Winemaking – Pressing Grapes
In anticipation of Aglianico grape harvest and more grapes to make our own wine, it was important to clear out the Montepulciano fermenting in the tote. As I said earlier, we are hobby winemakers with the dream of one day having our own “real” winery, so, we scaled up our batch size.
Once the fermentation is complete and you know it is, because the foaming stops when you press down the cap, the grapes are ready to be pressed. Pressing is done to remove the skins and seeds from the juice.
To do this, the grapes and juice are bucketed into a wine press.
We have a bladder press that extracts the juice. The fermented grapes are poured in the top.
For a closer look:
Once the press is full of juice, water is turned on to fill the bladder which is in the center of the grapes. As the pressure rises, the grapes are pressed between the sides of the press and the bladder.
The juice runs out the bottom.
Juice is then cuaght and put into barrels.
This juice will be allowed to sit and settle any particulates. Once it has settled for a few months, it will be decanted and the dregs discarded.
This is great, Dina-Marie! I have wondered what wine making looks like on a smaller scale like yours. We have been trying out hand at country wines (in England) and so far we have a really nice parsnip wine that is tasting more and more like a sherry. Also, I only just now saw that you had linked to my post on butchering a pig, and I wanted to thank you for sharing that!
Hello Dina Marie!!
After endlessly googling in home winemaking I finally stumbled upon your blog….and it has given me hope and that ummmpff I needed. I just moved into what we call ancestral home where my late father planted wine grapes in the late 70’s and I found them still producing but unkempt and wild. I just managed to prune them before the rains.
Might you have a clue as to where I can get a machine similar to yours or even smaller? or even better specifications to try and locally build one.
Really appreciate
Doris, Makueni County, Kenya
Doris, how exciting! You could look at http://www.pellenc.com or give them a call to find a machine closer to you. I hope you can find one that fits your needs because we love ours!