Our wine press....EXCITED!!!!

[Mikael]

Heya guys!
I have here the video of our pressing day!!! I hope you all enjoy it! In response to some questions, we don't add ANYTHING to the grapes, we just crush them and let it self ferment. Im sticking to the old way that my family has been doing it, which i know has come under lots of questions but all i can say is it has always worked for them so i am sticking with it. yes we crush everything together, stems grapes everything, it still come sout good , we dont ad anything, we dont kill off the natural yeasts, we let the natural yeasts do its job. And in the end we are ALWAYS rewarded with the absolute best tasting dry burgundy wine : D *just thinking about it makes me want to go grab a silly straw and tap the barrel!!!!* anyhoo, without further adue...the video!!!! Enjoy and CHEERS!!! SALUT!!!!

Mikael


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_fsJF5eKkg[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpaZEpD2NeI[/ame]

 

[Sirs]

very nice only one thing you said you was gonna be stingy with your half shame on you. You do know the wines Gods will frown upon you for even thinking such a thing bad boy no biscuit.......lol

 

[millwright01]

Very awesome. I really appreciate all the pictures and video. My first experience actually seeing this process! Thank You

 

[PCharles]

Pressing

I asked about the pressing based on the video... there are loads of skins in the fermenter. Perhaps I missed an earlier post.

Oh, I see since I came home from work I noticed the pressing video. Great Job guys.

 

[Mikael]

Belated Happy Holidays Everyone!!!!!
It has been some time since i have posted, really not much to post about over on this end.just struggling in life right now trying to make ends meet. I hop everyone had a great holiday season and look forward to a better year!!! So as you all know In my wine making saga we last left off with us extracting the free flow wine and pressing the grapes afterwards and barreling up and storing what we collected. Since the beginning of October, we have been every weekend then stretching to every other weekend, racking the carboys to get the wine off the sediment and we would take samples *sometimes more sampling than others mwahaha* to see how it was coming along...and BOY HOWDY!!! We struck gold, we did it, it was perfect. It tasted just like Papa's wine. Even had my father come over for a racking one day to try it and he said we stole the wine and just gave it to him, HHAHAA!!!
Fast forward to Christmas Eve. prior to the 24th, both my friend and I extracted a gallon each for the holiday. I filled 3 bottles, 2 big bottles and one smaller bottle. Brought the one big bottle to Papas house on Christmas Eve. After settling in and saying hello to everyone, sat down at the big table with my Papa, my uncle and my elder cousin *fathers first cousin, who also makes wine* he had a bottle of his wine and they asked if I brought some, I told them i forgot. They seemed upset but then I pulled the bottle out from underneath the table from the bag i had and they were excited. Before I knew it, there were multiple wine glasses in front of me eagerly awaiting to be filled, so I poured each of them a glass, we saluted and drank.
Right then and there i received the best Christmas present ever. Papa looked at me and said "The color is spot on..and the flavor...you nailed it. Mikael, I am very proud of you. You worked very hard on this and it came out absolutely perfect.". My uncle was floored he said even by watching the videos that we had everything in control and that he too was very impressed by the flavor. My elder cousin as well simply loved it!
Every time their glasses emptied, it was immediately refilled. Then I ran out. my uncle asked if there were anymore bottles I said yes and he said go get it! Told him I can't. He goes why not? I replied cause its at home in PA *We were in NJ* he said 'that doesn't do us good here!' so we switched gears and got back to drinking Papas wine.
So. There we have it, The wine was a complete success!!!! And now the worst part comes....everything is sealed up until...EASTER!!!!! *Plays tom Petty's 'the waiting is the hardest part*


And In other news...I have brewed my first batch of beer ever and it came out great!!!!!! I made an all grain blueberry oatmeal stout. its all finished and kegged on tap in the fridge ready to go!!! = D





CHEERS EVERYONE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Mikael

 

[Wade E]

Congrats on nailing that wine.

 

[SarahRides]

Can't wait to try it again in April!

 

[Flem]

Congratulations Mikael. Great story. You made Papa proud.

 

[Mikael]

next year we are making even MORE wine, lol 24 crates i believe we will be crushing : D

 

[ibglowin]

Congrats! Nothing better than making an old wine maker and close family PROUD!!!!!

 

[rob]

Mik, not sure how I missed this in October, but thanks for sharing. You should be proud...PS we miss you in the chat room

Rob

 

[Mikael]

Hello everyone!!!!
It has, yet again, been a LONG time since posting as there hasn't been much to post about! Save but for one thing.
We Unbarreled the wine back on April 14th!!!! And it came out PHENOMENAL!!!!! We are so very proud of our vintage!!!! Our wine that we had earlier wasnt barrled because we didnt have 2 barrels, the barrel was sealed up at the end of december and we cracked it open . You could definitely tastes the wonderful oak in it and we are very happy with the results!! Our very own Sarahrides even had some!! : D
We are excited about this year because we are working on building the winery in my friends garage and then we will have a 2nd barrels and will be doing about 65-70 gallons *shooting for*. Going to do it the same way we did it last year!!!!

CHEERS EVERYONE!!!!


Mikael

 

[Runningwolf]

Mikael, good to hear from you. Thanks for the update and congratulations!

 

[SarahRides]

It is phenomenal! Your grandfather definitely would be proud! The Pumpkin Ale wasn't half bad either!