Recent content by tfries

I know the feeling. The contractor who did our cellar did not work when it rained or on weekends. That year here in Oregon, it seemed like the only time it did not rain was on weekends. We were getting pretty frustrated toward the end.

My wife and I recently bought the Williams Zinfandel kit and used it to make a Zin Port. We used the oak powder and yeast that was provided in the kit, but did add a pound of raisins. Stopped the fermentation when it got to 13.5 Brix and fortified it with 152 proof brandy. This is going to...

We considered stall mats for our cellar, but I found the rubber smell overwhelming. I am sure that over time it would have probably faded, but we decided to just leave the floor bare concrete.

Sammyk, here are some thoughts based on what we did. Good that you are planning on drainage around the base. You should also think about how the roof will drain. Our roof is slightly sloped with a rain gutter attached. The roof was made from plywood covered with a waterproof membrane. You...

Good looking start to your cellar. I know what you are going through as we undertook a similar project a couple years ago. Keep the pictures coming.

The answer to this really depends on what you are looking for. If you want clones grafted on root stock then you are not looking for cuttings. If you are looking for grafted onto root stock, then I think your options are limited for small quantities. When we planted our vineyard, we could not...

Over the last 2 years I was able to drop 70 lbs. While I did go 3 month at the beginning with no alcohol, after that, I did notice that I did better with wine than I did with beer, weight wise. Either way, lots of exercise was a key.

There is a distillery in Oregon called Clear Creek. They produce a 152 proof brandy distilled from Oregon wine. It is available in 1.5l bottles for $33.00. I picked up one today and am going to use it to fortify a batch of Zin Port that I am going to make. Took a small swig from it when I...

We finally brought in our Rieslings yesterday. They were not very pretty. Probably a lot like what your grower did not want to sell to you. Anyway, we ended up with 130 lbs. After pressing and racking off the junk, ended up with 8 gal. The Brix came in at 19 and 3.1ph. I'll be using GRE...

We have 64 Riesling vines, they are 4 years old. It looks like there is about 50lb of fruit on them. Might have enough for a 3 gallon batch.

It's been interesting following your progress. We are still waiting for our Riesling grapes to ripen more. I checked them earlier in the week and they were 17 Brix and 2.9ph. With the rains here now, I am not sure how much more they will ripen. I am going to let them hang until they either...

Cool! It feels good when your efforts pay off. We harvested our grapes on Friday. Got most of it done before the rain started. Were in the Southern Willamette Valley. Ended up with 470 lbs of Pinot Noir and 140 lbs of Pinot Gris. We processed it all yesterday. Our Pinot Noir is made up of...

Thanks everyone The roof of the cellar is covered with a waterproof membrane. I am not sure of the exact brand or if it was self adhesive or if an adhesive was applied. It is light blue, fairly thick. The roof is angled such that the water drains to the back end of the cellar. From there...

Yes, that is what happened to us last year. We had to harvest early otherwise there would have been nothing left. We borrowed bee suits from a friend and used a shop vac to suck off the buggers. My wife followed along after me and snipped off the clusters.

Two years ago, my wife and I were looking at options to replace our deck that was falling apart as well as being a hazard to guests in that it was multi level and there was no clear visual queues to warn people of that. We had people fall on the deck, not good. There was also a section where...