After our pressing class last night, the wine has settled out. Now it’s time to pump off the cleared wine and start secondary fermentation: malolactic fermentation. This process sometimes happens naturally, but it’s always safer to inoculate with fresh malolactic bacteria to be sure you know what is working on your wine — it could […]
Monthly archive: 09 2011
Our syrah finished fermenting in about 7 days. Average fermentation temperatures were 80 to 82 degrees, though the bucket with Pasteur Red got up to 88 degrees on day 2 of fermentation. It was progressing smoothly so we did not add Fermaid K this time. Now it’s time to press out our wine! We decided […]
We did a 3-day cold soak on our 2011 syrah, mostly out of convenience. I get a little nervous doing more than 2 days, and I don’t think I’ll soak this long again before pitching the yeast. Besides the cost of putting 10 pounds of dry ice into the buckets every morning, the must does […]
Time for another syrah harvest at Live Oak Vineyard in Fallbrook! I was the first to arrive, just as the sun broke over the mountains to the East. The weather this year was perfect so far. I did smell a nearby wildfire as I drove up to the vineyard, but nothing threatening to interfere with […]