obsessed with wine podcast with Wesley Cable Sr On the New York City Podcast Network

The Daily Taste: Wednesday May 25th, 2022 – Color Extraction In Red Wine

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Yesterday we talked about white wine grape pressing because it s the first step in making most white wines once the grapes arrive from the vineyard Red wine as you can imagine has an entirely different process Since red wine color comes from the grape skins the grapes need to spend time with the skins to get the color desired for the wine Typically red wine grapes arrive at the winery and first go through a destemming process This is done by a machine called a destemmer which we talked about in an earlier segment The destemmer gently separates the grapes from the stems and leaves and sends them down a conveyer belt to be sorted I will post a video to the show website of the destemmer in action Sorting is important because it allows for stems and leaves that made it through the destemmer to be removed prior to getting into the tank It s also a good opportunity to remove any green berries that can impact the finished wine Some wineries prefer to do their sorting by hand using a team of people to manually sort their grapes Other wineries use a fabulous machine called an optical sorter If you want to hear more about the optical sorter please listen to the Daily Taste Segment from May 6th I will post a video to the show website with an optical sorter in action if I can find a good one Once the grapes are sorted they are pumped into a fermentation vessel which is typically a stainless-steel tank or oak barrel Of course there are many other fermentation vessels that are used but these two are the most common for red wine making The next step in red wine making is to employ a color extraction strategy to make sure the finished wine will have the desired color The wineries I worked for in the past do pump overs for the first few days before fermentation A pump over is a gentle extraction method that uses a pump that is hooked up to the bottom of the tank with one hose and another hose is placed over the opening in the top of the tank The pump then pumps the grapes and juice out of the bottom of the tank and back into the tank through the top This process allows for the grapes skins and juice to be mixed and ensure good color extraction I will post a video of a pump over in process to the show website I encourage you watch the video There are few things as beautiful as a pump over After a few days of pump overs the wine is ready to be inoculated with yeast for fermentation During fermentation the winemaking team will continue to do pump overs once or twice per day to ensure a good mix and continued color extraction Tomorrow we will discuss inoculation and fermentation of both white and red wines Don t forget that today is National Wine Day here in the US So do yourself a fav or and pull out a special bottle to celebrate You deserve it Don t forget to go to the show website to see videos and pictures regarding today s topic you apos ll be happy you did Thank you very much for listening I apos ll see you tomorrow for another daily taste Cheers

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