I’ve always heard that Essencia is true free run off of Noble Rot grapes, that what makes it so expensive, but who know lol
http://www.royal-tokaji.com/essencia.php
I have only really heard the word in reference to reds. Often if you want to integrate loads of new oak the softer free run is desirable. It is also often put to barrel a little sweet to help integrate the oak.
To me free run is flabby(with or without stems), but I prefer a basket press to bladder or membrane as a gentler press and easier to make a press cut for each block each vintage.
Press juice is often put in lower percent new oak and often ends up getting finned and put into appellation blends. It is also use to top up barrels. Free run yields are lower obviously, only 2 or less barrels per ton (120 gal). I see 140-150 usually though 165+ is not uncommon especially if water is added to rehydrate overripe/dimpling/raisins etc. Up to 180+ is possible for very hard press wine.
Free run is most commonly used in reference to red wines. As Ed noted above, fermented wine is often moved directly from fermentation bins or tanks to barrels (or other tanks) before the pomace is pressed, and this is the free run. Where I work, we do this free run process from small fermentation bins but our method is not terribly efficient, so we also end up with a fair amount of wine flowing straight out of the press when we load the pomace but before we actually start pressing. This is also free run, as it’s wine that is not pressed. Like many vintners, we keep the free run lots separate for barrel or tank aging where possible, though it often ends up being blended with some press wine.
I’ve heard of a very small number of vintners refer to free run with white wines, though that’s usually unfermented free run juice rather than fermented free run wine as with reds. This happens when the fruit is crushed (and usually but not always destemmed as well) prior to pressing, as opposed to pressing uncrushed whole clusters, so there is some juice that can be obtained before everything goes into the press. This allows for some time when the juice can remain on the skins, whether it’s just a short time or several days, and the free run juice can then be kept separate if desired. In the case of fully skin-fermented whites, the free run / press distinction would be essentially the same as with red wines.
As both Ed, Eric, and Joe mentioned, free run wine is not necessarily superior to free run blended with press. There may certainly be wines where that’s the case but there are lots of variables involved.
I appreciate all the input especially from folks in the business. I love insight like this.
And here I thought that when I clicked the link I’d be taken to Free Run Cellars in Southern Michigan. $12 sounded right but “ok” as a descriptor probably would have been generous.
I’ve always heard that Essencia is true free run off of Noble Rot grapes, that what makes it so expensive, but who know lol
A completely different category from what these guys are talking about. It is indeed the free run, but those grapes, or raisins, have sat in huge bins for weeks, if not months and it’s what accumulates on the bottom. The grapes are dried already and it’s not like you’re going to get much juice. Then when that stuff is filtered so it can be bottled, you lose more than half of it. It’s not “juice” so much as a sticky goo before it’s filtered and bottled.
These guys are talking about plump, ripe, healthy grapes that are full of juice. I guess that the purest expression of “free run” might be a bleed wine from grapes that have been crushed by their own weight and have started carbonic fermentation. Probably wouldn’t be a deep red though.
It used to be, back in the ‘good ole days’, that presses were a lot harsher on grapes and must than they are now. Back then, the free run of red wines was separated from all of the other fractions because it was believed to be more ‘pure’.
Over time, the ‘conventional wisdom’ therefore became that ‘free run’ wine was of a higher quality - and there are some who still believe this to be the case.
With modern presses, though, the grapes and wine are not treated as ‘harshly’ and therefore it is not imperative that one separates their free run and press fractions. I do know that some wineries still do - and market the heck out of this. And they sell off all ‘press fractions’ above a certain bar of pressure because they feel it makes their final wine ‘worse’.
I’ve worked with a number of different bladder and basket presses over the past decade, and I can’t think of a single case that any press fractions on any of the red lots that I produced, or the hundreds I helped produce for others, required us not to use the press fractions with the ‘free run’.
White wines, to me, cause some challenges that may require press fractions to be separated and treated differently. For instance, with a variety like Grenache Blanc, where the skins are incredibly phenolic, the harder you press, the more phenolic and bitter the fraction will be, along with a pH that can rise precipitously. In a case like that - and you would only know by tasting - one might keep a certain lot separate and treat it differently in hopes of blending it in with the other lots down the line.
Hope that helps . . .
Cheers!
Thanks, Larry. That was helpful context/history/detail.
Byron used to make a “drizzle barrel” wine for members, I always assumed it was free run of some sort.
Is drizzle barrel a common term?
Never heard the term, but to me it would imply the opposite. Free run flows through and early press flows, too. It’s the end of press, when there’s not much juice left to squeeze out of the solids, where it slows down to a trickle. Not many wineries would put “trickle juice” on the label, so that could be something they came up with for end-of-press. Or who knows, it could be unrelated to our topic. Was that in the Ken Brown era? Anyway, depending on the wine and the press, the end-of-press juice can be the best/most complex/most distinctive. So, it could be the case that it didn’t work well blended in with the rest of the juice, but had its merits, so was treated as its own thing. Some of the winemakers above indicated not including all of their press wine back into their free run, so this last fraction could just be a known to never make the cut. While wildly speculating in this specific case, that’s the sort of thing that can evolve when you get to know specific fruit.