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Wherever he is, I'm thinking he deserves a round of applause. Maybe this has been floating around for a while and I'm just seeing it now. But, I was thinking this morning - "I wonder what impact a new wine kit has had on the industry? What impact has FWK had?" Well, first stop for me was...

The wines are just chewing through the sugar. I checked last night (4 days later) and we’re down to an SG of 1.03. Smells great, looks healthy. I’ll snap the lids closed tomorrow night and put airlocks on, leaving the wines undisturbed for another week. Then rack to carboys.

So no danger of off-smells then. I never thought of them as gross lees. But just less than fine…

I agree with you both. I add more oak because I’ve come to realize that gets me what I want in my reds. But I don’t do, or at least haven’t done, too much to the FWK wines. Haven’t seen the need. Interesting that you both skip that two week of clearing after the initial ferment (my step 2). I...

This is one of those "whatever works for you" questions to me. Personally, I like bottling at 9 months and often wonder if the additional 3-6 months in bulk would create any marked difference. The biggest plus side argument for a long bulk storage is that it keeps you from plowing through your...

I used to buy kits one at a time and wind up with 30 bottles that may or may not last until their prime. These days, and my FOMO issues, I'm doing 2 of the same wines at a time. I figure 60 bottles will last me 2-3 years when the wine is really starting to shine. So far, I've done the...

Consider the Norther Rhône blend. Mine is in bulk aging now. But tasting tells me it has promise to be a very good wine.

I understand that Carbon can be added to remove off-flavors or smells from wine, while helping a white wine maintain its light color (or conversely, stripping a red wine of some of its color). I cleared my FWK chardonnay and was struck by the light straw color. After dropping a spiral of oak...

I remember being very happy with it at bottling time. It was a little rough around the edges, but tasty. Those rough edges have since smoothed out. I use an AIO pump to rack my wines. At 9 months, the wine has been racked at least 3 times. All the CO2 is gone and the wine is crystal...

I bottled at 9 months.

My FWK Tavola Merlot (2 bags or skins, extra M+ toast oak) is about 19 months old and really hitting its stride. Went very well with pizza night (during prep and with finished pizza).

I'd be down for that experiment. I agree - There are so many variables that will impact the taste of the wine.

I asked when I ordered my Bordeaux blend and was told the same thing - Cab is the dominant varietal, but Matteo guards the percentages of the three grapes. If I'm betting - 60/30/10 (Cab, Merlot, PS).

Welcome PA-PFS! There are quite a few of us from PA on this forum. I'm in central PA near Harrisburg, only been making wine for 7 years (kinda getting the hang of things now).

Thank you for the info. I’ll look into them next season.

Delicious. I only got to racking the FWK Chard and Northern Rhone blend, then did some clean up. I have a ton of bottles to process, and unfortunately, I ran out of time and Oxi-Green. Guess bottling will be pushed to next week. The chard tasted a little tart, but it's young and still just a...

A few weeks ago, I attempted to slice my fingertip off while carving a smoked turkey. I have since recovered and can finally submerge my hand in water again. Planning to go down the basement and start moving the wines around and cleaning up after. In part due to my own laziness, and in part...

Agree - it likely has residual CO2 that needs to release. My Forte Meritage is very young still, but it's exceeded expectations.

Usually 1-2 days from getting the box to dropping the yeast. Until this past time around, they've never gotten to the fridge. I pulled these two (Chard and Northern Rhone blend) out of the fridge the night before. With mixing them and letting them sit the 18-24 hours, they were about 70* when...

Exactly my thought.