Two short videos illustrating the red winemaking process here at Norm Hardie’s in Prince Edward County, Canada. This is Pinot Noir being processed. The first video shows the punching down of Pinot Noir ferments. The grapes are crushed into one-ton plastic bins. These are a nice scale to work at.
In the short clip, Norm is taking us through the bins one by one. The skins float to the top and form a cap. The job here is to understand where they are in their fermentation. Initially these caps need to be punched down to submerge them and keep them wet: this also helps with extraction. Later on they just need submerging by hand, much more gently.
Then, as fermentation slows and stops, it’s time to press. Initially, the juice is taken off and placed into a fresh bin. Then the remaining skins are dumped (carefully) into a basket press. This is an old technology, but it’s really well suited to making red wines, because of the quality of the pressings you get off. Once the pressing is finished, you end up with a cake of skins and seeds. The press juice is combined with the juice that’s been taken off, and the combination is allowed to settle before going to barrel.