Thinking about the disaster involved with using my new must pump with the cleared primitivo in 2009, plus having lots of little batches, we opted to use the Buon Vino minijet filter pump, and bypass the filter unit to use it just as a pump.  It’s definitely slower than the must pump, but for these sized batches, that was kind of a good thing.

Since you never know exactly how much you’re going to get, we pumped everything to 6-gallon carboys first, then juggled them around into carboys that fit the volume as closely as possible.  We do want to top up the carboys to the necks now to minimize air contact, but want to leave just a little extra room so we can stir it up with a spoon every week during MLF.

After a few hours everything was ready to start MLF.  First I tested the free SO2 levels, just to be sure the yeast had not created too much during fermentation to inhibit MLB activity.  A quick run with the SC-100 showed levels were below 10 ppm.  So we then rehydrated VP41 MLB in one jar, and Opti-Malo Plus nutrients in another jar.  After 15 minutes, the appropriate amount of solution was added to each carboy, then stirred gently.

Overall we now have 9 gallons of batch #1, 6 gallons of free run and 5 gallons of press run for batch #2, 11 gallons of batch #3 (our favorite), and 9 gallons of batch #4.  Now it’s waiting time, we’ll stir the wine every week and in about 2 weeks we’ll test for the appearance of lactic acid.  Hopefully it will be positive, indicating that MLF is off and running!

The barrels needed a new home, so we decided it was a good time to rack out the wine and clean out the barrels.  Both the merlot and petite sirah need more oak, so we’re going to leave them in the barrels for another year with some extra oak cubes added in.  We pumped the merlot out of the barrel into a secondary container (yes, that’s a trash can, but it has only been used for primary fermentations), then cleaned out that barrel.  After a good rinse, we pumped the petite sirah into that barrel, then washed out the now empty barrel.  To complete the wine shuffling, the merlot was pumped back into the clean barrel.  Then it was time to load them into the truck to move to their new home.

The barrels’ new home is at my new home winemaking and cheesemaking supply shop in San Diego, Curds and Wine.  I decided I wanted to help other people discover first-hand how fun and easy it is to make your own wine and cheese.  I’m just getting everything set up, and hope to be open the first or second weekend of November!

When I moved the carboy for racking, the layer broke up into yucky white clots:

Luckily, though, these clumps either floated at the top or stuck to the sides, so I racked the wine away from it pretty successfully.  I took a sample to taste, it was very clear and had no off-odors or strange flavors.  Hopefully this means whatever that is on top is not something that will harm the wine.

I also checked on the small bottle that had the white layer before.  There was a faint oily-looking layer on top, but nothing significant.  I also took a sample from this bottle, and again it smelled and tasted fine.

A close inspection of the other carboys revealed another layer forming on a 6-gallon carboy of the petite sirah.  This layer was not as thick as the one on the merlot, but I racked it off also to be safe.  This wine also smelled and tasted fine.  Now it’s time to wait and hope for the best!

I discovered that one of the 4-liter bottles of merlot has a funky white layer similar to the one I found on the rescued petite sirah. I hope I can remedy this one better, since the infection came back in the petite sirah after racking.  Before racking I dipped cotton swabs in a Kmeta solution and tried to fish off some of the white stuff. I racked it into a clean bottle, and soaked the oak in cleaner/sanitizer solution before rinsing and adding back. I also stirred in a pinch of Kmeta to make sure there’s enough sulfite to keep the stuff from growing back.

It is at least very clear.  Nice oaky, fruity aromas, nothing strange;  the flavors are also great, lots of oak with tart fruit, but no detectable off tastes.  There is a good bit of acidity on the tongue, but our merlot last year was really big and tart similar to this at this stage.  I’ll hope for the best, a whole gallon of wine would be quite a loss if I can’t get rid of whatever this is.

The primitivo has been settling out since October, so it seemed like time to poke at it.  I like to splash rack my wine that is bulk aging in carboys at least once to try to give it a little oxygenation while it’s hanging out.

The primi has become wonderfully clear already, a lovely purple-ruby in color.  I gave it a taste to try to decide if I should leave in the oak cubes or not.  The wine with American oak cubes was quite spicy and definitely had a strong oakiness, so I won’t transfer those cubes after racking.  The wine with French oak, however, had a much more subtle oak character, so those cubes will get added back to the racked wine.  Overall the primitivo has nice aromas of ripe fruits with good spice.  Rich, velvety flavors of cedar, spice box, blackberry and currant are developing nicely.  I’m so glad I got these grapes!

I also have a small bottle petite sirah sludge that I want to get off of the nasty lees.  When I went to pull off the cleared wine, I saw that it had thin layer of creepy white stuff on top.

It smells OK, like wine, nothing funky.  So, I dipped under the weird layer and pulled off the clear wine.  I got about 400 mLs off, then took a little sample to taste.

It’s pretty, nice and clear, deep dark garnet in color — and totally yucky.  It’s got aromas of acetone plus something sickly-sweet, and tasted equally as nasty.  Ick.  I sprinkled a little bit of Kmeta in, otherwise I’ll just leave this one separate to see if it gets over it, or feeds my vinegar cultures in the garage.

Another full day of wine racking and shuffling!  Dave sent me an email that the merlot barrel needed to be topped, so first I racked off the smaller bottles of merlot and took 2 cleared bottles to the office winery to top off the barrel.  I thought I had enough to top off and leave some for later topping, but in fact I used up all the extra wine I brought, it was just enough.

It was also time to check the MLF progression on the petite sirah.  Happily, it was complete!

I stirred some Kmeta into the barrel, and then it needed a decent amount of topping wine.  I decided it was a good idea to just pour the wine out of the carboy into the barrel.  It was going fine until my cell phone started buzzing in my pocket ….

Oops!!!

I packed the rest of the PS in carboys into the car to take home.  I thought I had them secured pretty well, but one popped cork on the ride.  Luckily though, no wine spilled out of any of them.

Once I got them home, I racked the wine off of the gross lees, stirred in Kmeta, and added french oak to the carboys.  The syrah also needed oak, so those carboys were racked and oak added to each bottle.  The shower is full again — and I didn’t even rack all of the merlot or any of the primitivo!

So, I’m starting by racking off the merlot I already have at home.  It’s time to check the MLF, and happily it’s done!  I’ll add some sulfite and 3 ounces of heavy toast french oak cubes to the 6-gallon bottle., and a half ounce of oak and a pinch of sulfite to 2 one-gallon bottles.

When I went over to the office winery to pull of any recovered petite sirah from the pooled sludge, I was greeted by a swarm of fruit flies!  Needless to say, they had made a very happy home in our bucket o’ sludge, so I left it alone and will let Dave dump it out (he loves cleaning out the buckets!).  I grabbed the extra merlot and headed back home to add it to the rest, and also took a little of the petite sirah from the barrel that had been freshly inoculated with VP41 malolactic bacteria.  I’ll pour that into the syrah and hope *maybe* that will get the MLF going.  I’ll also put the bottles out in the garage to try to warm it up during the day.

After all of that wine shuffling, I still need to put the foils on the barolo and merlot that was bottled last weekend.  Happily, none of the corks seem to be leaking.  The Mosti Mondiale barolo kit came with corks and foils (as well as labels, but I made those myself), so I used those for finishing off the bottles.  It really sets those apart, plus then I will remember that this is the mega-expensive kit wine when I open them in a few years.  Hopefully it will be worth it!

We still ended up getting to the winery just as the first lug of destemmed petite sirah was done.  The grapes looked great:

Each lug is approximately 1000 pounds of grapes.  The lugs got dumped into the shiny new destemmer:

We added dry ice to keep it cold, and scooped out our portion from the lugs into our trash cans.  The grapes had a funny greenish foam, but Chris said not to worry about it.

The trash cans were loaded into the truck with a lift, and I called my hubby to meet us at the office “winery” to help unload.  It was a long day, but any day spent winemaking is a good day.

It was time to pump off the cleared wine into a clean trash can for inoculation of the MLB.  My hubby was nice enough to help me, since wrangling the wine pump could get a little hairy;  both hoses need to be held under the wine, while plugging in the pump and sucking air through it to prime it.  After plugging it in, he said, “do you want me to start it?” meaning priming it, and I said, “no, I’ve gotten good at this.”  And I think I knew at that point that I jinxed myself, but it was way too late.  I blew out all of the air in my lungs, then drew in air through the tubing – way too efficiently – it came spurting out and I got 2 lungfuls of wine, plus wine all over myself including hair and yes, WHITE t-shirt, and also into hubby’s eyes.  Lovely spatters of wine all over the floor and the cabinets.  Super.

But, the pump did a great job.  The wine was transferred in no time.  I fired up the malolactic bacteria VP41 with some acti-ML, and while waiting for that to stew I wiped down the cabinets and major puddles of primitivo on the floor.  Since I knew what the wine felt like in my lungs, I thought I should also give it a proper taste.  Really good fruit, with good acidity.  With some oak, this is going to be great!

When the bacterial soup was ready, I dumped it into the can o’ wine and stirred it in well.  Then we pumped again, and this time I let my hubby start the wine flowing.  We transferred the wine to 4 6-gallon better bottles, with some head space.  I remembered last year that the primary wasn’t quite done after pressing, and it backflowed into the airlock.  I did put a layer of CO2 over the top of each carboy, then put airlocks on them and transferred them to the shower.

Half an hour later, I had showered and hubby cleaned the kitchen floor, and it was like nothing had happened – except the persistant burning in my throat and lungs …

I was racking off my Cellar Craft 5-week Old Vines Zinfandel kit today and noticed this yucky-looking white residue at the top of the wine, sticking to the side of the carboy as it was racked off.  There was a lot of lees at the bottom, too.  I have an extra liter or so of that wine in a separate bottle, but that bottle also has a big layer of lees.  I guess I’ll have to wait to see if this residue is indicative of something bad, it smells OK today.  So, I added the sorbate, Kmeta, and stabilizing/fining agents, then topped off as much as I could with the surplus wine.  It wasn’t quite enough, I ended up adding about 200 mL of water to top it.  I did decide to keep about a liter of the lees from the bottom to see if it would settle out more, then I can add it when I rack for bottling.