Most times you can only do so much with average grapes. I would bet
your grapes last year weren't that good and you probably did a pretty
good job of making the wine. If the grapes were good leaving the wine
on the skin for as little as 5-6 days would produce a pretty good wine
without any effort. I wouldn't stress out about it.

Bob


wrote:
> LAst year I made Cab and it came out nice, but lacked body, and was
> lighter in color than I had wanted. This year I would like to change
> both of those things. This is what I was thinking, please offer advice.
> I was going to cold soak for 48 hrs with dry ice, but then I have been
> reading about extending the maceration. Perhaps I only need to do that
> rather than cold soak. - of course I have heard of both being done for
> Cab. If I do cold soak, do I need to protect the must from O2 as I
> would have to do for extending the maceration?
> Any other advice?
> thanks
> marco