Done for the year, busy one for me

[GreenEnvy22]

Pressed my last grapes for this year, got 16.5 gallons (62 L) of Syrah. Also racked my 5 gallons of apple cider out of primary. I kept all the pumice with the thought of using it for some other beverage later this year.

This was my highest volume year by a good deal, especially when you add in the beer.

My 2019 tally:
90 L of Muscat (from our grapes)
80 L of Dornfelder (relatives grapes)
62 L of Syrah (relatives grapes)
42 L of Riesling (relatives grapes)

Then onto the beers:
20 L of Irish stout (extract kit)
20 L of Red IPA (all grain)
20 L of Red Rye Ale (all grain)
20 L of apple cider (from our apples)

My wife has just about had it with me running out to the garage 3x a day to punch down, measure, adjust, and the like, so good timing for it to be done. Now that everything is in secondary I can go a bit slower.

How about the rest of you? how was your year?

 

[NorCal]

I swore I was just going to do a small bit this grape season, but decided to reuse a really good barrel and everything else just kind of happened.

Cab Franc 53 gallons
Merlot 25 gallons
Cab Sauv 5 gallons
Petit Verdot 4 gallons
Chenin Blanc 24 gallons
------------------------------
Total 111 gallons

 

[stickman]

This year I bottled 35gals of 2017 Cab/Malbec blend, and have another 35gals of 2017 Cab/Sangiovese blend yet to bottle, hopefully soon, my day job has been keeping me busy. I have 70gals of 2018 Cab blend in tanks in the cellar. I have 500lbs of frozen must arriving in a couple of weeks, I'm trying to keep the pipeline full.

 

[Johnd]

I’ve got 30 gallons of 2017 to remove from the barrel and bottle, a 60 gallon barrel with 2018 in it, and 115 gallons of 2019 wines to blend and barrel. Might need to take a year off......

 

[GreenEnvy22]

I'm a small fish in a big ocean
I did bottle around 30 gallons so far from last year, still have another 8 to go.

 

[Johnd]

I'm a small fish in a big ocean
I did bottle around 30 gallons so far from last year, still have another 8 to go.

We're all small fish in a big ocean........... http://www.oiv.int/public/medias/63...lobal-economic-vitiviniculture-data-octob.pdf

If my math is right, 282,000,000 hL is 7,449,594,000 gallons of wine produced last year worldwide. Seems like with those kinds of numbers, people should be getting along much better..........

 

[Chuck E]

How about the rest of you? how was your year?

From Spring
5 gallons Chilean Malbec
5 gallons Chilean Carmenere
5 gallons Chilean Viognier
3 gallons Chilean Malbec/Carmenere blend

This Fall
8 gallons Lodi Zinfandel
6 gallons Lodi Chardonnay

 

[mainshipfred]

156 gallons, 16 varietals, 18 different wines, almost forgot about 2 white juice buckets I did in the spring that were already bottled.

 

[stickman]

@mainshipfred 16 varietals and 18 different wines!!!! Did you add in the various yeast combinations, oak type and toast levels? No way I could keep track of it, I'd have everything all jacked up. This year I'm going ultra simple, just one single vineyard 100% Cab, that's it. It's a roll of the dice, hopefully there will be no problems, I've got all my eggs in one basket.

 

[countygrapeguy]

22 gallons of chardonnay
9 gallons of cider

 

[CDrew]

It's been a busy last 2 months. Good though.

Syrah-15.5 gallons
Primitivo 22 gallons
Mourvedre(mostly) 15 gallons about 2 gal of Syrah and Primitivo as make up wine
Mourvedre Rose 5 gallons
Tempranillo 39 gallons

A stupid amount of wine and I'll likely cut back next year. Thinking 30 gallons each of 2 varietals. Then it's only two fermentations, two press days, two rackings etc. But then everyone says they'll cut back and no one does, because too much wine, is a good problem.

 

[mainshipfred]

@mainshipfred 16 varietals and 18 different wines!!!! Did you add in the various yeast combinations, oak type and toast levels? No way I could keep track of it, I'd have everything all jacked up. This year I'm going ultra simple, just one single vineyard 100% Cab, that's it. It's a roll of the dice, hopefully there will be no problems, I've got all my eggs in one basket.

Every wine was fermented with 3 yeasts except for a 6.5 gallon batch of Viognier which has 2 and the PV has 2 yeasts but the grapes came from 3 different local vineyards. When I ferment I tape the pH and brix and well as the yeast on the fermenter. Once fermentation is complete and placed in the carboy for MLF with the reds and Lysozyme for the whites the tape is just transfered. I use carboys for the MLF because I leave it for 3 months without sulfite and want a maximum of 1/2" air space. Barrels at this time are just too much work to keep them topped up. Whether I have it in a barrel or carboy the tape just keeps getting transferred then tape whatever I do to the vessel. I'm not very good at keeping notes otherwise so this seems to work for me.

 

[1d10t]

I’ve got 30 gallons of 2017 to remove from the barrel and bottle, a 60 gallon barrel with 2018 in it, and 115 gallons of 2019 wines to blend and barrel. Might need to take a year off......

Good idea. Take a break from your job to catch up on the wine making.

 

[mainshipfred]

Good idea. Take a break from your job to catch up on the wine making.

Good one!

 

[CDrew]

The great thing about making wine, is that mostly, wine makes itself. Once you get through pick/crush/fermentation/rack the wine can sit for months with no care at all. After November, I ignore the new wine until spring, then rack once before it gets bottled at a year old. So the wine season is September to November. None of the timing is critical. Then it's time to do something else, like work, or travel, or nothing. Pretty cool.

I'm drinking some of my unoaked 2017 Cabernet tonight, and it's surprisingly good. Finally. Wish it had oak, but it's still good right now. 2018 will be better and hopefully 2019 better still. The ongoing learning is a good part of this hobby.

 

[Big fat red]

4 gallons of db berry mix
3 of blueberry
24 of montepulciano
1 of choc cherry port
Vanilla vodka infusion
Jalapeno vodka infusion
4 gals peach

Might be something else.

 

[Big fat red]

Tasted over a gallon of the montepulciano.

The berry is half gone

A good year in the wine room