New Jersey, plays a unique part in the wine world, too.

Senior director of operations Chris Russell greets me at Free Flow’s Bayonne facility. We don safety glasses, and he brings me out onto the floor with a warning about occasional forklift traffic. A boozy, berry smell hits me.

“If you drink, this is the best smell in the world,” Russell says.

What I’m smelling today is Rosé by Sabine, one of the more than 250 wine brands that works with Free Flow in order to have their wine kegged or canned.

“We process our international and domestic customer’s wine,” Russell says. “We will keg it just like a beer that you would see if you went to a brewery.”

You might be more accustomed to seeing wine sold by the bottle, but Free Flow is a company that is bringing wine on tap to bars and restaurants all over America.

“I’ll liken us to the electric car,” Russell explains. “When the electric car first came out maybe 12 years ago, one person in your entire city had one. About 12 years ago, when wine was first introduced in kegs, it was the same. Each year that goes by, more and more people opt for a keg. The reason being, about 26 bottles fit into a keg. Imagine storing 26 bottles or one keg. Shipping from point A to point B is much easier with kegs.”

That’s not the only benefit of kegged wine.

“When it comes to the bottle, the cork is technically porous,” Russell says. “The enemy of wine is oxygen. As soon as you put wine in a bottle, your case starts to slowly deteriorate. When it’s in a keg, it never sees the sunlight. Your last glass of wine is as fresh as your first glass.”

But the most compelling part is happening right in front of us. Empty kegs that have been returned to Free Flow are being processed for reuse.

“For me, it’s the sustainable standpoint alone that gets me on board,” Russell says. “It is the electric car of how to consume wine.”

As warehouse workers, Dvontaay Harris and Lamont Thomas clean kegs, Brandon Syphrett fills empty kegs with Sabine Rosé.

“Let’s follow the line,” Russell says, leading me along the hose that Syphrett uses to add wine to each keg.

THE SPACECRAFT

It’s connected to a giant tank that stores thousands of gallons of wine.

Farther back are more tanks that hold wine in the long term for clients who want to store it for a while before kegging. Russell explains that sometimes when shipping costs are low, clients will send a surplus of wine to keg later.

Next, it’s time to see how the wine is delivered. Russell shows me what he calls a spacecraft. I don’t see any aliens nearby, but I do see an enormous version of boxed wine. Complete with the same type of port to pour from right at the bottom.

“It’s 256 gallons,” Russell says as he converts it from the metric system. “We have a lot of European customers.”

Despite being shipped in a bag, which is referred to as a bladder, the wine usually fares well on its long journey. Russell says that Jeff Orchard, the director of operations, has been with the compa-

ny for 12 years and he’s seen only two that have arrived damaged.

So wine gets delivered, the wine goes in tanks, then, wine goes in kegs, kegs are sent to restaurants or resorts and then gets poured into your glass. After they’re emptied, the kegs get returned and cleaned and enter the process once again.

There’s a little more to it than that.

WINE SEASON

Russell introduces me to Shawn Blount, who is pulling kegs for an order to send out. The kegs that Syphrett is filling will replenish the stock that Blount is sending out.

“We recognize that we’re running into rosé season,” Russell says.

Then, at the front of the building, wine laboratory technician Andre Hill is testing red wine in a system of beakers.

“My background as far as wine consumption is, I open the bottle, and I drink it. Red, or white, I pop a bottle open and leave it on the counter. If four days later I drink some more it tastes the same to me,” Russell says. “I’ve learned a lot here. Wine has

a certain content of sulfur, and it can’t be above a certain alcohol limit. Andre makes sure that it meets that requirement.”

“If we didn’t check the sulfur levels, they would naturally just start dropping, and the bacteria would start fermenting, and the wine would spoil,” Orchard, the director of operations, explains.

Hill tests new wine when it arrives as well as making frequent checks on the wine that is stored in the tanks at Free Flow.

Out on the fl oor is the newest addition to Free Flow’s Bayonne location. A giant tank lays on its side on the warehouse fl oor.

“That is called a Brite Tank,” Russell says. “Soon, that tank will be standing up as it should be. What it’s going to do is allow us to carbonate wine. We are going to start our fi rst order in the middle of May.”

This update will allow businesses to provide sparkling wine by the kegfull rather than opening a bottle and hoping that half won’t go to waste if no one else orders any.

I say, “Cheers to the new Champagne tank.” Then I remember that it’s called Champagne only if it’s from a certain region in France, and this sparkling wine will be made in Bayonne! — BLP