Another Harvest at St. Francois Vineyard

[winemaker_3352]

Heading down to St. Francois Vineyard again for another harvest!! Picking seyval grapes this time.

Will probably be very cool in the morning - think the temps we be in the 50's!!

 

[winemaker_3352]

Back with 160#'s of seyval grapes - brix is 20 and acid level was at about .90.

Pretty good - i also had the pleasure to meet countrygirl while i was down .

 

[countrygirl]

yaah jon!!!
it was great to meet you. ed and leslie were great! what a lovely vineyard! loved their dog named norton!
i'm gonna make another post about today, lol, as it was an ADVENTURE!!
keep us posted on your wine. i'll be learning from ya!

 

[winemaker_3352]

Sounds great - and it was a pleasure meeting you. They are a nice bunch down there. I will definitely be going back there next year for more grapes!!

Did you get 80#'s of chardonel? Those grapes were very nice.

 

[countrygirl]

i think i heard ed say their containers hold avg. of 30# grapes and each one of those fit nicely in my 10 gal. totes. so somewhere between 75 and 90 #. my back says it was 100# lol. the juice extractor i bought didn't come with a grape spiral, u have to order it seperately, so it jammed up within the first batch using the tomato spiral, then i tried the bucket method and got a couple of gallons before my bucket broke
(image bucket instead of computer, lol)
so, i wound up drilling holes through two buckets (hope there is no blue plastic in my wine, lol), positioning it over my 5 gal. fermentor and crushing the rest by HAND...
hubby has graciously suggested i get a press, so i will be shopping around for next year!
btw, after reading about some grape musts starting on their own, i did not wait 24 hours before pitching yeast...i did that before i went to bed and this morning i have about 1/2 inch foam, but no noise.

 

[countrygirl]

aunt rica picking grapes.

 

[countrygirl]

bountiful harvest!

 

[grapeman]

Thanks for sharing the experience and the pictures. Those lugs do hold around 30 pounds when good and full. Hope your wine turns out great.

 

[countrygirl]

Thanks for sharing the experience and the pictures. Those lugs do hold around 30 pounds when good and full. Hope your wine turns out great.

i hope so, too, grapeman. we appreciate your expertise in this field, btw!
tonight, the foam is a couple of inches thick and very loud

 

[winemaker_3352]

Yup - my seyval's are foaming too.

SG was 1.090 and acid was .80!!

 

[countrygirl]

Yup - my seyval's are foaming too.

SG was 1.090 and acid was .80!!

i ordered an acid kit in preparation for this (shoulda ordered a press, duh)
and my acid was on the low side, .65? (shoulda wrote it down, duh)
i added 1/2 tsp. acid blend and my s.g. was 1.095 and , gasp, i did add a little water to get to 1.090. i was afraid it might be rocket fuel
ed said the brix on the chardonnel was 23
i've mopped my utility room floor twice and there are still sticky spots after the great grape crushing escapade, lol

 

[winemaker_3352]

1.095 would have been fine - about 13.5% - mine was at 1.095 and i left it there.

The crusher and press definitely make it easier - check craigslist - that is where i got my crusher - $50!!

 

[countrygirl]

1.095 would have been fine - about 13.5% - mine was at 1.095 and i left it there.

The crusher and press definitely make it easier - check craigslist - that is where i got my crusher - $50!!

thanks jon, i will check there. i'm an ebayer, but i'll check craigslist, too!