When to bleed

When berries come in at 25 Brix or higher it is necessary to add water in order to bring down the final alcohol content. Different winemakers do this in different ways. You can just add water, or you can bleed off an equivalent amount of juice as you add water. You can do this at any time from immediately after crush to during fermentation. By waiting to bleed, you will be discarding juice that has already absorbed some of the compounds from the skin.

Andrew bleeds and adds water after 2-4 days of cold soaking. Another winemaker I know does this during the early stages of fermentation. I have also read of winemakers bleeding at crush (saigner). I am inclined to want to bleed at crush. This will result in the least amount skin compounds lost.