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| Destemmer-Crusher makes the job easy |
It's a good thing we're not doing this commercially. We knew it was going to be a bad year. We picked a week later than last year and had less than half the yield, only 51 lbs (23 kg) of grapes by weight compared with 53 kg last year. It yielded almost 6 litres of must. The sweetness is perfect with Brix of 21.8 and pH of 4, so nice acidity.
One refractometer has a Specific Gravity scale and the Brix equivalent in SG was 1.090. The SG reading by hydrometer was 1.089, so the scales are equivalent. Good to know.
The destemmer/crusher worked better than expected and took just a few minutes to process all the grapes. Unfortunately, not all the grapes were crushed. They also did not all get pressed as there were a few whole grapes in the dregs, mostly small ones, but still a waste.
I dissolved ~5 g of Venoform Nutrisal yeast nutrient in 160 ml of 50:50 mix of must and room temperature boiled water (no chlorine which kills yeast) and added 5 g of Young's White Wine Yeast. We went off to have some lunch and when we returned the yeast was bubbling nicely, so I mixed it into the must.
We filled a 5-litre demijohn and fitted a bubbler. We had a small 1-litre bottle and the must volume didn't quite reach the neck so I mixed 6 tablespoons caster sugar with 1/2 pint boiled water and topped off the small jug. It too is fitted with a bubbler. Now we have to stir them every day for the next 5 to 7 days until the first stage of fermentation is complete and we prepare to rack.
In the meantime, I'll keep checking the Rondo. The weather is supposed to turn and it has already gotten very dull. Not very hopeful for this year's red.
The Chardonnay do not have any clusters that I could find and the Pinot Noir are nowhere near ready to pick. Surprisingly, the Albarino vines are looking better than they have in the past.
I heard from a friend in the Azores that yields are way down there as well. C'est la vie.
For good measure, and so we wouldn't have to clean the equipment again, we pressed some delicious apple juice from our own apples.
By the way, White Seahorse will be our white wine label. We have Red Boar Cidre, and Black Swan reds as well.
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| Demijohn and a small bottle of Solaris |
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| To read the SG, I had to remove the foam |
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| Proving the yeast |
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| Hydro press at work |
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| Crusher destemmer output |
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| Spent stems in the bin for the compost |
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