Drain and Press

When fermentation is complete, and we have extracted all the goodness out of the skins, it is time to press. The first important step to pressing is removing the ‘free run’ wine from the skins, so that we can then dig them out and put them in a press for squeezing. Draining a tank is one of my favorite parts of the process, as the air becomes filled with beautiful fruit aromatics, and you can finally see the incredibly vibrant color of the young wine. See the Pinot Noir waterfall below, along with Michael Accurso overseeing the process up at Goldeneye.