2022 Arizona crush 3.0

[Kraffty]

2022 Crush


Kraffty's Cottonwood Crush #3 is 10 days away, I can't believe we've already been in this home for 3 years.

We're getting excited, grapes ordered and scheduled for Sun, Sept. 11 pick-up in Phoenix. Timing is a little sucky, we’re driving down to Phoenix on Thursday the 8th to see Keith Urban in concert at the Footprint Center, spending the night then coming home. Then Sunday we'll have to go back down again, leaving about 5am for the 110 mile trip to pick up at 7am.
I’m getting a little experimental this year. Aside from pretty straight forward batches of Cab, Zin and Merlot, I’m doing a 2 to 1 field blend of Barbera and Nebbiolo, really excited about this one. Additionally I’m doing a Pinot Noir Rose with the plan of crushing and lightly pressing 5 gallons of juice immediately then combining the balance of those skins and grapes with a 5 gallon PN juice bucket for a Pinot for Lori.
I’m thinking of floating around 5lbs of the PN skins in a paint filter bag in the Rose for as long or short a time as it takes to hit a nice but very light color.

Trying a new, to me, yeast from Cellar Science called “Red” on the Zin, Merlot and Pinot, and another called “Big Red” for the Barbera Blend and the Cab. then Rhone 4600 for the Rose.

All new chemicals should be arriving tomorrow and I have a week to clean up and organize the winery. This will be my biggest crush so far and we have neighbors coming over and joining in again this year so it should be a blast. Time to start planning food for the day too.
Good luck to everyone.

 

[mainshipfred]

2022 Crush


Kraffty's Cottonwood Crush #3 is 10 days away, I can't believe we've already been in this home for 3 years.

We're getting excited, grapes ordered and scheduled for Sun, Sept. 11 pick-up in Phoenix. Timing is a little sucky, we’re driving down to Phoenix on Thursday the 8th to see Keith Urban in concert at the Footprint Center, spending the night then coming home. Then Sunday we'll have to go back down again, leaving about 5am for the 110 mile trip to pick up at 7am.
I’m getting a little experimental this year. Aside from pretty straight forward batches of Cab, Zin and Merlot, I’m doing a 2 to 1 field blend of Barbera and Nebbiolo, really excited about this one. Additionally I’m doing a Pinot Noir Rose with the plan of crushing and lightly pressing 5 gallons of juice immediately then combining the balance of those skins and grapes with a 5 gallon PN juice bucket for a Pinot for Lori.
I’m thinking of floating around 5lbs of the PN skins in a paint filter bag in the Rose for as long or short a time as it takes to hit a nice but very light color.

Trying a new, to me, yeast from Cellar Science called “Red” on the Zin, Merlot and Pinot, and another called “Big Red” for the Barbera Blend and the Cab. then Rhone 4600 for the Rose.

All new chemicals should be arriving tomorrow and I have a week to clean up and organize the winery. This will be my biggest crush so far and we have neighbors coming over and joining in again this year so it should be a blast. Time to start planning food for the day too.
Good luck to everyone.

Good luck and to tell you the truth I'm shocked it has already been 3 years.

 

[Kraffty]

All chemicals, except my Malo enzyme, arrived a day earlier than promised. I usually have a number of the items held over from previous crush but I bought all new and there was a bit of sticker shock. 150.00 total but some of the stuff will be used for more than just this year.

 

[crushday]

Sounds great, Mike! Best of luck to you this season. Too bad we can’t swap a few bottles…

That concentrated Pinot should be amazing…

 

[Kraffty]

Things went smooth today. Left for Phoenix at 5:30 and pulled into the pickup warehouse at exactly 7:00 am opening time. No waiting, backed up to the dock, 3 guys loaded up my 15 lugs and one bucket and back on the freeway home in about 15 minutes. Exactly 220 miles round trip in exactly 3 hours and 15 minutes. My neighbors helped out again and we took just 2 hours to crush the 6 different varieties and press the Pinot Rose and Clean everything up. Haven't check numbers yet except for the Rose, 1.088 and an adjusted PH of 3.64 them pitched it's Rhone 4600 yeast. Treated others SO2 levels, added Lallzyme EX, Nobleese and Opti Red to the other reds. Will take all readings tomorrow, adjust and then pitch yeasts. I built a trough kind of frame so I could just crush all three lugs then drag the brute into the winery with mixed results. Will have to come up with an improved system for next year.

 

[crushday]

Looks great, @Kraffty ! Looking forward to watching your progress on this vintage. Keep posting!

 

[Kraffty]

Question for the group with a little experience in Rose making. I crushed my Pinot and stored it in a brute while I crushed the rest of the grapes. It only sat on it's skins for an hour or 90 minuted before I pressed. It's already fermenting but it's color is pretty dark, kinda muddy/bricky looking. I'm assuming it'll clear up as it ferments and starts to clear but I'm feeling a little doubtful at the moment.

 

[Boatboy24]

I like the 'trough'. Thought about crushing directly into my Brutes, then having two people bring them inside. But I crush in the driveway and have to bring the must around the back and into the basement. At least for my situation, it was easier to crush into 5gal buckets and have one or two 'runners' bring them around and dump into the fermenters. I'm confident you'll come up with a pretty good system.

 

[meridaen]

I have only ran one rose, which was mourvedre, and remember being a bit worried about how it was looking early on, but it turened out fantastic. I think that 90 mins will work out really well for you, just stay the course

 

[Kraffty]

So mostly everything is rolling along evenly and as expected, except, my Pinot Noir. My best guess is that the juice bucket I added to the pressed Pinot skins from my Rose had a little bit of premature fermentation issues. I mixed them together on Sunday but didn't measure the SG until Monday where it read 1.056 compared to all the other reds at right around 1.10. It was also already in the high 80s compared to the mid 70s and of course foaming. I'm just going with the flow and assuming it was at least 1.08 to start with and will be ok. Probably have to press it tomorrow compared to the weekend for all the rest.
Wine seems fine though so really a minor issue, I'll just estimate the abv if I end up labeling it.
Rose seems to be lightening up a bit too.

 

[crushday]

Any more updates?