{"id":283,"date":"2008-10-10T14:01:46","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T21:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wineintheshower.com\/?p=283"},"modified":"2010-02-27T09:55:27","modified_gmt":"2010-02-27T17:55:27","slug":"finally-time-to-press-home-merlot-batches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/2008\/10\/10\/finally-time-to-press-home-merlot-batches\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally Time to Press Home Merlot Batches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-284 alignleft\" style=\"margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px;\" title=\"02 Press set up borrowed from Ray Schnorr\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/02-Press-set-up-borrowed-from-Ray-Schnorr.JPG\" alt=\"02 Press set up borrowed from Ray Schnorr\" width=\"356\" height=\"477\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Lot B merlot FINALLY reached zero degrees <a href=\"\/index.php\/winemaking-definitions\/brix\/\">brix<\/a>.\u00a0 What a relief!\u00a0 Lot B, with the Pasteur red yeast, took a whole week longer than lot A, with the RC212 yeast.\u00a0 It should be interesting to see how different they taste.<\/p>\n<p>I borrowed a gallon basket press from another home winemaker I met the day we picked up the grapes, Ray Schnorr.\u00a0 He devised a cool drill attachment to drive the turnstile on the press so that I don\u2019t have to spend an hour turning it to press down, and another hour to unwind it again.\u00a0 He\u2019s brilliant, and I was SO glad to have that little gadget by the end of the day.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285\" title=\"01 Drill attachment Ray Schnorr designed\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/01-Drill-attachment-Ray-Schnorr-designed.JPG\" alt=\"01 Drill attachment Ray Schnorr designed\" width=\"338\" height=\"253\" srcset=\"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/01-Drill-attachment-Ray-Schnorr-designed.JPG 640w, http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/01-Drill-attachment-Ray-Schnorr-designed-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Time to get started!\u00a0 At least I knew what a mess it would be after the big press.\u00a0 I poured the <a href=\"\/index.php\/winemaking-definitions\/must\/\">must<\/a> in to the basket.\u00a0 Again, there was a decent amount of free run.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_286\" style=\"width: 368px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-286\" class=\"size-full wp-image-286\" title=\"03 adding must to the press\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/03-adding-must-to-the-press.JPG\" alt=\"03 adding must to the press\" width=\"358\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/03-adding-must-to-the-press.JPG 640w, http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/03-adding-must-to-the-press-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 358px) 100vw, 358px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-286\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adding must to the press<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div id=\"attachment_287\" style=\"width: 378px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-287\" class=\"size-full wp-image-287\" title=\"04 Pressing merlot\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/04-Pressing-merlot.JPG\" alt=\"Must in basket before putting on pressing lid\" width=\"368\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/04-Pressing-merlot.JPG 640w, http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/04-Pressing-merlot-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 368px) 100vw, 368px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-287\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Must in basket before putting on pressing lid <\/p><\/div>\n<p>It squirted all sorts of ways out the sides of the basket as I pressed down.\u00a0 I ended up wrapping all around it with plastic wrap, which worked nicely.\u00a0 Ray told me to press it down, then kind of loosen it and stir it around then press again.\u00a0 I had read that if you pressed too hard, though, extra bitter stuff would be pressed out too.\u00a0 So, the first batch pressed, lot B, was not pressed as dry as lot A, after I got more confident.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t quite the solid cake that the bladder press made, but it was pretty dry.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-288\" title=\"10 Pressed out pomice\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/10-Pressed-out-pomice.JPG\" alt=\"10 Pressed out pomice\" width=\"424\" height=\"318\" srcset=\"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/10-Pressed-out-pomice.JPG 640w, http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/10-Pressed-out-pomice-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This <a href=\"\/index.php\/winemaking-definitions\/pomace\/\">pomace<\/a> I put into my compost in the back yard, and by the end of the day, the whole yard smelled like a winery.\u00a0 After about 4 hours of pressing, the kitchen was a disaster.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_289\" style=\"width: 386px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-289\" class=\"size-full wp-image-289\" title=\"12 The mess post-press\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/12-The-mess-post-press.JPG\" alt=\"Post-press kitchen disaster\" width=\"376\" height=\"502\" srcset=\"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/12-The-mess-post-press.JPG 480w, http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/12-The-mess-post-press-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-289\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Post-press kitchen disaster<\/p><\/div>\n<p>But, with almost 14 gallons of lovely merlot, it was worth it.\u00a0 Plus, my first taste of each of them.\u00a0 Lot A is VERY hot and alcoholic and very dry, almost acidic on the to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lot B merlot FINALLY reached zero degrees brix.\u00a0 What a relief!\u00a0 Lot B, with the Pasteur red yeast, took a whole week longer than lot A, with the RC212 yeast.\u00a0 It should be interesting to see how different they taste. I borrowed a gallon basket press from another home winemaker I met the day we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[39,33,4,32,37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}