Broad Run Cellars 2015 Fall Crush

OK, this is where I'm going to photographically document all the best rest stops on I-95 for JohnT.

And maybe some stuff about the fall harvest/crush.

Tomorrow is my pickup day. I don't have a crusher/destemmer, so the winery where I buy my grapes is where that happens. I'll be sure to snap a pic or two. What I love about buying this stuff from a winery is that I actually get to taste and maybe buy some wine while I'm there. They make a fantastic Traminette. Two birds. One stone.

Anyway, here's my prep work for the evening. Buckets all cleaned and filled with a cup or so of KMeta solution. Ready for tomorrow's journey. It's a little more than 90 minutes each way, but the time goes quickly and I enjoy the solitude.


More to come tomorrow and over the weekend.

Good luck and have fun!

If the Maytag repairman made wine...... That is what it would look like! LOL. Happy Crush Jim!

Jim,
Are you planning to make Traminette as well?

heatherd said:

Jim,
Are you planning to make Traminette as well?

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I'd love to try making a Traminette. I didn't see any of the MD grapes on the website, but I'll be asking them about it while I'm there. It'd be great if I could snag a bucket of juice.

OK, buckets are in the car and the primaries are ready. It's exciting looking at empty trash cans, isn't it?

I still have a little tidying to do on the workbench.

Boatboy24 said:

It's exciting looking at empty trash cans, isn't it?

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I'm speechless!
Safe travels

Steve

Looks like you are ready!

I actually get depressed when I see empty primaries!

Boatboy24 said:

I'd love to try making a Traminette. I didn't see any of the MD grapes on the website, but I'll be asking them about it while I'm there. It'd be great if I could snag a bucket of juice.

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If you call or email, they will put aside traminette grapes for you. They were not ready when I was there two weekends ago but might be now. I had two lugs of traminette on my order but it wasn't ready two weeks ago when I was there to pick up CA juice and grapes.

I will be headed back when the Italian juces are there....

heatherd said:

If you call or email, they will put aside traminette grapes for you. They were not ready when I was there two weekends ago but might be now. I had two lugs of traminette on my order but it wasn't ready two weeks ago when I was there to pick up CA juice and grapes.

I will be headed back when the Italian juces are there....

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They finished the last of their harvest on Tuesday apparently. No Traminette juice, as I expected. They did have grapes, but I don't have time today/tonight to go through pressing, so I passed.

OK, after what ended up being a round trip of just over 4 hours (including crush time and a quick stop for lunch), my babies are all in their primaries. I even managed to get in a little yard work before it started raining just a short while ago.

The grapes looked good, aside from a few raisined clusters of Cab Sauv. Interestingly, that one seems to be the juiciest of the three now. I'm a little surprised by the initial brix readings: Cab Sauv: 24.8, Syrah: 24.6, Petite Sirah: 23.2. I'll remeasure in the morning after they've had time to soak. I'm especially surprised by the PS (figured that'd be the highest of the group). I haven't checked acid yet, will also do that in the morning. Buckets are all clean, and I'm ready for a little rest before we go to Bingo night at the kid's school.

I did manage to snap a few pics.

Here's the Cab. As I mentioned, some raisined/crushed grapes.





And the Petite Sirah:



@JohnT: I know you wanted lots of pictures. Here's an action shot.

Grapes look good, esp the PS. Mine had a weird (much lower than normal) brix this year also. Had me scratching my head and rechecking the refractometer more than once. That has usually been in the 28 Brix range for me historically.

My PS was 29.5 Brix.

Boatboy24 said:

They finished the last of their harvest on Tuesday apparently. No Traminette juice, as I expected. They did have grapes, but I don't have time today/tonight to go through pressing, so I passed.

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Maybe next year! I wonder if they would press for a fee the same way they crush for a fee.

ibglowin said:

Grapes look good, esp the PS. Mine had a weird (much lower than normal) brix this year also. Had me scratching my head and rechecking the refractometer more than once. That has usually been in the 28 Brix range for me historically.

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With the growing season they had and some of the numbers I was seeing, I was surprised - especially with the PS. Can't complain, really. I'd like the PS to be a little higher, but no issues with the other two - maybe a touch high.

We'll see what they look like in the morning. Meanwhile, I'm sipping on some of my first wine from grapes - 2013 Amador Gold PS.

OK, I just finished my morning's chemistry homework. I hit all three wines with the refractometer again this morning (twice). Not much has changed since last night: Cab at 24.8 still, with the Syrah and PS both coming in right at 25 brix. My pH meter simply will not calibrate, so I threw pH out the window for now (I wanted to throw the meter out the window). I ran titration on all three. Cabernet shows .65, Syrah at .55, and the PS between .5 and .55. I left the Cab alone and added Tartaric on the other two to get me halfway to .65. I'll check again post MLF and go from there.

I'm extremely happy with the color change overnight on the PS and Syrah. Cab color is good too, but I'd like a little more extraction.

After the acid adjustments, I gave all three some Lallzyme EX. Tonight, I'll add OptiRed and pitch the yeast: BM4X4 on the Cab, RP15 on the Syrah, and D254 on the PS. I'm contemplating using BM4X4 on the PS as well. But I only have two packets of each yeast. So if one fails, I'm kinda outta luck.

A few snaps. Syrah in the white Brute, Cab in the gray.

Nice fermentation.
I used bm45 for my PS.

Had some good signs of fermentation when I went to bed last night. This morning, caps were starting to form. The color on all 3 continues to darken and I'm pretty amazed so far at how they look.

My first sip of coffee jump started my brain and I remembered that I failed to remember adding the Opti Red last night. Took care of that and gave things a nice stir. Dad may come by this afternoon for what should be the official first punchdown. Then I can relax somewhat until next Sunday's press.

Just make sure if you add any tannins you need to wait 24 hrs after adding your enzymes or they can react with them.

You don't press on your schedule, you press on the grapes schedule!

Boatboy24 said:

Then I can relax somewhat until next Sunday's press.

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