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One thing to consider: I have definitely noticed a difference between wines that were stopped in their fermentation through chilling to be naturally sweet with residual and wine that went to dryness and were back-sweetened. The process of slowing and stopping the fermentation seems to maintain...

That's so funny -I was going to reply to OP and ask if they had something wrong since PI doesn't do DeChaunac anymore :) I did a comparison of yeasts in the 90's and one of the test grapes was DeChaunac, which I made because it was such a bargain. This information is dated and there are...

Welcome, very cool vineyard! I thought I had seen (or at read about) it all but I've never heard of either Castel or Triomphe d'Alsace. I had a Verrmont-grown wine made from Petit Pearls the other day and It was fantastic. It's amazing what is being done today to make cold-hardy reds that taste...

I have the "Vinmetricas" system that, as folks have pointed out, takes the "math" out of the the equation. You use 5ml of wine, diluted, and measure the delta of the Sodium Hydroxide from start to finish and multiple it by 2 (ok, there is some math). They set things up so that the concentration...

I think temperature and amount of Malic acid make a difference too. In the Finger Lakes MLF was always pretty obvious, likely because the grapes were high in acid and I was keeping them at around 75 degrees during the MLF. I'm starting ML tomorrow in some of my California grapes tomorrow, given...

Ha ha -I drank some Tempranillo nouveau and Barbera nouveau today while pressing my reds that finished fermentation. They're going to be good, I think!

I've been doing some reading on Primitivo, since I was also confused. The vineyard by my house has both, and had both available for purchase this year.This is the story as I understand it. Zinfandel and Primitivo were at one time essentially the same grape. When Zinfandel was imported into the...

Thanks, NorCal -I'm in Sutter Creek, so about an hour from you, I'd say. I'm new to the area and I actually just discovered the Lodi Wine Works store, which would have saved me tons off hassle since they basically have everything. I crushed 400lbs of Zin and Mourvedre today, last of the reds...

Hi all, For most of my winemaking life I was in the Finger Lakes and induced a MLF (which I know is not actually a fermentation) in all my red wines, since not having enough acid was rarely a problem. One exception was a very fruity Pinot Noir in 2010 that had pretty low acid and whose fruity...

Here's my crush update so far. Amador (Shake Ridge) Tempranillo .6 TA, 23.5 Brix 3.8 pH (before fermentation/4.1 after (adding tartaric) (all 400lbs red) Fiddletown (Slate Creek) Malbec .57 TA, 24 Brix 3.9 pH (adding tartaric) (starting ferment 266 lbs red/133 lbs rose)) Amador (Shake Ridge)...

I haven't experienced in smoke taint in the grapes from the foothills this year -the fires are actually hundreds of miles away and while the smoke is not good to breathe it hasn't't seemed to impacted the grapes I have gotten. Lodi's in the same boat so far. -Aaron

Hi all, I just moved to the foothills area in CA (Amador county) in the early spring. I'm planning on making 9 base varietals, which will go into multiple, as-of-yet undetermined blends. I'm getting 400lbs of each of barbera, tempranillo, Viognier, Mourvèdre, and zinfandel (all from Shake Ridge...

This is a bit a of delayed response but I am also making a Barbera rosé this year. I got 400lbs of super fresh, bright and juicy fruit from the vineyard down the road (Skake Ridge Ranch). They were at 24.5 Brit and 3.2 pH, with 1% TA -so high in sugar and acid. I'm making three wines from it...

Wow, I'm surprised the TA is that high given the pH and Brix. Both high pH and TA is not uncommon in hybrids (one of their many joys...) but I haven't experienced this with CS, personally. Is it possible the TA reading is off on batch 1? Could be it's 2020, too... Just out of curiosity which...

Is there a way to know (other than tasting the wine) that your grapes are affected? Sounds like only a lab can determine this. I'm picking up 800 lbs of grapes tomorrow in Amador county (about a mile from my house, actually). There are no fires in Amador county, but the smoke is everywhere. I'm...

This is me captured at the exact moment that I realized there weren't actually raccoons in the living eating the furniture...

Hi, I'm new to this site. I moved to Sutter Creek (in Amador county) a few months ago and decided to start making wine again. I had lived in central New York and made wine from Finger Lakes grapes from 1995 to 2010, when I moved to San Jose for work. Some years I made over 1000 bottles, so I was...