cold-soaking

[glenora]

Joey--

From a winery's perspective. This is something that we do with some of our more delicate flavored varieties when we are looking for more varietal flavor in the wine--examples of varieties that we consider for this process include Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and on occassion Chardonnay.

The way we do it--the grapes are havested very early in the morning when they are cool (hence cold). They are then de-stemmed and crushed and placed in a tank where the juice from the cushing can be in contact with the skins (soaking). Depending on a few variables the soaking period can last from 12-24 hours after which the grapes are pressed.

Hope this helps!

Gene