Time to Press

This year's cabernet grapes have been fermenting away for a few weeks now; the past couple of days the cap's been very weak, and we're going to try pressing a bit earlier this year. So, today we pressed all of our wines - the Zin which has been on C02 for just over a week now, and the Cab which we've been punching down 3-4x/day since pitching the yeast.

Yield was MUCH greater - we think juicier grapes, adding pectic enzyme, or getting skilled with the fruit press is getting us more, well, juice. Our 30 gallons of Cabernet must yielded 18.5 gallons once pressed out; and our 18 gallons of Zinfandel yielded about 12 gallons.

Now we let them sit in the cellar for about a month, then we rack off the 'gunk' (which is already settling out).