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The first 2-3 years of wine making I did punch downs with my hand/arm ( washed before). That was how it was taught to me from a home wine making store for smaller batches when not having a punch down tool. All the wines cames out fine and the red hand/arm was fun for while.

I use a heat gun to warm the labels moving it continuously for about 5 seconds and they peel off easily due to warming the glue. I use acetone on rag or goo gone to remove any remaining glue on bottle. The acetone can be strong so a mask helps but goo gone is easy too. This works quick and...

I sulfite different for every wine based on the pH. Some wines have as low as 20 ppm and others up to 60 ppm depending on pH. The lower the pH, the less SO2 I use. I generally follow the recommendations on wine maker magazine online sulfite calculator which will give you the ppm to add for...

I use the Vinmetrica SO2 meter. It is easy to use and works well. I check every few months SO2 levels and notice from one wine to another the SO2 levels drop differently. I adjust based on the SO2 readings. The levels drop differently in different types of aging vessels also. For my...

I never shrink wrap. Not worth the time or money to do it for me. I have noticed many more California boutique high quality wineries not using shrink wrap either but will have their logo and design on the cork to be seen through the neck of the bottle without shrink wrap.

I have had similar issues but nearly as bad as yours with the vented silicone bungs. What I believe happened in my case was the little air in and out made environment favorable for microorganism growth but also I noticed my SO2 levels dropped a lot faster with the lose bungs compared to...

I used Nomacorcs my first 2 years of wine making and noticed white wines seems to oxicize too quickly. I switched to #3 natural corks and was happy with result. Now I use only Diam corks after listening to an inside wine making podcast about them. They seem to be superior to natural corks in...

Store the wine cases upside down like wineries do. Corks stay moist as the bottles are upside down and cases can be stacked with stability.

That's my practice. Rack off gross less and age on fine lees for 1 year in barrel, rack to stainless steel tanks, age for 6-8 months more then bottle if no further clarification is needed. I usually have to rack once more before bottling if some further sediment arises in the stainless steel...

I use the Enomatic Wine Bottle Filler. Works great and fast. Has its own built in pump. Can be adjusted to fill to desired bottle level and stops automatically. I rack out of barrel first though to clean container to avoid sediment.

Price point for good wine is part of the issue. Yes, there are bargain buys that can be great but there is a sea of awful wine to go through to find a good bargain buy. I know many who do not like wine because all they have had is cheap wine that is mass produced and not good. You give them...

You may be right about cognitive bias, or the wine maker who does this does create a distinctive wine. I guess there is a lot of theory that can go into why the wine is different in this fashion. One reason may be many of the berries are not crushed during a foot stomp but will still ferment...

It's usually smaller wineries that may employ this technique as the more wine you make, it becomes physically impossible to foot stomp high quantities.

I would respectfully disagree as it depends on the style of wine you are trying to make. Some of the best, most complex wine I drink is from a wine maker in Santa Barbara County CA that foot stomps all his grapes, ferments with 100% stem inclusion in open top fermenters with daily punch downs...

Ok dude, here is the answer to your issues, maybe. lol Do not trust the 1g/L recommendation for changing pH or TA. In the past I would use that but add only 2/3 of that the calculation to the must and it still was overshooting the pH. I learned the best way to get the most accurate (although...

I use a heat gun to heat the label and glue up. After a moment the label peels off due the glue melting. Then I remove any excess glue with acetone. Makes it way easier than scraping. Use gloves as the bottle gets hot.

50 ppm to the grapes before fermentation. I calculate if sulfite to be added amount based on the weight.

I use same sanitizer for everything, equipment bottles etc. 1 TBS k-meta and 1 TBS Citric Acid per gallon of water.

I sanitize the marbles with SO2 solution and add them to the wine to top up. Works well for small amount of headspace to reduce. For larger head space, you need a lot of marbles.

I just used the vintersense corks from Amazon for bottling my 2020 Pinot Noir. They are colmated corks meaning they are natural cork with some filler to improve the quality so there is less chance of leakage, makes them more uniform also. These corks we're stiffer than the number 3 corks I...