"Tom S" > wrote in message >...
> Obviously, you meant to include pressing. I'd **highly** recommend that you
> press to a tank or some other large container and let the heavy stuff settle
> out before racking to barrel. That only takes an hour or two, and you'll
> leave a lot of potential big problems behind in those gross lees.
>
Yes, sort of. Actually a lot of the wine went directly from the
fermentor to barrel without a stopover in the press. This was done to
minimize oxygen contact and was accomplished by pushing a pasta
strainer down into the must and then taking the wine out of the pasta
strainer! So while there were no seeds or skins, I'm sure there's
quite a bit of other particulate matter in there... but probably no
more than if I pressed and then went straight into barrel. I hear you
on the settling out the gross lees. I'll definitely do some more
research on this before next year.

> > Let it sit for a long time without stirring or racking
>
> That may be OK, but you certainly want to maintain the free SO2 and zero
> headspace in the barrel. BTW, tasting while you're topping is _mandatory_
> during barrel aging. I'm sure you can live with that. :^)
>
Yick. Never touch the stuff. Currently, none of the wines have SO2
additions. I innoculuated a few barrels for MLF and I'll run another
chromotography test next week to see if they're done. My guess is MLF
will be complete and I'll sulfur. For other barrels, I'm letting MLF
take its time and they probably won't complete until Spring.
Obviously these won't have SO2 protection for several more months.
Let's see how it goes this year, but I now know why people innoculate
for MLF - it's a bit nerve wracking.

> You forgot to mention fining prior to settling. Pinot Noir may not require
> fining for excessive tannin, but I highly recommend a light bentonite fining
> at least. There are two reasons for this: (1) Protein stability -
> especially in the case of Pinot Noir. This wine tends to throw a protein
> haze in the bottle, very much like white wines that haven't been bentonited.
> Just 1 pound/1000 gal. of bentonite is sufficient to prevent that in most
> Pinots. (2) Improved clarity is a nice side benefit from bentoniting.
> Also, I've noticed that bentoniting tends to bring the fruit more to the
> fore in Pinot Noir - most noticeably in the nose. Don't ask me why. I
> can't rationalize that observation. It's just something I noticed.
>
Haven't really thought about fining. Again, I've just been reading
what pinot pros do and it seems like the higher end produces don't
fine or filter. BTW, why bentonite and not egg whites or some other
fining material?

....Michael