High Pressure Work

So...a week ago the Pinot had fermented to dryness and we were ready to press. What is this pressing thing all about? And why do we need to press the wine?

Well, we don't really need to press the wine. There is alot of wine in the fermentation bin that can go straight into the barrel. This is called free run and some winemakers decide to use just free run wine and not use the press wine. Many say that this free run is the best quality wine.

And I would agree if we were making a lighter style of wine. But we like structure, body and complexity (we like to say Calicaro is "packed with flavor and stacked with complexity") and for that, you gotta squeeze the grapes. Remember, all of the good stuff is in the skins and you get more of the good stuff out by applying pressure.

It is our version of "shaking down" the grapes. We give them a bear hug and simultaneously empty their pockets.

We just have to be careful not to squeeze the grapes too hard, because we will then get bitter tannins. This happens as the seeds begin to crush at the higher pressure levels.

So we taste the free run juice and establish our baseline for taste. Then we set the Euro Press to take it to .2 bars of pressure on the mass of grape skins (which is called the must). We put a cup under and taste wine as it is released from the must. At .2 bars it still tastes alot like the free run. Next we go to .4 bars and taste again. Things now start getting interesting. More viscosity, or body, to the wine and more flavors begin to emerge.

We raise the pressure in .2 bar increments and tasting. More and more. All tasting good, no bitterness. We taste the wine being squeezed out at each fraction of pressure and also taste the wine that is a blend of all of the fractions.

At each higher fraction of pressure we are squeezing out less wine, just like squeezing a lime. At 1.2 bars something really interesting happens. This press fraction tastes sweet! There was a slight bit of residual sugar left in the grapes and it has now been released.

At 1.4 bars the sweetness is gone. We are getting concerned about the bitter tannins showing up. We take it to 1.5 bars and it still tastes good but decide to stop there. We are now getting only drops of wine anyway.

We send the wine straight to the barrel and can now breathe a sigh of relief. We have made it through fermentation, the wine tastes really good, and most of the risk- that is, the many things that can go wrong in winemaking, are behind us. The wine can go through malolactic fermentation and settle down for a long winter's nap, all snugged in and cozy in the barrel.

Cheers,

Dave