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Maceration Pellacullaire in white wine must

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  • Maceration Pellacullaire in white wine must

    On the inside cover of the recent Brouwland mailshot was a step by step guide to Making Your Own White Wine.

    The grapes used were Trebbiano and interestingly it mentions Skin Contact at <10c for 3 days and refers to it as Maceration Pellacullaire.

    In all the books I've read so far, none of them has ever mentioned any skin contact for white grapes and I was wondering what this would do to the finished wine in terms of taste.

    The Trebbiano I made last year was rather uninspiring until I started playing with acid levels in the finished wine. With a 1g/l increase to get the acid to 6g/l the wine is much better but any more than that and all I can taste is the acid. I used Lalvin D47 and fermented the must with no sugar or acid additions, starting numbers were SG 1.073 TA 5g/l.

    Could skin contact make a "bigger" wine with a more fruity taste or is it just going to add tannin?

    Rob

  • #2
    Rob
    I came across this on a course recently. Some of the English vineyards are doing it and I have to say I felt a little bit guilty when I looked (&sounded) appalled at some Italian friends of mine are doing just the same thing.

    It really is just a cold soak prior to pressing and I am quite sure it would improve Trebbiano. What you will have to be careful with is your sulphite levels to manage the oxidisation else you could end up with the wine that is Sherry coloured. Let's not forget this is a cold soak without fermentation.

    Why not go the whole hog and ferment them on ice lager yeast ?
    Gluten free, caffeine free, dairy free, fat free – you gotta love this red wine diet!

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    • #3
      Thanks for the tip about sulphite and sherry colour, I'd forgotten about browning. I'm quite keen to have a go at doing this.

      I've no idea what ice lager yeast is but I'm assuming it is a very low temperature fermenting yeast?

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      • #4
        I did this by accident when I started winemaking in 2007. Seriously - I was given a load of local grapes one day crushed them by hand and left them in a fermenting bucket with some sulphite. I had just started a batch of elderberry wine and had followed the CJJ Berry technique (and probably recipe).
        That night I re-read the the Berry book to work out what next and realised that the technique for white and red wines was different.
        The following evening, after about 36 hours on the skins I managed to strain them off. The resulting wine was lovely though. Unlike the first batch of elderberry which was not.
        I reckon its worth a try therefore.
        Simon
        "I can certainly see that you know your wine. Most of the guests who stay here wouldn't know the difference between Bordeaux and Claret." - Basil Fawlty

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        • #5
          Well thats two recommendations so I will definitely give it a go.

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