White grapes. Skin or no skin?

[zxrider]

A friend just gave me permission to pick all the white grapes I want. I'm not sure what kind they are but know his grandmother used them for wine in the past. I do not have any kind of press and need to decide what to do about that.

My question is : can I leave the skin on the white grapes in the primary or should I press and use juice only?

 

[robie]

Typically you would press the grapes and not ferment on the skins. Otherwise, the wine could get really tart from seeds and skins.

Manually de-stem and crush the grapes, then press them.

One way to press - you can use two food grade buckets to press. The buckets can be bought at Lowes or Home Depot in the paint dept. Make sure they have the food grade symbol on the bottoms of the buckets.

Drill holes in bucket #1; set it in a clean container that will catch the juice. Place crushed grapes in that bucket, then put bucket # 2 on top of grapes and press really hard.

Another way to press is to put grapes in a bag and squeeze the best way you can.