The best explanation I've ever heard is that cold soaking allows the
opportunity
to fix some of the color as long as a enological tannin is added. A large
amt. of
anthocyanins can be exracted during a cold soak but little tannin is
extracted. For
anthocyanin-tannin complexes to form, tannin must be supplied as an additive
(I think
I heard that oak tannins work better than grape tannins for this purpose).
Some
oxygen is also needed for this reaction to proceed. Early fixing of
anthocyaninis results
in a more stable wine color.

CHEERS!!

Aaron

"pp" wrote in message
ups.com...

Lum wrote:

Perhaps you are assuming that more color is extracted by the extended
maceration. That is not the case. Practically all the color is
extracted
the first 8 or 10 days of fermentation. After ten days or so of skin
contact, the color of the liquid begins to _decrease_.
More info here http://home.att.net/~lumeisenman/chapt12.html
--
Lum
Del Mar, California, USA

No, I understand that colour behaves this way and that extended
maceration is not about colour but about tannins. What I don't
understand is why people do a cold soak _and_ extended maceration on
the same wine. The maceration will take longer than 8-10 days, so it
should give all colour extraction by itself, and the cold soak then
seems superfluous to me.

I also wonder if more colour would be lost in the end because the cold
soak increases the number of days of skin contact?

The only possible reason I can think of to do both on the same wine is
that the wine could maybe fermented at lower temperatures if the colour
was largely already extracted by the cold soak. But that seems pretty
isoteric.

Thx,

Pp