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Desperate California wine growers are slashing prices on grapes. No one is buying 2024 could be a great year for grape purchases (or even a vineyard).

I want to forward a link to those in the area who may be interested in sources of locally grown grapes around the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. https://groups.io/g/mbawm/

I am starting a thread with my winemaking progress. Everybody feel free to jump in and post also. I picked grapes on 9/8 and Finally got them destemmed on 9/12. I did not notice any issues with the fruit starting to turn, but I kept them about 60-70F. After a day of cold-soaking (ha, actually I...

I plan to cold soak the one lug of Zinfandel and ferment it with some oak chips and that is it. (Watching the YouTube videos of the nonnis making wine, they don't even bother with oak.) My knowledge of Zinfandel wine making is approaching nil. I always assumed that Zin was light on tannins, but...

Hi all, This year I have some small batches and I might try differing ingredients between the batches. I have used Scott'Tan FT Rouge on most of my reds as an enological tannin. This year I want to try oak chips in the primary. One issue with the FT Rouge is that MoreWine says it might not...

The owner decided to retire and now my favorite source of yeast and winemaking chemicals is closed! 😥 He had all the yeasts available by the gram. And also, our local MoreWine retail store closed. What are members’ favorite source of yeast via mail order? I could buy from MoreWine but I tend...

😅 This is what I found in the wine cellar this afternoon. Thanks to the record high temperatures my 2023 wine wants to keep on bubbling.

Here are some updates on the vines. Merlot looks fantastic in 2024. I expect a huge crop and I feel that it will ripen early. This looks like lag phase for the grapes already in June. Lots of water in the soil after several drought years and the vines are finding it. Temps are predicted to hit...

Conditions are looking excellent in 2024 for a nice crop of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. But, I may ruin my luck saying this because I have had shatter in the Cab clusters so often. Last year, so many fellow grape growers were proud of their amazing crop. My crop was lousy, full of shatter...

Has anyone else seen this website? MyViny.com I honestly do not know what to think. Is this a novel idea for making wine remotely or a scam?

So, I have some 2022 Cabernet wines that I bottled in Oct 2023 after finishing my '23 winemaking. I did a splash racking of the wine before bottling. I did two rackings of the wine, each time adding 0.17 tsp. / 5 gal. Kmeta, and at the bottling I added another 0.17 tsp. / 5 gal. Kmeta (I'm...

Yea! Success. I tried to order more Zin grafted on SO4 from Novavine this year but they were out. It seems that the Covid-19 supply chain issues still exist. So, I had to make my own vines. I bought an omega grafter from Amazon and used cuttings from my existing Zinfandel. I was able to get SO4...

I am getting ready for a lighter harvest this year, 600 lbs if I am lucky. My new house has a workshop and I would like to move my winemaking into this space, but the room gets southwest exposure and is a little too hot for wine storage, or for me on hot summer days. I will see if the insulation...

I have the opportunity to buy some Sauv Blanc juice from Monterey county, and I am tempted to try to make another white wine. I have made Chard in the past. My preferred style of Sauv Blanc is the very grassy citrusy New Zealand type. Unfortunately I am pretty sure this juice will not produce...

I entered two of my wines in the Santa Cruz county fair wine judging competition, the Cabernet Sauvigon class and the Bordeaux Blend class. 2021 vintage, and I hope that the bottle shock has subsided. Fingers crossed, hopeful, but really I just want feedback, good or bad. I entered a...

Haha, okay it seems like all I do is field complaints on Winemaking Talk. First my wine was bitter, now it is sour. (the other wine is no long bitter BTW) I will get some numbers posted, but what I did for 2022 vintage is backwater and acidify to a level to reach 4.8 g/L TA. Which I feel was...

Hello fruit lovers. I am trying to identify this tree. Here is a pic of the fruit so far. It is not ripe yet.

Here is the start to my vineyard at our new home. We are taking a week-long vacation and I needed to get these vines in the ground ASAP. I have had the vines lingering since February and they were itching to get out of their pots. I have 20 potted vines of Zinfandel on SO4. I was able to fit 14...

This year I am going to break out the vineyard tending thread from the winemaking. It was confusing in the past and hard for some people to find the thread. No pictures yet. I was too busy suckering the vines today. But, I am going back tomorrow to spray and will show how the vines are doing...

I am reaching out to know if anyone has a good resource on building a head trained vineyard, especially the spacing between vines. I have a small front yard and I have an internal debate about going "water smart" and turning it into a xeriscape. Why not get some benefit in the form of grapes...