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Welcome to WMT from a fellow hobby vineyard owner.

Definitely add the k-meta. If you are going to back sweeten and bottle soon, then add the k-sorbate as well. If you did add the recommended 1/4t a year ago it’s probably all used up by now. Many add that dose every three months while bulk aging. If the wine was topped up and the airlock...

Personally, I’m a fan of Petite Pearl and Marquette. Both can make excellent varietal wines and better blends. Others have noted that the wine improves as the vines age.

Welcome to WMT. The other big one is Northeast Vine Supply. I’m very happy with their vines. The prices are similar, and reasonable. The vines are the cheapest part of the vineyard, and $12 isn’t bad for a plant that should outlast me.

I see folks use DNS (did not suck) when describing the wine in their glass… you can do the math. And yes… much sympathy! I did it a few months ago. My wife sips it 🤢. I prefer getting it over with fast so I chug it like a frat boy on Friday night.

DS

Overnight is not long enough. I wait until spring when the lows at night are in the upper twenties or low thirties. I put insulation under the carboys and a big cardboard box over them. A few weeks like that and they drop whatever they can.

I have found you can definitely over-smoke cheese. I smoked some cheddar like you do sausage… probably 6 hours of heavy smoke. It was like eating an ashtray! The dogs had 5lbs of snack cheese so they were thrilled 😁

I would make a lower alcohol dry watermelon wine and blend them post-fermentation to reach the level of sweetness you desire. As @hounddawg said, go high on the fruit.

Interesting. Is the product commercially available yet? Any experience with it here?

Welcome to WMT. Looking forward to some interesting fruit wines from Indonesia.

As @sour_grapes said, it’s very difficult to stop the yeast mid-fermentation. You can, of course, add more sugar than the yeast can tolerate and they may die before consuming it all, but that is a crap shoot. You may just end up with really high alcohol dry wine or with some residual sugar...

Yeah the same glacier got us both. I have Stoney clay loam as well but soil testing shows it’s low in N,P, and K. Next year I’ll dig up a band about 2’ wide under the wire and dig in some fertilizer followed by a good bark mulch

Yeah the whole point of a starter is to provide optimal conditions for fast yeast reproduction. Drastic temperature drops are very stressful for yeast.

Sometimes on a busy posting day a post gets quickly pushed off the front page. I’ve never made yeast nutrient or really researched the constituents but it should provide what you need. I would not go through the cold crashing and decanting. You don’t want to stress your new baby yeast too...

I don’t know about crimson Pearl but petite is a real slow grower. At three years the Marquette were on the top wire with 1/2” diameter stems. The PP are still pencil thin.

I have heavier clay soils!

I have one empty row (15 vines) that I want to plant next year. I was looking at NE Vine Supply and reading about Sabrevois. Listed as very hardy and ripens to 18-20 Brix with low acid. I thought it might be a good blender for my Marquette, Petite Pearl, and Frontenac. Does anyone here...

Ex I’m glad. I have absolutely no time but I was this close to jumping on it… and dealing with the well deserved blowback from my wife!

I am generally a clean freak with all my winemaking equipment but for picking and crushing I go with a good washing with dawn dish soap and hot water. After crush everything is sanitized.