The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

Starting Fermentation on Primitivo

primi must

Time to check out the primitivo mustBrix are at about 26-26.5;  pH is up at 4, and TA is ~9.5-10 g/L.  Not perfect;  I decided to add a half gallon of water with 14 grams of dissolved tartaric acid to each can, and also added pectinase.  When I retested, the brix were at about 25, and TA ~9, pH still high at 3.87.  But, I’m going to leave it there for now and see what happens after fermentation.

I have 2 different yeasts again, one for each can:  ICV-D80 and BM45.  I picked these after reading a bunch of entries on winepress.us, and these seemed to be the most popular for zinfandel (which was the original plan, and primitivo is basically the same).  However, as opposed to last year’s merlots that I kept separate, I will blend the primitivo together at pressing into a single wine.  I’m sure it will be just fine.

I also went in to punch down the syrah again, and it’s almost done – brix are at 4.5 and 1.5.  Looks like the guys will be pressing it out this week.