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You should be fine. Just after you rack the wine be very careful with SO2. If there is still the smell of diacetyl let it hang for some time: once you add dose of SO2 you will lock the smell inside the wine.

MLF "fermentation" is not like alcoholic fermentation. You will not see any sign of the process. You can check it by measuring amount of malic acid, if it is going down there is mlf process going on.

You can do MLF together with alcoholic fermentation or just after the fermentation is finished. There are cons and pros for each method. Doing MLF together with alcoholic fermentation you risk stuck fermentation, because of competition of different bacteria for same nutrients. Doing MLF after...

Just let it settle. It might take couple of months, but the filtering is not necessary. You can also do egg white fining to remove the mist. Cold stabilisation will help as well. At my winery I don't do any filtering at all (waiting about a year to do the bottling) and I do fining to only...

Probes in pH meters need to be replaced every year or two. So buy something with sensor that can be replaced. I am using pH meter from XS Instruments: http://www.hydrocal.nl/en/produkten/xs-testers/xs-ph-5/ The price is ok and it works well.

It is going to be around $2/month if you have less then 1 hectare (2,5 acres) or $24/month for bigger estates. It is all metric units right now, but I can easily add support for imperial as well. If you want to try it by yourself, just send me email to [email protected] and I will send you...

Been a long summer and I had some time on my hand, so I was playing with my tracking system and polish it a bit. I did some small video presentation for some vine growers friends from France, but if somebody else is interested in my system, take a look to this link...

Hello guys, I've been thinking about installing some weather station in my vineyard. Do you have any experience with running your own station, any recommendation? What should I look for? I am thinking that rainfall and temperature and maybe humidity will be enough for me, but maybe I am...

I didn't experiment with oak chips much, but when I am doing red wines in stainless steel tanks I do add small amounts of oak chips (packed in the bag) after MLF. I keep it there for two or three weeks, just to fixate the colour. There is almost no hint of oak at nose. This is mostly my...

1. Do I need to add sulphur? I would recommend adding small dosage (15 - 30ppm). 2. Is there any issue with stem inclusion? Yes, more compounds get dissolved into your wine. Not big deal if you are doing red wine, might be problem for white wine. The problem could be with unripe/unhealthy...

I am thinking about improving the system for storing information about events happening in different plots. Right now, I don't really track much. Just the harvest data (date, amount and analytical information) and spray data (date, what did I use and amounts). It is just simple excel sheet and...

How do you specify commercial winery? I guess I am one. I do have all paperwork necessary to sell the wine I produce (from my own grapes, I am not allowed to sell wine from grapes I bought), but it is still more just hobby as I have proper job on side and don't really plan to have my little...

Maybe it is not vitis vinifera, but some other specie?

You can definitely make wine from table grapes. The problem is that they usually don't have enough acids to hold the body of wine. I would go on lower brix: around 20 would be enough. Drink it early.

Yes, I am using the chips from Hamamatsu, they are really great.

I use glass demijohns and stainless steel tanks with floating lids. I would stay out of plastic if you plan to age the wine for longer time.

Can it be smell from MLF itself? It does produce quite different aroma that will go out in few weeks/month. Just be careful with SO2 to not fix the smell to the wine.

Yeah, they like to overwinter on canes or in the soil nearby and spores will land on leaves and new grape clusters. I find crucial to do one or two sprays before flowering, I also remove quite some leaves to keep good ventilation inside the plant.

It is still early in development, so there is not much info laying around. It is handheld NIR spectroscope, you simply pour wine directly from barrel, press the button and you will get the results in less than minute. You don't need to do any sample preparation, don't need to connect it to...

I do have some vines on they own roots as well and it is quite hit and miss. They are 7 years old now and most of them are almost dead. They did give some fruits, but I don't think that you can keep them alive for long, phylloxera will get them eventually.