FAR HILLS, N.J. /PRNewswire/ — There’s a reason why winemaking is sometimes referred to as “mud pies for grown-ups.” Pressing musts, particularly on a small scale, is tedious, messy and labor-intensive. It requires careful attention to balancing yields against harsh tannin extraction.
The ideal pressing system creates a thin, well-drained static cake to which low pressure is gently applied. Thick press cakes require high pressures and/or mechanical redistribution of the cake either by hand or by motorized equipment.
Conventional small batch presses are poorly designed. Most vertical basket presses have steel bottoms and force juice through a foot or more of pomace through side slats at great pressure, resulting in harsh tannins and poor yields. Some use water bladders which spread the pomace to a thinner cake. This is an improvement, but when 50 psi water pressure is employed, once again harsh tannins result.
Horizontal basket presses aren’t much better. They tumble the cake repeatedly while beating it with chains, repeatedly pressing at higher and higher pressures.
The GOfermentor single-use system not only eliminates punch-down labor and water consumption during fermentation, but also presses the wine for you at the press of a button. The system’s innately gentle pressure and well-engineered filtration system ensure that excellent yields, 150 gallons/ton, are obtained with the richest, softest tannins possible.
This pressing action is performed in a single, steady motion. Since the cake is static, it acts as a filter, so this action also results in good clarity and low lees and other solids, thus minimizing sulfide production in the receiving vessel and optimizing settled yields. This happens automatically, so that it is literally impossible to obtain harsh tannins from a GOfermentor.
The best part is once you finish pressing, you just remove the bag containing the spent pomace and throw it out. No cleaning. Put in a new bag and you are ready for the next fermentation.
My own history tasting Barolo wasn’t too good. Ed invested in a few and at each tasting, as they aged 10 years or so, I wasn’t happy with the dark tannins and fruit. I knew the wine needed more time in our cellar – many at or past the 20-year mark – but wanted to understand more about the grape, so that my appreciation might help me at the next tasting. I pulled about six bottles from our cellar after this course, see my 
What can be called Champagne
This week I had two Bordeaux wines to review from Légende, and each bottle has a small round stamp that declares that they are included in the Domaines Barons de (Lafite) Rothschild. I found that a wee bit intriguing, so, on with the tasting:
This is your opportunity to taste some of Beekeeper Cellars greatest wines, including our all-new 2015 Montecillo Vineyard Zinfandel…alongside their 2016 Secret Stones and Montecillo.
Calvados Boulard V.S.O.P. Bourbon Cask Finish is a very limited release with 500 cases available globally, half of which are allocated to the US market. The V.S.O.P. Bourbon Cask Finish is the first expression in Boulard’s new 12 Barrel Collection, showcasing innovation in the spirit’s finish.
Now that the federal government has approved the AVA, on January 14 bottles with “Van Duzer Corridor AVA” may be printed on labels from the AVA’s seven wineries nested within the Willamette Valley.