Hot Off the Presses!

Here we are, it's press time. So after fermenting red wines for around one week the skins are removed and pressed to extract more juice/wine and other flavor components such as tannins. The fermentation process may not be completely over so we may still have a pretty sweet wine on our hands (literally). Anyway the skins are removed from the fermenting bins (the big white one that Eric is about to dive into) and placed into the press. In this process we use highly technical equipment to transfer the skins, as seen in Eric's hand and by his feet. Once the press is filled to the top, it is closed and a bladder inside fills with water creating huge amounts of pressure on the skin which squeezes out a lot of extra juice. What you see above are the Cabernet Sauvignon skins after being pressed and after we've removed the outside of the press. This is probably the messiest job in the winery but possibly the most fun as well! Tomorrow we bottle 2004's Cabernet Sauvignon.

p.s. This weekend we will be in Denver at the Denver International Wine Festival. Stop by and say hi. click here for more info on this festival.