Chateau Michaelena Vineyard

[ibglowin]

I would fail miserably as a migrant farm worker!

Finally got the Lodi grapes all pressed and settling so now I have a minute to harvest the "Estate" grapes! I started around 10:30 and quit at 2:30 so 4 hours and I picked 4 lugs or about 120lbs........

I finally have enough crop to actually keep varietals separate and with my new windfall of collapsable grape lugs I have something nice to put them in! I will try and get a shot of all the grapes tomorrow when I finish up I have two more rows!

I can't believe the clusters on the Corot Noir and Noiret, jeez some are double and weigh in at a pound a piece or more. In comparison the Marquette are sooo tiny it hardly seems worth it. I guess that berry size to skin ratio makes up here.

Here are a few picks before harvesting.

 

[mgmarty]

They look fantastic! Good luck with the rest. Post some numbers when you can.

 

[grapeman]

Both the Corot Noir and Noiret have great clusters. Corot Noir is looser and wider and the Noiret has nice long Clusters, but are a bit tight when fully formed. Brix doesn't get as high as with the Marquette, but they both make wonderful wines. Glad the kids are beginning to grow up for you.

 

[jtstar]

I blowing what type of netting are you using

 

[ibglowin]

Just the the cheap plastic stuff. It was given to me several years ago and is about done.

 

[ibglowin]

The Harvest is in! Not bad, the Corot Noir and Noiret kicked the Marquette's ask in production numbers. Not sure why the Marquette is not doing as well. Looks like bout 160lbs all together Just finished crushing and destemming. Too much for one 20G Brute so split it up amongst two. Looks like about 8 gallons of must in each one. No numbers yet, letting them settle out for a bit.

 

[TomK-B]

Yeeee haaaa!!!!!

 

[OilnH2O]

Great Harvest!

Lookin' good, Mike. Picking mine tomorrow or Saturday...

 

[ibglowin]

Sounds good Dave!

Mine are cranking as I write. Brix of the "field blend" was about 21. pH was 3.5, TA was 0.9. I am using 71B yeast so hoping it will eat a whole bunch of Malic acid and raise the pH up and thus lower the TA down a bit. I did end up chapitalizing with 4 cups of sugar (2 cups simple syrup) in each primary. That bumped up the Brix to 23.5. I have beautiful color and gorgeous fermentation foam when punching down!

 

[cmsben61]

Beautiful pics

 

[wineforfun]

Those look awesome, good work.

 

[mgmarty]

Nice harvest!! Here's to punching down caps!

 

[ibglowin]

Between the 1000lbs of Cali grapes I got plus these I have been punching down caps for weeks on end.....

Looking forward to then end which is finally in sight!

 

[Steve_M]

Mike,
Consider it a workout routine!

Steve

 

[ibglowin]

That it is! One Sunday my pedometer ticked off almost 20,000 steps when we were pressing and cleaning up stuff afterwards...

 

[Steve_M]

See! That's two days worth of walking in one. Now you can rest.

Steve

 

[OilnH2O]

Lookin' good, Mike. Picking mine tomorrow or Saturday...

I've reconsidered... on picking. We've got a great 10 day forecast. I have a trip to Riverside Cali next Wed-Sunday so we've been trying to either do things early so I can be away for 4 days or wait... and what would be best. I am now thinking that I'll pick Tuesday or even Wednesday morning (plane not until late afternoon) and crush with some SO2 and cold-soak for those 5 days - the grapes can be in the cooler garage (it's getting no higher than 60 in there with the door closed) and have the cold packs refrozen by my 'support team.' I think I can keep the grapes on the skins longer, keep the temps in the 50's, and then pitch the yeast when I get back... What do you think?

 

[ibglowin]

I would let them hang if you can Dave. Have you gotten Brix numbers lately? I don't think (IMHO) that a 5 day soak will do you any good. Your not cold enough in your garage!

 

[ibglowin]

Update! I ended up with 11 gallons of wine after pressing. Largest harvest and wine output to date. After sitting on the lees for about 6 days to finish off the carboys were racked down to 9 gallons plus a 1.5L bottle of finished wine. Finally enough to go into a 23L barrel for the first time ever!

Interesting things happened with 71B. The starting pH was 3.47 and the final pH taken after the last racking was 3.65. Literally perfect. I have pitched MLB in the past and the pH shoots up to ~3.85 and the wine taste kinda flabby. I tasted the wine and its tasting pretty darn good as is for a two week old wine. I think I will forgo MLF as I think the 71B is taking care of most of it anyway and I don't want to have to add more tartaric.

 

[mgmarty]

That's fantastic. Do you cold stabilize?