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I thought I would put together a kind of a blog of my winemaking of this years wines.
I am making three types of wines: Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah blend made from grapes,, Merlot made from grape juice, and apple.
Sat. Sept 21-The grapes were shipped in by refrigerated truck. The guy that brings them in brings in tons of grapes that get divided into shipment for three wine clubs including about a third of the grapes that are crushed and destemmed at his place. Dozens of us winemakers get our hundreds of 36 pound lugs of grape. We meet, run our grape selections through the crusher/destemmer (which crushes the grapes and then knocks the grapes off the stems. Grapes go out the bottom to the collector-stems go out the side.) I got my 3 Cab, 1 Merlot and 1 Syrah lugs crushed and into my containers. After the crush is done, the wines from past years are opened and the good comes out. This is the time where winemakers show their wines results from prior years.
Sun. Sept 22-My grapes are now in their primary fermentor. I want to ‘cold soak’ the grapes to pull out color and tannins from the skins before fermentation. I stick a 5 gallon pail with 16 pounds of ice in the grapes to keep them cool and not fermenting. Change ice daily until Tuesday. Stir twice a day to keep grapes in juice.
Wed. Sept 24-Add yeast and nutrient. Grapes are now fermenting.
Thursday through Wed. Fermentation going on. Fermentation should be 80-85 deg, but got it warm, 90 deg or maybe higher. Punched grape skin cap down into wine twice per day. Keeping the grape skins in the wine keeps the fermentation working on the skins for color and tannin.
Thursday-Sunday. Let the cap sit on the wine giving the wine protection from oxygen.
I am making three types of wines: Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah blend made from grapes,, Merlot made from grape juice, and apple.
Sat. Sept 21-The grapes were shipped in by refrigerated truck. The guy that brings them in brings in tons of grapes that get divided into shipment for three wine clubs including about a third of the grapes that are crushed and destemmed at his place. Dozens of us winemakers get our hundreds of 36 pound lugs of grape. We meet, run our grape selections through the crusher/destemmer (which crushes the grapes and then knocks the grapes off the stems. Grapes go out the bottom to the collector-stems go out the side.) I got my 3 Cab, 1 Merlot and 1 Syrah lugs crushed and into my containers. After the crush is done, the wines from past years are opened and the good comes out. This is the time where winemakers show their wines results from prior years.
Sun. Sept 22-My grapes are now in their primary fermentor. I want to ‘cold soak’ the grapes to pull out color and tannins from the skins before fermentation. I stick a 5 gallon pail with 16 pounds of ice in the grapes to keep them cool and not fermenting. Change ice daily until Tuesday. Stir twice a day to keep grapes in juice.
Wed. Sept 24-Add yeast and nutrient. Grapes are now fermenting.
Thursday through Wed. Fermentation going on. Fermentation should be 80-85 deg, but got it warm, 90 deg or maybe higher. Punched grape skin cap down into wine twice per day. Keeping the grape skins in the wine keeps the fermentation working on the skins for color and tannin.
Thursday-Sunday. Let the cap sit on the wine giving the wine protection from oxygen.
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