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Pressing and moving to carboys went pretty easy even though I ended up doing it all by myself. Took 4 hours all together but I took my time and just kind of cruised through it all. The Gazillion Hole bucket worked out great and I'll be using it again. I was able to scoop between 4 and 5 gallons of wine directly from the bucket then half fill my press bucket with pretty dry skins. After that I'd scoop more of the wetter stuff up, dump it into a strainer and ended up with another 2 to 3 gallons of free run. The two pressings of each of the three brutes only yielded 1.5 to 2 gallons so in total I ended up with a full 6 gal. of free run and a 3 gal about half and half free and lightly pressed from 144lbs of each variety. Tomorrow I'll rack each 6 gallon carboy, top as needed from it's 3 gallon then combine all that's left of the 3 gallons into a 6 gallon blend carboy. Precisely 27 gallons from 432 lbs. of grapes minus tomorrows racking. Should end up very close to my planned 24 gal. total.I have no proof but my gut feeling is that the spike in temps sped up the break down the grape solids and helped give me so much free run. Both the Zin and Syrah have really rich flavors, the Pinot is bright and light (lori says it's all her's anyway). What I'm most pleased with is the fact that there are zero "off" flavors or aromas or bitterness or extra sharpness in any of the wines. I've moved away from adding sacrificial tannins or similar additives and like the result better. I have the feeling the Syrah is going to be my new "best" wine to date.I dumped the pressed skins from the Syrah and Zin into a brute and could see pools of wine forming so I went ahead and started a second run with 5 gallons of water, acidulated and sugared up to 1.08 plus a little nutrient.[ATTACH=full]66092[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]66093[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]66094[/ATTACH]I just noticed in the last picture that you can see the difference between the 3 and 6 gal carboys where the 3 gals have pressed wine mixed in compared to the 6 gals that are filled with a pitcher directly from the brutes with no pressed wine.
Pressing and moving to carboys went pretty easy even though I ended up doing it all by myself. Took 4 hours all together but I took my time and just kind of cruised through it all. The Gazillion Hole bucket worked out great and I'll be using it again. I was able to scoop between 4 and 5 gallons of wine directly from the bucket then half fill my press bucket with pretty dry skins. After that I'd scoop more of the wetter stuff up, dump it into a strainer and ended up with another 2 to 3 gallons of free run. The two pressings of each of the three brutes only yielded 1.5 to 2 gallons so in total I ended up with a full 6 gal. of free run and a 3 gal about half and half free and lightly pressed from 144lbs of each variety. Tomorrow I'll rack each 6 gallon carboy, top as needed from it's 3 gallon then combine all that's left of the 3 gallons into a 6 gallon blend carboy. Precisely 27 gallons from 432 lbs. of grapes minus tomorrows racking. Should end up very close to my planned 24 gal. total.
I have no proof but my gut feeling is that the spike in temps sped up the break down the grape solids and helped give me so much free run. Both the Zin and Syrah have really rich flavors, the Pinot is bright and light (lori says it's all her's anyway). What I'm most pleased with is the fact that there are zero "off" flavors or aromas or bitterness or extra sharpness in any of the wines. I've moved away from adding sacrificial tannins or similar additives and like the result better. I have the feeling the Syrah is going to be my new "best" wine to date.
I dumped the pressed skins from the Syrah and Zin into a brute and could see pools of wine forming so I went ahead and started a second run with 5 gallons of water, acidulated and sugared up to 1.08 plus a little nutrient.
[ATTACH=full]66092[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]66093[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]66094[/ATTACH]
I just noticed in the last picture that you can see the difference between the 3 and 6 gal carboys where the 3 gals have pressed wine mixed in compared to the 6 gals that are filled with a pitcher directly from the brutes with no pressed wine.
