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- Feb 9, 2010
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I have been noticing the smell of wine in my winery.
OK, that sounds rather stupid, but I am NUTS about keeping things clean. With all vessels sealed, and all surfaces scrubbed and wiped down, one would be hard pressed to smell any hint of wine in the winery.
So, I take it as a cause for concern when I smell wine.
I had just finished crushing my Chilean last week, and had just given it a racking. Still having some energy left, I started a top to bottom cleaning of my winery. If it has a surface, it got hosed down and wiped.
Its a good thing too! I discovered that a bit of counter had pressed a fermentation trap into a barrel. This caused some wine to overflow through the trap and onto the barrel. I gave the outside of the barrel a good scrubbing, and replaced the stopper and trap.
When all was finished and put away. No more wine smell!
With all of that cleaning, and the weather being rainy and in the upper 50's, I was very cold, wet, and tired. That is probably a rite of passage. Just like how you know you are a winemaker when you find yourself fighting fruit flies, you also know you are a winemaker when you are cold, wet, and tired!
Is the smell of wine a reason to panic for anyone else?
OK, that sounds rather stupid, but I am NUTS about keeping things clean. With all vessels sealed, and all surfaces scrubbed and wiped down, one would be hard pressed to smell any hint of wine in the winery.
So, I take it as a cause for concern when I smell wine.
I had just finished crushing my Chilean last week, and had just given it a racking. Still having some energy left, I started a top to bottom cleaning of my winery. If it has a surface, it got hosed down and wiped.
Its a good thing too! I discovered that a bit of counter had pressed a fermentation trap into a barrel. This caused some wine to overflow through the trap and onto the barrel. I gave the outside of the barrel a good scrubbing, and replaced the stopper and trap.
When all was finished and put away. No more wine smell!
With all of that cleaning, and the weather being rainy and in the upper 50's, I was very cold, wet, and tired. That is probably a rite of passage. Just like how you know you are a winemaker when you find yourself fighting fruit flies, you also know you are a winemaker when you are cold, wet, and tired!
Is the smell of wine a reason to panic for anyone else?