Operation Massa Family Red - Muscat-Alicante-Zinfandel

[mainshipfred]

Great post. The pics of the wine gutter looks interesting. Too bad it didn’t work out.

Good idea though huh!

 

[Ajmassa]

First pic you ever posted of your lab, I think.

Lol. Not exactly a “lab”. Furnished with yardsale & work freebies for now. I’ve got a rough vision of what I eventually want that I’ll be chipping away at tho. Lighting is next. Box of new hi hats just sitting there collecting dust. Stick around a few yrs and maybe you’ll see a finished product [emoji6]
When I met up with JohnT I really got a great example of how to make a space functional for winemaking. He also has outside access and separate bottle storage. Big plus.
Main issue I need to figure out is if I wanna incorporate bottle storage within the area or build elsewhere. Or both.

 

[mainshipfred]

Lol. Not exactly a “lab”. Furnished with yardsale & work freebies for now. I’ve got a rough vision of what I eventually want that I’ll be chipping away at tho. Lighting is next. Box of new hi hats just sitting there collecting dust. Stick around a few yrs and maybe you’ll see a finished product [emoji6]
When I met up with JohnT I really got a great example of how to make a space functional for winemaking. He also has outside access and separate bottle storage. Big plus.
Main issue I need to figure out is if I wanna incorporate bottle storage within the area or build elsewhere. Or both.

Probably don't have to tell you but if your making a temperature controlled room for bottle storage make it twice as big as you think. Aging carboys in there takes a lot of space. Mine is 4x6 and absolutely too small. This winter when my shop cools down I'll remove everything and enlarge mine.

 

[Ajmassa]

Great post. The pics of the wine gutter looks interesting. Too bad it didn’t work out.

Thanks. I’ll definitely rig something up proper for next year. It’s not exactly something to be done while the fruit is sitting there waiting to be crushed tho! I already had the gutter so I gave it the ol’ college try.
I Just couldn’t find the time to make it happen beforehand. But you can see what I had in mind. It was simply a $5 vinyl 10’ gutter as the trough. Now I’ll have time to do it right with at least 3” pvc I’m thinkin Whether I build a hopper to manually feed or a direct line is tbd.

 

[Ajmassa]

Somehow ended up with a wind drift in my cap. I dig it tho. Nice and strong 24 hours after pitching.
I’ve got a beginners white wine question. Haven’t fermented a white wine bucket in a few years. But I remember it looking more vigorous than this. And a small layer of foam. This one is just ever so delicately fizzing away. All is well with temp and SG drop. But in a certain light you can’t even tell there’s activity. That’s normal right?

 

[Johnd]

View attachment 51706
Somehow ended up with a wind drift in my cap. I dig it tho. Nice and strong 24 hours after pitching.
I’ve got a beginners white wine question. Haven’t fermented a white wine bucket in a few years. But I remember it looking more vigorous than this. And a small layer of foam. This one is just ever so delicately fizzing away. All is well with temp and SG drop. But in a certain light you can’t even tell there’s activity. That’s normal right?
View attachment 51707

They’re all a little different, doesn’t sound like anything to worry about, and it may pick up a bit in a bit more time.

 

[CDrew]

Your cab took off fast and looks good. The Avante yeast finished my ferment a day earlier than I had planned so be aware. You may be pressing on Friday.

What's in the barrel?

 

[Ajmassa]

Your cab took off fast and looks good. The Avante yeast finished my ferment a day earlier than I had planned so be aware. You may be pressing on Friday.

What's in the barrel?

Thanks for the heads up. After all it’s Not only the same strain, but a portion from the same bag! Thanks again for that.
Dosed nutrients and pitched the mlb tonight. As planned I innoculated 6gal of the “Family” Red as well- leaving the demi alone. Trying for some
1st hand MLF comparisons.
The barrel has ~1/3 of my Chilean Malbec from this past spring. I did the D80/254 combo and just blended. Will run all through eventually. It’s my 1st barrel. Super excited to keep it goin. Planning another for this cab too.

 

[Ajmassa]

Had a glass of the family red Muscat blend tonight. Pulled some to make room for mlb.
Taste and color is right on the money so far. My palate isn’t too refined- but I can pick out our family blend a mile away. It’s a good feeling to have a plan start coming to fruition.

 

[CK55]

Had a glass of the family red Muscat blend tonight. Pulled some to make room for mlb.
Taste and color is right on the money so far. My palate isn’t too refined- but I can pick out our family blend a mile away. It’s a good feeling to have a plan start coming to fruition. View attachment 51708

Nice one AJ. its looking really good!

 

[stickman]

You don't need any age on that, looks ready to drink to me!

 

[CK55]

The thing that surprises me is the color is really light, I had imagined that it would have been a bit darker.

 

[Craiger]

I've been enjoying reading about your journey with your family blend. I made a similar blend in 2016, it was from an old Papagni Guide to Home Grapes and Wine pamphlet I had sitting around. I just had a couple of slight variations to yours on mine: 25% each of Grenache, Zinfandel, Alicante, and Muscat. The other variation was that I did add my own yeast, but ironically I've been making wine for about 8 years and that was the first time I didn't go with a natural ferment. I thought the Alicante would really darken things up, by mine was a similar color to yours in that it was pretty light.

I hope it continues to go well with you! I love the tradition of wine making. It's cool when things like your family blend continue on.

 

[celladwella]

Transferred and pressed the other night. Final gravity is ~.996. I used my pvc ‘gajillion hole’r’ within a zip-tied nylon bag. Fastened a better base to the pipe this time. Could not have went any smoother. Got about 16gal pumping w/o needing to shift or adjust anything. Filled the demi and 1/4 of the 6.5gal carboy. Loaded skins. Couple more gal of free run. And about 1gal of press. *what was once a huge struggle, separating skins from wine, is now a cakewalk. Love that little DIY tool.
Much lighter color than expected. But as I finished working the demi had started to settle showing the color I anticipated. Looks like it will be higher than average lees loss too. We’ll see. Racking off in a couple days.
Everybody digs pictures. So here’s a few from pressing.
-1st pic is all the cleaning and prep work. Regardless of making an ideal sink setup- cleaning and prepping is still a huge pain in the ass!View attachment 51177

-A couple pics of the ‘gajillion hole’r’ at work.
View attachment 51178
View attachment 51179

-couple action shots of my press
View attachment 51180
View attachment 51181

-the yield
View attachment 51182

AJmassa5983

I love the idea of that gajillion hole r did you come up with that? You should try and sell that. I noticed your press is on casters? Doesn’t it slide when you crank it? Or do you have locking mechanisms on it.

 

[celladwella]

AJmassa5983

I love the idea of that gajillion hole r did you come up with that? You should try and sell that. I noticed your press is on casters? Doesn’t it slide when you crank it? Or do you have locking mechanisms on it.

Btw love this thread great story

Lou

 

[Ajmassa]

AJmassa5983

I love the idea of that gajillion hole r did you come up with that? You should try and sell that. I noticed your press is on casters? Doesn’t it slide when you crank it? Or do you have locking mechanisms on it.

I used castors with locks. It didn’t slide enough to be an issue. But the weight on the feet was bending the metal. I already removed em. Back to the drawing board to make it mobile w/o a full dolly.

And I’m not clever enough to come up with the gajillion holer. I first asked and learned of it in the link underneath. Seemed like everyone chimed in with their own versions. There’s another thread specific to the strainer but I couldn’t find it to post the link. Works even better when the cap is left in place.
https://www.winemakingtalk.com/index.php?threads/Separating-skins-for-transfer?.56798/

 

[Ajmassa]

I've been enjoying reading about your journey with your family blend. I made a similar blend in 2016, it was from an old Papagni Guide to Home Grapes and Wine pamphlet I had sitting around. I just had a couple of slight variations to yours on mine: 25% each of Grenache, Zinfandel, Alicante, and Muscat. The other variation was that I did add my own yeast, but ironically I've been making wine for about 8 years and that was the first time I didn't go with a natural ferment. I thought the Alicante would really darken things up, by mine was a similar color to yours in that it was pretty light.

I hope it continues to go well with you! I love the tradition of wine making. It's cool when things like your family blend continue on.

Thanks man. And that is pretty ironic about the yeast! Since I knew the wine well I anticipated the light color— and just like you and CK thought- it seems to defy logic. I really don’t know why. My best guess is that Muscat juice, even though a white, is pretty dense and doesn’t want to darken up that easy in spite of the Alicante.
Earlier in the thread @Bts made a great observation about Muscat also balancing the ph that helps make a DRed be the stress free wine of choice for so many.

 

[Ajmassa]

You don't need any age on that, looks ready to drink to me!

Right?! It’s already pretty clear 2 weeks removed from gross lees. Gonna go back to our old tradition of the “Christmas barrel tasting”. (Except the barrel part) I hope it continues to improve. Currently loaded with co2.


At 6:00am this morning the Cabernet was rockin and rolling- cap was like 7” or 8” thick!

 

[celladwella]

I used castors with locks. It didn’t slide enough to be an issue. But the weight on the feet was bending the metal. I already removed em. Back to the drawing board to make it mobile w/o a full dolly.

And I’m not clever enough to come up with the gajillion holer. I first asked and learned of it in the link underneath. Seemed like everyone chimed in with their own versions. There’s another thread specific to the strainer but I couldn’t find it to post the link. Works even better when the cap is left in place.
https://www.winemakingtalk.com/index.php?threads/Separating-skins-for-transfer?.56798/

I plan on putting some anchors in the garage concrete to secure it that way. I noticed in one of your basement pics you have the same demijohn I have the blue/ grey wicker basket is that one with a spigot? I just picked up a used one and I have no idea if I can be taken out of the basket it has a white plastic tube underneath curious if you knew anything about it. Also do you use the spigot on there I was thinking of maybe adding a small piece of clear tubing to it.

 

[sour_grapes]

Since I knew the wine well I anticipated the light color— and just like you and CK thought- it seems to defy logic. I really don’t know why. My best guess is that Muscat juice, even though a white, is pretty dense and doesn’t want to darken up that easy in spite of the Alicante.

I also thought it would be darker due to the Alicante, but, I just calculated that (by starting weight) it was 45% Muscat. That may be enough to explain it.