# Harford Vineyard 2014 Californian Harvest



## heatherd (Jul 8, 2014)

Having heard several times that the harvest will be early this year, I checked in with Kevin Mooney at Harford Vineyard. He said they expect the Californian harvest of grapes and juice to arrive the first week of September. 

Their pre-order website will go live mid-August. Everything has to be pre-ordered with a 50% downpayment. Nice thing is that their buckets are in the 50-60 range, so is pretty cost-effective for a batch of wine from a fresh juice.

My plan is to get zinfandel juice and grapes, cabernet franc juice and grapes, chenin blanc juice, and viognier juice. I am also going to have them crush and destem my grapes for $25.

http://www.harfordvineyard.com/wine-making-supplies
They're in Maryland and do not ship fresh items, so you'll need to make the trip there to pick up, and will have to be available to get your stuff whenever it arrives. In May that meant two different pick-up times for grapes versus juice.

Heather


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## Boatboy24 (Jul 8, 2014)

Thanks Heather. I'll be doing a single, all grape batch of Zinfandel. Will probably go with 3 or 4 lugs and have them crush/destem.


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## jas3019 (Jul 9, 2014)

Agh it's right around the corner and I didn't realize it! I've barely thought about what I'll do. For a red maybe a Pinot noir or Zinfandel. For a white I might do another sauv blanc or something else that I haven't decided yet hah. Any suggestions in what's best from Cali?


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## Boatboy24 (Jul 9, 2014)

jas3019 said:


> Any suggestions in what's best from Cali?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Wine Makin



Juice? Grapes?

I did the Amador Gold Petit Sirah from grapes last fall. It just went into the Vadai a few weeks ago, but is already really good


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## jas3019 (Jul 9, 2014)

Oh duh hah guess i left that out. I'm looking to do juice supplemented with a lug of grapes again. 


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## heatherd (Jul 9, 2014)

They have lodi old vine zin grapes that sound very tempting....


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## heatherd (Jul 14, 2014)

Jim, for your planned all grape zin batch, will you be pressing by hand or do you have a press?
Heather


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## 4score (Jul 14, 2014)

I went by a local vineyard where I'm buying Zin. They are really coming along already (Placer County). I tried a couple ripe looking grapes and they were very sweet already!! So yes, things may be running early here!!


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## jas3019 (Jul 14, 2014)

So I think I've decided to do a bucket and lug of zinfandel for my fall red. Started looking into yeast choices and might use either RP15 or BM4x4. They both seem to contribute to a classic California zinfandel taste/mouthfeel. RP15 sounds like it might be a little more finicky so might just stick with BM4x4. What are you guys planning on using?


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## Boatboy24 (Jul 15, 2014)

heatherd said:


> Jim, for your planned all grape zin batch, will you be pressing by hand or do you have a press?
> Heather
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Wine Makin



I picked up an 18L used press on Craigslist last fall. I wouldn't press more than a lug or two by hand - too much work for me.


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## heatherd (Jul 15, 2014)

jas3019 said:


> So I think I've decided to do a bucket and lug of zinfandel for my fall red. Started looking into yeast choices and might use either RP15 or BM4x4. They both seem to contribute to a classic California zinfandel taste/mouthfeel. RP15 sounds like it might be a little more finicky so might just stick with BM4x4. What are you guys planning on using?



I will likely use BM45 as I had good luck with it on my recent Cabernet batch. The wine tastes great already and the yeast wasn't finicky at all.
Heather


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## heatherd (Jul 15, 2014)

Boatboy24 said:


> I picked up an 18L used press on Craigslist last fall. I wouldn't press more than a lug or two by hand - too much work for me.



Good to know.


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## heatherd (Aug 22, 2014)

Here is what Kevin had in the way of an update:

"We expect to get 1st juice delivery around first week in sept. Web to go live next week. We will send news letter letting customers know when web is live. Also not that it matters but we did responded to your last email please see below. 

Thanks
Kevin Mooney
Harford Vineyard & Winery
Email - [email protected]"


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## Boatboy24 (Aug 22, 2014)

Thanks Heather. I was starting to get worried.


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## heatherd (Aug 29, 2014)

If all else fails with Harford's harvest, I checked the distance to Keystone Homebrew in Montgomeryville, PA and its an extra half hour drive for me.... Their fall harvest is expected to be there starting next week, and you can select from a few pickup dates.
Heather


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## Boatboy24 (Aug 30, 2014)

Thanks again. I may have to make that extra half hour work. I'm getting VERY nervous, having not heard "boo" from Harford.

Edit: I emailed them this morning and got a fairly quick response:

"Jim,

Yes, we are working on new web and it should be live today. 

We will send a news letter out stating same. 

Thanks
Kevin Mooney
Harford Vineyard & Winery"


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## heatherd (Aug 30, 2014)

Thanks for the update. I will give them another day or two.
Heather


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## heatherd (Aug 31, 2014)

The website is live as of last night.


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## Boatboy24 (Aug 31, 2014)

heatherd said:


> The website is live as of last night.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Wine Makin



Now to decide what I'm going to do. I was going to order a few lugs of Lodi Gold Old Vine Zin, but it doesn't look like they are carrying the Lodi Gold label this year.


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## heatherd (Aug 31, 2014)

They do have Central Valley Lodi old vine zin grapes.


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## Boatboy24 (Sep 1, 2014)

heatherd said:


> They do have Central Valley Lodi old vine zin grapes.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Wine Makin



Yep - it's the "Lodi Gold" brand I was after. They are 'supposedly' better, though I have no personal experience to back that up. I think it's been a rather good year overall out there, so I'm sure I'd be fine with the 'regular' grapes. Or I could go with Amador Gold. I bought Amador Gold Petit Sirah, last year and the grapes were very good. The Amador harvest is later too, so that'd give me a few extra weeks to pretty up the wine lab for the new arrivals.


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## heatherd (Sep 2, 2014)

I ordered one bucket each of Californian Chenin blanc, cab franc, and Zinfandel; a lug each of Cal. Lodi old vine zin and cab franc grapes. Also one bucket Italian pinot bianco. Should be fun!
Heather 


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## 4score (Sep 5, 2014)

Boatboy24 said:


> Yep - it's the "Lodi Gold" brand I was after. They are 'supposedly' better, though I have no personal experience to back that up. I think it's been a rather good year overall out there, so I'm sure I'd be fine with the 'regular' grapes. Or I could go with Amador Gold. I bought Amador Gold Petit Sirah, last year and the grapes were very good. The Amador harvest is later too, so that'd give me a few extra weeks to pretty up the wine lab for the new arrivals.



I have no doubt that the Amador grapes will be great. Amador County is our personal favorite place to visit for wine tasting. It's very low-key, laid back, but they have some SUPER grapes from there. Mainstays from there are Cooper Vineyards and Runquist. Jeff Runquist sources most of his grapes from Amador and wins truckloads of awards.


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## Boatboy24 (Sep 6, 2014)

Thanks 4Score. After my good experience with Amador Gold grapes last year, and the fact that their harvest times work better with my schedule this fall, I went ahead and ordered 4 lugs of Old Vine Zin.


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## joshs (Sep 6, 2014)

Boatboy24 said:


> Thanks 4Score. After my good experience with Amador Gold grapes last year, and the fact that their harvest times work better with my schedule this fall, I went ahead and ordered 4 lugs of Old Vine Zin.



Same here....doing the OV Zin from Lodi as my suppliers don't seem to have the OV Zin from Amador, just the regular Zin.

-Josh


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## Boatboy24 (Sep 6, 2014)

joshs said:


> Same here....doing the OV Zin from Lodi as my suppliers don't seem to have the OV Zin from Amador, just the regular Zin.
> 
> -Josh



You buying from M&M?


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## joshs (Sep 6, 2014)

I think it will end up being Maltose due to timing and schedules.


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## heatherd (Sep 8, 2014)

Central Valley California juices and grapes are due to arrive at Harford this week, ready for pickup this weekend.
Heather


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## heatherd (Sep 12, 2014)

I picked up my juice and grapes yesterday. I am doing a batch each of Zinfandel, Chenin blanc, and cab franc. I asked for a lug of grapes each for the reds, and they were nice enough to hand pick and manually crush my grapes.


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## Boatboy24 (Sep 13, 2014)

heatherd said:


> I picked up my juice and grapes yesterday. I am doing a batch each of Zinfandel, Chenin blanc, and cab franc. I asked for a lug of grapes each for the reds, and they were nice enough to hand pick and manually crush my grapes.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Wine Makin



Nice!

Did you test the grapes? How are the numbers?


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## heatherd (Sep 15, 2014)

I did test the grapes and juice. Ph ranges in the 3.5 to 3.7 area. Brix is ranging from 19-22.
Heather


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## RonT (Sep 22, 2014)

I just picked up 12 gals of Sangiovese. I'm going to ferment each pail separately with a different yeast strain. The juice doesn't have any SO2 added. The winemaker there said I don't need to add it now and should add SO2 after racking into the secondary. But won't that interfere with MLF?


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## Boatboy24 (Sep 22, 2014)

RonT said:


> I just picked up 12 gals of Sangiovese. I'm going to ferment each pail separately with a different yeast strain. The juice doesn't have any SO2 added. The winemaker there said I don't need to add it now and should add SO2 after racking into the secondary. But won't that interfere with MLF?



Yes, and it'll also interfere with secondary. You don't want to add any SO2 until all fermentation is done. I'm surprised you were told that. Everyone I've interacted with there has been fairly knowledgeable.


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## RonT (Sep 22, 2014)

Boatboy24 said:


> Yes, and it'll also interfere with secondary. You don't want to add any SO2 until all fermentation is done. I'm surprised you were told that. Everyone I've interacted with there has been fairly knowledgeable.



That's what I thought. Perhaps I misunderstood them. The TA is a little low, .3% and the pH is 3.5. I'll mess with it after fermentation is done.


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## heatherd (Sep 24, 2014)

I added sulfite to my zin and cab franc batches without thinking and had an "oh ****" moment. So I checked white labs regarding the sulfite tolerance of their MLF culture. It will work with sulfite levels up to 10 mg/L. I put in 1/4 tsp for 6 gallons, which does not convert directly so I stopped there...


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## berrycrush (Oct 1, 2014)

Central Valley Cab Sauv. Brix=26 ( Refractometer ), Sg=1.114, PH=3.7 TA=3.8g/L


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## Boatboy24 (Oct 1, 2014)

A little kiss of Tartaric Acid and you'll have near perfect numbers. Are you using ice bombs to keep the temps down? If so, why?


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## Treeman (Oct 1, 2014)

A kiss, maybe a dollop, but I would get your pH down to 3.5 or lower. The pH will most likely go up with fermentation and MLF, and the TA is on the low side. 

Pull out some seeds and chew on them. What do they taste like? If they aren't brown and crumbling you might want to scoop off the cap and rack the juice leaving the seeds behind when you are about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way to dryness.


Cheers!


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## berrycrush (Oct 2, 2014)

Boatboy24 said:


> A little kiss of Tartaric Acid and you'll have near perfect numbers. Are you using ice bombs to keep the temps down? If so, why?


Those ice bottles were there during the cold soak. Then I found out that I would need a lot more than my freezer can produce to keep the temperature down, so I ended up pitching the yeast earlier than planned.


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## berrycrush (Oct 2, 2014)

Treeman said:


> A kiss, maybe a dollop, but I would get your pH down to 3.5 or lower. The pH will most likely go up with fermentation and MLF, and the TA is on the low side.
> 
> Pull out some seeds and chew on them. What do they taste like? If they aren't brown and crumbling you might want to scoop off the cap and rack the juice leaving the seeds behind when you are about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way to dryness.
> 
> ...


Interesting suggestion. The reason to separate the juice from the cap and seeds?


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## ibglowin (Oct 2, 2014)

Dry Ice is your friend in these situations.



berrycrush said:


> Those ice bottles were there during the cold soak. Then I found out that I would need a lot more than my freezer can produce to keep the temperature down, so I ended up pitching the yeast earlier than planned.


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## Treeman (Oct 2, 2014)

berrycrush said:


> Interesting suggestion. The reason to separate the juice from the cap and seeds?




If the seeds aren't ripe you can get some green or "sappy" tannin extraction especially when you get to high alcohol levels toward the end of a ferment. I'm battling these "sappy" flavors in a cabernet sauv/malbec coferment and a cabernet franc from last season. Wish that I had taken the time to get rid of the unripe seeds.

Note, you want to keep the cap and the juice, but get rid of any seeds that fall to the bottom of the fermenter through this delestage process.


Cheers!


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## Boatboy24 (Oct 10, 2014)

I'll be at Harford tomorrow (Saturday) around noon to pick up my Amador grapes. Anyone else?


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## heatherd (Oct 16, 2014)

I will be there tomorrow (10/18) picking up italian pinot bianco. And possibly an extra cal. chardonnay if they have it on hand.


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## Boatboy24 (Oct 16, 2014)

heatherd said:


> I will be there tomorrow (10/18) picking up italian pinot bianco. And possibly an extra cal. chardonnay if they have it on hand.



Check those before you leave - they're probably fermenting by now.


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## heatherd (Oct 17, 2014)

Good advice....

So for the pinot bianco my plan was to take measurements, sulfite, and then pitch new yeast. That should still work.

I was considering a Chardonnay and doing MLF so that won't work. 

Heather


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## heatherd (Nov 20, 2014)

How are everyone's Harford batches going?

My Cab Franc and Zinfandel are through MLF now. The Cab Franc tastes really good for it's phase of development. However the Zinfandel tastes flabby and lacks any fruit flavor or intensity. I added a lug of grapes to each during ferment, but for whatever reason the Zin is not good.

Should I add currants? Or grape concentrate?

Thanks for any advice.

Heather


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## Boatboy24 (Nov 20, 2014)

How is your pH/TA on the Zin?

I need to run the chromo on my Amador Zin. Will probably kick that off tomorrow. I'll do some scientific taste measures while I've got the carboys open.


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## heatherd (Nov 20, 2014)

pH is 3.6 for the Zin.


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