2018 Grape Season Underway

[mainshipfred]

Harford update: Just spoke to Teresa the email is being written right now everything from SA and Chili is coming in sometime tomorrow. Everything except the Chilean Carmenere and 2 other grapes but I don't remember what they were. They think they will start pick up a 2:00 tomorrrow. So who's going and when when?

 

[Boatboy24]

My PV is coming in, but not the Carmenere. Are you headed up, @mainshipfred ? I can't do it this weekend, and the PV is only 10% of my order.

 

[mainshipfred]

I am but don't know if it will be tomorrow or Saturday afternoon. I only have one lug of Carmenere not coming. I could pick up your PV but it probably won't help you.

 

[Boatboy24]

I am but don't know if it will be tomorrow or Saturday afternoon. I only have one lug of Carmenere not coming. I could pick up your PV but it probably won't help you.

I can probably find room in the freezer for 18lbs of grapes. Let me know what your plan is.

 

[mainshipfred]

When using my crusher/destemmer yesterday the grapes seemed to get stuck in the top of the chute and I had to keep pulling them down. Is there a trick I don't know about?

 

[Boatboy24]

When using my crusher/destemmer yesterday the grapes seemed to get stuck in the top of the chute and I had to keep pulling them down. Is there a trick I don't know about?

You mean before they went through the rollers? You should be able to adjust the distance between them.

 

[mainshipfred]

No, after the rollers they got stuck in the chute before they went into the bucket.

 

[Ajmassa]

Grapes are trickling in over my neck of the woods. I assume the same for most areas in US.
I was told every couple days more will be coming. So if I wanted to pick up either thurs, fri, Saturday- all would likely work out fine. @pgentile I’m still game to attempt to meet up at pickup to swap some cab if scheduling allows. Let me know.
I was thinking of picking up Friday afternoon or Saturday morning (more likely).

 

[pgentile]

I have a bottle of Cab reserved for our swap and I have a bottle of Bordeaux for the crusher. My stepson has graduation Saturday morning and Friday is out this week.. Not sure when the Carmenere is coming in, I was hoping to pick up Thursday or next Monday. But let me know when you get a clearer idea when you are going, and maybe i'll be able to make it work.

 

[Ajmassa]

I have a bottle of Cab reserved for our swap and I have a bottle of Bordeaux for the crusher. My stepson has graduation Saturday morning and Friday is out this week.. Not sure when the Carmenere is coming in, I was hoping to pick up Thursday or next Monday. But let me know when you get a clearer idea when you are going, and maybe i'll be able to make it work.

Sounds like direct opposite availability. Lol. We’ll see how it pans out. Pintos obviously unable to give any definite answers.
FYI - I’m sure most people prepared accordingly but I didn’t place my morewine order until this past wknd and vp41 mlb is sold out. Went with enoferm Alpha. 4 for 4 with the vp41- I’m hoping for more of the same from Alpha.

 

[pgentile]

Sounds like direct opposite availability. Lol. We’ll see how it pans out. Pintos obviously unable to give any definite answers.
FYI - I’m sure most people prepared accordingly but I didn’t place my morewine order until this past wknd and vp41 mlb is sold out. Went with enoferm Alpha. 4 for 4 with the vp41- I’m hoping for more of the same from Alpha.

Right!

the week before last when I called Pintos about the SA buckets, they had just come in. They told me to call back later because they had to inventory them. They weren't sure if they had enough to fill the pre-orders. Luckily for me they did.

Same thing happened to me with the Malo last year, I waited too long. No vp41. Ended up buying 6 tubes of liquid Whitelabs malo from Home Brew West at discounted price. Someone had ordered and never picked up. By the time I use the last two they were out of date but still worked.

This year I did get vp41 early, divided into three vials. I've used two so far and will use the third on the Carmenere.

At More Wine I don't see where they say batch size for the Alpha. Is it for up to 66 gallons like the vp41?

 

[Ajmassa]

Yea as far as I can tell 66gal seems to be the accepted smaller malo max packaging. Most 2.5g. But some had 1g for 66gal too.
Alpha’s data sheet had all the right tolerance #’s to hedge my bet. And I get a full 50g actiML for the 2.5g of malo.
Still separating the batch for D80/d254 which will be only difference. Should be fun.

 

[mainshipfred]

I separated my CS into 3 buckets about 4 gallons each and after a 2 day extended maceration added D80, D254 and Vintner's Harvest R56 . I was afraid to wait any longer for the extended maceration since the S02 was only 6.0 ppm.

 

[Ajmassa]

I separated my CS into 3 buckets about 4 gallons each and after a 2 day extended maceration added D80, D254 and Vintner's Harvest R56 . I was afraid to wait any longer for the extended maceration since the S02 was only 6.0 ppm.

That’s ballsy. I don’t think I woulda done 2 days at 6ppm so2. U keep temps down?? I’d think if at room temp theyd take off running after that long.
Is it 36lbs per bucket? With (x3) 4gal buckets of must What’s your vessel plan to finish MLF and age? Blend right away and taking a number for barrel time?

 

[mainshipfred]

That’s ballsy. I don’t think I woulda done 2 days at 6ppm so2. U keep temps down?? I’d think if at room temp theyd take off running after that long.
Is it 36lbs per bucket? With (x3) 4gal buckets of must What’s your vessel plan to finish MLF and age? Blend right away and taking a number for barrel time?

I did put them in my cooler plus I rinsed them before crushing. There was no sign of fermentation starting. Closer to 40 lbs per bucket. Once it's done fermenting I'm going to see what kind of yield I get with a light pressing and put it in the proper carboy. The skins will go into the CS juice bucket. Then the CSSkins will be used again with the 2 lugs of Malbec grapes and juice bucket. @Boatboy24 is going to give me his 9 lugs of Carmenere skins to mix with the Carnenere juice bucket and 1 lug of grapes. I have a bucket of Merlot that I'm still deciding what I'm going to do with. Going to wait till everything is done and do MLF on everything at once.

 

[zadvocate]

All I can say is wow can’t wait to hear how it turns out.

 

[pgentile]

Ended up with Carmenere and Malbec lugs today. Crushing will commence at 7pm. This crush will be accompanied with a bottle of last years SA cab.

 

[pgentile]

Dichotomy of two grapes this evening. Carmenere on the left malbec on the right. Today is a day I wish I wasn't doing a field blend. If my second fermenting vessel wasn't full I would have separated. Carmenere grapes look and tasted great and fruit was nice throughout. The malbec tasted ok but fruit was inconsistent. Threw out a least one raisined whole cluster in each lug some had two. Many clusters had fruit at all stages.

This years Chilean grapes are nowhere as nice as the SA grapes.

Each lug had an so2 pad on top and bottom.

 

[Boatboy24]

That sucks. Not sure I'd have taken delivery on that Malbec.

 

[pgentile]

That was my bad for not inspecting before I left the supplier. But never had any this bad before from them. Curious to hear how @Ajmassa5983 turned out with his grapes, he was getting all malbec.