It’s fermenting wine, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of fermenting wine in the morning. The smell, y’know that wine smell, Smells like…….. Victory
winemaking ~ tools of the trade, need not be exspensive!
at some point you will need to measure the specific Gravity of your must,
I do this by using a fine wire mesh to strain the must, and a turkey baster to transfer liquid to hydrometer beeker.
The primary is a recycled food safe bucket.
Pressing matters…
another beautiful fall day in Sonoma county.
started the day off by pressing the merlot/pinot grapes, then rolled some of the pumice and fruit from the freezer into a sangria. the rest of pumice is in freezer bags/freezer for next wines…
Good Things around the corner…
Ideas that I will be trying soon…
- Hot Pepper Peach
- pinot/merlot & Blueberry
pinot/merlot sangriastarted 10/9/2009- pinot/merlot and chocolate
- End Of The World Wine -” FIN ” So I am sure you all have heard that the world is supposed to end on December 21st, 2012 at 11:11 am GMT or so say all the crazies (my apologies if you wholeheartedly believe this will happen). Apple~ Pomegranate
Two weeks is all it takes…
the grapes from Napa, stomped and fermented- getting a Sg reading of 1.000 or slightly under.
ready to press and put into secondary.
I will be rolling over the skins/seeds and stems (pumice) into two more wines.
1. blueberry
2. sangria
I will also freeze 2# baggies of the pumice for future wines
The smells of fermentation is in the Air…
48 hours after the StOmP!
48 hours from crushing and adding yeast-
the smell of fermentation fills the garage.
notice the oak stick- I use to punch down the cap every so often and give it a stir.
New mexico Sunset -Agave nectar wine
I started this back in the middle of May, an idea, trying for something like a Tequila sunrise
sampled it Today- clear, Sherry like attributes.
The wine has a Nutty taste to it.
the orange after taste builds in your mouth long after wine is gone…
Vacation time ~ good or NOT?
went away for a few days- it was fun yet- I started 4 wines before leaving.
I left them in the hands of my daughter- to stir daily, came home to all four finished-fermenting, SG testing at or below 1000.
yea!- but I missed the whole fun, of watching, smelling, keeping an eye on things…
it all seems to have gone ok- racking went off with no probs, on to the shelf for 6o days for a nap.
The Zen of making wine…
as I was hand crushing grapes into the strainer, over a bucket, I was listening to the radio and Bruce Cohn was talking about his work with many different musical artists and his winery BR Cohn. then they played some good rock music, two hours had passed and grapes were done.
the Fog had burned off and the sun was shining, it felt great to be able to do work like this- sure if I had a press it would be easier- not many people get to jus’ sit outside and hand crush grapes.
As I was doing this- I was thinking, how will this come out? what do I add? going over in my head the basic recipe.
see- Friendship wine page.
