What's going on in your winery today..

[NorthernWiner]

I noticed the barrels have no taps, how will you get the wine out?

Not to state the obvious, but the wine exits the same hole where it enters.

I don't serve wine from barrels. To do so is to risk brett infection and other nasties. Thus I age it, remove it (replacing it with another wine), and then bottle it.

[NorthernWiner]

Still waiting for my California Merlot to arrive, so I decided to make a fruit wine. I have 7 kilos of fresh cranberries and 2.5 kilos of frozen red currants. Sounds like it might be a good combo.

[goldseal]

Nothing - still knee-deep in Grapefest fermenters. Must get a couple of cheap kit whites on the go otherwise I'll have no quaffing wine next year.

Chutney production going well though

[NorthernWiner]

Chutney production going well though

I have extra red currants as well. I'm thinking the leftovers will go into jelly.

[Delmonteman]

A wine number three variant with 3l red grape juice and about 1kg of mixed red fruits to be added late...

[billybuntus]

Hello all

Haven't been on for a while and haven't been making a lot of wine :-(
Firstly because of time and secondly because of funds.

I have however just received a brass jawed floor corker for the bargain sum of £20 delivered from ebay. I previously has a gilda corker until it snapped 3 weeks ago.

The floor corker is fantastic. No cork is a challenge for this thing.

Hoping to get the man jobs squared up around the house (currently insulating and drylining a bedroom) then by christmas I shall be investing in a few kits to go back into full production :-)

Hope everyone's well.

[robwrx]

Racked and sulphited the 2nd runs from GF2012. Very clear already and taste great. I can't wait to try the Tempranillo from the 1st run as the 2nd run version tastes very nice.

All 1st run wines are still undergoing MLF

[SiSandrine]

Rob - are you testing for MLF. If so are you using the Koomber method from last year? Be interesting to see whether that works well as I have to admit I haven't yet tried it. After innoculating eith the MLF culture I left mine warm for a week or so but after that I left them out in the cold (worried about the electricity bill!). Will see what happens next spring when it warms up again.

[robwrx]

Simon

No! I have no MLF testing kit. The ferments had slowed right down after pressing. I inoculated with Malocid and within 5 days started to see a big increase in volume and speed of some very small bubbles. I am assuming that this was MLF starting. The bubbles have slowed down now but they are still being produced so I guess that MLF is still happening. All carbouys are kept about 22c. SG was around 1.000 when the Malocid was added and that was 25 days ago.

How long can I leave the wine unsulphited before I risk problems? All containers are topped up.

[SiSandrine]

It doesn't mean its right but I won't sulphite mine now until racking late next spring unless I sense a problem. They are all topped up and I smell them every week. My personal approach now would be to move them somewhere cold and bet that MLF has completed. It should have after a month I would have thought in ideal conditions (such as you have). Apart form the elec bills one fear I had was keeping the wine warm (22c) for too long gave me the heeby jeebies about microbial attack, I reasoned (with myself) that this is less likely at 14c and below.

As I said this is my method not advice and it doesn't mean it is right!

[SiSandrine]

I should also say that after I pressed and before I innoculated i also let settle and racked off the remaining lees. I wouldn't leave it on anything close to substantial lees for any length of time.

[robwrx]

Yikes!!!! No sulphite until next spring

Define substantial I only recently read your exchange with Steve regarding settling and then racking after pressing. I will try that on the next batch of grapes. I use a fine mesh bag on the press and then vacuum racked into a carbouy from a bin. There was a certain amount of sediment left in the bin after racking but it was only what fell out over about an hour or so.

I estimate there is about a max 1/2" thick layer of lees (maybe 0.5 litre?) in the bottom of the carbouys. That is based upon what I disposed of last night from the racking of the 2nd run wines. There are no pips or whole skins, just what I would describe as a build up of fine lees.

[NorthernWiner]

I estimate there is about a max 1/2" thick layer of lees (maybe 0.5 litre?) in the bottom of the carbouys. That is based upon what I disposed of last night from the racking of the 2nd run wines. There are no pips or whole skins, just what I would describe as a build up of fine lees.

1/2" of fine lees is not what I would consider to be substantial.

[robwrx]

Thanks Steve.

[Delmonteman]

I should also say that after I pressed and before I innoculated i also let settle and racked off the remaining lees. I wouldn't leave it on anything close to substantial lees for any length of time.

Oops!!! I have got about three inches of lees in the bottom collected since the first racking. Should I have racked again since the first racking from the skins? I was going to wait until it had finished before racking again... Am I doing it wrong now?