Who barrel's down dirty and who settles?

I think I’ve read almost every post here but don’t think I’ve seen anyone cover this topic. Just curious who here presses and settles for a day or so in tank prior to barreling down and who just pumps the wine (free run) and pressed wine into barrel without settling? And why?

If you don’t normally settle, what would make you do so if you felt it necessary?

Which varieties would you never not settle prior to barreling down?

I’m curious because I think I would like to barrel down dirty next week or so and finally do something against the books since I’ve heard so many pinot producers do it…

Thanks!
Brandon

I have never settled any reds. Always pump directly out of the press. That is for Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre and Petite. And I will do the same for Pinot this year.

Unless we feel there may be a specific potential problem with the lees (seldom happens), the places I’ve worked or helped at during crush always press straight to barrel. Smoke-tainted fruit from 2008 was one of the examples where we settled the wine before going to barrel.

Working with Pinot Noir in the Willamette, we always settle - very well. As a result we never do rack & returns. Stylistically the winery I work for makes super clean wine. I enjoy wines from other local wineries who go down on the lees. I will say that our reduction issues are few and far between, and are almost always related to a poor racking.

Have done it both ways. I prefer to settle overnight after the basket press for our wines now. I will rack 0-1 times via bulldog per vintage and bottle unfiltered. Having a basket press gives very clean press juice compared to bladder/membrane. I done like to move the wine much and done like to filter so cleaner juice to barrel is a goal.

If you want to stir the lees you need some to stir. I don’t stir the less.

Lots of PN producers press sweet and finish in barrel. In that case you want some lees/sediment to aid in completion of fermentation. I don’t press until cap fall (avg 21 days in t-bins) though with whole clusters there is always a tiny bit of RS from the press. Overnighting/24 hr tank settle helps lower the RS more quickly than it would in barrel.

Press at just under zero brix, always down to barrel direct from fermentation tank. I try not to take the really sludgy pink grossness at the bottom, but other than that, the more the merrier.

I guess that’s the Pinot protocol you’re hearing from Pinot producers. I basically just second that!

As we make 60 wines a year from 25+ varieties in our winery, I’ve done it every which way and sideways. I’ve come to the realization that settling is better on both reds and whites and most varieties, usually overnight, for several reasons. White fermentations have fewer issues, cleaner flavors and seem (this is where we get fuzzy woo-woo) to reflect what I saw in the site and grapes better, rather than ‘winemaker agenda’. With the reds, I haven’t seen the value of gross lees in barrel, other than a particularly fun ‘ewww’ factor when racking. Gross lees can cause some major stink in the barrel and harbor all sorts of nasties and not so nasties (one of their favorite is oenococcus after secondary fermentation is done) that lead to problems down the road. This happens in a small minority of cases, but even one wine out of 60 every fifth year is unacceptable to me. Pinot, Syrah, some of your Spanish and Portuguese varieties tend to be the most forgiving if you do go down dirty, Grenache and most bordeauxs (though it varies vineyard to vineyard) really want to be on light lees only. Jury is still out on Mourvedre for me.

The winery I make my wines at does settle their whites and reds (pinot noir, occasional big red) overnight, but I play with barreling down straight from the press. Since I do use a percentage of whole cluster and press when the cap falls, there’s always a little bit of activity going on. With healthy yeast, I don’t worry much about it. Maybe 1-1.5 brix of sugar isn’t a lot for the yeasties to play with and the ferments finish clean and happy. I will usually rack a few months after this (Feb/March) and once before bottlings, with great results.

Always tank settle Pinot; all other varieties are year by year decisions.
Best, Jim

Pinot? Pease do tell.

David

Getting Pinot from Oppenlander - a dry farmed, very cold location outside Comptche - and Wentzel.

Small / boutique style wineries generally press to barrel. Your medium to large wineries will press to tank and settle overnight. Winery logistics does play a part in this step. The boutique winery is able to isolate their free run from their press juice and they can portion that off into whatever barrels they choose. Whereas pressing to tank you mix your free run and press before bbling down.

I think that settling before bbl down does help alleviate the possibility of needing to rack your Pinot in the future. I’ve only had to do that twice in 11 years.

We settle to tank. We have found that we don’t need to rack at all when we do this. Also we do mostly whole cluster, so the press juice usually has a brix or 2 left. I want to know the wines are totally dry going into barrel. I like sleep.