What seems to be a traumatic separation actually concludes in joyful reunion–after being shook loose from their stems and carefully inspected, only the best grapes of the bunch unite inside a stainless steel tank. This tank is the largest piece of stainless steel on the property, able to house around 4 people comfortably inside its pristine, metallic walls. This tank is where the grapes will rest for the next four days (I wasn’t kidding about that stationary lifestyle).
Inside the tank is a crucial leg of the wine-making journey known as Cold Soak Maceration. The grapes have just been pulled out of temperatures in the upper 80s and traveled more than they have in their entire lifetime; as anyone could imagine, they’re feeling a little hot under the skin. Over a four day period, the grapes are slowly brought down and maintained to a cool temperature near 58.7º Fahrenheit.
For those who cook, it’s the same principle as removing your pasta from boiling water just before it’s done–because the pasta is still super-heated, it continues cooking without direct heat. If the grapes were simply left in the tank without temperature control, fermentation would accelerate, starting well too early, and, resulting in something like jam more than the next step in making wine.
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[...] to make sure our grapes are as cool as possible. Then we bring them into the winery to go through cold soak maceration. Those steps are meant to impede the fermentation process until all of the crop has been [...]