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You are correct! Wine Quiz Answer: B. Pushing grapes skins back into fermenting juice.
During the fermentation of red wine, in which the grape skins are retained in the mix for color and tannin extraction, the CO2 being released causes the skins to float to the top. This can create a thick "cap" at the top of the tank. The skins need to be remixed into the fermenting juice in order to effectively gain from them and one way to do so is to "punch the cap" back down into the mix and break it up using a big flat plunger of some sort.
Two other (more efficient) ways to achieve this is to either "pump over", whereby the fermenting juice is pumped from underneath over the top of the cap, or by using a specialized screen to hold the grape skins under the juice, trapping them below the surface.
Contributor: Eric V. Orange
Founder, developer and busboy of Local Wine Events.com.
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