Red Wine Fermentation Procedure

1. Place the must from the stemmer/crusher into a wide tank or ½ ton bins in order to maximize skin contact. During fermentation, the surface to volume ratio is critical.

2. Cold soak the destemmed and crushed fruit at 55-60°F at least overnight to as long as 5 days if fruit is clean and sound.

3. Add KMS* (40g/100 gal must) to kill the wild yeast and allow the must to sit overnight before adding the yeast

4. Inoculate each bin with 100g hydrated yeast/100gal of must after the cold soak and during the first pumpover or punchdown.

5. Add 200g yeast food/100gal must or equivalent during the first pumpover or punchdown.

6. Add DAP** to bring ammonia level up to 100ppm (about 1 lb/ton of fruit)

7. Do two pumpovers or punchdowns per day, each of a long enough duration to turn over the entire volume of the tank or bin. Once the fermentation has reached 8 or 9 Brix, reduce the pumpovers or punchdowns to once daily for the same duration. Stop pumpovers or punchdowns when the hydrometer reading reaches zero

8. Press at dryness

9. Inoculate with ML*** bacteria and ML food at or immediately after pressing

10. Add 50 ppm SO2 after the ML fermentation is finished to obtain a free sulfur level of around 30ppm.

11. Place in barrels for 18 months to age.

Adapted from a procedure by Marco DiGuilio, consulting winemaker (marco@marcowines.com)

*Potassium Metabisulfite
**Diammonium Phosphate
***Malolactic