Pressing Pinot Noir following completion of primary fermentation

Not to worry, just do as the owner said. Exposure to air at this stage is ok and in fact probably beneficial.

I add one piece of advice. After setting for a day in carboy, do the first racking to get it off the gross lees. Put the gross lees in another container, let set another day and decant or carefully rack some clear wine off the top and throw away the sludge.

There is no need to hurry to get off the lees that develop after this as they will mostly contain dead yeast cells and not pulp debris. It is the gross lees that will result in H2S problems down the road if you don't get the wine off these early.

I second Paul's suggestions of getting the young wine off of the gross lees early in the secondary. I use DAP and nutrients at the beginning of primary and have not had H2S problems at that stage - but have had them in the secondary stage after pressing and leaving the wine in glass or stainless for a couple weeks. So now I rack off after a few days in secondary much as Paul suggests. So far, have avoided H2S - apparently as a result.

As for the vertical basket press - most everyone uses them because they work fine. I wouldn't worry about the oxygen at this stage - unless you extended the maceration and the fermentation is completely done. It is arguably even a good thing for the fermenting wine to get that oxygen. An Australian winemaking book I read some time back had an interesting suggestion; apparently it is popular there to aggressively get oxygen into the primary fermentation (removing the cap and then racking the fermenting must back across it, bubbling, etc). Apparently they believe that more oxygen is better during primary - rational considering that yeast need some oxygen to do their thing.

Dave,

As Paul says, pressing normally won't affect wine.. I wouldn't add any Potassium Metabisulphite to must or wash down press with a strong mixture without washing it off press first either.. May slow or stop fermentations prematurely.. As long as press reasonably clean, not a problem.. Lots of choices to do that.

Paul,

Never heard of racking off lees/sediment after a day with red wines. Interesting.. Have to think about that.. My routine has been to press into

5 gal marked plastic buckets. So that I can keep tract of amount of free run vs pressed juice to balance/separate, etc. and then to pour into carboys through a screened funnel. My understanding is MLF may need some of the lees and that lees also add to the wine so haven't racked off them the next day. I also know that weight of lees may cause dead yeast cells to rupture. So I smell and stir juice and monitor pH every two weeks during resting, sur lie, period. Six weeks after fermentation, I'll test sugar level with clinitest tablet to find out how dry wine is, just for curiosity only, and chromotography test to make sure malolactic fermentation is complete. If done, I'll measure acid, pH and adjust with tartaric if necessary, add 120% of asceptic level of SO2 and any oak additions into clean carboys and rack the wine off the lees and yeast. Sounds like your approach may take some of the H2S risk out of resting the wine during 6 to 8 weeks after fermentation and probably not impact the benefits of lees in wine during that period. Probably enough left after racking next day to still do the job..

Jim

Excellent, thanks so much for this info.

One thing I hadn't considered is that I'll be siphoning off quite a bit of free-run juice into a carboy before pressing. I'm wondering if you happen to know about what % of run-off I might anticipate before having to press the remainder. Nothing scientific, I'm just curious about a rough figure. Understood different varietals and soaks result in different mixtures which will free-run better or worse than Pinot Noir.

Thanks,

David

Don't know but I would suspect that 70% to 80% will be free run. I have never worked with Pinot.

As a note: I think you will find that the "free run" will drop a lot more lees and gunk than the pressed fraction. I know, it does not seem logical but this is always my experience.

Don;t siphon it off - just keep the 'free run' that comes off separate. as you transfer the wine from the primary vat to the press, a LOT of wine will simply "run out" - that is your free run. No need to siphon anything.

Ahhhh... interesting.

I'm planning on letting everything settle for a day in a few carboys, so I can siphon off the gross lees.

You guys *sure* it's okay for all of the wine to be out in the open air, running free through a basic press? It just seems so counter-logical to me, having had a few batches in previous years ruined due to oxidation and under-sulfiting. Call me paranoid. On the other hand, from what I've been reading, you're all absolutely correct. God I hope this works. :)

Cheers,

David

Yes.. Just bucket the grape skins and juice into your press cage. Whatever runs out is the free run juice... usually considered the premium stuff. Albeit still quite full of sediment as Paul mentioned. I have a 12 gal press and usually press down with my hands (wearing rubber gloves to avoid stained hands) to firm up the building cake every bucket or two.. making sure no voids, etc.. I raise my press up by bolting it to two nailed together pallets. That allows me enough space to collect the wine in those white plastic buckets that have a 1/2 gallon increment marks up to 5 gal on the side of the container and keep track of what goes in each carboy for future blending/tasting. The pallets also make the press much more stable. Then when press is full of grape skins and juice, I let free run go until almost completely stopped. Then crank down on cake until light resistance and then let that juice run out until almost completely stopped. Then repeat process. Eventually, I have to crank down pretty hard towards the end. There's the temptation to just crank the heck out of the press and apply high pressure initially, but if you do you may trap juice between layers. It takes awhile. I always seem to be a little anxious towards the end as to when to call it quits and reload since wine/juice is still coming out, but very slowly. Some take the cake out, mix it up and repress. I don't have patience for that.. Pressing is fun though.. definitely a fun part of making wine..

"David" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...

I hate to contradict here, especially given that I do not have a lot of posting under my handle here, but, I usually do not rack after I press untill ML is done. This could be a couple of weeks to a month later, depending on temp. Lees suppose to be good for ML. I am on my third year of Pinot and no H2S problem yet. On your original question, yes lots of C02 protecting the wine, even if you read 0 brix as at this point. alcohol throws off the hyrdometer reading, so primary is still going.

Uzi

Hi everyone,

Wow, this is excellent information. I've searched high and low and

*blush* should have instead just posted the questions here in the first place.

My start culture is about ready. One last night at 50-54F (had a hard time getting temp below that) and then it's time to warm it up and pitch. And then the real fun begins. :)

I'll be sure to use all your information, and will let you know how it turns out.

Thanks,

David