I went over to the office to check on the wine. Sugars are dropping steadily, down to 8.5 degrees brix. We added more yeast nutrient to all of them.
Monthly archive: 10 2008
Things are definitely busy. I am taking care of the “office wine” on the weekends since the guys are taking care of it through the week. After punching the cans down, I checked the temp and brix. Temperatures are rising, definite active fermentations at 77-78 degrees now, with sugar levels averaging about 17 degrees brix. […]
I decided to thief out a little taste of each merlot before giving them a stir and testing for malic acid levels this time. They are both quite acidic and kinda harsh, but seem to be taking on some oakiness from the cubes I tossed in. Both lots were at max malic acid levels, >500 […]
Paul got us some great yeast for our cab: D254 and FX10. We were splitting a half ton evenly, and we ended up with 6 32-gallon trash cans full of must. We decided that Dave & I would inoculate 2 cans with D254 and one with FX10, and then Paul would inoculate 2 cans with […]
We just got some cabernet sauvignon grapes, also from Lambert Creek vineyard in Sonoma from Chris Van Alyea. I convinced one of my partners-in-crime that he needed cab to blend with the merlot when it was done. I’m sure he won’t be sorry! We picked up the grapes and helped out a little more this […]
I gave the merlots a stir to mix up the oak and give the malolactic bacteria a little oxygenation to make them happy, then took a sample to check on the strip tests for initiation of malolactic fermentation. It’s kind of a given that there is already malic acid in the wine, so the first […]
Something interesting happened, the 6 gallon carboy of lot B merlot blew its top overnight. I thought it was done fermenting …. oh well. I’m sure it’ll be fine. A lot of solids also fell out overnight, so I racked them both into clean carboys. Each carboy got a dose of White Labs malolactic bacteria […]
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 […]
After a long day of pressing, I wanted to bust into some “ready-to-go” wine. Riesling looked like a great option after a long, warm day. It has a very faint nose of peach blossoms. Distinctly sweet with nice acidity and flavors of ripe white peaches and hints of pineapple and apricots. Flavors balancing perfectly on […]
Paul borrowed a bladder press from a buddy of his, luckily for us. We set up outside of the office and hooked up a hose to the press. Everything got sprayed down with sanitizer, then we started scooping the must out of the trash cans and dumping it into the press. There was actually a […]