Search results

Hi was watching a video the other day and the winemaker mentioned that you might choose not to rack a Pinot Noir or Syrah wine until you bottle. I of course made a Syrah this year and racked 4 times ( including racking before bottling) . Anyone have advice on racking for Pinot or Syrah ?

Been doing some research regarding cold soak technique and when and why its employed. I have a good video link below. but it seems thin skin variety grapes such as Syrah, Pinot, and Sangiovese really benefit from a 3-5+ day cold soak, it brings out the fruit flavors, increasing color, body...

Hi, thanks for the really complete answer! I have a couple questions for you. 1> how do you control the temperature for the cold soak? - do you put frozen water jugs in ? or just room temperature in the basement is fine 60 degrees or so? Would I use frozen jugs to control fermentation...

That's good info about the chile juice buckets. Although my local grape guy does get the actual grapes. Hopefully that would help it from being diluted?

is the cold soak recommended for other tanic red varieties ? Cabernet, Zinfandel ? I think I maybe want to try a Zinfandel next year. My local grape place is also getting in Chile grapes right now of all types but unfortunately just do not have the time right now, will have to wait till the fall.

I think if i could go back I would have added half as much water...maybe ended up with a 14.5% alcohol wine, little on the high side, but I think i would have diluted the flavor/color less.

It actually had a fairly warm fermentation , I think it got up to about 90degrees if i remember correctly. It fermented fairly quickly (went from 25 Brix to 1 Brix in about 48-55 hours or so) I let it sit on the skins for another week after that and finish up. I did use both pectin additive to...

Hi Guys, My first batch of wine(Syrah) i made in the fall with a lot of help from this forum. Looking back there are some changes i would have made to my techniques. One of them was that I added 2.5 gallons of water to reduce brix from 28 to 25 so wine wouldn't have to much alcohol, it...

Thanks for response. I am keeping the small last press batch. Hopefully will add some complexity to the super smooth first and second press when I mix it before bottling. Topped off the carboy with some medium grade Merlot i bought at the store as well. Of course I added oak cubes too early...

I have a batch of Syrah I am doing this year. 3 carboys: 2 6 gallon and 1 3 gallon. The 3 gallon i kept in secondary fermentation with the last press wine, it wasn't filled all the way up to the neck during 2 weeks of secondary fermentation. The 3 gallon has much more of a bite, almost a touch...

Hi - Wondering what the standard SG level that you guys would use as an indicator to go from secondary fermentation to racking / stabilizing for the first time? I have Syrah that has been in secondary for about 15 days now, it showed about .997 on the hydrometer last night. It was kind of hard...

Hi, I pressed out 15 gallons this year and ended up having two full 6 gallons and one half full 6 gallon vessel. I have a 3 gallon on order currently, but it has been late arriving. I am concerned the half full carboy might spoil during secondary fermentation? It looks fine now, its been about...

I got my wine book and read the whole thing and I don't remember them saying anything about backsweetening. I have been reading alot lately about it on this forum. Is it common in commercial wineries to use this process? As far as i can tell you basically are just balancing your wine flavor...

Happened again last night, i have happened upon the everlasting wine carboy.

Tts pretty crazy i took about an inch out day before and last night i checked again and wine was meeting the stopper on one carboy and had pressed its way into the airlock on another. I drew out a bit more this time, hopefully its not the movie 'the blob' and my wine keeps expanding until it...

Just put my wine in a couple secondary fermentation vessels. They are 6 gallon containers. I left about an inch of air space between the wine and the stopper. Left it for two days and went down and there is no space left, the wine was meeting the stopper?? and When I took the stopper out the...

Yeast was D254 i believe, I added just the amount as recommended. Brix still at 1 tonight I think SG was 1.005 ? That make sense?

Check my BRIX again last night. I was down to 1. This is after about 77 hours. The temperature was down to 74, I could still see some light fermentation happening. Seems ok right?

I am using a hydrometer and checking my measurements many times. It was hard for me to believe my eyes, I woke up at midnight as i couldnt sleep thinking about it and tested it again, same result 4.5 brix. crazy. glad to hear its OK!

Hi, I started my first batch wine from crushed Syrah grape at 3pm on Sunday with a brix of 25. I checked brix again last night ( tuesday) around 7pm and it was 4.5 ?? !! it only was about 52 hours of fermentation. I thought brix should only have gone down to 18 at this point. The must was hot...