More and more producers are using this method, which occurs at the time of maceration of red wines. Pigeage simply involves pushing the floating skins back down into the fermenting wine, by hand or automatically by robots.
According to the winemaker's preferences, the wine then undergoes such processes as remontage (pumping over) and délestage (rack and return). The object is to extract color, tannin, and flavor from the skins, and to aerate the wine in order to prevent bacterial spoilage.
