Back in business for 2023!
So this is the "last chance" Zinfandel. These grapes were picked on Saturday in a beautiful Zinfandel vineyard in Amador county. The elevation there is right at 1800 feet and the birx hit 25 and it was time to go. So along with the other 8 tons of fruit, this was the last bin to be crushed. Only problem, the belt broke on the destemmer crusher and this final bin did not make the fermentation. The grapes spent all Saturday night in cold storage. The winery owner called and asked if I wanted the grapes because he was not going to use them, the sorting equipment was all clean and the crusher was not fixed yet. So, Sunday (yesterday) my wine making partner and I drove up there, sorted the bin by hand, and brought home about 400 pounds of Zinfandel. Anyway, while we sorted through the grapes, the predicted rain started and rained like crazy for about 2 hours. So these may be the last grapes to come out of this vineyard this year.
I will say, it's almost easier to pick the grapes, because you can reject the bad ones on the vine. Picking crews are after tonnage and pretty much pick whatever they can reach and so a good sorting is a must. Sorry, I realize that's a bad pun.
There was very little bird damage but there were a few raisin clusters that we tossed out, plus the usual assortment of spiders, earwigs and the like. Another friend of mine let me use has crusher destemmer (it does 6 tons per hour so things went very fast). After the crush we sat around in his back yard, sampled a few wines and had a great time. We both make a Syrah every year and so that was a good topic for discussion complete with samples!
Then I let things soak overnight with 20ppm of sulfite and Some Lallzyme EXV (I would have used EX but didn't have any). The brix measured this morning at 25.5. Having it go up overnight is pretty common with Zinfandel. I decided to use Avante yeast again because of it's strong performance and relatively high brix. I made 2 good starters and inoculated the must earlier today. So, I did not expect to be still making wine over Halloween but here we are.
So this is the "last chance" Zinfandel. These grapes were picked on Saturday in a beautiful Zinfandel vineyard in Amador county. The elevation there is right at 1800 feet and the birx hit 25 and it was time to go. So along with the other 8 tons of fruit, this was the last bin to be crushed. Only problem, the belt broke on the destemmer crusher and this final bin did not make the fermentation. The grapes spent all Saturday night in cold storage. The winery owner called and asked if I wanted the grapes because he was not going to use them, the sorting equipment was all clean and the crusher was not fixed yet. So, Sunday (yesterday) my wine making partner and I drove up there, sorted the bin by hand, and brought home about 400 pounds of Zinfandel. Anyway, while we sorted through the grapes, the predicted rain started and rained like crazy for about 2 hours. So these may be the last grapes to come out of this vineyard this year.
I will say, it's almost easier to pick the grapes, because you can reject the bad ones on the vine. Picking crews are after tonnage and pretty much pick whatever they can reach and so a good sorting is a must. Sorry, I realize that's a bad pun.
There was very little bird damage but there were a few raisin clusters that we tossed out, plus the usual assortment of spiders, earwigs and the like. Another friend of mine let me use has crusher destemmer (it does 6 tons per hour so things went very fast). After the crush we sat around in his back yard, sampled a few wines and had a great time. We both make a Syrah every year and so that was a good topic for discussion complete with samples!
Then I let things soak overnight with 20ppm of sulfite and Some Lallzyme EXV (I would have used EX but didn't have any). The brix measured this morning at 25.5. Having it go up overnight is pretty common with Zinfandel. I decided to use Avante yeast again because of it's strong performance and relatively high brix. I made 2 good starters and inoculated the must earlier today. So, I did not expect to be still making wine over Halloween but here we are.
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