August 26, 2014

Well, it looks like it’s going to be a photo-finish race as the 2013 Vino Superiore Sangiovese now took a slight lead in fermentation over the 2011. Since we are in negative Brix territory now, I am using a high-precision hydrometer; the scale is 5 to -5. Brix measurements for 2011 and 2013 vintages are -0.9 and -1.2, respectively.

Since the cap started falling, I decided to go ahead and press.

I thoroughly cleaned and sanitized ALL equipment … sieves, pails, basket press, funnel, carboys, etc.

First, I sieved as much of the floating grape solids as possible and transferred them to the basket press. The loose grape solids filled the #20 basket press just perfectly. I transferred the free-run wine through a sieve and into a pail to get some oxygen into the wine. Once sieved, I transferred the wine into a carboy. I ended up with approximately 12 liters (roughly 3 gallons) of each wine.

I pressed the grape solids and ended up with approximately 3 liters (just under a gallon) of press-wine for each. For now, I am keeping free- and press-run fractions separate. Since the 3-liter press-run wine is in partially filled jugs, I purged the air out of the jugs and injected some CO2 to protect the wine.

Once I rack the wines off the gross lees, I will need the press fractions to top up the free fractions.

Tomorrow, I’ll rack the wine again for two purposes: first, to rack the wine from the gross lees, which could otherwise cause some hydrogen sulfide (H2S) problems, and to inject some more oxygen. Reds need to consume oxygen at this stage to polymerize polyphenols to improve tannin structure and color stability. Then, I’ll measure TA, pH and SO2 in addition to final Brix numbers, just ahead of inoculating for malolactic fermentation (MLF), to assess the impact of alcoholic fermentation on TA and pH and evaluate further impacts from MLF and cold stabilization.

Speaking of color, I have extracted so much anthocyanins that they have stained my equipment on contact.The pesky but much-loved anthocyanins even resisted a light scrub. I’ll have to treat my equipment with a light caustic solution.

My new stainless steel press is a charm to work with. It’s so easy to use and, most important, to rid of the cake once finished pressing. It’s all, well, a piece of cake.

And what will I do with the pressed pomace? Like a true Italian, I waste nothing, or shall I say, I put everything to good use. And so, the leftover pomace will be used to make my famous pepperoni sotto vinaccia (grape pomace-pickled peppers).