The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

Tag archive: zinfandel

Syrah Harvest 2012

It’s that time again — harvest day!  We had a recent heat wave in San Diego that pushed up our syrah harvest date from previous years.  Luckily the heat wave broke for harvest day, though it was still pretty hot after the sun came up! Once again the Curds and Wine Grapes to Glass Hands-on […]

Bad News for Sober Wife’s Primitivo!

The heat wave is continuing, and I got an email today that the Primitivo at Sober Wife Vineyard is almost all raisined — there is no way it will last for our planned August 26th harvest. As it is, they don’t think there will be much to harvest at all! This is very sad news, […]

Visit to Live Oak and Sober Wife Vineyards

It’s time to start thinking about harvest season again, so my hubby and I headed up to Fallbrook to visit Live Oak Vineyard and Sober Wife Vineyard, where we’ll be harvesting this year. We started up at Live Oak Vineyard in the “Cima Sur” Vineyard at the upper part of the vineyard. The Hoffmans have […]

Starting Syrah Fermentation and Bottling Zin

Time to get the syrah started.  I met Dave at the office, and he set up the “server room winery” with plastic sheeting while I revved up the yeast.  I heated up some water and dissolved in go-ferm, then added ICV-D254 yeast and let it wake up for about 15 minutes.  Then I added some […]

Zinfandel Grapes for the Home Winery

Ray Schnorr (he let me use his basket press last year) is picking up zinfandel grapes from Amador county this year, and asked if I was interested in getting some as well.  I wanted to make some zin from grapes this year, so it seemed like a great opportunity.  He sent an update today from […]

Is That Supposed to Look Like That?

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 […]

Cellar Craft Lodi Old Vine Zin

I finished bottling the “Bahia Belle” blend and Merlot B (“Embarcadero” merlot) today.  Then I finally started another “easy drinker” red kit that I’ve been excited about, a Cellar Craft Lodi Old Zinfandel.  I wanted a good, easy house zin to have around for grilling and whatnot, so I did a lot of research on […]