Crushed it yesterday!

[JohnT]

So, I had a busy weekend...

Back story: In the 11th hour, my grape supplier (Corrado's) called to tell me that they were not getting any Chilean grapes this year. I did manage to find another supplier (Gino Pinto), but they were much further away.

My weekend:

On Friday, after work, I raced over to my brother's house to pick up his van. Emptied it and swept it out. On the way home, I picked up a large pizza. I did not realize how hungry I was! Between myself and the wife, we polished off the entire pie!

I did not get a whole lot of sleep in Friday night. I mostly tossed and turned thinking about the 5 hours of driving I had to do in the morning. I always get excited the day before I pick up a load of grapes. This time, I had more to worry about. I was driving my brother's van, had that long drive, to a place I have never been to, and, on top of that, to a supplier I have never dealt with before (Gino Pinot). Seeeeeesh, what could possibly go wrong??

On Saturday, I was out the door by 6:30am. With a pit stop for some breakfast (Garden state parkway food is every bit as bad as you could imagine), I ended up getting there by 8:30. With the GPS, it really was a simple drive.

Met with Mike (I am guessing Mike Pinto?) and took an instant liking to the guy. After a quick look a the grapes (no tell tale signs of them being shriveled up, soft, or moldy) I asked him if I could increase my order. I had originally ordered a total of 44 cabernet and 8 merlot. I figured this to come to around 250 liters. Since it was going into a 300 liter tank, I figured that I had the room in the tank for more! I upped my order there on the spot and he was all to happy to accommodate me!

In the end, I got another 10 crates. This comes to 1116 pounds of grapes that should yield around 292 liters of finished wine. .....

 

[JohnT]

continued....

The drive back was, again, a long but simple drive. Before leaving, Mike shook my hand and said that he hoped I would keep them in mind for the fall crush. He explained that he actually owned his own vineyards just south of Nappa and supplies a lot of the wineries in the tri state area with supplemental grapes. He said that he sends grapes as far as the north fork of long island.

He went further to say that he could arrange to have grapes sent to one of the wineries closer to me, where I could pick them up and not have to drive so far. This gave me a lot to think about during the long drive back to my winery..

Once back, I did some last minute cleaning of equipment. I had to scrub out the primary, totes (used for sorting), and a number of other items. Once I got that complete, My nephew showed up and we (together) started cooking the meat sauce for the crush day lasagna (in true Hungarian tradition, we opted for Italian food for crush). Made a HUGE post of sauce just crammed with meat.

While the sauce was cooking, we repaired to the basement to watch The Godfather. My nephew, my Godson, never saw the movie so we made the plan to watch both Godfather 1 and 2. The amazing thing is that by the time Godfather 1 was over (3 hours), the sauce was ready.

We assembled 2 lasagnas, one for the freezer and one for after crush. We took care to save some of the sauce which I served over spaghetti for eating while we watched Godfather 2.

Stuffed, and exhausted, went to be around 11pm. It did my heart good to host a Godson that treated my with such respect!!!

 

[dcbrown73]

Great story.

Let me know when the wines ready and I will stop by for a glass.

 

[JohnT]

continued again....

On Sunday morning we crushed the grapes! although I waked at 4am, I did manage to get about 4 hours sleep. I put the coffee on and relaxed over a couple of cups.

One daylight came, I set up a small sorting line and the destemmer just outside the winery's doors.

I ended up with a crew of 5 (not including myself) and all kin folk (2 brothers, 1 niece, and 2 nephews). We started around 9am and had all the grapes crushed, all the equipment clean and put away by 11am. We had a lot of fun and I am happy to say that not a thing went wrong! All that lost sleep for nothing!

After clean up, we formed the chairs into a circle in the winery. I opened a 2007 Napa merlot, a 2010 Cab Franc, and a 2013 Barrel reserve. These were 3 of my better wines. From there, we did some tank tastings. 2015 is shaping up to be a good year.

At 12:30 we repaired to the dining room for lunch. Lasagna, garlic bread, and cesar salad. My younger brother's birthday was 5/11, so we got him a cake and sang to him. For my brother, it was unexpected and very much appreciated.

Once lunch was over, the crew left. It was, after all, Sunday and folks like to relax before another hellish week of work. By 2pm, all was quite, the dishes were washed, the kitchen and dining room were cleaned, and I relaxed in front of the TV watching a Leverage marathon.

The whole thing was like a blur!!!!

 

[JohnT]

Continued yet again

When all was said and done, I ended up with about 450 liters of must.

Here are the numbers:

- Brix: 23

- TA: .48 pre ferment adjustment of 35 grams of tartaric acid.

- added 39 gram pre-treatment of K-meta (50ppm)

- added an initial nutrient dose (of 24 grams of fermax and 110 grams of DAP).


My issue is the temperature of the must. It was 50 degrees coming out of the destemmer. I raised the temperature in the winery (it has it's own heat zone) to 75 degrees. By this morning, the temperature was 56. I hope to get it up to at least the low 60s by this evening (So I can pitch my yeast).

 

[JohnT]

Great story.

Let me know when the wines ready and I will stop by for a glass.

Any time DC!

 

[ibglowin]

So how many miles was it one way? I sorta calculated ~110 miles one way. Is that close? It takes 5 hours to go 110 miles in NJ!?!?!?!

I have to drive 400 miles one way to get my grapes!

I mostly tossed and turned thinking about the 5 hours of driving I had to do in the morning......

 

[NorCal]

Great planning, executed perfectly!

 

[JohnT]

So how many miles was it one way? I sorta calculated ~110 miles one way.

I was talking round trip.

It was not so much the drive but the combination of not knowing where I was going while driving a in a strange vehicle while hauling half a ton of cargo. I also did not know how the van would handle highways while loaded. I know I worry about nothing..

 

[Floandgary]

I was talking round trip.

It was not so much the drive but the combination of not knowing where I was going while driving a in a strange vehicle while hauling half a ton of cargo. I also did not know how the van would handle highways while loaded. I know I worry about nothing..

In that other world it's called "thinking ahead"!! I bet you don't like surprises either :<

 

[JohnT]

In that other world it's called "thinking ahead"!! I bet you don't like surprises either :<

I guess that I am always in fear of the "worst case scenario".

 

[JohnT]

One Final Note..

I do not do this often enough, but I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to my wife (my LOML).

Not only did she knock herself out getting the house "Home and Garden" clean, but she also did all of the grocery shopping. She also took charge of setting up for lunch, making the salad, putting the lasagna in the oven, making the garlic bread, and also picking a birthday cake up for my brother.

She also did most of the cleaning up after it was all over.

As a spouse of over 26 years, it is easy to neglect the efforts of my wife. Well, not this time! I am truly fortunate to have her.

 

[pgentile]

Glad to hear Gino Pinto's worked out for you. But I can understand your anxiety about the whole thing. 5 hours of driving, borrowed van, $1700+ of grapes from a new supplier and then the whole winery process. I have anxiety over my micro operation can't imagine how I would be with yours.

Racked off the gross lees yesterday and pitched MLB in my Carmenere from Gino's. Smell and taste are pretty darn good so far.

 

[JohnT]

Glad to hear Gino Pinto's worked out for you. But I can understand your anxiety about the whole thing. 5 hours of driving, borrowed van, $1700+ of grapes from a new supplier and then the whole winery process. I have anxiety over my micro operation can't imagine how I would be with yours.

Racked off the gross lees yesterday and pitched MLB in my Carmenere from Gino's. Smell and taste are pretty darn good so far.

I have been dealing with Corrado's for a long time (for at least 25 years) and they have always taken good care of me in the fall. Also, I am on a first name basis with Jimmy Corrado and most everyone that works there. There has been a level of trust that has developed and it would be difficult to toss that aside.

The trouble is that they seem to have a problem with Chilean grapes every 2 or 3 years. This is not the first time that they have cancelled on me. This is why I do not have any problem with dealing with Gino.

In fact, I think that I will make Gino's my "go to" supplier for Chilean from here on. I liked their operation, although it seemed a little smaller than I expected. I also expected to see a larger "show-room". The one they had only seemed to have a small amount of items. (Note: It might be that this was a second facility, used more for warehousing).

 

[JohnT]

Pitched yeast

Waaaaahoooo!

Last night, the temp of the must was 61 degrees, the low end of the operational range of RC212 (59 degrees to 86 degrees). Pitched 1/2 of my yeast (80 grams) last night.

I do not bother with a yeast starter. I just sprinkle the yeast on top of the must and let it sit overnight. I know that a yeast starter is better for the yeast, but simply adding the dry yeast is what I have always done, has become habit, and has never really given me any trouble (that I can tell).

The added benefit is that the warmest part of the primary is at the surface. The highest concentration of O2 is also at the surface. Adding a yeast culture would place the yeast deeper in the fermenter. Since this is going to be cooler, my thinking is that the yeast would have a tougher time kicking off. I may be off in my thinking, but it works for me.

I punched down this morning. The yeast has bloomed nicely and I am also noticing some decent color extraction.

I will add the other half of my yeast tonight after punching down.

 

[dcbrown73]

When you say punch down, are you referring to stirring the must and I suppose the foam cap that forms?

 

[Boatboy24]

Do you always add your yeast 1/2 at a time?

 

[JohnT]

When you say punch down, are you referring to stirring the must and I suppose the foam cap that forms?

Yes, although at this point it is just stirring. Fermentation has not yet begun and there really is no raft. I expect that there will be a defined raft this evening for me to "punch down" into the must.

I use a stainless steel punch down tool much like this...

 

[Jericurl]

This is a fun thread, please keep us updated on everything!

What a fun couple of days. I sure wish I was closer to an operation like that here. There is so much to learn when you can put hands on somewhere.

Also, I had no idea you had that kind of setup!

 

[JohnT]

Do you always add your yeast 1/2 at a time?

Not always.

This time around, since we are at the extreme low end of the temp zone, am going to pitch twice (just in case the first pitching does not take hold).

I do not want an extended cold soak here and want to get fermentation started just as soon as possible.

I know that this may be a big no-no, and that I run the risk of stressing the yeast, but I have used this technique in the past and had only positive results.