A pressing engagement

[JohnT]

Last Saturday, we pressed the 2015 wine. Press day is a lot smaller and subdued than crush. This year I took some pictures on the process that we use for pressing and though it would be good to share with you folks.

First, I use a large ss strainer of scoop off the cap into a brute canister. This is then taken and dumped into the press.

The press is left open and the free run juice is allowed to run. Another SS strainer is placed under the spout of the press to catch any seeds of grape skins that might happen to flow out.

The wine from the press is caught in 5 gal buckets, and deposited into the secondary fermenters.

Once the free run is down to a trickle, and the press is full, the press is closed and pressure is applied. Once the wine flow drops back down to a trickle, the press is opened and the grapes are "Forked". This is done using a tool that I hand forged with a handle on one side and two pointed tines on the other. This does a great job in breaking up the hard pack and stirring the grapes. I am amazed at how much more wine I can get out of a batch simply by forking it (insert joke here).

After two forkings, the grapes are then heaped onto the compost heap. The dead skins are really popular with the local deer population.

Meanwhile, back at the primary, I use a column strainer (a 4' length of PVC pipe with a gah-jillion holes drilled into it) and a pump to transfer the free run wine to the primary. A real back saver! Any remaining solids in the primary is then dumped into the press.

 

[JohnT]

.. how pressing went

So here is a brief outline of my press-day weekend.

Friday - punched down and checked SG and temp.

Saturday, transferred the chardonnay to the secondary early in the AM before any of the helpers arrived. This gave me some additional room to move before it got crowded.

Once helpers arrived, we proceeded to press the red wines. In total, I had a dozen folks helping out. It is kind of nice when the press is working and we all sit outside socializing and sipping a little wine.

We ended up finishing at about 5 pm. all equipment was hosed down and stack to the side (to be cleaned and put away the following day).

For press day, I do not cook. I had some folks bring bagels in the morning to keep up going. For dinner (as is now the tradition) we caravanned to my favorite steak house for some nice 24 ounce delmonicoes.

Boy, did we tie on the feed bag! My dinner was.. Steamed Clams, French Onion soup, 24 ounce steak with home fries, and carrot cake for dessert. washed it all down with a nice Pinot.

Sunday - Spent the day scrubbing, soaping, washing, scouring, and organizing the equipment. Got every last bit of it stowed away by 1pm. I was beat!

I turned on the TV to watch the Jets get trounced by the Eagles. At half time, I went into town to meet up with the family at the Lion's Club Oktoberfest. Drank beer, ate some bratwurst, and generally had a great time. Got home and passed out in my recliner. Woke up at 2am and went to bed.

Monday - I arranged weeks ago to take the day off. It was a good thing because even though all of the equipment was clean and stowed, the house was still a wreck. Once I got all of that cleaned up, I ran some errands, came home and cooked a chicken parm dinner.


Next Saturday - everything gets racked!

 

[Rocky]

JohnT, I guess that explains the wobblely-kneed deer in your area!

Great pictures. That is one nice press. What size is it? Judging from the size of the 5 or 6 gallon bucket, it appears to be a big one. Can you post a picture of the pressing mechanism, i.e. the part above the steel support member? Am I correct that in the first picture where you are scooping out the skins, they are in one of those large trash receptacles? It appears so with the top opened to the left.

You seem to have a very large operation going. How many gallons are we talking about and what variety is that? Do you segregate the "free run" wine? (We always did.) We did not do the "forking" that you describe (I am too old to make a joke of that other than to say I am impressed that you are able to fork twice in quick succession. Sorry, couldn't resist that.) and I am sitting here trying to imagine how much wine we wasted over the years. The skins did go into the compost pile so they were not a complete loss. Our garden was something to behold and I still remember the neighbors marveling over the size of our tomatoes and vegetables. They did not know of our "secret" ingredient.

Sorry for all the questions. I am really interested in what you are doing. Thanks.

 

[Boatboy24]

John,

If I'm reading correctly, you wait a week before racking after the press. Is that true? When do you inoculate with MLB?

 

[NorCal]

Looks like you have it down to a well oiled process. How many lbs and varietals did you do this year?

 

[Steve_M]

John
Love the operation you have going!
I did not mention in my post that I tried the pipe with holes drilled into it to siphon off the free run. I may not have had enough holes drilled, I had a paint strainer bag filtering the muck, used the AIO vacuum but the strainer bag was just getting bogged down.

Steve

 

[ibglowin]

Looking good John!

 

[JohnT]

our operation is not as big as you might think. As far as lugs...

we did ...

40 lugs of Petit Sarah
25 lugs of reserve (PS, Mer, and cab blend)
5 lugs of old vin zin
5 lugs of merlot
and 5 lugs of chardonnay.

A total of 2880 pounds of grapes. This should yield around 190 gallons of finished wine.

I am not sure of the size of the press, but it will handle 40 lugs of grape skins in a single pressing.

I do macerate the reds for a week before pressing. I do punch downs twice a day. I like to add MLB this week (once I am in the secondary)

For whites, I press on crush day.

 

[Runningwolf]

Looks good John!