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I know that after cleaning a barrel with ProxyCarb that I should give it a tartaric acid rinse before putting wine in it. Am I right in assuming that this is not necessary with stainless steel as long as it's rinsed out thoroughly? I just cleaned out a couple of kegs to ferment wine in. After...

Thank you for the answer! I ended up making a small batch with the 15 Brix and cofermented the rest with some high Brix Syrah that I picked.

Has anyone tried to make a wine from low Brix grapes without Chaptalizing? I picked some Muscat that had gone wild and grown all over my family's fruit trees. They taste great but the Brix is only 15. I'm wondering what the wine would taste like if I made it at this low brix level. Would it be...

Sebastopol California. The leaves are turning yellow already and the canes do have some black splotches.

My Pinot Noir grapes have some sort of disease. Can any of you diagnose the problem from these photos? Is it powdery mildew? I sprayed with sulfur four weeks ago and they looked fine, but obviously it didn't help.

I used the bladder press without destemming and it worked great!

I recently got a bladder press, I’ve always used a basket press before now. Do I have to de-stem the grapes before putting them into the bladder press? I assume it’s strong enough to not get holes poked in it by the stems right? I’m making a rosé and normally I just foot tread the grapes and...

Thanks for the advice! I will ask around about the steam generator and also use the proxycarb.

I have a couple of well used neutral oak 60 gallon barrels that have been sitting empty, and I would like to use them as fermentation vessels. What’s the best way to sanitize them?

That’s exactly what makes it so interesting to me!! I want to taste that difference, not try to make them taste the same. Even different vineyards of the same grapes in the same area can have different native yeasts which result in different tasting wine. That variation is exactly what I love...

Thanks for the reply! The reason I normally don’t use sulfites is because I’ve always been very happy with my results without using them so I don’t see the point. Also I’m very interested in tasting what a certain vineyard tastes like and to me that means relying solely on the native yeasts...

Thanks for the reply! That chart is very helpful!!

Thanks for responding! I actually do want to use sulfites which is what I’m trying to get advice on. The reason I normally don’t use sulfites is because I’ve always been very happy with my results without using them so I don’t see the point. Also I’m very interested in tasting what a certain...

I would like advice on how to add sulfites just before bottling. I would like to add only the minimal amount to keep it stable for traveling and perhaps aging a few years. I have two 6 gallon carboys of Pinot Noir red wine and two 6 gallon carboys of Pinot Noir rosé. I haven’t added any sulfur...

Hi I’m Rakhal. I make wine in France and in California. I prefer to make wine with minimal intervention. I use native yeast fermentation and so far I’ve never used sulfites. I came on this forum to get advice on how to add minimal sulfites at bottling. Just enough to keep it stable for aging and...