Nebbiolo and Zinfandel - Day 10 Pressing

Sept. 20. This is day 10 for the Nebbiolo and Zinfandel, and it's time to press. The fermentation was a fast one lasting about 8 days. I let the must sit for another two days to hopefully extract more color and some tannins since it seemed like the wine(s) will be light in color and body.

You can tell when the fermentation is finished by measuring the brix, or by the amount of CO2 coming off when you punch the cap down. Measuring the brix will give you a false reading since the must now contains alcohol which is lighter than water... there should be a formula someplace for adjusting the reading..... I should research that.... anyone know? please comment!

Anyway, when the CO2 has blown off the must it is time to press, since the wine is now getting air exposure.

Step 1: is getting all the equipment ready... If you cleaned everything from your last pressing; it's not too much work. See the pic on the right... clean press, catch bucket, clean carboy waiting...

Step 2 :I like to rack off as much of the "free run" wine as possible. I found a great tool to aid in this step... it's a stainless steel tube about 2 feet long with holes in the sides. It is wide enough to insert a racking hose into it. The holes in the tube will allow the wine in and keep the skins out...

Step 3: While I'm racking off the free run, I use a bucket to scoop out the skins and fill the press. My wife watches the catch bucket under the press, and changes the full bucket for a empty one as needed. The wine is poured into the carboys.

Step 4: When the press is full, put on the top, add the wood blocks and press. Ratchet down the blocks, watch the wine flow, wait for the pressure to ease, then repeat.... You're done when the resistance makes it very difficult to ratchet down the blocks another step, or the handle gets down to the top of the basket.

Step 5: be sure to taste the new wine. Yes, the wine will be changing quite a bit over the next couple of years, but this first taste is telling; how is the color, what's the tannin level, high or low acid, any off odors, varietal character in the nose, etc. See the video where Doris, my wife and I taste the Nebbiolo and Zinfandel.

Step 5: Add fermentation locks to all the carboys, and move them into the cellar. Not an easy step for me as the cellar is full!

Step 6: Clean everything...this step takes as much time as all the previous ones... So we saved some time by pressing both the Nebbiolo and Zinfandel one after the other.

Here's a video of the process and first taste of the reds.

And fitting the carboys into the cellar....

Malvasia Bianca - Day 1-3, Press, rack and start

Day1 continued: After arriving home from the vineyard, we had to press the grapes. I have my own wine press so pressing the grapes is something that I can do at home and more or less at my own schedule.

I have an old standard press, a #35 Wood Basket Press that I purchased many many years ago. Why #35?? Strange naming ... it holds 13 gallons so that's not it... It works great, and I expect it to outlast me! Since the basket holds 13 gallons, I have to press the wine in two loads of the basket.

One thing I will recommend for pressing white wine grapes is that when loading the press include some of the stems that were saved from crushing/de-stemming. I usually layer the stems in between 4-5" of grapes.

The stems provide some resistance for the press to use to get the juice out of the grapes. Otherwise It's like trying so press jello! I have seen some wineries use rice hulls in the press to provide the needed resistance...

I pressed 22 gallons of juice from the Malvasia. The juice measured 23 bix.

For grins, here a picture of my first press.... I made it from plans that I found in a "Mother Earth News" magazine way back in the 70s when I first started making wine. Notice that the press mechanism is an old car jack!

Back in those days, money was tight, and so I made wine as inexpensively as possible. e.g. making my own equipment and using free grapes and fruit where I could find them.

Ever had Fig wine? Politely decline if offered a glass....

A good thing about those days is that the mistakes I made were less costly, and I could practice techniques without spending lots of money.

Day 2: Rack clear juice off the sediment:

After the juice has had a chance to sit for a day, I rack off the clear{er} juice off the sediment. The reason for doing this to get cleaner juice that is free of some of the material that will add additional flavors to the wine. For example, I find that much of the heavy "Grassy" character in Sauvignon Blanc is eliminated by starting with clean juice.

You can lose a fair amount of juice {left behind as sediment} during this racking, say as much as 10% of the pressed juice.

Some wine makers will add a fining agent during the setting period to remove even more of the solid materials. I do not do this for fear of stripping away too much character.

After racking, the carboys were placed into their water baths and then I sprinkled Champagne yeast into each carboy. Lastly a fermentation lock was placed into the carboy.

Day 3: Yeast growing slowly

I'll post a separate blog entry to talk about yeast and my method of inoculation and reasons for this method.

I think this brings me up to date e.g. day 4 of the Malvasia my first blog entry.