PRESS!

We're tired!  Tonight we were at 1 BRIX and it was time to press our fermented Sangiovese.  The process took longer than we thought, but with all our effort we extracted every bit of the juice from the MUST.  Our press resulted in 7 gallons of wine, which will eventually equate to 36 bottles.  If it's good, we'll wish we had more.  If not, we've got a lot of ho-hum wine on our hands!  You'll notice in one of the photos that we are toasting our vintage with a tiny bit of the wine. It has some wonderful characteristics. It is still quite fruity, but not at all sweet and the grapes seem to promise a good outcome.  On to malolactic fermentation and continued vigilance!  

The press

Extracting the last of the juice

Reminiscent of my days as the daughter of a raspberry farmer!

Working the press

Sangiovese

Getting ready to crank the press

Toasting the press and the vintage.  Cin Cin!

The fermentation locks are in place, and malolactic fermentation begins.

The wine settling in to its home for the next year.