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.)
No comments:
Post a Comment