What are you making and what have you made ???

[Cellar Door]

I started two batches today, an Eclipse Nebbiolo and a LE 18 Barbaresco. I’ve got two carboys in secondary now (WE Eclipse Three Moons and LE 18 Black Cab) and two in bulk storage (Eclipse Stags Leap Merlot, and Eclipse Bourbon Barrel Zin/Cab). I plan to bulk age for a year, bottle age for another 6 months before trying them. My ‘18’s should be ready to sip in another three months.

 

[Rocky]

I started two batches today, an Eclipse Nebbiolo and a LE 18 Barbaresco. I’ve got two carboys in secondary now (WE Eclipse Three Moons and LE 18 Black Cab) and two in bulk storage (Eclipse Stags Leap Merlot, and Eclipse Bourbon Barrel Zin/Cab). I plan to bulk age for a year, bottle age for another 6 months before trying them. My ‘18’s should be ready to sip in another three months.

CD, I have a LE Black Cab going too. Did you get a lot of sediment from yours? I had a bunch. So much so that I am down to just a little over 5 gallons and I will probably be at 5 gallons next time I rack. Also, I think this wine will require at least 18 months aging, 24 would be even better.

 

[Cellar Door]

Rocky,
I agree, I had a significant amount of sediment in my black cab, nearly 1/2 gallon. Reading on this forum has led me to believe this may be related to the use of bentonite? I’ve since read about “cold crashing” the lees, then racking the product to further extract the wine from the gross lees. Although I consider myself to be a novice, I’ve got about 150 bottles in my cellar, in addition to the 32 gallons “in process.”
I’ve been making wine from kits for about three years, but only recently have begun to appreciate the value of aging these wines. I’ve built five storage racks, each with a capacity of 72 bottles, in addition to the two racks that I purchased. I’m trying to learn some patience!

 

[Rocky]

I had the same problem. I have four of the metal storage racks, each holds 168 bottles. What I do now for the first aging is to put the bottles back in a case, tape it up and lay the cases on their sides. I can then take those cases when the wine is ready and put the bottles on the shelf. This keeps them away from UV light, vibration and the minor temperature changes in my cellar.

 

[Cellar Door]

That is a great idea! Thank you.

 

[SherylG]

I make organic wine from everything I can get. Currently I have one gallon each of cherry and wild blueberry. They are both almost ready to bottle. I have enough rhubarb and apples in the freezer to make 3 gallon batches of each of those. I have a 3 gallon carbuoy with bung, as well as equipment to make 5 one gallon batches at one time.

In the past I have made 5 gallon batches of rose petal (twice), strawberry, wild raspberry, blackberry, rhubarb (twice), crabapple, wild grape, ground cherry. I have made one gallon batches of sugar-snap-pea-pod, maple, chocolate-mint (LOVED it!), apple, dandelion. There have been others in the past that I have made 5 gal and 1 gal batches from that I just don't remember.

I plan to make chocolate mint wine again.

 

[Allen]

Just started my 2019 wines! All 6 gallon batches of California frozen juice:
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Franc
Zinfandel
Pinot Noir
Merlot
Pinot Grigio
Chardonnay.

 

[crushday]

Just started my 2019 wines! All 6 gallon batches of California frozen juice:
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Franc
Zinfandel
Pinot Noir
Merlot
Pinot Grigio
Chardonnay.

Very exciting. Where did you purchase/acquire your juice buckets?

 

[Jal5]

I have 6g of merlot from juice bucket going and 5 g of pear aging now. I may do an apple&pear as well within the next two weeks.
Joe

 

[Trevisan]

Happy winemaking everybody. After parting winemaking ways with my colleague (see “Wild and Crazy Idea” posting), I bought 500 lbs Zinfandel grapes grown in Amador County, CA. Brix was 26.5 and I tried to dilute to 24.5 with acidulated water, but settled with 25 Brix at 3.65 pH. I over diluted at first (22.5 Brix), then over chaptalized back to 26 Brix before diluted to 25 Brix. Dosed with Meta at 50ppm. Next day added Lallezyme EX followed by Opti-Red and FT Rouge eight hours later. I want a big mouthfeel and berry essence without a high ABV. Used RP-15 yeast with GoFerm and added Fermaid-O after Brix dropped to 15 degrees. Fermentation progressed at 85F degrees for eight days. Pressed at .997 SG yielding 42 gallons due to dilution. Racked off gross lees four days later (yesterday) and stirred in malolactic bacteria. Final SG reading was .994 so it appears I will have a 15% ABV whereas I was hoping for 14% ABV. Storage vessel is 50 gal food grade barrel with airlock. I blanketed airspace with argon gas. Next racking in December. A settled sample showed deep red color with wild berries flavor. Saluti everyone.

 

[sour_grapes]

yielding 42 gallons due to dilution.
Storage vessel is 50 gal food grade barrel with airlock. I blanketed airspace with argon gas.

Did you purge the entire volume carefully with Ar? There is no "blanketing" effect. Any oxygen you left in that headspace will have access to your wine.

 

[Trevisan]

Did you purge the entire volume carefully with Ar? There is no "blanketing" effect. Any oxygen you left in that headspace will have access to your wine.

 

[Trevisan]

I ran 30 seconds of argon through a small bung hole which forced air out through the airlock. I guess I should run more through to be safe. ??

 

[chicken]

Crushed some Cabernet Franc on 9/22 and pressed about a week later. Started fermenting a juice bucket of merlot at the same time. Tomorrow I plan to pick up a bucket of Pinot Grigio and get that started (was waiting for temps to go down a bit before starting a white).

Last year's Barbera (from grapes) and Merlot (from juice) are just about ready to be bottled.

And we are currently drinking our 2016 Merlot (from grapes) and have just begun drinking our 2017 Pinot Noir (from grapes).

 

[mainshipfred]

My biggest year this year, not sure how many gallons yet. All are grape except for the Chenin Blanc and
Riesling
Spring:
Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Cab Sauv
Virginia:
Peach, Tannat, Petit Manseng, Viognier, Petite Verdot, Norton
California:
Alicante, Grenache (red and Rose), Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Rose Sangiovese/Nebbiolo, Merlot, Touriga
Washington State:
Cab Franc

 

[sour_grapes]

Just one batch for me: Took delivery of 7 gallons of Viognier from near Prosser, eastern WA. The Brix numbers were a little low -- I think they may have been worried about the same weather that @Sage and others have been dealing with. The wine was looking to be just shy of 12%, so I chaptalized it just a bit up to about 13%. Pitched yeast late Wed., and it is chugging away now.

 

[CDrew]

Good luck with 2019 everyone!

Since my aging containers are 15 gallons or 15.5 gallons, that's what I try and end up with and some to top up during subsequent rackings. For this year:

300 pounds of Syrah which is now 17.5 gallons of aging wine.

300+ish pounds of Primitivo which is now 23 gallons of aging wine (super pleased with this one so far)

300 pounds of Mourvedre, which is now 24 gallons on the gross lees to be racked the day after tomorrow and expecting 20 gallons more or less. It's an experiment with half fermented with Avante yeast and the other half with RP15. I'm giving the initial taste nod to the Avante. It's close but the Avante is better at press. THere is something I can't put my finger on with this one, but it will be suspect until bottled. Right at the start, from the moment it was crushed, the color seemed off a bit. But the numbers were perfect so it will go forward. The taste at press, is very good, but we will see.

100 pounds of Mourvedre which is now a 7 gallon Rose' experiment. Unsure about this one, but it's done fermenting, at least. I think I should have made more. Initial signs and taste are positive. I'm going to bottle early and hope for the best. A buddy of mine makes a nice Zinfandel Rose', so this needs to measure up.

Happy with 2019. I was considering some Sonoma Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel I could pick this next week. I don't have any help and would have to do it all myself, and that seems like too much. It's already been a very busy last 3 weeks dealing with "wine stuff" after work many nights and every day not working.I'll be happy to put 2019 to bed.

So 2019 is 1/2 ton total and I think I'm done. Still thinking about the Zinfandel though. Already looking forward to 2020.

 

[crushday]

Impressive!

 

[niemiecsebastian82]

I make wine for two year's, now I'm planning 100 grape's, few different kinds for start.
Untill now I have made approximately 700liters of wine of different fruit's. Mainly aronia and red berries, apple etc.
I have joined this forum to see different approach to wine. Different from Polish.
Chears.

 

[jking]

Today I bottled a 1 gallon batch of cherry wine. Went a bit lower than usual with this one, only 9.6% abv. I also have 5 gallons of blueberry and 5 gallons of skeeter pee going right now.