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Congratulations on your first wine!!!

Welcome to WMT!!

I agree with Ohio Bob - too much headspace. I also think your airlocks are overfilled. There should be a max fill line on the side of the airlock to tell you when to stop adding liquid. On the subject of yield, the normal expectation for Cabernet grapes is 60% conversion. If you have 5 gallons...

You might also check with MoreWine or Brewers Hardware. I’ve bought tubing from both and have been happy with the quality and the service.

Well, the plans changed but I ended up in the same place in terms of the survey. As I got closer to harvest, it became clear that there were going to be a lot more grapes from the vineyard than I had anticipated. So my group of friends, my wife and I scratched the idea of a separate batch and...

After a good nights sleep and a couple of advil, I am feeling like a new man! It was a very strange harvest - as noted up thread, we picked our Syrah first on September 14th (800+ pounds). Things were looking good for a nice flow of grapes from there - Brix numbers on that date for the other...

More tomorrow as I’m late for dinner and completely fried but we finished harvest today - in 103 degree weather. Total of roughly 2900 pounds harvested in six picks.

A rather belated set of updates to follow - but first a summary of the year. It’s been a really productive third leaf year - 1600 pounds so far and probably another 1300 still to be picked. It’s been a strange weather year with higher than normal rain last winter, a late frost that clobbered...

Just a scorecard update - up to 28 fatalities in six weeks using three traps. I’m really happy with the squirrelinators. We’ve harvested 16 of our 26 rows. Hoping to pick the rest later this week - pH remains stubbornly low so will have to let fruit hang into upper 20s.

They look fantastic- congratulations!

Just a report back on the squirrelinator traps. I’ve caught 18 so far and the activity has dropped off markedly. The hit rate in the traps went up when I started placing freshly cut apples in the traps - I use about 1/6th of an apple per trap, cut into three pieces. I also have rolled corn, oats...

The owl boxes here are normally for barn owls - and the opening is smaller to keep great horned owls out as they will eat the chicks. If you want great horned owls, they nest in nests built in the crotch of trees, typically 30+ feet high. GH owls typically just move into a nest built by hawks...

Why the two dots on the GW cab graph for 9/14? Is that from watering back?

Owl boxes do work - we have several in our immediate area and they are all occupied. Doesn’t help with ground squirrels as they are mostly daytime creatures. We also have a pair of red tail hawks but they view themselves as too good to hunt ground squirrels.

So we picked our Syrah yesterday - 821 pounds in total. We decided to do 1/4 whole cluster and crushed the rest on top of it in a 3/4 ton bin. Total must is 93 gallons. We added some kmeta and then dry ice and then left it alone. Took a Sample this am to our local lab. Brix 25, pH 3.32, TA 0.69...

Welcome!! Great location for Pinot!

Well, I’ll be picking our Syrah on Friday. Took a sample to our local lab - Brix 25.8, pH 3.28, TA .83. Assuming continued ripening the next few days, we may end up watering back a bit to raise ph and lower Brix. Last Monday, Brix was 19.6 on my refractometer, this morning 24.0. So the 25.8 was...

A few others you might want to try - I’m not including many of the wineries already mentioned - grouped in pairs by location: Caelesta - really like their Syrah. First tasted at a garagista festival. Victor Hugo - bought Syrah grapes from them for my 2022 wine. Turned out great. Pretty much...

I’m sorry to hear the outcome. Best of luck to you next season.

I’ll have to think about how I can use this tube trap. I have five acres with three rail ranch style fencing on three sides. So the squirrels come in typically above ground along that fence line. Perhaps place in line with the grapes and bait. Yes the squirrelinator is a live trap. For...