Press v. Stomp

Today was a chilly day around the winery. I knew it was extremely cold when I stepped outside to check everything in the morning and came back into the tasting room and I thought it was warm! Normally I am freezing in the tasting room all day, but we have to keep the wines happy, so we keep it at 68 degrees at all times.

We also pressed off the Petite Verdot and the Merlot. They have been sitting in the stainless steel tanks for a bit and they have been fermenting away! The Merlot was at about 4% residual sugar when we pressed it off. This way it will continue fermenting and changing as it ages in the barrel. So the first thing we do is get a bin full of the free run juice. This is all the wine that has naturally separated from the skins and it sits on the bottom of the tank. We add a spigot to the tank and open it up and let the juice flow out. I was able to try a bit of the Merlot and it was very fruit forward, lots of berries.

After all of the free run juice comes out of the tank, the boys use a large shovel to get the rest of the skins out. These skins are then put into the press... We pressed off the Petite Verdot first and did not clean the press afterward. Then we added the Merlot on top of the Petite Verdot, so the Merlot got a bit of that fantastic flavor... A bonus percentage or two of the Petite Verdot!

The day ended with filling more barrels with Merlot and chatting about the first ever grape stomp at Keswick. We are having the stomp this Saturday starting at 1:00pm rain or shine! Tickets are $25 which includes some stomping, some music, and a glass of wine to enjoy. You can RSVP to Kris or give us a call for more information. We are going to be stomping the Norton grapes and then making a wine out of those grapes, which will be rather exciting! So come on in on Saturday to give us a hand (technically feet...) with some wine making!