Autovinification

Background

Updated: 20th March 2006

A method by which red wine is made without manual extraction (foot-treading, or punching down the skins with poles to release their colour), but instead left in an ‘autovinifier’ which carries the whole process out without man's intervention.

Crushed grapes are placed in a sealed vat and when fermentation begins, carbon dioxide pressure builds up until the juice is forced through a valve into a second, higher chamber.

When this second chamber is full, another valve mechanism is triggered forcing the collected juice back down on to the original must, breaking up the cap and skins as it hits them. As the fermentation gets going, this cycle increases in regularity until the vat turns over at 10-15 minute intervals. This is a rather aggressive approach to extraction, particularly useful in the production of Port, where rapid release of colour and tannins is needed prior to fortification.