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Bottled the Petite Sirah at 6 months. I did this one double skins and added a spiral in bulk. It is dark, tannic, full bodied and tightly wound. After a half hour in the glass, it is a good bit looser with a big, black and blue berry palate. in a word: woof.

i volunteer as a beta tester. 😬

This thread is five years old. But, what the heck, let's resurrect this zombie thread and talk Sonoma Dry Creek Chardonnay. The kit is among WE's reformulated offerings. Seems a couple things have changed - EC1118 comes with the kit, along with about 45-60g of oak chips for the primary...

I just racked the reformulated Luna Bianca from primary to secondary (also racked the Dry Creek Chardonnay). I was a little surprised at how much junk was at the bottom of the fermenter. I have plenty of Luna on the rack to top up (or I might just rack it down to a 5gal). But, I'll need to...

I didn’t see it. But then again, I wasn’t looking. 😬 Thank you for the explanation Matteo. I know the directions say to toss the seeds and oak chips right in the juice. But for an easier racking, I like to put those in the bags with the skins. I kicked off the ferment this morning. It looks...

Question about my FWK Zin. I just reconstituted the juice last night and prepped the starter and yeast. But, my juice bag did not have a safety tab inside the screw off cap. It only had the cap. The juice smells good and everything seems normal. But still. When something purposely called “the...

I picked the PV from the available choices. You don’t see it anywhere as a kit and it is perfect by itself or blended. If the point of the poll is to ask what kit I want that I never see, it’s the PV followed by the Cab Franc.

Well…. I cleaned up the basement - capped and labeled 175 bottles; moved 16 gallons of wine; blended the Pennsylvania Cab Franc with some FWK Lodi Petite Sirah. Now I have a Dry Creek Chard and Luna Bianca in primaries and a FWK Forte Zin on deck (will start that tonight or tomorrow). Hi. My...

One more day is probably not going to make much of a difference. Fermentation is a like a freight train... in the beginning, it slowly picks up speed; cruises a long during the bulk of the trip; then slows down as it gets close to the station. If you've racked this into a secondary (carboy)...

The Headspace Eliminators are great. I don’t suggest them for long term (though I know of plenty of winemakers that will leave them for months at a clip). But, a good example of when I use them: last night I was blending my Cab Franc and a Petite Sirah in a barrel. I pulled around a gallon of...

Enjoying this thread immensely. This weekend, I’m going to embark on my cellar cleanup and get the wine moved, bottled, labeled and capsuled. Looking forward to blending a gallon of my fwk petite sirah with my Pennsylvania Cab Franc (7 to 1 CF to PS).

We’re sampling the FWK Cab and Merlot. They’re about 8 months old, each fermented on double skins then aged a while on some added French medium plus toast oak. While they can absolutely use some time on the shelf, they are pretty damned good right now.

Fair. I always figured that at two weeks, you’re unlikely to generate any “off” flavors from the disturbed sediment and, given how much co2 is in the wine, your risk of oxidation in a sealed fermenter is negligible. I may be wrong. But I figure the risk associated with dry grape skins is...

The instructions for the FWKs are excellent. But, I don't recall if the instructions include this suggestion: If you're going to snap the lid and add an airlock when your SG reaches 1.010 (without regard for how much the grape skins are still rising above the wine), I suggest gently "sloshing"...

Ah. Sometimes folks have space issues (or carboy deficiency syndrome) and try to get it into the bottle as quick as possible so they can make more. You'll hear this a lot: The time lines in the kit instructions are guidelines. Trust what your wine is telling you and bottle when your wine is...

Why the rush? If you have a good reason that can’t be addressed any other way, okay. As to the Kmeta question - I might hold back until you’re ready to bottle and just dose as you normally do with the 1/4 teaspoon. But if there’s not a good reason, I say wait until your wine is perfectly clear...

After I label I can rearrange the wines on the rack.

No worries there - my carboys are all labeled, barrel is labeled with its current resident. I have five wines in bottle though - Malbec, two Merlot, a Cab and a blend - that need caps and labels though. They’re all nicely separated in the wine room too… waiting patiently. But pushing any more...

I'm pushing pause on my winemaking until I can get a few things downstairs under control. I have a backlog of 150 bottles waiting to be capsuled and labeled, another four batches of wine waiting to get in the bottle (probably 180 bottles total), 8 gallons of wine waiting to get in the barrel...

Went down to give the Cab Franc a look (and a smell, and a taste). It is light in color. It's got a nice bright strawberry taste and nose. Lighter bodied, too. I'm not UNHAPPY with it. But, it's also not as dark or as full bodied as I'd hoped. I'm going to rack the wine into a clean...