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Thanks for posting! I believe you can get bell-shaped diffusers that direct the gas flow parallel to the surface (there is a picture of one here), but you still of course need to fill the headspace - the 'layer' is transient at best. I'm not sure if those bells come in a size small enough to...

Rotisserie leg of lamb... stuffed with a herb and garlic paste, basted with a (home made) white pinot noir basting sauce. It started to rain a few minutes after taking this, fortunately my deck has a covered area... ETA: It's a shame the color balance is a bit off but you get the idea... 😋

If you're just doing a bottle at a time - even a case at a time - I'm not sure you need a fancy, automated solution. I have a tub which I fill with acidified water containing KMBS (K-meta) and dunk my bottles in there for a few minutes before setting them in an old wine rack (turned on its side)...

Sounds great! It will be fine up to mid-80s F as you state. In fact when we're fermenting whole grapes we often try to get the temperature up in order to get better extraction from the skins, though I'm guessing that won't be such an issue with the kit.

Rather than add your solera wine immediately after fermenting the new vintage, I would hold it over for another year and blend at your next bottling. So keep your 2023 (30 gal) until late summer/fall 2025, then blend "Solera #1" (2023 (30 gal) + 2024 (30 gal)). You could then bottle 30 gal...

Congratulations and good luck! You may know this already but there is another Meyer winery in CA, in Mendocino county: https://www.meyerfamilycellars.com. I have no connection to them other than that I live relatively nearby...

Black trumpet mushrooms (foraged from our hillside) with homegrown asparagus and garlic, over cornmeal pasta (not shown). It's been a great year for black trumpets!

This might be a better fit for the commercial winemaking forum? Crossflow units are really expensive, so if you want to go that way it might be best to see if there is a vendor in your area that rents them out. Some will even come on site and do it for you, but I'm guessing that won't be cost...

On end with the cork pointing down.

Brand new, straight out of the bag. I've never sanitized corks, though I guess I might do so if they were old and stored in uncertain conditions. I always store bottles on point in cases and haven't generally had a problem.

I think I have to update this based on recent experience. I estimate that I have opened at most 50 bottles of my 2021 pinot noir, which was bottled using the corks mentioned above (1 3/4" grade 3). On 2 occasions the wine was corked. I was willing to assume that the first one was just bad...

Yesterday I had occasion to measure pH for the same sample in two separate labs. I agree that +/- 0.02 units is in the noise - what you would expect given the precision and accuracy of the instruments. What I actually saw was 0.1 unit difference. That indicates a problem in one lab or both...

I always stir (with a stir bar) or gently agitate (by hand). Since the meter works by measuring hydrogen ion exchange between the electrode and solution, it always seemed to me that stirring would ensure a constant environment around the probe, dispersing any local accumulation or deficit of H+...

I think this is a nice guide to pH, TA and adjustments thereof: https://vinmetrica.com/managing-ph-and-ta-in-wine/ The rule of thumb is that 1g/L tartaric acid increases TA by 1g/L (of course!) and decreases pH by 0.1 units. But it's a bit more complicated than that due to the effects of...

I think my current inventory is about 5:1 homemade: commercial, though I suspect that ratio increases with every year...

I would just caution that the name 'Campden tablet' is used for both sodium and potassium metabisulphite, depnding on the vendor... or even in different packages fom the same vendor! https://www.amazon.com/Campden-Tablets-sodium-metabisulfite-100/dp/B0064H0KC6...

@ovjock, that looks like a regular beer keg with the spear still installed. Not that there's anything wrong with that! A triclover fitting looks like this, with a groove in the end: As @CDrew says, all wineries (as far as I know) use these fittings for connecting tanks, valves, hoses etc. Re...

As @winemaker81 says, morewinemaking.com has a good selection of various quality corks. I have used their 1 3/4 grade 3 corks, but more recently they've introduced a range of grade 1 corks that are even less expensive.

I opted for 3. I want my wine to be driven by the fruit (and, by extension the terroir and winegrowing practice) but will select yeast and nutrients (and, if necessary, acid addition) to nudge the wine in a particular direction. But I'm never going to try and make a cabernet sauvignon-style...

I second the recommendation of stainless steel kegs... I have 3x 15.5 gal, they work well for fermenting and longer term storage. Mine have 2" triclover fittings which can be used for a solid cap (after all fermentation is done), or they are also the right size to fit a regular barrel bung (I...