Extended Maceration

[JimCook]

Anyone here use extended maceration with the skin-contact in their wine? I've been investigating this lately and I was curious what some "real life" experiences have been.


- Jim

 

[Jeff D]

We did a Cab this way. It added color and tannin, the wine is an 05, it's drinking well now. We fermented at 85 degrees then dropped the temp to mid 60 for two weeks.




Jeff

 

[JimCook]

Jeff,


How long did you macerate the skins?


- Jim

 

[Jeff D]

Jim, it was 20 days after we started fermentation before pressing. I was a nervous wreck the hole time, have a good friend who owns a winery, he talked me down a couple of times.
We have two stainless floating lid tanks. I pushed the cap down with the lid's and only opened them up on even days.


Jeff

 

[JimCook]

Jeff,


Thanks for sharing your experience. I prefer 'hands-on' explanations like yours to help keep me in perspective. As I don't have a floating lid tank, I'm going to need a CO2 tank from what I can tell.


- Jim

 

[Jeff D]

Jim, all you need for CO2 is some dry ice. At the winery they have a ice grinder and fan or blowersystem. For the home wine maker all you do is drop a chip of dry ice in the carboy and put the air lock on. Or if your using a bin and plastic a few chips and cover with plastic.


Jeff