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What's your yield from your 8 vines? I have 10 but this was only their 2nd full year (and I don't really know what I'm doing with pruning) and they put out a very small crop this year - enough for like 500 mL of pinot rosé. Probably destined to become topping off wine for the 1 gal saignee I did...

50 lb would be a rough estimate needed per 3 gallons, if you have a decent press yield and don't lose a lot of volume in rackings. If you are making red wine you do not want to press at the vineyard, just crush/destem. Pressing comes after primary fermentation. If you line your fermenter with a...

Fellow Willamette Valley resident here - I made/am making Pinot Noir this year for my first grape wine, drove up from Eugene to a small vineyard in Carlton to pick up the grapes. For red grape winemaking the process is to crush/destem the fruit, and ferment with the skins and seeds for the...

Did you use any maceration enzymes like Lallzyme EX? You could also think about adding fermentation tannins and/or Opti-Red if you haven't already to help lock in and stabilize the color you already have plus whatever additional comes out in the end of primary/EM.

The Riesling is very tempting to me since I didn't find a convenient local source of fresh white grapes this year. And it's like 1/3 to 1/4 the price per finished volume of Brehm frozen Riesling. I have nowhere near the capacity to make that large of a batch though but I'd guess that the...

The color in my Pinot is starting to look darker now that the gross lees are settling out. I think it's starting to look good! I guess they made it more opaque and reflective. Also the picture above was taken outside and now it's inside, though in a bright-ish room. Can update with another pic...

Here's one of the 2 carboys right after pressing.

10 days, and did 4 punchdowns a day, and did a ~10% saignee as well, used Lallzyme EX, Tannin FT Rouge Soft, and Opti-Red at recommended dosages. (A little under-dosed the opti-red) I've certainly seen some commercial Pinots with a color similar to mine but it seems like it's on the light side...

Beautiful color!! I'm jealous of that color since I'm pressing my Pinot today and my color will be nowhere near that dark. Of course with 100% Pinot a somewhat light color is to be expected but I really love the visual appeal of an inky, deep red wine.

I would bump the acidity to 0.8% or so with a little tartaric for the rosé. Especially if you're sure your pH meter is calibrated and you're really at 3.7 (+- .1). Rosés are more like whites in that they are usually more acidic and don't go through MLF- which means you will need to prevent MLF...

If you want a true white wine from red grapes you will want to wait to add the enzymes until you have your pressed juice. And you'll also have to press very quickly and gently after crushing. I think it may be quite difficult to get a true blanc de noirs unless you have a bladder press and can...

@mcpusc I just noticed your profile says you're in the PNW - as am I! May I ask where you sourced Merlot and Zinfandel? I have a Pinot fermenting now which is my first grape wine though I've done several other fruits and store-bought juices. I do enjoy Pinot but next year I may try to source a...

I was actually thinking of going smaller and getting a 10 gallon Brute to press into, but instead I think I'll try strategy 2 - press into 2 carboys then rack back into cleaned Brute, then back into carboys. Not doing splash racking when going back to the Brute, and maybe splash racking under...

I'm currently making my first from-grape wine and also my first double batch. I've got ~130 lb of Pinot must in my 20 gallon Brute that I expect (hope) to get 8 finished gallons from (to be aged in 5 + 3 gallon carboys). I'll be pressing early next week and my problem is that I don't have any...

Looks like I'll be OK then - and also the weather report now got revised to a low chance of showers on my picking day. The rains will start to get going after I've already picked

The vineyard I am supposed to be picking from this weekend has a chance of stray showers in the forecast during the harvest. I am concerned about dilution - what are ways to mitigate this and is it even a concern for light showers? I might be able to re-schedule my picking time to be slightly...

I do tend to go all-in on hobbies lol. I've been making fruit wine for ~3 years now, mostly from store bought juices but I've done blueberry and elderberry from whole fruit (dried in the case of elderberries). For the saignee my plan is to wait to add the enzymes until after I siphon off the...

I am making Pinot Noir for my first from-grapes wine this year. My plans are to do a 2-3 day cold soak (using an Inkbird controlled chest freezer), do a ~10% saignee mid-way through the cold soak, and use Lallzyme EX, Tannin FT Rouge Soft and Opti-Red during fermentation with RC-212 yeast to...

I have used FT Rouge on dark fruit wines (blackberry, blueberry) with good results, but I haven't used grape tannin or oak as a primary fermentation tannin, so can't really compare though. My local homebrew store has small quantities of FT Rouge so it's convenient for me to use. I was planning...

This year will be my first year making wine from grapes and also first time doing MLF on any wine. I am planning on sourcing 150 lb of Pinot to make 8 gallons red + 1 gallon saignee rose. I'm also considering getting an additional 50 lb of Foch but undecided (also open to suggestions - is it...