Maceration Time for Rose

[morettisf]

Hi Folks,

I'm planning to make a Pinot Noir rose this year and am trying to figure out how much time I should leave the juice in contact with the crushed skins before pressing. Was thinking 24-48 hours after crush. Anyone with experience?

 

[salcoco]

you may have enough at the end of 12 hours for an effective rose. I would press a little over 8 hour spans and see what color you would enjoy. note that the finished wine will be a little lighter than the fresh pressed juice.

 

[NorCal]

I left some juice on the skin for 45 min, the other for 24 hours. I then added some from the 24 hour to achieve the color I wanted.

 

[morettisf]

I left some juice on the skin for 45 min, the other for 24 hours. I then added some from the 24 hour to achieve the color I wanted.

Wow that's a lot faster color extraction than I anticipated. Great tips, thanks all!

 

[MJD]

The above comment on the juice being lighter at the end of the process comparedo to pre-press is spot on.

You'll just have to keep am eye on it. I have now seen roses that have achieved color similar to saicoco's middle glass in 8 hours and some that take a significant amount of time longer. If you don't want to do the staggered approach saicoco did (interesting idea, by the way), then extract a glass of juice at 2 hour intervals starting at 4 hours, and pull when the color is a bit darker than you actually want.

 

[NorCal]

The middle glass was what I began fermentation with. This is what it looked like, after it was bottled.

 

[mennyg19]

The middle glass was what I began fermentation with. This is what it looked like, after it was bottled.

Looks like the first glass on the left now...

 

[JohnT]

I have made rose' in the past. I have found that if you crush and destem them, and then immediately go to the press, the wine has had enough exposure to the skins.

I also adjust the color by holding back or adding the hard pressings (the tail end of wine coming off the press) that are always much darker.

In short, my maceration time is just the time it takes to carry the grapes from the destemmer to the press.