Draining pre-fermented juice

[tcubes]

Has anyone tried draining a percentage of juice after the crush to make a more intense red wine? The idea is the remaining juice would have more skin contact and produce a more intense red wine. The percentage of juice to be drained would be approx. 15 to 20%. Thanks!

 

[smurfe]

I have never tried it. I have taken some of the free run juice to make a white or a blush wine and left the rest to ferment on an extended maceration. This practice will extract more from the skins. I normally will just ferment everything from the crush though.

 

[tcubes]

Thank you for your reply. I'm going to try draining about 1 gallon (about 20%) and see what happens from 110 lbs. of grapes. I'm getting some grapes from Chile in a couple of weeks and I'll keep you informed.