[AlFulchino]

Nice story and pics Mike....have a great time w it!

[ibglowin]

Nothing has been easy this year, now I have to find a good place to press off. I pressed last year on the patio and know full well that juice goes everywhere! That said, the forecast for late next week is for a high of 40 degrees. The sun is strong here and if there is no wind, 40 can feel like 55 easily. That said will the cool down effect the must enough to keep it from fermenting to dry? Should I ferment below 1.000 in the Brute before pressing......

Garage is pretty full and is NOT heated. It would be easier to warm up the winery and press in there over the garage but in all honesty the dinning room is all tile and faces south as well looking out over the patio and there is an 8' X 4' window so not much wall. If I wrap the basket.........

[Wade E]

I agree with Dan!!! Do not press inside! You will die a horrible death by wife!!!

[AlFulchino]

those temps are cool to bring to dry...but it can be done....good color extraction...and brutes are fine to go to dry with

a quick suggestion for you since you are in a land of sun....get some plastic from hd or lowes etc...create a mini greenhouse/hot house....i know this...if i want 80 degrees right now all i have to do is go close the doors on the greenhouses and let the sun do the rest....the fans will kick on if it gets too hot

you could easily get free heat and great temps for fermentation to help you along...the night time temps may be a different story...so let a cap build before evening and trap heat in instead of punching down late in the day

[ibglowin]

Brutes are inside the house nice and warm. I would only have to move one at a time outside to press, transfer to carboy and then haul the carboy back inside to warm up to finish out. I am thinking ferment to dry in the Brute and then press. That way I don't have to worry about a stuck fermentation, only trying to get it to go as low as it can past 0.998. Should only take 30-45 min for each Brute.

If I start at noon i should be able to finish outside before dark. The only other option is to try and press indoors. Not pretty but nothing has been easy as stated before.

[Racer]

Mike don't worry too much about pressing off outside. I have the same issue every year I get premium grapes more california. I have pressed off in snow showers and haven't had a batch stick on me because of the cold. I just make sure to have everything completely ready to go then bring out one batch of grapes at a time. Return the wine back inside before doing any other clean up or prep for the next batch.

I'd rather chance a stuck fermentation then anger my better half. Pressing off grapes inside a house sure sounds like a good recipe for having ones wife turn you from a bull into a steer.

[ibglowin]

OK, will go with easy to clean up outside! Looks like the high on Thursday will be sunny and 45. Will shoot for then or Friday partly sunny and high of 50. I may need to pick up some more carboys or some one gallon glass jugs. Couple of those guys have close to 13 gallons of must which should yield ~8 gallons of wine.

[Rocky]

Mike, great pix and video. Take care of that bronchitis; it can turn into something worse if not properly treated.

In watching the videos, I was struck by the amount of juice vs. skins. It seemed like little juice to me or am I missing something?

Also, obviously there were no OSHA people around. You guys were scaring me putting your hands into the crusher-destemmer.

One last question. Where did "Jack" ride on the way back to New Mexico? It did not look like there was a lot of room in the SUV.

[ibglowin]

Feeling much better today and first full day back at work! Most of the Brutes have 11 gallons of must which will make ~6.5 gallons of pressed wine. The two that I had to add some water to get the SG down have about 13 gallons of must so they will make about 7.8 gallons! There is a lot of juice under the cap for sure. Poor Jack only had 2/3 of the back seat to ride home in. He fit lying down but just barely! The other 1/3 of the seat had the (2) 20G Brute buckets.

Just checked the SG on all 7 Brutes. They are all basically dry or very close to dry and its only day 5 today! It is supposed to snow tonight and off and on tomorrow and then warm up and be pretty nice on Wednesday and Thursday. I need to go to Santa fe tomorrow and pick up a bunch of 1 gallon jugs from the LHBS. I have the carboys, just not enough smaller sizes.

SG's just now taken

Cabernet Sauvignon #1 1.010 must temp 72 degrees
Cabernet Sauvignon #2 0.998 must temp 70 degrees
Merlot #1 0.998 must temp 70 degrees
Merlot #2 1.006 must temp 72 degrees
Malbec 0.998 must temp 70 degrees
Petit Verdot 1.000 temp 70 degrees
Cabernet Franc 0.998 temp 70 degrees

All of them smell wonderful with no off odors including the Cab Franc. The color on them is pretty amazing as well, especially the Malbec and the Petit Verdot.

I plan on letting the temps fall to room temp 64-68 and pressing on Wednesday at the earliest or Thursday at the latest.

[rhoffart]

Wow ... looking good