What's going on in your winery today..

[Cellar_Rat]

My Grapefest wines have been sitting indoors, unsulphited, hopefully undergoing ML.

Thats dedication. I am drinking mine !

[Rich]

Tidied up the garage a bit too today.. Abervin has collected some empty bottles and demijons. I'd like to say I can now move in the garage, but it's sill a kerplunk zone!

[Abervin]

Tidied up the garage a bit too today.. Abervin has collected some empty bottles and demijons. I'd like to say I can now move in the garage, but it's sill a kerplunk zone!

Yes thanks for those Rich and your guided tour of your extensive winery

[spritzer]

I have been very lazy recently
The family have not been impressed, as they did not get their usual 6-8 bottles of wine this year at xmas
Such is life eh ?

So, this weekend, I thought, I would get myself sorted wine wise....

Before xmas ...maybe November time, I started this little lot......
3 gal wine number one
3 gal strawberry and fruits of forest tbag
6 gal of pineapple
5 gal pinot grigio

So, the past 2 days, I wanted to move everything on.............
Which I did.....
More or less.....
The 6 gal pineapple somehow ended up with 3-4 gall in the floorboards
Jeeeeezzzz... its done now.. but I am fairly gutted
But in a strange way it was odd... as I thought it was straight pineapple, but on checking my notes, it had a litre of pineapple /coconut in the mix....
Its actually overpowering !!, which is not so good....
I like it... but the OH doesnt ..... the SIL doesnt... and thats who I do pineapple for !!!

Jeeeeeeez.... I need to think on eh ??

[lockwood1956]

Sorry for your troubles

[Gardener Tom]

I got the steam juicer out for the first time and decided to do a mixed fruit red. I used a big mix of all the red fruit I had (been collecting lots in the freezer). the wine is -
blackberry, raspberry, cranberry,elderberry, black current, cherry, rose-hip, hawthorn berry, plum, elderflower(tiny sprinkle), apple(1 russet don't know why, it was just there), kiwi(1 golden again for no real reason), banana and red grape wine. Rolls of the tongue doesn't it
sweetened with honey and currently in primary.
It smells lovely but I may need some bigger labels to get all of the name on!

cheers

[oliver90owner]

I'm so paranoid after the breakage I had

I am too, and not yet broken any full ones!

I fold a kitchen towel into a strip, attach a piece of sticky tape to each end, and attach to the DJ at a suitable height, so contact is at least much less likely to result in a catastrophe.

RAB

Edit: Oops, replied to post #10 on this thread!

[robwrx]

Had the day off work today and thanks to Cellar Rat and his frozen grapes I got a Chianti and a Super Tuscan underway. I am co-fermenting the Merlot and Sangiovese with the Cabernet Sauvignon being added by blending with a kit at a later date.

I tried co-fermenting skins as a second run wine from Grapefest 2011 grapes and have been impressed with the results so I thought it was worth another go but as a first run wine. The Chianti will be 80% Sangiovese, 15% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. The Super Tuscan is 60% Merlot, 10% Sangiovese and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon.

[DaveH]

I've finally managed to dig the 15L pail of Tempranillo that i had put aside for the BCP base out of the freezer, and have set it off and running with a sachet of K1V. Once that's fermented out, and i've lightly pressed (and used the results to top up/supplement the rest of the GF12 Tempranillo), i'll get the BCP underway. Damn bloody work *Harumph*

[mark g]

Just started 2 gallons of fruit juice wine.
ingredients
2lt-red grape juice.
1lt-cranberry & pomegranate juice.
1lt-raspberry & blackberry with cranberry juice.
2kg-white sugar.
1tsp-ritchies yeast(per DJ)
half a tsp-yeast nutrient(per DJ)
water.
Method: make some sugar syrup with half of the sugar and leave to cool,divide all the juices in to the DJ and
divide the sugar syrup then add to the DJ with the yeast & nutrient,fit the airlocks and ferment for a week,then do the same with the other half of sugar when cool divide and add to the DJ then top up with cold tap water to the neck of the DJs fit the airlocks and fully ferment out.
Note: when fermenting as stopped rack and add finings then rack when clear and mature for 6 to 12 months.

[robwrx]

Pressed the skins on the Chianti using my new press. It is the same one that Goldseal bought from fleabay and compared to the previous home made one I had, it was a joy to use. It used to take about an hour to press the skins on a batch of grapes but the new press did it in about half the time and the cake was noticeably drier.

Instead of a press bag I used some fine mesh net curtain and the amount of gros lees that settled out after 24hrs was minimal. That was a great tip from Sisandrine.

[lockwood1956]

ooo Grape pressing in February.....I'm jealous


although if the promise of South African grapes ever comes to fruition, we might all be doing it

[lockwood1956]

It isn't Brian not coming good on promises by the way, its further along the supply chain!!


thought I best add that.....he knows where I live

[Cellar_Rat]

Instead of a press bag I used some fine mesh net curtain and the amount of gros lees that settled out after 24hrs was minimal. That was a great tip from Sisandrine.

I use a hand seive. Reds don't need a press bag.

[robwrx]

ooo Grape pressing in February.....I'm jealous


although if the promise of South African grapes ever comes to fruition, we might all be doing it

Upside is I get my fresh ferment fix, downside is trying to keep must warm in 2c-3c temperatures. No runaway ferments this weather.

Glad to hear that the South African thing might still happen one day.