When to press crushed grapes

[MightyMosin]

I purchased 4.25 gallons of semi-frozen Pinot Noir grape must that was sourced from Willamette Valley, OR.

I just did some checks on it.
It's a 3.6 pH... that seems to be right in line where it should be.
1.096 on a hydrometer, temperature corrected to 1.095.
Free SO2 measured out at 20PPM.

I wanted the initial SO2 to be at 30-50 to PPM for the raw must. I added ~8mL of a 10% SO2 mix to the 4.25 gallon and that brought it up to 40PPM. I added two tsp of pectic enzyme to the must, flooded the headspace with CO2, and will let it set for ~3 days in the refrigerator doing its cold soak.

The must has SO MUCH grape skins and mini grape branches and a few bits of leaves.

I'll let this ferment through ~ the 1/3 sugar break.. maybe the 2/3 break and then pull off all of the skins and brambles to press through my mini press... That's going to be slow going. That slow portion is what has me thinking the 1/3 break while there is a lots of CO2 going on is the better choice. Is there a preferred spot for this?

Any recommendations on how to pull all the solids for pressing without introducing too much extra O2.
Maybe I should pour all of this through a muslin bag and try to catch all the solids in one place?

Suggestions are welcomed.

 

[Yooper]

I often put the ‘stuff’ in a huge nylon mesh bag (I use it for my cider press) and ferment that way, then pull the bag out and press in the cider press. If you don’t have it bagged, you can gently pour through a bag into another fermenter and then just lift out the bag and then press that. I generally press when the wine is at 1.020 or so, so fermentation is well underway but not yet finished. You could consider adding a wee bit more sulfite to help prevent oxidation but I wouldn’t bother with that- if fermention isn’t finished, it’ll be fine.