I built a pergola next to my house and started four Syrah plants from root-stock four years ago. Last year I had my first meaningful crop. In our area, grapes are ready for harvest in late August and the outside temperatures remain very high through October. So we harvested, crushed, and froze the must until early November before starting fermentation *. After about two or three weeks fermentation was complete and the wine was transferred to a three gallon glass carboy, plus an additional one gallon container. I added a package of oak chips for flavor experimentation. It was racked once after about a month, then again in early February. The wine is now clear with a little sediment still. The flavor is developing nicely. I've now used about 2/3 of the one gallon container to top-up the main carboy (topped-up the small carboy with glass marbles). One more racking and top-up will about exhaust my small carboy, which would be OK.
Should I think about doing a third racking? Or is it getting to be time to bottle? Advice appreciated.
* After talking with a couple of commercial wine makers in my area, they tell me that they ferment their red wines at fairly high temps, so probably won't delay fermentation this year.
Should I think about doing a third racking? Or is it getting to be time to bottle? Advice appreciated.
* After talking with a couple of commercial wine makers in my area, they tell me that they ferment their red wines at fairly high temps, so probably won't delay fermentation this year.
