The harvesting of our merlot towards the end of last week ushered in the beginning of pump overs at Backsberg. The idea of a pump over is to circulate the juice/wine out the bottom of a tank (seen above), up and back over the cap of skins formed at the top of the tank. This circulation encourages both colour and flavour extraction in the case of red wine.
For at least the first half of the pump over we use a hose, making sure the entire cap (at the top of the tank) is soaked. Then depending on the length of the pump over we may attach a sprinkler (like below) to distribute the juice/wine over the top.
Another version of the pump over is the punch down (example below), a slightly more physical challenge. The punch down tool involves a metal rod with a flat plate at the one end. Whilst on my gap year in 2003, I worked at Stephen Ross Wine Cellars in California. Stephen is a pinot noir specialist and (unfortunately for me) great proponent of the punch down. Let's just say that after a month or so of punch downs what hadn't killed me, had made me stronger, literally. SB
This pic is courtesy of Avalon Wine Tours Australia.
3 comments:
wow, what a great thing to see, it's all so much 'bigger' than I imagined! Val
Hi Val. Yip, there is enough to keep us busy! SB
Hi Simon,
Really enjoying what you post. Just saw a documentary on 3talk - WOW!!! Now I want to buy a tree and have it planted on the farm.
Later
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