Is it too early to start thinking about 2017 season?

[NorCal]

@NorCal did you toss in a few fork-fulls of whole cluster with that Tempranillo? I don't have the option with frozen must, but we've done it a few times with fresh Amador fruit and had good results, additional spice, no need to fear green stems at low rates. Looks like you guys are having fun!

Funny you should mention that. We had one cluster that had eluded the pitch fork and was thrown in the bin whole and I said that now we can say it was partially whole cluster fermented, in jest.

It's now 6:35am and Super Palate kid and I are driving to get the Chardonnay this morning, while @4Score and @Busabill readies the equipment.

 

[NorCal]

Chardonnay is crushed and pressed and we all departed with our juice. 1175 pounds netted 80 gallons of juice, before settling. A very good yield with my buddy's 55 gallon basket press (yes he let me borrow it . 25.6 brix, 3.3 pH

 

[ibglowin]

What you couldn't get any more in that basket!

 

[Ajmassa]

Loving all your pictures. Seeing pictures of crush day and press day are great. I love getting a glimpse of everyone's different setups- from the smallest scale to the largest. Everyone has their own unique techniques in this hobby. Loving it

 

[Boatboy24]

Now that's a cake!

 

[NorCal]

Pressing of the Tempranillo is in the books. Around 158 gallons gross from a ton of grapes. Smells, tastes great. pH is @4.0, despite adding 2 pounds of tartaric. It is, what it is.

 

[Ajmassa]

Hey Norcal do you take TA numbers before you ferment? Or are you making acid additions based solely off ph?

 

[NorCal]

It's a running joke between @4Score and I. I have everything necessary to measure TA, but never have. My thought is that pH is for SO2 efficacy, TA is for taste.

The grapes in our Sierra Foothills region are simply low in pH. The only exception I've seen is Barbera. We don't get the cool nights like Napa, that aid in acid retention. (Our grapes are also $1500 per ton and not the $6000+ per ton that they are in Napa). The rule of thumb for me is to not add more acid than 2 pounds per ton. The simple calculation is that 1 pound of tartaric should change the pH of 2,000 pounds of grapes by .1, but it never seems to do so. Additions over 2 pounds of tartaric to a ton of grapes (a little over 1 gram per liter) start to taste sour on the palate to me.

The math is: 2 pounds is 907 grams, 1 tons is about 817 liters of must, so the addition is a little more than 1 gram per liter.

 

[NorCal]

The calm before the storm. Getting the glass soldiers ready! The 25 gallons of Chardonnay is finishing up ferment and heading for glass. There is a carboy of topping wine for the 34 gallons of Tempranillo. Tomorrow I am going to press 5 gallons of Petit Verdot I snuck in, in between the big harvests and I'm going to start another 5 gallons of Cab Franc with the grapes in the front yard.

 

[NorCal]

Got this pic today from the vineyard where @4Score and I are getting our 2 tons of cab from on Friday. Old vine, low producing Cab from Amador. These are the actual vines being harvested.

 

[4score]

Looking forward to seeing these amazing grapes this Friday! Since we just completed a crush and press of Tempranillo, I think I will have some great bench trialing to do with experimental blends. Straight Cab, Straight Tempranillo, Mostly Cab + Temp, Mostly Temp + Cab, 50/50. Wow....having these two varietals gives us a lot of options!

 

[NorCal]

Got an email late last night the vineyard could pull up the harvest of our two tons of cab today from noon to 10:00. I told him, let's do it! We shall see if the grapes are truly as nice as the pics they sent. We are so fortunate that it finally started to cool. Mid 80's vs 100+ degrees. This is our biggest crush ever, there are 4 people total to process this massive amount of fruit. Perfection would be 26 brix, 3.6 and being able to go right into the destemmer without sorting. Let's see how close we come.

 

[Boatboy24]

26 brix!!!???

 

[NorCal]

A very long day. The grapes were as good as described! It was a bit of a stretch for my one owner 2000 F150 with 245k miles with no engine or trans work to carry 1000 lbs and tow 2000 lbs, but all went well.

 

[NorCal]

Two tons was a lot of $$$ and a lot of fruit.

 

[Boatboy24]

A very long day. The grapes were as good as described! It was a bit of a stretch for my one owner 2000 F150 with 245k miles with no engine or trans work to carry 1000 lbs and tow 2000 lbs, but all went well.

I think you had room for about three more clusters.

 

[NorCal]

I really wanted to cut back this year; I've been doing around 150 gallons per year. The early plans for 2017 was to do a big barrel of Cab Franc, Chardonnay and I went along with Tempranillo only because @4Score wanted to do it. That original plan was changed when the Cab Franc vineyard had issues early on. The plans were adjusted and pretty simple. Do:

60 gallon Cab
30 gallon Tempranillo
20 gallon Chardonnay

Ok, 110 gallons (550 bottles) is still a lot, but I have plenty of friends to drink it.

What did I end up with? (this is my wine, does not including other peoples wine, when it was made together)

79 Gallon Cab (received extra grapes from vineyard due to the low brix fruit we first received)
36 Gallon Tempranillo (little more than target, due to bladder press and juicy fruit)
25 Gallon Chard (little more than planned due to bladder press)
10 Gallon Cab Franc (decided to do, grapes from front yard, good to blend with Cab, since it was light brix)
5 Gallon Petit Verdot (decided to do, because I could get the grapes from a neighbor and good to blend with the Cab)
6 Gallon Cab Port (had extra Cab and relative wanted to do a port)
5 Gallon Second Run Cab (did it, because it only cost me 2 bags of sugar and was a little bored at the time)

So 166 gallons (830 bottles) worth of wine....just a lot more than I wanted to do, but each decision seem to make sense at the time. I plan on keeping the Cab in the big barrel for at least 18 months, so that should limit what I will have vessels to do next year and force me to be more disciplined.

 

[cmason1957]

This addiction (hobby) we have has a way of growing and growing, despite our best efforts. Like two days ago, after my wife and I had discussed we weren't going to make any more wine this year (since we have already done about 100 gallons), our local fruit stand calls and say we got boxes of strawberries on the verge of going bad, you can have them for $3/box (that's 8 lbs/box), but you have to take 10 boxes. So what did I do, drive around the corner to pick up 10 boxes, they found 3 more that I decided to decline and it was a good thing, our freezers (1 full-size, 2 with fridges) are full to capacity.

 

[Boatboy24]

I plan on keeping the Cab in the big barrel for at least 18 months, so that should limit what I will have vessels to do next year and force me to be more disciplined.

Unless of course, you get another barrel.

 

[mainshipfred]

I started making wine the beginning of the year and now have one batch bottled and about 50 gallons aging. To me this is a lot of wine. Especially if I continue at this pace. I don't drink but a bottle maybe 2 a week so there will be a lot of gifting. What do those of you that make hundreds of gallons a year do? Are some of you commercial wineries?