Stumbled across this link on youtube and thought you might enjoy. Certainly a far cry from our normal wine making routine; however an Italian neighbor of ours assured me that's pretty close to how his family made their wine.
Conversely, this video may demonstrate that many of the precautions we take don't necessarily matter. Or matter as much as we believe.Everything looks like it's pretty dirty. Yikes...
Probably so. When you have an existing vineyard with known results, the indigenous yeast is fine. For people like me buying west coast grapes while having no clue as to the history? Commercial yeast all the way!No added yeast right, just what was present on the grapes or in the tank?
Stumbled across this link on youtube and thought you might enjoy. Certainly a far cry from our normal wine making routine; however an Italian neighbor of ours assured me that's pretty close to how his family made their wine.
Is that part of the terroir?Everything looks like it's pretty dirty. Yikes...
As @Rice_Guy points out, wine is a preservation system. Once fermentation is well underway, the ABV and acid protect the wine against a lot of things.WOW! Don't mean to sound "uppity" but not too sure about "old style" wine making.
The use of that pitch fork type tool made me laugh. I see on-line that there are "punch down" tools to break up the cap. Our punch down tool was a 4' length of 2"x4" that we used to break up the cap and stir the wine in the working barrels. When we were finished with it, we just tapped it on the edge of the barrel, replaced the cheese cloth cover and laid it on top. Never seemed to be an issue and from year to year it would just lean against the wall in the crawl space with the empty barrels waiting for the next season.Is that part of the terroir?
Another way to look at wine is that it is a progressive cleaning process: remove big stuff that a press can hold back >> remove sugars via yeast >> remove fine solids via gravity >> remove sharp tasting tannin via timepoints out, wine is a preservation system. Once fermentation is well underway, the ABV and acid protect the wine against a lot of things.
People made wine for thousands of years without anything beyond basic cleaning for sanitizing, and it worked. I grew up on a small dairy farm and understood at an early age how much dirt is in everything, something most people in the USA don't know.
You forgot, "removing the wine from the bottle and cleaning the bottle."Another way to look at wine is that it is a progressive cleaning process: remove big stuff that a press can hold back >> remove sugars via yeast >> remove fine solids via gravity >> remove sharp tasting tannin via time
What they were referring to are the fermenting barrels. They are large barrels lying on their sides with the bung hole pointing upward and with wine filled to about halfway up the bung hole. We used to leave the barrels like this from mid October to early December, at which time the bung was hammered into the hole. Every day, debris (partial skins, marc, dirt, leaf parts, seeds, dead fruit flies, etc.) would bubble out the top and ooze down the sides of the barrel and the wine level would drop due to absorption by the barrel and evaporation. It was my job to wipe off the barrels with a rag and hot water and then fill the bung hole up again so that exposure to air was minimized.They said they leave the barrel open for 40 days. What would be the purpose of that?
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