Exhausted Vines

Not only are we working on our wine, we're also helping our vines to recover and be ready for next year. We've learned, and are doing, the following:
(a) Immediately after picking, we gave the vines a good dose (6 gal) of water.
(b) We read that water is very important, as the roots are most active as the vine shuts down, so watered similarly once a week.
(c) Last spring we learned we were low in a variety of micronutrients, so we stirred in an organic soil additive that will be activated by the drip watering system and the coming rains. This we hope will get more Mg, Mn, Zn, and Fe to the vines - although spring is the better time for those. Come spring, I'm returning to this site - one of few I found that has a search index that will return organic supplements based on the chemical symbol: http://www.groworganic.com/default.html
(d) The one element that is key to apply in the fall is Boron, which we were VERY low on. Looks like we should dissolve about 1/2 oz per gallon and spread that solution over an entire row (10 vines).

Select US Beverage Consumptions

Mostly because I like charts - enjoy!

Zinfandel Crush

My parents moved to the Sierra Foothills, and they have some very generous neighbors that (a) run their own winery, and (b) offered us grapes from their old vine Zinfandel patch.

They called a few days ago, letting us know they're ready to share with us. How cool!

Harvest was early morning Sept 20, the grapes then went through their professional crusher/de-stemer, and then into our Brute, for me to transport home and start fermenting.

- 18 Gallons Old Vine Zinfandel, El Dorado County
- 24.6 brix
- added 25 ppm potassium metabisulfite for the ride home
- added D21 yeast (same one as for our Cab) with appropriate nutrients on 9/21
- temperature got up to low-70s by 9/22
- added additional yeast, nutrients, and ML culture on 9/23

It's bubbling away stronger now (I think we under-yeasted earlier). Now we'll keep an eye on temps to make sure the must stays in that 80-85 degree range (ideal for fermentation & ML at the same time for reasons I won't go into now.)

Punch Down

The yeast has taken off in the 08 estate, eating all that sugar and turning it into alcohol. So now we just need to punch down the cap at least twice a day - to ensure those grape skins don't dry out. The must is hanging around 76 degrees, which is a good temperature (we think!).

Thanks to Andy Sandburg and the folks at SNL for their inspiration during this stage of our winemaking operation!

Pitched Yeast

Started Fermenting Today! Rehydrated our dry yeast and 'pitched' it! Vital stats:

ICV-D21

8 oz 104 degree water

2/3 packet GoFerm

1/2 packet Yeast (15 min)

Atemperated (mixed 50/50 with must (15 min))

Atemperated again (mixed 50/50 with must (15 min))

Then mixed into must

AT same time:

Added MLF culture Viniflora Oenos &

Leucofood

It's in a quasi-insulated area downstairs, heated by a 60 watt lightbulb. We'll keep an eye on it; should start bubbling away soon!

Harvest 2008

Took us about 3 hours and 9 true friends to take down bird netting, pick, and hand-destem clusters. We only kept the goood grapes, and ended up with about 18 gallons of must. Lower than hoped for yield, but they looked WAY better than last year - the quality completely exceeded our expectations. Yeay!

Harvest stats:
Brix: 24.6
pH: 3.36
TA: 7.05

Tests were done by Rick at Fermentation Settlement, our local wine store proprietor, using an electronic measuring device like this.

We'll be pitching yeast and MLF culture soon; we got ourselves Lalvin ICV-D21 as our yeast and good ol' Viniflora Oenis malolactic bacteria.

Thanks Corby for the super awesome pictures!

24 Brix - almost harvest time

We're at 24 brix - with a target of 25 brix, and an army of willing friends this weekend, we're going for it and harvesting this weekend!

Brix climbing, birds munching

We notice that the birds are nibbling on the unprotected grapes - and have even gotten underneath the nets to nibble there.

So, we re-fortified with more clothespins at the base of the nets, and on exposed clusters implemented the 'cute' trick - wrapping a paper bag around maturing clusters.

Also tested our sugar - after a heatwave during the 3-day weekend we were sure we'd be harvesting immediately, but turns out we're only at 22.5 brix as of today. We'll let them keep hanging for now!