Homemade vs. Commercial and what I am doing to close the gap

[Nebbiolo020]

Lots of great information here,I enjoyed reading the post. @NorCal I have seen a lotnof talk about temperature during fermentation,but I would like to hear more specific. For a big red,if you could control temperature,what would be your ideal regime?How would you extend contact time?
Also you mentioned a winery has done a cold soak for you,how did that turn out?

For big reds I like hot ferments for maximum extraction. Don’t worry about temp during ferment during cold soak just drop in dry ice and use that to control temp

 

[NorCal]

Lots of great information here,I enjoyed reading the post. @NorCal I have seen a lotnof talk about temperature during fermentation,but I would like to hear more specific. For a big red,if you could control temperature,what would be your ideal regime?How would you extend contact time?
Also you mentioned a winery has done a cold soak for you,how did that turn out?

My ideal temperature for ferment for a big red would be in the mid 80's. Because I make barrel quantities at a time, I would see the need for a tank with a glycol chiller. My ideal profile for reds is fruit forward with light tannins. I'm ok sacrificing some color extraction for lower tannins, if I achieve the fruit characteristics of the variety and a clean ferment. The lower (but not too low) peak temperatures also tend to be the longer and less troubled ferments as well.

A winery did a cold soak on my Petite Sirah from 2021. Here is the link. The wine turned out excellent, my second favorite wine I've ever made (ten years, 50 different wines and 10K bottles).

 

[Nebbiolo020]

My ideal temperature for ferment for a big red would be in the mid 80's. Because I make barrel quantities at a time, I would see the need for a tank with a glycol chiller. My ideal profile for reds is fruit forward with light tannins. I'm ok sacrificing some color extraction for lower tannins, if I achieve the fruit characteristics of the variety and a clean ferment. The lower (but not too low) peak temperatures also tend to be the longer and less troubled ferments as well.

A winery did a cold soak on my Petite Sirah from 2021. Here is the link. The wine turned out excellent, my second favorite wine I've ever made (ten years, 50 different wines and 10K bottles).

Interesting, for me my ideal red wine profile is full bodied, heavy but well integrated tannins and deep color extraction. My fermentations tend to average 7-12 days fastest I ever had was 5 even with temp control. Longest I ever had was 28 days.