Punching Down
There are so many elements to a successful harvest, and one of the lesser known but incredibly important parts to getting the best Pinot Noir happens during the fermentation process. After being hand sorted and destemmed, whole Pinot Noir berries and juice go into a 2 3/4 ton stainless steel fermenter (pictured). During the process of fermentation (whereby the yeasts help convert the sugars into alcohol, with CO2 being the byproduct of that process), the juice falls to the bottom and skins, seeds and yeast rise to the top, forming a cap. It is critical to punch down through this hard cap and mix up the skins, seeds and yeast with the fermenting juice two to three times a day. In the "olden days" (and by that I mean prior to 2003!), we used to do this by hand. Our cellar crew and winemaker became quite muscular doing this because breaking through the cap and mixing up the contents for 30-50 fermenters was quite a chore! In 2003 we decided to give their sore muscles a break and purchased a gentle, pneumatic-powered punch-down device (pictured, breaking through the cap and mixing up everything).
To date during this harvest, we have brought in 48 tons of Pinot Noir which are fermenting in small stainless steel tanks, being gently punched down two or three times a day.