The rewards and frustrations of home winemaking

Tag archive: grapes

Are You Awake in There?

It looks like the yeastie-beasties are at least alive in lot A, although it’s just kind of fizzing and most of the whole berries are sitting on the bottom of the bucket.  Lot B, though, was going nuts!  It was very vigorously fermenting and had already formed a distinct cap on top.  Yeast nutrient was […]

Starting Fermentation on Merlot Grapes

We did a cold maceration of the grapes for 48 hours, keeping them cold with additional dry ice.  Our juice was at a starting brix (sugar content) of 26 – this reading is on the high end of what you want for a good wine that’s not too hot or alcoholic.  I also checked titratable […]

Hey, Let’s Make Wine From Grapes!

This is what my friends said to me.  This guy Paul knew this other guy that makes wine and likes to share the grapes from this great vineyard in Sonoma with home winemakers.  So of course they thought of me when they found out they could get these killer grapes.  It also happens that I’m […]