Vatting period

16 December 2011

Last Updated: 17 September 2012

François Lopez

Why differents Vatting periods

The most interresting in the grape comes from the skin and pips. When the grapes are healthy and aromatic we want to extract the most possible molecules. So we let the juice in contact with skins and pips. In this way the contents of cells will gradually diffuse into the juice.

The contact time between juice, skins and seeds is called the vatting period. A short duration of fermentation grape certainly indicates a low quality. why certainly? Simply because if the grapes were good enough, it would be sufficient to wait a few more days to extract its full potential and then sell the wine easier and much more.

The duration of vatting range from 2-3 days to 6-7 days for most wines. The bests have more than 3 weeks of vatting period.

The pictures below present inside a tank during vatting, after pressing and finally empty

View of the cap of the tank. The juice is below.
After a few hours fermentation generates heat. Regulation of this heat is essential for good quality.
Red fermentation tank (after separating the grape juice)
Picture taken from bottom of the tank. The metal part at the top right is the bottom of a flag used to control the temperature.

The duration of vatting is a key element to know and you should inquire about it when you buy a wine at the property. However, long maceration are often too heavy to drink alone, therefore, they are assembled with wines that bring them a little more vivacity. Yes, but in what proportion? This is an unavoidable issue..

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