Facts to know:
1. Higher outdoor temperatures during harvesting are not a problem as, unlike with white wine, higher tannin contents do not interfere.
2. A destemmer is used to separate the berries from the stalks. This leads to lower input of tannins from green stalks.
3. Depending on the variety, the berries are crushed after destemming or not.
4. Mash fermentation takes place in steel tanks or fermentation vats made of oak – it can take place with a closed or open top.
5. Due to the rising CO2, the mash swims up and would dry out. The mash is also called cake.
6. To prevent it from drying out, the mash is mixed with the juice, either mechanically or pneumatically. Another option is to pump the juice from the bottom on the mash. The result is a good leaching of all berries.
7. For red wine it is common to start malolactic fermentation after the first fermentation to convert malic acid into lactic acid.