Punch down
To push the skin cap down into the fermenting juice to ensure optimal extraction and prevent bacterial spoilage.
Puncheons
Larger oak barrels, usually 135 gallons.
Punch down!
by WineAndLeisure.com
Napa Valley is one of the world's premier wine regions. The region has been producing wine for over 100 years. And for more than a quarter century, Napa wines have been winning International Competitions.
To punch down the cap is a means of breaking up the grape skins etc floating at the top of the tank during the winemaking process to enable aeration/oxidation, so that fermentation can continue unhindered and to maximise flavour and colour extraction.
More Wine Making: Punch Down Tools
Winemaking: Tartaric Acid
Wine Perspective: Tartaric Acid
Resources ...
Two common techniques for doing so are pump over and punch down.
Capsule
The decorative metallic or plastic foil covering the cork and the upper neck of a wine bottle. Capsules may be replaced by a bit of wax on the top of the cork.
Carafe ...
It is essential to "punch down" the cap into the wine during a red wine fermentation to extract valuable tannins and colored compounds as well as to discourage the proliferation of spoilage organisms in the cap.
One should "punch down the cap" at least daily, but preferably twice a day.
 See also: Grape, Press, Skins, White, Fermentation
  
|
RSS
