Press dreams

the 12 ton BUCHER

Most of the juice will come through this tray

           I’m writing most of this in hindsight, but see no reason to delete and not post the previous essays of my literary genius.  This will be one of 4 posts today. One that was previously written, this one, and two others relating to the fine wine I have drunk and the other to my new living situation.  We were originally scheduled to get the first fruit on Thursday, but a string of certain atmospheric factors caused that fruit to arrive on Tuesday. It’s the second most exciting day of vintage next to the last day you receive fruit. Another satisfactory name would be hurry up and wait day. One of the “problems” with a lot of winery equipment is its only used for really 2 months out of the year. It sees a good six months worth or work, just in a 3^rd the time. That means that the problem that was ignored, forgotten, or delegated up or down is back.  And it’s pissed.  Hence why the first day of fruit receiving is hurry up and wait day.  

            It seems that for this vintage I am going to running the presses. One is a modern 12 ton Buchar (nice computer controlled user friendly press). The other is a 7 ton vintage press that looks like a Steinbeck character would reside in it in the off-season. For those of you not up to date on modern industrial wine making practices, here is a brief rundown of what running the press entails right now for white wine, I’ll explain red later when we do it.

1.     Fruit is delivered

2.     Fruit goes through the crusher/de-stemer. This handy piece of machinery separates berries from the stems and leaves

3.     Then the fruit is pumped down to me at the press (start of my job)

4.     I first drain off what’s called the free run: this is the better juice full of nice flavor tannins and soft phenolic compounds.

5.     This I then drain off into the catch tray and pump to a clean tank in waiting

6.     Once enough of the free run is drained out, I communicate with the winemakers about when to make what we call a press cut.  A cut is when we switch to another tank due to increasingly stronger phenolic compounds and harsher tannins. These become present the longer free run fruit sits or when we press.

7.     Once I am given the blessing to make the cut, I transfer the new juice to another tank to be fermented separately (the idea is to have as many blending options in the end as possible)

8.     From here I will select one of the predetermined press cycles which will squeeze the grapes in sequential increasing pressures until 2 Bar (two atmospheres or the pressure at 66ft under water) this essentially gets all the juice out of the grapes

9.     Empty press of the mark (essentially dry skins which are taken for either compost of to ferment then distill by someone else)

10.  Repeat and from step 3 until all the fruit is in.

While the press is running its not as important for me to be standing there, so in the meantime I’m doing any number of things.  Typically I’m making certain additions that will either protect the juice or maximize the flavor potential. I also have to sample all the tanks I’ve been pressing into and deliver those samples to the lab.  My favorite thing to do during vintage is inoculations and fermentation monitoring. However at this winery that’s not really an option for me due to how things are delegated out, that responsibility falls with the lab and another winery worker. So my next best choice would have been running the press. You get to work closely with the winemakers, you get to be a part of both the red and white wines, you get to see/taste each different lot of fruit that comes in, and your pretty well in the middle of the pre fermentation process. Also you need to be able to do other things in your downtime. It’s a pretty damn enjoyable job.