Starting the Fermentation

Once the red grapes are processed, whether they're crushed or just destemmed, they are left to sit for a period of time and then it's time to innoculate with yeast and get the fermentation started. Pre-fermentation cold soaking is popular these days and this year, Babcock is giving it a try on their single vineyard Pinots. We take the newly-filled wooden fermenters, cover them, and store them away in the "cold room" at 48 degrees for 48 hours. At Painted Rock, Bordeaux varieties go through a 3-day cold soak in chilled tanks before starting the fermentation.

The process for adding the yeast involves first getting the yeast active--just as you do when making bread--and then acclimating it to the colder temperature of the grape must in the tanks, before adding it in. For both large tanks and groups of smaller fermenters, we use a cart to do the mixing:

We put in 105-degree F water in an amount appropriate for the size of the tank and the amount of yeast we're using. Then we sprinkle the yeast into the water:

 

And give it a stir:

 

We let it sit for several minutes until it gets frothy and starts working:

Now it's time to start bringing the temperature down gradually. If we were to just dump the yeast in at this point, it would be shocked and wouldn't work. We add some cold juice from the fermenters or, in this case, tank:

We let that sit for a few minutes so the yeast can get used to the new temp:

Then we repeat the process several times, adding a little juice at a time and letting it sit for a few minutes each time:

 The goal is to get the yeast mixture to within 10 degrees F of the temperature in the tank or fermenters. Once we reach that temp, we'll pump the yeast mixture into the tank (or bucket it into the smaller fermenters), and wait for it to work it's magic, usually within a day or so.