"Dan Emerson" wrote:

I generally press when the brix is zero, or the gravity is 1.0 or
less. There is usually still a cap. Should I wait until the cap
falls? I've heard about falling cap but have never seen this.
Impatient or a worry wart I guess.

A "standard practice" is to press when the Brix falls to 0, or soon
thereafter. Others press around 1.010. Others wait until the cap "falls" (or
more accurately, sinks), and there are no more floating solids. Others wait
3-4 weeks (which takes special methods to protect the wine from oxidation).
The longer you wait, the more extraction of colour, flavour, and tannin,
will occur, and the heavier a wine will result. And the longer you wait to
press, the longer you will have to wait to drink the wine, since extended
maceration usually means much more aging is required.

If I wait until the cap falls, do I have to use an inert gas? What
about pressing after the cap falls. Pressing seems so violent.

As long as the cap is floating, the fermentation is producing enough CO2 to
protect the wine in the primary, and there is no need to use an inert gas.
Once the cap sinks, the ferment is probably complete, or very close to being
complete, and you should press imediately (or take steps to protect the wine
from air). I don't understand the reference to violence. First, one should
always press gently, and secondly, you have to press sometime, and it's no
more violent before the cap drops than afterwards.

When I press, I generally scoop the whole mess, juice and pulp into
the press and press away. Should I try to try to wait until the cap
falls and try to draw off the juice from the pulp before pressing?

You are using the correct procedure. There is no need to "try to draw off
the juice from the pulp before pressing", nor would it be possible without
straining. Even though the pulp is no longer floating, it is still suspended
throughout the must. If you waited for it to sink to the bottom, and clear,
then you would be asking for problems.

However, you should use a press bag or fiberglass screening in the press,
and pour the juice through it, letting the solids accumulate in the press
basket. Only when there is no more free-run juice, should you begin
pressing, and then as gently as possible. It takes longer, but hard-pressing
will force undesireable tannins and bitter flavours from the skins. Some
people separate the free-run juice from the pressed juice (and then combine
it later), but I don't see the point in this.

I want my wines, cabernet and pinot, to have that big mouth feel
(which at least my Pinot doesn't have) and I think my past pressing
practices may play a part. Also, I don't use barrels, and that may be
part of it too.

There are many factors in achieving "mouth feel". Barrel aging imparts
tannin (which can be simulated with oak chips) and a mellowness which cannot
be duplicated. But barrels are expensive and more trouble than glass or
stainless steel carboys, so one must decide how important that mellowness is
to them.

Here are some recent threads on the subject:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...fts.winemaking