So I made my annual pilgrimage to visit my folks down in San Antonio over the weekend. Good visit but God awful hot and humid down there. I am just not equipped to deal with that anymore. Nor do I wish to try. I'll take thin dry air any day over a steam bath.....
So what happened while I was away from the winery for a few days? Well, I get home last night and after hugging my SWMBO and the Golden Retriever I went out to check on my babies and when I opened the door I immediately smelled wine........ "Ruh-roh" as Scobby-Doo used to say. Scanned the wine racks and all was well, went over to the carboys and immediately saw the problem........
If you recall, earlier this Spring I replaced ALL my airlocks with stoppers. Well, it was a very warm day on Sunday and my CC Showcase Merlot carboy stopper exploded out of the top. I have wine on the ceiling for goodness sakes...... Anyway the SWMBO is not real sure when this happened but she thinks she heard a "pop" on Sunday sometime so it appears to have been without a stopper for 24 hours........
I had around 2" room when these were topped off this Winter but I guess the gradual heating expansion caused the wine to swell to a point that the top finally blew off one of them. All the rest of the carboys were still sealed but there was ZERO headspace. I immediately cracked them all and drained a few inches and replaced the stoppers so I think I am OK.
What should I do now as far as the Merlot goes? Is it a total loss? Obviously not much headspace but it was open for a day (or more perhaps). I am going to give it a good stir and check the free SO2 levels and probably add another insurance dose at the minimum.
Anyone else ever have a top explode like this or is this just a dangerous byproduct of replacing the airlocks with stoppers..........???
To top it off, we dropped down to 32 degrees this AM!
I have a freeze alarm set for 34 degrees and it went off at 3:59AM so I knew there was no way it would hold till sunrise. Got up and gathered all the hanging baskets and threw blankets on top of everything. Got wash towels and covered all the baby grape vines.............
Its almost the end of May! Our last frost is usually May 7th so this is really, really out of the ordinary but its been a super cool/cold Spring here the whole time.
Anyways , I think your were right Al, you just can't leave the vineyard or winery safely till Winter!
So what happened while I was away from the winery for a few days? Well, I get home last night and after hugging my SWMBO and the Golden Retriever I went out to check on my babies and when I opened the door I immediately smelled wine........ "Ruh-roh" as Scobby-Doo used to say. Scanned the wine racks and all was well, went over to the carboys and immediately saw the problem........
If you recall, earlier this Spring I replaced ALL my airlocks with stoppers. Well, it was a very warm day on Sunday and my CC Showcase Merlot carboy stopper exploded out of the top. I have wine on the ceiling for goodness sakes...... Anyway the SWMBO is not real sure when this happened but she thinks she heard a "pop" on Sunday sometime so it appears to have been without a stopper for 24 hours........
I had around 2" room when these were topped off this Winter but I guess the gradual heating expansion caused the wine to swell to a point that the top finally blew off one of them. All the rest of the carboys were still sealed but there was ZERO headspace. I immediately cracked them all and drained a few inches and replaced the stoppers so I think I am OK.
What should I do now as far as the Merlot goes? Is it a total loss? Obviously not much headspace but it was open for a day (or more perhaps). I am going to give it a good stir and check the free SO2 levels and probably add another insurance dose at the minimum.
Anyone else ever have a top explode like this or is this just a dangerous byproduct of replacing the airlocks with stoppers..........???
To top it off, we dropped down to 32 degrees this AM!
I have a freeze alarm set for 34 degrees and it went off at 3:59AM so I knew there was no way it would hold till sunrise. Got up and gathered all the hanging baskets and threw blankets on top of everything. Got wash towels and covered all the baby grape vines.............
Its almost the end of May! Our last frost is usually May 7th so this is really, really out of the ordinary but its been a super cool/cold Spring here the whole time.
Anyways , I think your were right Al, you just can't leave the vineyard or winery safely till Winter!
