Carbonic maceration has been part of my wine vocabulary for years now. I have been able to tell you that it’s commonly used for Beaujolais, lends to fresh and fruity red wines, and involves fermenting whole grapes. I thought that I had a reasonable grasp of the concept. I wasn’t afraid to choose it as my variable in the experimental red wine making we’re doing in class this fall. Last Thursday evening, I came home from a grape harvesting trip, looking forward to a Friday spent processing the merlot we had just unloaded into the student winery. I thought it would be interesting to do a little internet research on the carbonic maceration (CM) technique. Anticipating a simple afternoon of gently tossing whole grape clusters into our fermenting tanks, I hoped to find a tip or two to differentiate our group’s wine from the rest.