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OK, so I broke down and decided I should drink MegaPurple straight. You should see my tongue now; my eight year thinks that I cursed. Thank you everyone that has provided input on this thread. So much info was provided and I still need a season or two to take in some of the advice that was...

I was thinking this exactly.... I've started to play with more fruit wines and ciders while I have the time. Its interesting what a little sugar and some bubbles do to a pretty underwhelming wine. And if you get really creative you can backsweeten it with vanilla or pistachio to give it a fun...

I am looking into some of these as well. Lucky for me, they are close and I don't have to worry about shipping. How often are you having to add k-meta keep the levels up?

Would love to here how it goes as well.

100% agree with this. I finally re-bottled my year one 'one hundred and one mistakes' wine. After I bottled, I had a large glass left over. I was pretty happy with the corrections that I had made to this screwed up wine I felt like I had fixed as much as could fix and I should just bottle...

@Rice_Guy - I noticed that you are using TA here. Curious to know how many others calculate TA in addition to PH. I remember a post (somewhere at some time) that mentioned not to worry about TA and focus on PH. Because of this reading, I have 100% ignored TA. Am I missing something, and if so...

Out of curiosity, what yeast did you end up going with and how is it going. I get grapes just west of that from Prosser area.

@crushday can you tell me how you use the Speidel and FastFerment. Are these just short term vessels or can you use the long term. If long term. How do you manage headspace. If short term, how long do you store them and what do you transfer your wines to.

One of these days I will make a wine that is worthy enough for a barrel!! On a side note, I do some fruit wines and cider and I feel that these wines have gotten much better as a result of some of the lessons that I am learning from some of my bad (or not so great) wines. The plum wine that I...

Hey CDrew.. Maybe we can arrange a swap some time. I drive down from Portland with a bunch of pails. You drive north with a bunch of grapes. We meet in the middle?? 😀 Edit... Nevermind... It looks like @crushday beat me to this offer :)

I think that you have inspired me to give this a shot next year. What yeast did you end up using/and what yeast are you thinking about trying in the future? Thanks for the update!

Funny that you mention this. I've been doing a D80 and D254 combo for a couple years now. This year I split my batches out to also include a batch with BM4x4. I just racked off the gross less today and combined my batches. Individually I though the BM4x4 was the best. But the D254/D80 combo was...

I was considering trying saignee this year and backed out of it. For those that have are using this method, have the results been worth it?

Yes!!! And thank goodness. I stress enough over a couple 5 gallon carboy.

Yep. I have to admit that thread you have is one of those that i check daily for updates. Some great info!! I feel that the wines that you are making may be comparable to some cab francs that are in the $30-$40 price range. For my wines they may have reached the 10-12 price range (that may be...

CDrew, I would never have imagined that it was only year 4 for you. I have seen a lot of posts/comment from you and would have guessed that you had been doing this for so much longer. And I agree, our mistakes are our best lessons. I just re-bottled my wine that was pressed 2 years ago and am...

My hat is off to you. I have brown thumb and am a pretty ok wine maker. If possible i would like to at least be a good wine maker that doesn't kill everything I touch.

Interesting ideas on judging wine. I just recently started down the path of learning and understanding the tasting of wine in an effort to better understand the wine that I make. I started with this class, it is a free UC Davis course on the matter that is basic but has some good points: Wine...

I've only been making wine from grapes for three years now. Each year it gets progressively better and each year I learn a ton on what to do and what not to do. I am a huge lurker on this site. I love to read but rarely reach out for help. It wasn't until this past while that I asked for some...

This year (after some o2 issues over the past 2 years) i am giving these silicone stoppers (breathable) a try. Its to early to tell if they work well but so far I think I like them. Anyone else use these? And if so, what are your thoughts.