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Thank you so much! I just finished reading the Scottlab page. Bookmarked. Also planning on about 5 gallons. I was thinking about doing small 1gl batches to experiment with the yeast styles for next year.

Hi All - getting really excited about the 2020 season. I have Merlot, Cab, and Petite Verdot lined up. This will be my 3rd year with the Merlot and I'd like to try to make a dry rose from some of it using the bleed off method. My questions for those who've done this: Do you use a white wine...

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@Adam Beck Where are you located in CA? Assume that the goal is going commercial? I'd be really interested in learning about your process and how you're navigating licensing.

For grapes: Consider experimenting with whole-berry fermentation (semi-carbonic) to add complexity. This produces different flavors of the wine and when you do the punch-down it will break open the skins and slowly release additional fructose, extending the primary fermentation by a few days...

Concur with the stockpiling sugar for long-term use. I always buy in bulk come November/December when everyone is doing their holiday baking. Really cheap, very abundant in large quantities keeps me going for 12 months. I do get strange looks at the check-out for having a cart full of 100 lbs of...

Ouch! Recommend cross-posting on r/viticulture subreddit if you don't get an answer here - or do you have a local university extension office, maybe? Good luck!

No, you're right - the brix meter is the tool to use for this exercise. The question is: CAN one use the glucometer? Which may not be possible if one can't get a reading in the first place.

I have several gallons of denatured alcohol for disinfectant - who knew that would come in handy? Also a stash of empty spray bottles for sanitizing. Was able to whip of a few bottles of disinfectant and gift them to the elderly neighbors. Never thought winemaking would be a useful pandemic hobby.

Huh. So my daughter is Type 1 - and this question is intriguing. Step 1: see if anything even shows up on the glucose meter. They read for regular coke/soda. Which is a fun trick to make sure the waiter did, in fact, bring diet. If you know the base RS of a given liquid, and then use the...

Just keep em coming people - this is the best Saturday morning reading I've had in ages! Local schools just announced closure for 2 weeks, minimum. Feds moved cruise ship patients into the state-owned resort less than a mile away. It's gonna be an interesting ride. Take care of yourselves out...

Ha! Judging by the label, could've been mine ;-) - but I didn't make a 17. Nice find!

Equally as important is yeast selection. I feel like a gardner with the seed catalog. Looking through flavors and profile charts. Can easily kill a Saturday afternoon.

What size are your bottles. I'm bottling in 30 days, would like to gift in smaller bottles.

Another option that I might try this year if I can't find white grapes is California Concentrate. Email them to get on their mailing list: [email protected] http://www.californiaconcentrate.com/ They have weekend juice sales. Essentially whatever has just been harvested and...

The one time I worked with someone who got 1-ton, he used a truck with open-trailer, bins were on the trailer. When they got to the house, everyone pitched in with pitchforks to move the grapes from the macro bins on the trailer to garbage cans, to crusher, to macro bin for ferment. I think he...

I'm certainly not the chemist/biologist, but I keep mine in the freezer from one year to the next and it seems to work fine. Glad you got to use most of it!

If I didn't have sufficient excuse to drink it before, I do now. Curious to try a villages. Ty for the advice! Cheers!

Wine and Spirits Educators Trust, level 3. It's like the Court of Soms, but the curriculum is focused on viticulture/wine knowledge, not service.

Yeah, I wasn't impressed overall, and didn't join their club. It's a trip for me and I happened to be in the neighborhood. No customer service and the help staff was less than knowledgeable. I was looking for a Hunter Valley Semillon and was told to go look for one on the "other reds" wall. At...