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

[Hazelemere]

In a few weeks I'll bottle the remaining 2022 wines:

8 lugs Grenache
8 lugs Tempranillo
3 lugs Rhone Blend (Mourvedre, Petite Sirah, Syrah)

In August I started 25 liters (6.6 US gallons) Cyser Metheglin (spiced mead backsweetened with apple juice concentrate)

A few weeks ago I started 130 lbs each Chambourcin and Vidal, each of which net about 10 US gallons (38 liters)

Over the weekend I started:

8 lugs Cabernet Sauvignon
8 lugs Cabernet Franc
4 lugs Merlot

And I have 2 Sangiovese 23 liter juice buckets that will be poured into the lightly pressed pomace from this year's CS, CS, & M.

What I have previously made is too long of a list to post.

Have you ever tried blending some Chambourcin into Petite Sirah?

 

[winemaker81]

Have you ever tried blending some Chambourcin into Petite Sirah?

This my first time making Chambourcin, and I haven't made a F-A hybrid, red or white, since 1990.

The Chambourcin is pure ink -- it was dark to begin with and Color Pro maxed the color. I'm considering blending in some of the "orange" Vidal to lighten it a bit, and am also considering blending in some Merlot, or possibly CS or CF.

FYI -- I fermented 3+ gallons of Vidal traditionally (as juice) and fermented else on the skins as an "orange" wine. Currently I have 3 gallons of Vidal Juice and 7+ gallons of Vidal Orange.

 

[Hazelemere]

My son in law has 50 bottles of 16.0% potential alcohol Petite Sirah (90% Petite Sirah and 10% Regent). He has 50 bottles of lightly high acid Petit Verdot at 14.0% potential alcohol from Washington that if blended 50/50 with the Petite Sirah will give it everything it needs, drop the alcohol, raise the acid and make a super intense red.

 

[mat_ski]

After summer of not making any wine and only emptying my reserves, I started the fall season with 6 gallons of red currant-blackberry with RC212. That yeast worked great on black currant wine I made before so I’m hoping it will work as well with red currant. I also started 6 gallons of cherry banana with 71B. This was completely unplanned experiment so I’m curious how it will turn out.

 

[Rice_Guy]

I think I've maxed out the carboy collection for this season:

you have some significant head space. The folks i know who get away with that either pull a vacuum with a check valve or top off with a similar finished valve or flush with argon or have fifty pounds of marbles for filling the void. ,,,, oxygen is you number one enemy.

 

[Ted Brumleve]

2022 Walker's Wine Juice:
10 gallons LaCrescent,; 5 gal D47 (smoother) and 5 gal QA23 (more citrusy, cleared faster)
5 gal Frontenac
5 gal Vignoles
5 gal Vidal; smooth
5 gal Seyval; crowd favorite

 

[Nebbiolo020]

you have some significant head space. The folks i know who get away with that either pull a vacuum with a check valve or top off with a similar finished valve or flush with argon or have fifty pounds of marbles for filling the void. ,,,, oxygen is you number one enemy.

It’s not nearly as big an issue as people make it out to be, wine doesn’t oxidize as fast as people think. We have had tanks half full in a commercial winery and not purged the tanks or anything and suffered no oxidation. I believe that sure you shouldn’t blatantly ignore oxidation but it is far overblown in reality it’s more of an issue with beer than wine. Wine is resilient

 

[winemaker81]

It’s not nearly as big an issue as people make it out to be, wine doesn’t oxidize as fast as people think. We have had tanks half full in a commercial winery and not purged the tanks or anything and suffered no oxidation. I believe that sure you shouldn’t blatantly ignore oxidation but it is far overblown in reality it’s more of an issue with beer than wine. Wine is resilient

Yup! Oxidation is a factor of wine volume vs headspace volume vs time, e.g., a small amount of wine with a large headspace will oxidize faster than a large volume of wine with a smaller headspace. Plus a wine that is emitting CO2 has that protection.

I avoid headspace after the wine is degassed as once oxidation sets in, it's often too late.

 

[countygrapeguy]

2023 wines:

34L rose (Mostly Frontenac Blanc + Noir with a little Crimson Pearl + L'Acadie)
60L red field blend (Marquette + Verona + Petite Pearl)
68L Verona (with a bit of Frontenac Noir)

This is my first time making red wine, and is by far the most I've made in a single year.

 

[winemaker81]

This is my first time making red wine, and is by far the most I've made in a single year.

carboys and barrels breed like rabbits .....

 

[CDrew]

2023 is pressed, off the gross lees and into bulk storage. I’ll sulfite the last of it in a few weeks but I don’t plan to rack again until January or February. Final totals:

Syrah 20 gallons
Grenache Rose 5 gallons
Primitivo 25 gallons
Syrah/Primitivo 50/50 left over blend 5 gallons
Zinfandel 19 gallons total, 15 gallons free run kept separate

So 74 gallons of new wine. Gotta cut back a bit next year or start drinking a lot more!

 

[ChuckD]

Gotta cut back a bit next year or start drinking a lot more!

MA… I’m gonna need a bigger glass!

 

[Nebbiolo020]

2023 is pressed, off the gross lees and into bulk storage. I’ll sulfite the last of it in a few weeks but I don’t plan to rack again until January or February. Final totals:

Syrah 20 gallons
Grenache Rose 5 gallons
Primitivo 25 gallons
Syrah/Primitivo 50/50 left over blend 5 gallons
Zinfandel 19 gallons total, 15 gallons free run kept separate

So 74 gallons of new wine. Gotta cut back a bit next year or start drinking a lot more!

Not bad

 

[Hazelemere]

Today we pressed Washington Petit Verdot at SG 1.002 from Dineen Vineyard grapes at SG 1.104 destemmed and uncrushed after 11 day RC212 with nutrient ferment:

Comments on this wne:

high acid and high tannin, very fragrant

We then tasted our 2023 Dineen Cabernet Sauvignon at SG 1.010 day 12 of ferment.

Comments on this wine:

soft, very fragrant, good acid

We then tasted 1/3 Petit Verdot premalolactic from the press with 1/3 Cabernet Sauvignon still fermenting with 1/3 Petite Sirah.

This is actually right now the best wine i.e. each wine needs the other to balance itself. We won't blend anything until all of the reds finish MLF. This 3 way combo is better than any of the 3 on their own i.e. very rich and complex, not too tannic and very fragrant. The 3 way combo could be stunning. If we do this combo we get a red wine at 14.7% alcohol.

 

[Hazelemere]

Sheridan Chardonnay 2023

We made 3 Chardonnays using 3 yeasts 71B, V13 and D47. They are all good. We like the 3 way wine blend from 3 yeasts the best.

The 3 way blend smells like bananas, apples and pears which is IMHO an upgrade from our previous "buttered popcorn" from Sheridan Chardonnay fermented with EC-1118 yeast. We then tried 70% Sheridan 3 way Chardonnay blend with 20% Carol's Muscat Auslese (homegrown Siegerrbe/Ortega/Reichensteiner) at SG 1.092 fermented with 71B yeast and 10% Russet (homegrown organic russets blended with a bit of homegrown Cox apple and pear).

This combo is excellent and dramatically improves the Chardonnay.

 

[jburtner]

Picked up four buckets of Washington state cab sav this weekend. BM 4x4 & VP41 inoculated. Fermenting with heating pads and reflectix around the 32g brute - Approximately 76-77*F with ITC-308 WIFI controller. I might edge it up to almost 80*F for a warmer ferment than previous years.

In carboy bulk aging harvested fall 2022 - 6g Cab Sav, 6g Barbera.

In carboy bulk aging harvested fall 2021 - 6g Petite Syrah, 6g Mouvedre, 5g Zin.

Need to order some empty bottles and free up some space in the wine racks and perhaps blend a little for bottling

Cheers!
johann

 

[Kivanc]

I am making blackberry tea wine:

5 liters water
30 pockets of blackberry tea
Sugar to 1.130 sg
Half a lemon
3 spoons of yeast nutrient

I boiled the water. Then I put the 30 pockets blackberry tea in it. After the cool of water, I added the lemon and nutrient. Two days after (because the first packet of yeast is stalled ), I sprinkled the 18% alcohol tolerance wine yeast over the must amongst sweet blackberry aromas. I am on 3rd day of fermentation.

 

[Kivanc]

My 5 litters blackberry tea wine

 

[Joe B.]

Totals for 2023:
9 Gal Syrah
15 Gal Sangiovese
22 Gal Barbera
32 Gal Grenache
14 Gal Zinfandel

 

[StimVino]

Totals for 2023:
9 Gal Syrah
15 Gal Sangiovese
22 Gal Barbera
32 Gal Grenache
14 Gal Zinfandel

Are you doing any blends? If so, any idea what you’ll try?