saving wine

[winemaker81]

The winemaker had very few filters when it came to home winemaking questions about practices he disagreed with so I learned early on not to ask questions.

That's sad, that his attitude discouraged questions. It's a lot better to encourage the "silly" questions and use it as a vehicle to teach one or more better ways of doing things. Some folks are simply bad teachers -- it doesn't matter how much they know if they can't convey it.

Learning wine making is SOOOO much easier today with a forum like this one. I learned from recipes in the newspaper, a few old books I purchased, and from guys that had learned from their fathers and grandfathers. All this taught me a lot of good techniques ... and some stuff I had to later unlearn. With a forum like this one, we don't have to take things on faith, we can discuss and research.

 

[mainshipfred]

That's sad, that his attitude discouraged questions. It's a lot better to encourage the "silly" questions and use it as a vehicle to teach one or more better ways of doing things. Some folks are simply bad teachers -- it doesn't matter how much they know if they can't convey it.

Learning wine making is SOOOO much easier today with a forum like this one. I learned from recipes in the newspaper, a few old books I purchased, and from guys that had learned from their fathers and grandfathers. All this taught me a lot of good techniques ... and some stuff I had to later unlearn. With a forum like this one, we don't have to take things on faith, we can discuss and research.

I agree his methods should have been different but I learned a heck of a lot in the class.

 

[AbruzziRed]

When I first started making wine, the left over from racking went into a jug for making vinegar.
After a few years I have a few gallons of vinegar that everyone loves. BTW the mother (starter) is from Nonna’s from Italy over 50 years ago.

Now I save the left overs and put them in growlers to settle for the next racking.

I find that sometimes I always have a little left at the end and then I combine multiple left overs from different wines together to settle. I have one going right now in a growler. When my shoulder is better and I can lift things I am going to siphon and try it.

 

[Jovimaple]

I have a lot of wide mouth pint and quart mason jars. After my first 1 gallon batch needed excessive topping up, I always make a little extra and put it into the mason jars. Was putting them in the fridge until I found lids with airlocks to fit them. Now I just age right alongside my carboys. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B088BMPFMY?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[Jovimaple]

I guess I went overboard on the strawberry batch - 4 pints extra! (Bottom picture). I am hoping the color eventually gets more red after clearing but I understand strawberry color can be delicate. As long as it eventually tastes good, color isn't as important to me

 

[winemaker81]

Yesterday I racked all my extra containers, roughly 9 gallons, mostly in 4 liter jugs, the remainder in 1.5 liter and 750 ml wine bottles.

In this racking, I try to be clean, e.g., not sucking up sediment. My first racking is always dirty, and the second is clean-ish. But after that, sediment gets left behind.

The 4 liter jugs were racked, while I carefully poured the wine bottles off the lees. My cellar is 58 F in the winter, and I had a thin layer of tartrate crystals in all containers.

The remainder of all container went into a 1.5 liter wine bottle, nearly filling it. This went into the fridge last night, and after 18 hours it looks like the picture. The lees wasn't heavy and the wine wasn't muddy like the first picture in this thread, but it wasn't clear.

In this case it was worth the effort, as I have nearly 2 bottles worth saved. This is a Frankenwine, a mixture of everything I have in production. It may be used to top up barrels and lesser containers, as I'm not concerned about how much difference a small amount of this wine will make upon the final result.

 

[KCCam]

I have a lot of wide mouth pint and quart mason jars. After my first 1 gallon batch needed excessive topping up, I always make a little extra and put it into the mason jars. Was putting them in the fridge until I found lids with airlocks to fit them. Now I just age right alongside my carboys. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B088BMPFMY?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Very interesting. Gotta love the translation from "air lock" to "vacuum pump". Not quite the same thing.

 

[Jovimaple]

Heh, I never noticed the vacuum pump reference! I guess I just looked at the pictures. That's funny!

 

[winemaker81]

Let's do another comparison. My son and I racked my barrels today, pouring the remaining free sludge from each into 750 ml bottles. The left is the free run wine (2/3 Merlot, 1/3 Vinifera Blend *), and the right is the pressings, e.g., pressing from the Merlot (40%) & Vinifera Blend (20%) *, plus all the Zinfandel (40%). A week from now we'll see how much wine I recover.



* Vinifera Blend is 1 lug (36 lbs) each Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot).

Side note, not related to the thread topic -- the wines are very different, and Zinfandel in the pressings does not explain all.

Barrel 1 is free run wine from 2 fermenters of Merlot and 1 of Vinifera blend. I wanted a Bordeaux-style blend. This wine -- at this time, takes more acidic and it is fruitier.

Barrel 2 is pressings from the Merlot and Vinifera Blend, plus all wine from a batch of Zinfandel. It's heavier and (to my palate) coarser, with less fruit evident.

I'm going to like both wines. They are different, but both will be enjoyable.

Today, both barrels received 5 oz medium toast Hungarian oak. I may not rack the barrels again until I bottle in November, when the 2021 wine is ready for the barrels. I will be topping monthly and will be sulfiting every 3 months.

 

[winemaker81]

By the following morning the wine has cleared a LOT.




Today? The lees have compacted a bit. I will probably leave these in the fridge until Saturday, then decant.

The free run wine has a lot less sediment (which makes sense) but it doesn't appear to be clearing as fast.