OK boys and girls, its time for the winemaking grapes again, they will be available from the 1st week in September, however at that time there will only be the sangiovese available, the merlot, grenache, trebbiano and cabernet sauvignon grapes (and perhaps montepulciano too) will be 1 to 2 weeks later, so provisionally I am planning to pick up the grapes on friday 7th or saturday 8th September (however this date may move to a later date depending on when harvest happens) The grapes normally arrive at around 22 -24 brix and acid at around 0.5 -0.6 g/l (measured as tartaric)
You do not need to do much with them except throw them in and let em rip, however careful stewarding of the numbers and using a good quality yeast will make a great difference to the finished product, giving you a wine that is better than a lot of commercial wines (if processed correctly) at a cost of about 90p per bottle.
This year I will document every part of the process in a lot more detail, with pictures, so you could follow along (vintning by numbers)
I am happy (as ever) to add extra grapes to the order for anyone who wants them, a 9 kilo (20lb) box will cost between £6 and £7.50 (estimate...prices not fixed by supplier yet) and 1 box will make about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 gallons. These are fantastic quality grapes from Italy except the Grenache which are from Spain, and they make top quality wine....
Once the grapes are back up north, you can collect them from me or maybe I could meet people at various points travelling back north, but it would have to be on the A1 and it would mean you having to be there waiting when I arrived ...not trying to be arsey, its just that it will have been a very long day up till then allready having started at approx 5 a.m. and I will have to crush and destem once home)
Alternatively you could come to my house and take part in a crushing/destemming processing party followed by a sleepover/hangover
then take away a bucket full of must, I have all of the test equipment a body could need. the grapes last year and in 05 needed no adjustments to acid/sugar (however you may recall my .....*cough*.... "incident" ...with acid additions, the wine has recovered and is in A1 condition, and is maturing beautifully)
I want to try to get this thing going on a bigger scale as if I can get enough people interested in having grapes then we could probably have them delivered up north.
so......
who wants some?
let me know by posting here or via PM
You do not need to do much with them except throw them in and let em rip, however careful stewarding of the numbers and using a good quality yeast will make a great difference to the finished product, giving you a wine that is better than a lot of commercial wines (if processed correctly) at a cost of about 90p per bottle.
This year I will document every part of the process in a lot more detail, with pictures, so you could follow along (vintning by numbers)
I am happy (as ever) to add extra grapes to the order for anyone who wants them, a 9 kilo (20lb) box will cost between £6 and £7.50 (estimate...prices not fixed by supplier yet) and 1 box will make about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 gallons. These are fantastic quality grapes from Italy except the Grenache which are from Spain, and they make top quality wine....
Once the grapes are back up north, you can collect them from me or maybe I could meet people at various points travelling back north, but it would have to be on the A1 and it would mean you having to be there waiting when I arrived ...not trying to be arsey, its just that it will have been a very long day up till then allready having started at approx 5 a.m. and I will have to crush and destem once home)
Alternatively you could come to my house and take part in a crushing/destemming processing party followed by a sleepover/hangover
then take away a bucket full of must, I have all of the test equipment a body could need. the grapes last year and in 05 needed no adjustments to acid/sugar (however you may recall my .....*cough*.... "incident" ...with acid additions, the wine has recovered and is in A1 condition, and is maturing beautifully)
I want to try to get this thing going on a bigger scale as if I can get enough people interested in having grapes then we could probably have them delivered up north.
so......
who wants some?
let me know by posting here or via PM
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