Reuse must from pressed grapes

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roblloyd

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I had 5 lugs of carmenere grapes that is turning out great so far. After hand pressing/squeezing I had 7 gallons of juice.
I wanted to reuse the pressings and started a carmenere rose wine. How much water should I have added to the must?
I have 2 primaries with about 4 gallon each. This includes a sugar syrup I added. It's got a nice color but I am not sure if I put in too much water and diluted it too much.

Recipe:
about 4 gallons of pressed grapes
acid blend to bring it up to .65
RC212 yeast
sugar syrup to bring it to 1.070
water - not sure how much as I was trying to cover the pressings about 2" in the primary.
I split this into 2 buckets for cap room.
 
I wouldn't add any water unless you have to. Make up a small batch and blend with a white wine. 1 part carm. 4 parts white
 
I had to add water to make it liquid. Otherwise it would just have been a pile of pressed grapes and seeds.
I just checked the ph and it's down to 1.010 and tasting ok. Not great but I think it will work. It just might be a thin maybe crisp semi-dry dark rose like wine.

I'll oak it when it hits the secondary. Maybe hungarian medium toast?
 
ok add some inverted sugar water and let it absorb the color and flavor. Add raisins and or banana soup to thicken it up.

I did that with a grape and made a rose and it came out at least good
 
They call it second squeezing. Add sugar and water to zinfandel made lite red clears very fast and drinkable in about 6 weeks to two months. If you have a still run it through and you have grappa distilling is illegal in USA
 
not to rain on anybodys parade, but I have found the "second run" wine is very disappointing. Just think.. You add water, acid, sugar, and pressings, and you will end up with wine that tastes exact like that. Myself, and a whole host of others used to do this twenty years ago, but after tasting it, dwe decided to do a firm press (to get every last bit of "first run" out) then discard the skins. We also discovered that composed skins are GREAT for growing tomatoes.
 
Yea my rose came out okay but I knew that making it from second hand grapes. Better than nothing and thought I'd give it a try.

My fruit skins and oak chips all go in the garden. Great compost.
 
I too have made second run wines and found them not worth the trouble. Next time do yourself a favor and make 2 wines from your grapes but make one of them a free run and the second the pressing. Keep the free run as a Private Reserve!!!!!
 
We make SECOND pressing every year from out "Dago Red" Zinfendel grapes, BUT we do not get carried away on the FIRST pressing of the grapes. We just drain off the juice and PUSH on the grapes, so the first time the pressing is slight. We add sugar and water and get an entire new batch. Lots of peoiple like the "2nd" better.
 

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