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cmason . . . interesting note on the Vidal. Here in the Finger Lakes they vint a fair amount of Vidal and Seyval Blanc, but I have not heard of anyone applying oak. It's generally done 100% in SS and is often left with an RS of 3% - 5% (or even more). However, there are some wineries making...

I've only been at this for 3 years and a big part of maintaining the discipline is having enough drinkable wine on hand to allow you to exhibit the necessary restraint from robbing the cradle. Keeping things in carboys longer is a great deterrent to early consumption.

I use both acetone and mineral spirits to remove the really gummy labels and have had no problem with subsequent clean up. Both agents evaporate almost completely on their own. Acetone is not quite as effective, but disappears rapidly. Mineral spirits take a little longer (leaves a bit of an...

Really enjoyed the article on how wine kits are made. I work for a dairy processing company and there's some overlap between the wine kit process and ours. We both use HTST pasteurization and condensing under vacuum. It seems like a lot of the high end winemakers have been moving toward...

Generally, you would not blend until each variety was fairly well into the aging process so you could do some bench testing to see what mix is optimum. However, I have violated this rule on a few occasions and the results have been decent. I don't know about blending Pinot Grigio with reds. I...

I did not really "need" more kits, but I can't resist a bargain and these smaller 10L kits give me the liberty to play around a bit and set aside some wine for blending experimentation. Thanks for the heads up.

Fred, that's funny . . . I only detect the kit taste in whites. The red kits taste young to me early on, but I don't get the peculiar chemical taste that I associate with the white kits. That being said, the red kits get many more additives like tannins and oak which may be covering up the...

I can't say definitively how much damage the bad grapes will do, but it's best to eliminate as many as possible. I've made varietal wild grape wine once and blended a good volume into last year's Concord must. Destemming and sorting those little buggers by hand is a pain in the butt, however...

I completed the full harvest of my vineyard on Sunday morning. It took all of about 30 minutes. De-stemming by hand took a little while, but since all I had was one lug I figured I ought to at least have a nice clean ferment. This was year 3 for most of the vines and I had a decent crop going...

Geek . . . plenty of options for accommodations. Bar Harbor is the tourist hub and has lots of hotels and dining. The other side of Mount Desert Island (the quiet side) also has motels and cottages for rent scattered around the various harbors/villages. Much to see and do here, especially if...

Some views of Bar Harbor & the Porcupine Islands from Cadillac Mtn & Champlain Mtn. Just spent another wonderful week in Acadia Nat'l Park. Truly amazing.

You've got a lot on your plate . . . better take a vacation.

Bought my first kettle style grill last week. Saturday and Sunday mornings were spent breaking it in and seasoning. Sunday afternoon saw the first meat hit the griddles. I finally have enough space to cook meat and veggies at the same time. Still learning how to control the temps through...

Salmon River Falls . . . . just east of Lake Ontario near Altmar, NY on Sunday morning.

Wow, that is surprisingly amber, but I like it. Hope the flavor is as good as the color.

Let's recap the 3 players and their roles: - Potassium Metabisulphite (aka KMS or K-meta) - preservative - inhibits oxidation and microbial activity - should be always be used at the end of fermentation and at each racking. - Potassium Sorbate - ferment inhibitor - stops yeast from multiplying...

You have a lot going on with these batches. The big missing piece of information is the amount of SG drop experienced in that first week. Most likely, you already converted a fair amount of sugar to alcohol prior to diluting down to 1.070, which is a normal starting point. Adding fresh yeast...

I've made a few white kits and my (limited) experience has been very mixed. Some of the lower end (10L) kits made good early drinking wine (Moscato & Gewurztraminer), but the kit taste was present for several months. The 2 Rieslings I've made definitely improved significantly at about 1 year...

I was 2 years into winemaking before buying the AIO pump. Best $$ I've spent in this hobby. So many benefits - degassing - limited cleanup (two racking canes and one tube) - no need to place source carboy above target carboy - and it's pretty fast. I've never filtered with it, but I'd go with...