Lot B merlot FINALLY reached zero degrees brix.  What a relief!  Lot B, with the Pasteur red yeast, took a whole week longer than lot A, with the RC212 yeast.  It should be interesting to see how different they taste.

I borrowed a gallon basket press from another home winemaker I met the day we picked up the grapes, Ray Schnorr.  He devised a cool drill attachment to drive the turnstile on the press so that I don’t have to spend an hour turning it to press down, and another hour to unwind it again.  He’s brilliant, and I was SO glad to have that little gadget by the end of the day.

Time to get started!  At least I knew what a mess it would be after the big press.  I poured the must in to the basket.  Again, there was a decent amount of free run.

Adding must to the press

Must in basket before putting on pressing lid

It squirted all sorts of ways out the sides of the basket as I pressed down.  I ended up wrapping all around it with plastic wrap, which worked nicely.  Ray told me to press it down, then kind of loosen it and stir it around then press again.  I had read that if you pressed too hard, though, extra bitter stuff would be pressed out too.  So, the first batch pressed, lot B, was not pressed as dry as lot A, after I got more confident.  It wasn’t quite the solid cake that the bladder press made, but it was pretty dry.

This pomace I put into my compost in the back yard, and by the end of the day, the whole yard smelled like a winery.  After about 4 hours of pressing, the kitchen was a disaster.

Post-press kitchen disaster

But, with almost 14 gallons of lovely merlot, it was worth it.  Plus, my first taste of each of them.  Lot A is VERY hot and alcoholic and very dry, almost acidic on the to