Hello From Pittsburgh!

[winepittsburgh]

I have read posts from this forum for a while now and decided it is time to start participating! There really seems to be a lot of great knowledge and smart people in one place here. I hope to learn a lot and help out who I can. If anyone else is in the Pittsburgh area, let me know!

 

[Julie]

Hi welcome to winemakingtalk! What part of Pittsburgh? I’m from Saxonburg and there is a handful on here from around the Pittsburgh area.

 

[JamesGrape]

Welcome

 

[winepittsburgh]

Hi welcome to winemakingtalk! What part of Pittsburgh? I’m from Saxonburg and there is a handful on here from around the Pittsburgh area.

I'm in Verona. It is about 30 minutes away I think.

 

[sour_grapes]

Nice cellar! Welcome to WMT.

 

[bkisel]

Welcome to the forum!

I'm also a Keystoner but from north central, PA near the NY border.

Judging from your uploaded pick it would seem that you've accumulated a fair share of wine knowledge. Are you yourself a wine maker?

 

[winepittsburgh]

Welcome to the forum!

I'm also a Keystoner but from north central, PA near the NY border.

Judging from your uploaded pick it would seem that you've accumulated a fair share of wine knowledge. Are you yourself a wine maker?

Awesome! I am not a professional winemaker but am about as deep into amateur winemaking as it gets. I have a small youtube channel (The Home Winemaking Channel), and website (smartwinemaking.com) and am probably only going to get more and more deep into winemaking. At some point I would like to turn it into more of a career but for now I am just learning everything I can.

 

[Ajmassa]

It’s the milk crate destemmer guy from the video! That video was even posted here a few times. Nicely done

 

[bkisel]

Awesome! I am not a professional winemaker but am about as deep into amateur winemaking as it gets. I have a small youtube channel (The Home Winemaking Channel), and website (smartwinemaking.com) and am probably only going to get more and more deep into winemaking. At some point I would like to turn it into more of a career but for now I am just learning everything I can.

That's cool!

To save my brothers and sisters on this site some time...

The Home Winemaking Channel

smartwinemaking.com

 

[Ajmassa]

I see you made a cab from last year’s Chilean grapes. Same exact grapes that many of us purchase around here.
And also added 40ppm so2 at crush but didn’t seem to have any issue with MLF. At what point did you inoculate the MLB?

 

[mainshipfred]

I see you made a cab from last year’s Chilean grapes. Same exact grapes that many of us purchase around here.
And also added 40ppm so2 at crush but didn’t seem to have any issue with MLF. At what point did you inoculate the MLB?

Can't wait to hear the response to this one.

 

[winepittsburgh]

Can't wait to hear the response to this one.

On that wine, I added the MLB before the end of fermentation. I used the CH35 which is ridiculously reliable. I kept the SO2 low until a couple months in and just kept my carboys topped up and gave the lees a little churn every couple weeks. Honestly, anything I get from down at consumer produce seems to go through MLF pretty easily but usually the pH is on the higher end with my experience. Even if I don't innoculate, they usually go through MLF. My biggest gripe with last year's Chilean Cab was the amount of green seeds, and the berries were a little big. Mine has a good bit of herbaceous bell pepper to it. I actually don't mind it, but it is a relatively dominant aspect of that wine, so it required a bit of blending. I made an AWESOME blend of 52% california tempranillo, 28% chilean cab, and 20% zinfandel (zinderella). I only bottled about 30 to try it out, but I am going to blend up some more soon. I might bump up the cab a few percent and bump down the Tempranillo on the next iteration.

 

[Ajmassa]

Interesting. Your experience kinda goes against the theory that the ‘sulfite pads&so2 gas-filled trucks’ were raising the grapes sulfite content so high that adding more at crush was detrimental to MLF.
But then again you co-inoculated with a strong mlb- handling higher so2 well. That’s encouraging to hear. (3 months to work helps too I bet) I also think many of the problem mlf’s wer inoculated after pressing along with so2 at crush.
I added zero so2, co-inoculated vp-41 towards the beginning of AF and finished MLF quick. Naturally So2 at crush was thought to be the cause. The plan this year is take an so2 measurement right way.
The green seeds/big berries must have been the early pickups. My cabs were small, brown stem brown seeds. Looking to find some time to bottle now. I dig the “Zinderella” name btw.