pressing hard
 

I made a chardonnay/pinot gris blend last fall and have recently
bottled it. I had a hard time fining it, I used bentonite and gelatin
and kielsol to eventually get it clear enough for filtering. After
filtering, the wine changed from sort of brownish tinged to yellow. A
distinct color change.

Could I have pressed to hard? I have an bladder press and I broke up
the pomace a couple of time to try to get a full carboy.

Any thoughts?

Dan

pressing hard
 

"Dan Emerson" > wrote in message
om...
> I made a chardonnay/pinot gris blend last fall and have recently
> bottled it. I had a hard time fining it, I used bentonite and gelatin
> and kielsol to eventually get it clear enough for filtering. After
> filtering, the wine changed from sort of brownish tinged to yellow. A
> distinct color change.
>
> Could I have pressed to hard? I have an bladder press and I broke up
> the pomace a couple of time to try to get a full carboy.
>
> Any thoughts?

I've never found it necessary to break up the pomace with my bladder press.
I just leave it on overnight under pressure. That's usually good for at
least 5 gallons extra out of a ton of grapes.

Your problem with color is probably because of the Pinot Grigio. This
varietal has significant color in the skins - enough that the juice will
often have a distinct copper/orange color. If you treat the juice _before_
fermentation to remove the color (PVPP), you'll likely end up with a white
wine. Post fermentation treatment doesn't work.

Tom S

pressing hard
 

"Tom S" > wrote in message >...
> "Dan Emerson" > wrote in message
> om...
> > I made a chardonnay/pinot gris blend last fall and have recently
> > bottled it. I had a hard time fining it, I used bentonite and gelatin
> > and kielsol to eventually get it clear enough for filtering. After
> > filtering, the wine changed from sort of brownish tinged to yellow. A
> > distinct color change.
> >
> > Could I have pressed to hard? I have an bladder press and I broke up
> > the pomace a couple of time to try to get a full carboy.
> >
> > Any thoughts?
>
> I've never found it necessary to break up the pomace with my bladder press.
> I just leave it on overnight under pressure. That's usually good for at
> least 5 gallons extra out of a ton of grapes.
>
> Your problem with color is probably because of the Pinot Grigio. This
> varietal has significant color in the skins - enough that the juice will
> often have a distinct copper/orange color. If you treat the juice _before_
> fermentation to remove the color (PVPP), you'll likely end up with a white
> wine. Post fermentation treatment doesn't work.
>
> Tom S

I only had about 60 pounds of grapes so every drop was precious.

I've found that breaking up the pomace and repressing releases quite a
bit of juice (quite a bit being relative).

I didn't kmow that about Pinot Gris and pre-treatment. I'll remember
that next time I get some Pinot Gris grapes. I guess that's why they
call it Gris eh!

Dan

pressing hard
 

> I've never found it necessary to break up the pomace with my bladder press.
> I just leave it on overnight under pressure. That's usually good for at
> least 5 gallons extra out of a ton of grapes.


Tom, you said you let the skin in the bladder press overnight to get
more juice. No problem with fruit flies, oxydation, spoilage ? How
much free SO2 you use to protect the pomace ?

Thanks,
Séb

pressing hard
 

"seb" > wrote in message
om...
> > I've never found it necessary to break up the pomace with my bladder
press.
> > I just leave it on overnight under pressure. That's usually good for at
> > least 5 gallons extra out of a ton of grapes.
>
>
> Tom, you said you let the skin in the bladder press overnight to get
> more juice. No problem with fruit flies, oxydation, spoilage ? How
> much free SO2 you use to protect the pomace ?

Spoilage and oxidation aren't a problem as long as the fruit is free of rot
and mold. I don't sulfite my juice prior to fermentation, but I do chill it
to allow it to settle thoroughly and rack the clear juice into fermenters.
The juice turns brown under these conditions, but all the brown stuff drops
out during fermentation leaving the wine pale green after sulfiting and with
less potential to brown later because it's already finished with that. It's
been reported that wines that are aggressively sulfited at crush and heavily
protected from oxygen in their youth have a higher tendency for "pinking"
later. They are also harder to induce ML in.

I haven't found fruit flies to be much of a problem when leaving the press
out overnight. They don't like the cold nights during the crush season.

Tom S