Re: Making Red Wine

Jul 18, 2003 2 Replies

Dear Tom



Thanks for your advice.



I am only 30 min from the winery so I will try and arrange to find some good size drums. They will be Pinot Noir grapes so I think I will go for the cold soak. I am also looking at doing extended skin contact 30 day



+.

I am sure I will be back for more questions.



Thanks again.



Marc "Tom S" a écrit dans le message de news: XjSRa.184$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...




> >
> > I have only vinified white wine before and I looking at doing some red > this
> > year.
> >
> > I live in wine region in France and I was interested in making a red but I
> > see no real purpose buying a wine that has finished fermenting as I cannot
> > change the colour, style.
> >
> > Is it possible to transport freshly crushed red juice just before
> > fermentation with the skins etc.
> >
> > I am looking at making 500 litres.
>
> I've done that many times. It's about 8-10 hours to the Napa Valley from
> here. I picked up the grapes at the vineyard and crushed on site into 55
> gallon plastic drums on the back of a pickup truck. At that time I also
> sprinkled dry yeast on the top of the must. During the drive home the yeast
> started to become active. By the time I got home the fermentation had > started.
>
> Of course if you want to do a cold soak prior to fermentation you'll need to
> ice down the must immediately at crush. Dry ice works well for that.
> Repeat as necessary to keep the temperature below 50°F.
>
> You don't want to try to put too much must in any one container because they
> get too hard to unload. For a half ton or so of grapes (~500Kg), enough to
> fill a barrel and have enough for topping, you'll need at least 3 drums, and
> 4 would be more comfortable. You can combine them into fewer when you get
> home, but don't fill them much more than half way at first or they might
> overflow when the fermentation gets going good.
>
> Tom S
>
>

Hey Marc,

I applaud your decision to go with extended maceration. It can do wonders for Pinot Noir since it often suffers from too little extract. Of course, when you do extended maceration you want to make sure that the grapes are completely ripe before they are picked. If you know someone at the winery, you may want to ask if you can pick some grapes yourself "after" they are done with their own harvest. Many wineries have young vines that they do not harvest or they harvest mechanically which can leave some grapes on the vines. Regardless, anything you can do to ensure physiological ripeness in the fruit will do wonders for Pinot. Another bit of advice (if you want it) would be to try delestage or rack and return during your primary fermentation. The excellent aeration that these methods provide will fix some of the anthocyanins to tannins that will stabilize the color (another potential problem with Pinot). I wish you the best of luck and look forward to hearing of your success!!!

CHEERS to ALL!!

Aaron

Cold soak on Pinot Noir is a good idea. Also, you might consider saignier. You'll need to havest a bit more fruit, but some vin gris wouldn't be too bad to have on the side, would it?

Tom S

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