Pinot Noir

Figure about 80 pounds. I'd round it up to 100 pounds.

_Never_ add water to grapes! One exception: when preparing fining materials, they need to be mixed with water. There's no avoiding that.

Get the pH below 3.5.

At _least_ until dryness. Certainly until you press.

You have no idea! You'll find out though. ;^) Do some reading. Ask more questions.

Tom S

"Mike" asked:

Upwards of around 70 lbs, depending on yield.

No water.

pH 3.2-3.6, TA 7-10 g/l (as tartaric).

Until dryness is reached (or at least until Brix < 5).

Check out:

for plenty more info. For a start, you might consider destemming, cold soaking, and saignée options.

HTH, Ben

Thanks, great info. Just a couple guestions.

You said this about yeast.

"Popular cultured yeasts for Pinot include Assmanshausen and RC212 Bourgovin. Some winemakers use D254, 71B (Narbonne) for enhanced fruitiness, or Rhône strains such as L-2056. "

What would you guys use for a yeast?

You also recommend a MLF. When and how would you do it?

When, what and how much Oak would you use for a 6 gallon batch?

I am considering getting pure juice instead of the grapes. If I do that and not ferment with the skins, what will I miss?

Mike,

A lot of these questions really come down to personal preference, so I'll try and present more than one perspective:

All these strains are popular, particularly RC212 and D254 in California and Oregon. But really the possibilities are endless.

Some would go after a few days into fermentation (taking advantage of the low alcohol and higher nutrient and temperature levels, and allowing for more security in being able to dose with SO2 sooner), and others would go for MLF after the AF (avoiding potential sugar metabolism by MLB, potentially avoiding higher VA production, and possible yeast-MLB competition). In any case, the issues of SO2 use and yeast-MLB compatability should be kept in mind. (See

If you are talking about chips for a US gallon, then ~2.5 oz (68 g, 3 g/l) would be the low end and 5-6.5 oz (136-182 g, 6-8 g/l) would be considered the high end. If you add it *during* fermentation you will get a softer oak character and better oak integration in the wine. I'd use *French* oak (this is used more universally for Pinot, though other oaks are used) and whilst toast level is fairly open I'd go for light-medium.

Most likely that juice was heated to extract colour and tannins. The character will be quite different to a wine that had aqueous/alcoholic extraction. Some winemakers even claim such wines can possess a "cooked" character, but that's debatable. The main things is that you will miss being able to control the level of extraction - whatever colour and tannin is there is what you get, and that might not be what you want.

HTH, Ben

Improved Winemaking