My wine "to do" list is growing...lol

[Pumpkinman]

My wine to do list is growing, I think that I need to break it up into several different days:

Finally got around to adjusting my wine yesterday based on the Vinmetrica results, 8 batches down, 4 more to go. Going to try to back sweeten 12 gallons of Catawba today, bottling in a few days to a week.

I need to rack and stabilize my Montepulciano, Brunello, Barolo and Valpolicella from this past fall, these are the juice buckets that I added 9-10 lbs of fresh Sangiovese grapes to and are amazing! These will get rotated into the barrels in 6 months, for 6 months.

Sometime between now and April I need to rack the 4 batches of wine I have in my barrels, Chilean Cab Sav, Chilean Malbec (both Chilean from last spring), Amarone (2012) and Montepulciano (April 2013) back into carboys, clean the barrels (this should prove interesting, due to the cool temps in the cellar, these wine have been dropping wine diamonds in the barrels) and rack the Sangiovese (Lanza Vineyard) & Cabernet Sauvignon (Yakima Valley) from this past fall into the barrels for at least 6 months.

I'll need to bottle the Above mentioned wine soon after racking them over to carboys.

The Sangiovese Rose (2nd run) is just about ready to be bottled, The Cab Sav Rose (2nd run) still needs more bottle time, this second run is as full bodied as some commercial cabs I've tasted.

I plan on making the following Chilean wine: 2 Moscato, 1 Pinot Grigio, Malbec from 4 or 5 lugs of grapes, I got the "OK" from my financial adviser to purchase a Crusher/Destemmer.

Just thinking about the amount of washing and sanitizing that I'll be doing makes me sick to my stomach...lol...Good thing I bought a gallon of Star San, I couldn't beat the price, and now I can sanitize the living daylights out of everything...MUHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA!

 

[ForzaItalia]

Wow Tom, all I can say is wow. Let me know if you need help....help drinking all that wine

 

[JohnT]

Tom,

I can't stand to see you suffer under the yoke of having too much wine. I think you need to lighten your load. Just say the word and I will be there to help. I would not do this for anybody, but since I consider you a good friend I feel it is my duty.

Congrats on the crusher/destemmer. What type are you getting?

If you liked bucket juice with some fresh grapes mixed in, you are gonna be abso-friggin-lutely blown away by 100% fresh grapes! It is a little more work, but well worth it!

 

[Pumpkinman]

Illario and JohnT, we are all within an hr and a half of each other, one day we should get together and swap a few bottles, and more importantly, drink a few!
The Sangiovese from Lanza Vineyards and the Cab from Yakima Valley are both from fresh grapes, I couldn't agree more, simply amazing!
I plan on making a few gallons of Super Tuscan with the Sangiovese, Cab and Merlot that a friend made and gave me, but we're still about 6-7 months away from that.
In the future, I can see myself buying fresh grapes almost exclusively, with the exception of a few white varieties, and maybe a bucket or two of Amarone, Brunello and Valpolicella that I'd add fresh grapes to.

 

[tonyt]

Sometime between now and April I need to rack the 4 batches of wine I have in my barrels . . . back into carboys, clean the barrels (this should prove interesting, due to the cool temps in the cellar, these wine have been dropping wine diamonds in the barrels).

I feel your pain. Recently I posted about getting wine diamonds for the first time in my barrel. Even on the Texas Gulf Coast it was cool enough in my kitchen for wine diamonds to form. It took considerable time and effort to get them out. I am sure some remained after 7 or 8 very hot rinses.

 

[Boatboy24]

I feel your pain. Recently I posted about getting wine diamonds for the first time in my barrel. Even on the Texas Gulf Coast it was cool enough in my kitchen for wine diamonds to form. It took considerable time and effort to get them out. I am sure some remained after 7 or 8 very hot rinses.

Could you use a carboy brush?

Tom: I feel your pain, though not nearly as much. I have a lot of racking and bottling to do before the Chilean invasion begins. That's a good thing though. Gotta replenish the supplies.

 

[Pumpkinman]

Jim,
The bottle brush Idea might be the key, I'll try it, I'd hate to have to clean it so much that I actually start removing some of that oak goodness with all the water.
Tony, how difficult were the diamonds to remove?

 

[JohnT]

Illario and JohnT, we are all within an hr and a half of each other, one day we should get together and swap a few bottles, and more importantly, drink a few!
The Sangiovese from Lanza Vineyards and the Cab from Yakima Valley are both from fresh grapes, I couldn't agree more, simply amazing!
I plan on making a few gallons of Super Tuscan with the Sangiovese, Cab and Merlot that a friend made and gave me, but we're still about 6-7 months away from that.
In the future, I can see myself buying fresh grapes almost exclusively, with the exception of a few white varieties, and maybe a bucket or two of Amarone, Brunello and Valpolicella that I'd add fresh grapes to.

I would totally be up for that!

 

[tonyt]

Jim,
Tony, how difficult were the diamonds to remove?

I rinsed by filling with a gallon or so of very hot water, rolling the barrel around, shaking it and emptying it. Lots of diamonds the first few rinses and less with each subsequent rinse. I did this 7 or 8 times till I only got less than 1/8 teaspoon of crystals the last couple times. I don't think I would have ever gotten them all out. This was the first time I have noticed any wine diamonds coming out of one of the barrels, this one is three years old. They may have been building up for a long time and the contrast of the cold environment and hot water may have dislodged them. I do think a carboy brush would be a great idea and perhaps I should get one. hahaha. I use a chamois type thing that attaches to my drill to clean carboys. That wouldn't work in a barrel.