2015 Cabernet Sauvignon / Progress

Following on from our post of  26th March, fermentation of the juice took just over a week to complete.
We then transferred the must with the oak staves into a stainless steel tank and sealed it after pH adjustment to 3.60 with tartaric acid.
Post fermentation maceration lasted a week.
We did this to extract as much colour and tannin as possible from the skins.
It also gave the wine the opportunity to go through MLF ie. conversion of the harsher malic acid component by lactic acid bacteria into the softer lactic acid. This process was confirmed with an increase in pH to 3.75

Then the must was drained and pressed with both free run wine and all of the pressings being returned to a stainless steel tank with the oak staves.
50ppm SO2 (bactericide and antioxidant) was added together with egg white to begin the fining process.
The marc (skins, seeds, stalk remnants) that remains in the press was returned to the vineyard rows as soil conditioner.
In a week we shall rack the wine off the fermentation lees.