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I can’t speak for long term wine ageing however I do have some wine in beer bottle under crown seal approaching 3 years age. Some in 375ml bottles have definitely aged quicker than 750ml in my storage conditions and I see no reason why they won’t last 10 years with no issues. While I put a...

Had a bit of a look tonight and here’s the colour of the free run at top and pressings at bottom. Almost indistinguishable this year apart from a bit more tannin in the pressings. I got much more extraction than last vintage when I had a big difference between the free run and pressings. Took a...

I pressed last night after everyone was asleep. Ended up finishing at 2:30am. Didn’t take any pics at the time due to poor lighting. All went smoothly with a few surprises. My yield was low only got 140 litres compared to 165 last year, and my must volume was up by around 25 litres this year. I...

Everything has been kicking along as it should. Will press sometime between tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) and Sunday night depending a little on the wine and a little on when I have the time. I put in my mlb a couple of days back one the ferment started slowing which is my standard. Also have...

Hey mate sounds like you’re going in hard for your first vintage. Good luck with it all you’ll have a full flight from that lot! Yes, this year being so dry and hot yields are well down. The good stuff is amazing but a lot of growers have ended up struggling. Refer to my Grenache post to see...

How quickly a year goes by. I now have my 2019 Grenache happily fermenting away. We’ve had a tough year this year, extreme heatwaves and a summer that’s been4 degrees Celsius above average overall with very little rainfall, so picked March 3, 2 and a bit weeks earlier than last vintage...

Pressed today. Didn’t do any readings but the ferment was all but done. We had a fairly hot day a couple days back and the 1118 just motored through with no fuss. I’m happy with the extraction I got and am confident this will be a good wine. Tasted a sample and it was nice and clean black and...

I decided on a whim to grab some Shiraz from the Adelaide Plains after work this past Thursday. Mostly because it was ridiculously cheap at $600 a tonne and they hand picked for me. Plus I have been itching to get stuck into vintage. As I’m going to be making some old vine Grenache again and...

Sorry to be off topic Obelix but how did you go about shipping a bottle to Johnd in the states? I was going to ship some wine to a friend there and another forum member but could not find a way to send it. Can you please let me know.

You will be killed by ethanol poisoning multiple times before you’d get enough methanol from wine, cider or beer to cause you major harm.

Squeezing will only release more stuff that will already diffuse to some point in the wine. Give it a good dose of pectin enzyme and squeeze the **** out of it. I’ve done that with multiple berry and fruit wines and all are clear as a blue sky. I use 1 heaped teaspoon per gallon with the enzyme...

Really interesting read this thread. Great to know a bit about what drives people in their hobbies and passions. For me there’s multiple reasons. I started off brewing over 15 years ago and had a lengthy break. Returned to brewing with a vengeance and found myself bored during the warmer months...

Thanks JohnD, Very much appreciated. I may well end up giving it a go am in that planning stage of what to do. So many grapes and so many options which is a good place to be in :)

Has anyone tried making an Amarone style wine from grapes and not a kit? I’ve seen quite a few threads on kits but wondering if anyone’s gone to the effort of drying their own grapes to give it a proper crack. Vintage for me is coming up in late February-March and I’m toying with the idea of...

I have now bottled the last of this 18 vintage Grenache. All up around 15 dozen bottles, having made 2 very distinct wines in separating the free run and pressings, pressings split 60% on French oak and 40% on American oak then blended back. I’m very proud of these wines, especially the...

I racked this today as it’s sat on the lees a few weeks now. Wine is totally clear. I’m very surprised that it actually tastes like a grape wine. Kinda Chardonnay like. Acid seems a little high but not sure if that will integrate or if I should cold stabilise to drop out some tartrates.

Hopefully a chemist can chime in otherwise I suggest finding a lab that can test it for you. Blueberries aren’t hugely rich in potassium so perhaps make a batch with no Kmeta or sorbate for him and calculate content from blueberry quantity and volume.

I generally decant young wines as per NorCal. Generally giving them half hour or so before serving. Older wines 10+ I decant just before serving to get rid of the sediment, rinse the bottle and pour back in. Myself and my father had a couple of disappointments a long while back when we over...

I bottled this wine today and am quite happy with it. Even though I used less fruit than recommended it has quite a strong strawberry aroma and taste. Perhaps the pound of raisins helped it along. Either way I think I’m going to grow some strawberries next year so I can give it a go with 6-8...

Hey Obelix I'm in South Australia. Thanks for the offer though sounds like you're pretty happy with how your stuff turned out. I'm going to crush 3/4 - 1 tonne next vintage. Most likely half tonne of the old vine grenache and quarter tonne of shiraz. I'm building a friendship with a small...