Questions about fermentation temperatures

[CGish]

I just racked and stabilized a Winexpert Chocolate Raspberry kit that finished at 1.012. It should have gone down below 1.010. Reading here on WMT, I realize that I fermented it too cold. That got me started reading about wine fermentation temperatures and I have a couple of questions.

One:

From my reading it sounds like the temperature of a wine fermentation is less crucial and warmer than beer fermentation. It sounds like anything from 70° to 80° ambient temperature (72° to 85° must temperature) is acceptable for red wines. Whites need to be cooler, but white kits are less sensitive than fresh grapes. Additionally, it sounds like fluctuations in temperature - so long as they are in the ranges listed above - are also acceptable. Beer is greatly improved by steady temps at the low end of a chosen yeast's range.

Question: Is this just not a factor for wine? If my basement is 68-72°, can I just let most red batches - kit or fresh - ferment without worrying about the temperature?​

Two:

I picked up a Winexpert Selection International Chilean Pinot Noir Wine Making Kit from Brew and Wine Supply and am ready to start it. In my reading, I noticed that Pinot's apparently benefit from fermenting on the lower end of the temperature range for any given yeast. The kit comes with EC-1118 that has a given range of 50-86°F. The kit says "Cover the primary fermenter and place in a location with a temperature of 22-24°C (72-75°F)." I have a fermentation chamber and can set and hold a specific temp throughout fermentation. However, if there is no benefit to controlling the temperature, then I can brew a new batch of beer right now rather than in a couple weeks.

Question: Is there any benefit to controlling the temperature on this kit? If so, where should the temp be set? With all of the reading I have done a 72° must temperature seems reasonable, but is there any benefit to controlling the temperature for this wine?​

Thank You,
Cody

 

[heatherd]

68-72 is fine for fermentation.

 

[CGish]

68-72 is fine for fermentation.

So just let it ferment without controls in this range of ambient temperature?

 

[heatherd]

I would if it were mine.

 

[CGish]

Thank You.

 

[StartingLateAt49yo]

Agreed. 4 degree range is small. Also those are probably air temperatures, the wine won't fluctuate as much (takes time for air to warm or cool 6 gallon carboy.