Cap Management

I think we all intuitively know what it means to be a winemaker. But what do we actually do in a day?

So to shed some light on how we keep ourselves busy throughout a season, I thought it would be fun to start a little series of posts on some of the tasks we as winemakers do. To be honest, nature does most of the work to guide grapes in to wine, but there are a few key tasks that we must perform in order to ensure a quality wine is the result.

Today, we are going to look at cap management. What is it? Why do we do it? And how do we do it?

When juice is fermenting on the skins (such as when making red wine or orange wine), the resulting carbon dioxide pushes the skins to the top of the tank. We use “cap management” techniques to push the skins back down and reintroduce the skins to the juice.

We need to keep the skins in contact with the juice during fermentation for a few reasons. First, we pull colour pigments and flavour/aroma compounds from the skins and need the direct contact to do so. It also aids in microbiological stability – if we let the cap dry out we could allow spoilage organisms to take over. It also allows us to incorporate oxygen in to the fermentation. Lastly, it allows us to mix the tank, providing an even fermentation and maintaining temperature control.

There are three common methods that we can use to manage the cap:

1. Punch Downs
2. Pump Over
3. Rack and Return

Punch downs involve using a tool with a flat head and a long handle and manually pushing the skins back down in to the juice. This is where cellar hands and winemakers acquire muscle (or realize we need to workout more!) as this cap can be very dense and difficult to push through! Punch down is a great method for cap management because it allows you to control how much of the cap you break and also how much oxygen you allow to be incorporated. We use punch downs as our primary method at Harwood. I like the control it offers – I can maintain the cap longer to achieve a longer maceration period if desired.

Pump overs involve hooking up a pump to the tank and pumping the juice from the bottom of the tank back over top of the skins. This is a great method especially if you are looking to mix your tank or add a lot of oxygen. We use this method when the fermentations are very active and we are looking to cool the ferments or add oxygen to move them along.

Rack and returns involve draining the tank of juice and then returning it back over top. Often this is done by gravity so it can be a very gentle process and allows you to control oxygen addition while still mixing the juice very well and maintaining a wet cap.

Usually winemakers will use a combination of these methods depending on the style of wine we are making, the tools we have available or the progress of the fermentation and the results we are looking to achieve!