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If you are worried about spoilage or Brett with high pH, you could use Bactiless/No Brett inside. They will allow you to get away with less free SO2. I use them regularly with high pH wine. Also, higher SO2 in higher pH wine is usually less noticeable. I have done 50-60 free SO2 at bottling on...

You should be good with aerating that you did. I agree with others, after crush there is enough O2 in the must, you don’t need to aerate besides stirring (unless you use dry ice during cold soak, then aerate prior to pinching). But 24hrs after pinch is definitely a good time to use the aeration...

Maybe something has changed, but I did a deep dive in 2017 in finding a good supply a better higher grade Nomacorcs. Vinventions was a main supplier of bulk Nomacorc for custom printing. Their rep said only select 900s were designed to be used in a floor corker. They used to have documentation...

I have used the select green 300s, they have no markings on them. The top from your picture look correct with the slight groves on both ends. Also select 300s are not supposed to go through a floor corker. They are supposed to go through a pneumatic corker. However, I use this priming technique...

I lost my smell totally for about a 10-14 days, I immediately ordered one of the essential oils smell kits on Amazon and started using right away. After 4-5 days of using it, I started to notice faint smells on some, by a months time I was back to normal. There are studies that suggest the...

Merry Christmas to all! Post your best/favorite Christmas wine photo. Here is one of my favorite wines I made with @pour750ml, Rattlesnake Snake Hills Cab Sav 2019!

Crush2Cellar sells the Nomacorc select 300s for $30 a bag of 100. They say you shouldn’t use them in floor corkers but you can if you prime and rotate them (approx 4-5 times). They last at least 10 years. It is the standard cork I use on reds ( not saying any las until 10yr but maybe someday)

I agree with RevA. Bucket press is the cheapest way to go and it works pretty decent. https://winegrapesdirect.com/how-to Wine Grapes Direct has a good explanation. Not sexy, but does the trick!

Allegro for Chardonnay would be my vote, especially if you plan to Sur Lie. TR 313, can give grapefruit aromas, which I feel is weird in chard. I actually used the TR313 on a syrah rose this year and is smell mostly of grapefruit, which seems weird in a rose as well. I did use TR313 and...

If anything, maybe a bit of brandy, but if you keep the heat low enough ~125, you won’t lose much alcohol. Too much alcohol taste throws the balance off in my opinion. I never add alcohol back and it still makes you feel great

750 ml red wine (1 bottle) About 1cups apple cider but add to taste honey about 2 tablespoons but I add to taste 1 orange zested and juiced 5 whole cloves 4 green cardamom pods 2 cinnamon sticks 1 whole star anise additional Orange slices for garnish Additional Cinnamon sticks for garnish...

It is not just practical experience. https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/winemakers-red-wine-secret-extended-maceration/ Here is an explanation on Wine Folly but there are scientific articles out there explaining it. anthocyanin levels will peak earlier in fermentation and start to decrease with...

Sometimes EM can cause color to drop, but that is typically longer EM. I had a cab from Livermore and frozen must that I did 28 day EM. It was dark and rich at the end of fermentation. At the end of the EM. It looked like a dark rose. The mouthfeel was great and the wine was smooth, but the...

I love my rattlesnake hills cab 81 % red mountain merlot 19%and the blend of red mountain merlot 56 %and rattlesnake hills cab 34% (with some petite Verdot and Petite Sirah too) We did add a touch of glycerine to the cab which rounded the tannins. The main rattlesnake hills cab beat a 94 pt...

Allegro would be my vote for Chardonnay, tr313 is good too, but I think is more geared towards crisper whites. I think allegro goes better with typical chard profile. It really depends the style you are going for, but really can’t go wrong with either (or do them both and blend)...

That will spoil a barrel and the wine especially without sulfites. Keep your barrels topped up and the proper sulfite levels would be my recommendation. I have heard of Italians using an old school method of using olive oil on top of their wine in the barrel to keep oxygen from getting to the...

Reduless is not dangerous at all. If you follow the instructions, minuscule amounts of copper may be left. Also, on a slightly different note, you need copper intake. It is essential for enzymatic function in your body. Copper deficiency causes problems (especially in the era of Covid because...

Either is fine, if prefer a bung if you don’t open it. It will create suction and it should be fine. I still tape the top just to be safe. The airlock could freeze (depending on the soln) or as the volume of wine shrinks, it will suck air back in (or soln if to full). If you open it cold...

I know a guy in our wine club that gets 25-26 brix consistently (but he drops a lot of clusters), others have been getting 22-23 brix in the Milwaukee area. The UW-Madison growers picked theirs at 22.7 this year.

I would take a small 50-100ml sample and put in you fridge for a few weeks to see if it is worth it for cold stabilizing. You could do a bench trial at different levels of potassium bicarbonate as well. Taste and test. I have read that not much falls out with pH below 3.2. Also. It will drive...