Pressing the Rondo

The Rondo stopped bubbling so we decided to finally press it and transfer it to demijohns. We moved the must from the steel fermentation tank into the hydropress. We used the yellow buckets (sterilised) to collect the juice. After the juice stopped flowing on its own, Alex activated the hydropress. We collected one full bucket of juice. 

Very dark red. Nice scent. Bland taste. I tested the Brix and it came in at 9 but quite unclear. Specific gravity came in at 1.000. That shouldn't be. We transferred into two demijohns using the stainless steel funnel and a large glass measuring cup (all sterilised). The room temperature went from 20.7 to 21.8 while we worked. 

While cleaning up, we ran out of hot water, so we'll have another round of clean-up tomorrow. 

The weather yesterday was filthy and today lovely. Cool this morning -- almost nippy -- so we collected many of the vulnerable potted plants and transferred them to the polytunnel. The temperature hit 13.2C today compared with 16.5C yesterday and 18C for days before that. Unnatural.  

The vineyard is looking very colourful as all of the red grape vines have turned lovely colours. Curiously, the white vines remain green. 

The clear glass bottles arrived by courier today. The box was ripped and smashed but miraculously the bottles are intact. The green bottles and corks should arrive Friday.  Alex is next undertaking learning how to use the new equipment, especially the bottle washer and the heater. We won't be bottling for a while as we have to rack at least once, but I'm thinking of racking twice because the juice is quite cloudy. We'll see.