Congratulations on commencing your Shareholder winemaking experience with a fun stomping party.
During the Stomping Party, we picked, crushed and foot stomped the grapes to process them into a mixture of grape juice, skins and seeds (must), ready for fermentation. After the stomping, we added a pectinase enzyme to help extract colour and tannins, and metabisulfites to kill off the wild yeasts (and all the goodness on our feet). The metabisulfites ensure we start with a ‘clean ferment’ and ferment with our desired yeast strain.
The day after stomping, we added yeast to the must and it has been happily fermenting away over the last few weeks, turning our grape juice into wine. As the grapes ferment carbon dioxide is produced, pushing the grape must up to the top of the vat, forming a crust. Three times a day, our team is walking through the winery, plunging the skins under the juice to keep everything wet, extracting colour and flavour from the skins, and to continually supply the yeast with oxygen.
Your next visit to the winery is for the stage of Pressing. We separate the wine juice from the skins and seeds, using a basket press, and transfer the fermented juice (otherwise known as wine!) into tank, where it will sit for the next few months as it continues its malolactic fermentation and lees (yeast & skin fragments), before we put it into barrel.
Compared with picking and crushing, this workshop is a little shorter (closer to an hour in total), but equally informative, and an exciting opportunity to taste your wine now after fermentation and at different stages as it comes off the press, ranging from low in tannin to very tannic.
All pressing bookings can be made through the calendar below. If you are having issues with the form, contact us via email rentarow@shirazrepublic.com.au or (03) 5433 6338.
The pressing stage will conclude the harvest stage of winemaking. It will sit in tank now ferment and clarify until we revisit it over the winter to add oak. Book into the oak tasting stage via the Shareholder hub (link coming soon).