I decided on a whim to grab some Shiraz from the Adelaide Plains after work this past Thursday. Mostly because it was ridiculously cheap at $600 a tonne and they hand picked for me. Plus I have been itching to get stuck into vintage. As I’m going to be making some old vine Grenache again and some cool climate Pinot Noir I decided to just get 150kg of fruit for the princely sum of $90.
I was quite surprised by the quality of the fruit, lovely and clean with small berries full of flavour. After crush the sample I took read 1.102 on the hydrometer so will come in around 14% abv. I added 2g litre tartaric as the fruit was very low on acid and pitched 1118 yeast as I don’t care to be fancy with yeast yet in my winemaking journey. I’ll be aiming for around 75litres finished wine. Will hang onto 50litres to bottle on its own and the remainder will be blended with some of the Grenache to beef it up.
So far I’m 3 days in and will press on Tuesday as that’s when I have the time. Only 5 days but I have gotten big extraction so far and there is plenty of tannins in this wine. I had left the stems in for the first 2 days and then removed the majority, mostly as I didn’t really have the time when I crushed and was finishing up the work week. Time will tell if I overdid it leaving them in but I think it will turn out fine.
Tasted the must tonight and it’s tasting like wine but the tannins are dominating the fruit. Looking forward to how this turns out.
I was quite surprised by the quality of the fruit, lovely and clean with small berries full of flavour. After crush the sample I took read 1.102 on the hydrometer so will come in around 14% abv. I added 2g litre tartaric as the fruit was very low on acid and pitched 1118 yeast as I don’t care to be fancy with yeast yet in my winemaking journey. I’ll be aiming for around 75litres finished wine. Will hang onto 50litres to bottle on its own and the remainder will be blended with some of the Grenache to beef it up.
So far I’m 3 days in and will press on Tuesday as that’s when I have the time. Only 5 days but I have gotten big extraction so far and there is plenty of tannins in this wine. I had left the stems in for the first 2 days and then removed the majority, mostly as I didn’t really have the time when I crushed and was finishing up the work week. Time will tell if I overdid it leaving them in but I think it will turn out fine.
Tasted the must tonight and it’s tasting like wine but the tannins are dominating the fruit. Looking forward to how this turns out.
This vintage I have already had a few of the grapes I want fall though, but that is vintage haha 
