2021, what are your plans?

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@NorCal My plan, all from grapes:

Spring: Cabernet (Rattlesnake Hills), Sangiovese (Livermore) and Malbec (Rattlesnake Hills). Plan on keeping each 100% varietal.

This Fall, I'm planning on a Boudreaux blend. I’d like to simulate a wine by Andronicus that I really like. I’d also do 100% varietal of each in the blend and other blends from these grapes if I have enough left over.

Here’s the blend from Andronicus:

29% Merlot
26% Cabernet
20% Malbec
10% Petit Verdot
10% Petite Sirah
5% Cab Franc
 
Oddly enough, my wife and I were having this discussion just yesterday. She suggested it was to early to make plans. I countered that plans can change, but one has to have goals. So given that, I am guessing we will be doing 3 or 4 kits this year, maybe more, I have 1 RJS Cru Select Italian Bella Bianco in the fermenter right now and two Winexpert Reserve Limited Release Washington Sangiovese Rose 10L Wine Making Kit sitting in the basement, waiting for probably this weekend to start. I'm sure something or other will peak my interest at some point.

We will also be doing some Chambourcin and/or St. Vincent from grapes, how much is up in the air. SWMBO suggested maybe 400 lbs total, which is possible. We may also do some Norton, just because we live in Missouri and well, somebody has to.
 
Goals! Plans have to wait for circumstances.

It's still 6-7 months away, but I would like:

1-An August harvest of Sauvignon Blanc. I'll be in Alaska Aug 31-Sept 11 so the wife might have to tend it. Which is fair because she'll drink 95% of it.

2-Primitivo-500 pounds or so. 300 for a normal dry wine and 200 for a Rose-5th year so I'll have a vertical to try

3-Syrah- 300-400 pounds 4th year

4- Something new. Last year I got surprise Barbera at the end. I'd do that again. Maybe CF will work out with @NorCal

5- 4 pails of Reisling from Wine grapes direct for a later fall fermentation-complete with road trip to go get it

6-A small late cider. Maybe 5 gallons. One of my friends did a cider from local apples this year that was quite good.
 
My current plan is to purchase 15 or 16 lugs of Rhone grapes from west coast USA. I'm doing a blend, but currently have no preconceived notions regarding what that blend will be.

If the Sauvignon Blanc juice I lucked onto last fall turns out well, I'll make a couple carboys of that. I'm also thinking of a frozen bucket of white juice, possibly Gewurztraminer.
 
I'm up in the air myself. For the spring I'll probably do a S African Cab which will be my fourth year in a row. The 18 turned out very nice, the 19 still need to be blended and bottled and the 20 is too young to tell. Haven't made Malbec in a few years so probably going to do a Chilean. I wish I could get Argentinian but have no source. Also thinking about a couple buckets of Chenin Blanc from SA.

Fall I'll do my usual local Norton, Tannat and PV. I missed the Washington State Cab Franc the last 2 years and if I miss it again hopefully I'll be able to get some local. Also I missed the local Petit Manseng last year due to family emergencies during harvest and won't miss it again this year. It might be my favorite white.

The last 2 years I've been telling myself I need to cut down on the amount of varietals and just make more of something, I just can never decide on what I want to cut.
 
Part two of wedding wines. I have 2 huge freezer bags of skins from 80lb of WA cabernet sauvignon last fall.
I want to do another red, and maybe experiment with a franken-rose: red skins in white juice. I'll head to Gino Pinto's for the spring shipment. Leaning towards Malbec, maybe Carmenere for the red. Unsure as yet for the white. Lots of time still, realistically not looking until next summer at this point (have friends/fam across the country and abroad).
As a side note might try to experiment with beer making too if I get bored. And my fiance will make a new batch of mead this summer and *maybe* I can get him to bottle up the two carboys of cider he has sitting around.
 
The last 2 years I've been telling myself I need to cut down on the amount of varietals and just make more of something, I just can never decide on what I want to cut.
That was me, fall 2019 -- I made too many different things, which got complicated.

Fall 2020, the plan was to make a single Bordeaux/Meritage blend, so I'd have just a 1st and 2nd run to deal with. But I decided to experiment with different types of fermentation oak, and I decided to keep a small amount of each varietal separate as a control, and decided to keep the free run separate, and decided to do an oak experiment using Next Level Oak stix on the 2nd run, and got an opportunity on Sauvignon Blanc juice, and ....

Yup, I do it to myself. OTOH, I am having fun, amidst the complaining .....
 
I did a chilean Malbec last year that so far I am very happy with so I plan on doing the same this year with maybe a South African Cab. All grape but Im also planing on some major home renovations in the beginning of may so it all depends on the contractors time schedule.
 
I've been at full capacity for some time now and just getting around to bottling the 2018's. Halfway through those, but have started a couple kits in the last month or so. I may jump back on the Chilean train this spring and if so, might do another Carmenere/Petite Verdot. For fall, who knows. But as I'm emptying the last carboy's of 2018 and beginning to think about bottling the 2019's in the next couple months, I'm sure I'll have an idea or two.
 
Being new to this craft (a corona virus wine-making baby as it were), I'll still be trying to build inventory this year. I've got 2 RJS En Primeur batches going now (Trio Red and Trio White).

The next one will be Blueberry wine from juice from Walker's Juice. I've never purchased from them before and seeing some good comments on this site, wanted to give them a try. Also, hoping our fairly sizable rhubarb patch will provide a good source for a refreshing country wine.

@joeswine thread "Tweaking Cheap Kits" has been an inspiration. I'd like to try 2 or 3 kits using some of these ideas. In the Fall, the plan is to pick some grapes to make a white wine (I did some Petite Pearl last year from Mitchell Vineyard in Wisconsin). They crush and press so that is helpful at my current skill level.

Finally, I often times buy kits on a whim (weird, huh) and can only assume that will continue to be the case in 2021.
 
Finally, I often times buy kits on a whim (weird, huh) and can only assume that will continue to be the case in 2021.
Weird? Nope! About half the kits I have purchased were on a whim -- anything from "it's on sale" to "hey! that looks interesting". I purchase from my LHBS so what is in stock at that moment drives what I buy.
 
I‘ve already started my wines this year. In January I started a batch of Island Mist Blueberry, added 2 pounds of sugar in the primary and about 25% of the F-PAC. I took 1 gallon to try making sparkling. I‘ll know in about a month. Made a second batch of Blueberry. Have a Island Mist Peach in primary fermentation now. Last week I made 3 gallons of Midnight Blackberry Port style wine. Found the recipe on I believe the recipe thread. I have a gallon of that with 3 pounds of dark cherries, 30 grams of oak and 16 ounces of brandy. Will blend together in a couple of weeks. ABV before fortifying is 18%.
 
Once I get this mead out of my primary I plan to do a Riesling kit and then a double noir on the heels of that. I visit family in Missouri several times each summer and I always bring home several lbs. of fresh berries-so plenty of mead. The 12 gallons of cider from last fall isn’t going to last, so I will probably double that next fall. I found an hbs in Downtown Denver that sells juice buckets every fall so probably 20 or so gallons of Cabernet and Pinot.
 
My local homebrew shop is starting pre-orders for grape must soon and I have enough space in my current brew to fit in a 6-gallon batch of wine. Not sure what type to go for though - keep going between a Malbec and a Pinot Grigio. I'm fond of dry, high ABV zins, but they might be difficult to pull off properly.
 
I'm fond of dry, high ABV zins, but they might be difficult to pull off properly.

Welcome to WMT. Making your described Zinfandel is actually no harder than any other red wine. Virtually any wine you make will have all the sugar fermented out, and thus "dry". So if you can get good Zinfandel grapes in your location, I'd say go for it. Then depending on Brix, look for a yeast strain that tolerates higher alcohol like Avante or EC1118 and you are in business.

I've made a Primitivo the last 4 years which is basically the same grape as Zinfandel and I can say there are no special secrets. Maybe one secret-give it a dose of a pectinase type enzyme to increase the color and body. Lots here including me use Lallzyme EX and EX-V for that purpose. Then just good wine making practices like nutritional adds for the yeast and you'll make the wine you want.

And here is some excellent free reading: Mine Making Guide
 
I am probably going to skip spring again. I haven't bottled fall yet, maybe soon for the whites. Going to be really busy grafting apples and making an attempt at grapes, the currants are helping themselves. Some berries to come, I opted to buy those. No time or space for fermentation now. I have too many empty bottles in the way as it is, may have to get rid of them.
 

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