(Our) Red Vinification: Remontage (pump-over), Delestage (Rack and Return), Submerged Cap - Part 2
(...) The second method is instead called "submerged cap" and differs substantially from the former, totally submerging the marc by completely filling the tank with the fermenting must. In fact, to correctly carry out a remontage, or "pump over", it is essential that the tank is not completely full, so as to allow perfect handling of the must: on the contrary, the "submerged cap" technique involves the complete filling of the tank, so as to allow the marc mass to remain completely immersed in the must without the need to intervene with further processing.
What makes you lean towards one or the other technique?
Again, in this case the determining factors that guide our choice are the variety of grapes processed and the type of wine we intend to obtain. In general, however, we could say that for shorter fermentations, in other words for those wines that will have a lower alcoholic strength, we generally favour the remontage technique, while for longer fermentations we prefer the submerged cap.
The reason lies mainly in the search for a perfect balance between the need to maximise the extraction process - favoured by pumping over - and that of manipulating, therefore stressing, our wine as little as possible.
In any case, both techniques, if correctly performed, are able to produce wines of the highest quality and great aromatic finesse.
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