Solaris racked today

 

The Solaris wine had stopped bubbling and was clearing nicely. So, we opted to rack it today. Naturally, we had a taste of the wine and it was good. Dry, not overly fruity. Easy on the palate and quite a pleasant almost citrus finish. We used some from the smaller bottle to top off the demijohn. Rather pleased with the outcome. 

Meanwhile, Hurricane Kirk, which formed in the lower Atlantic and took a direct northerly route, heading straight for us at first, veered right when a low stalled directly to our west, and is now passing over the Azores. Unusually, the US NHC cone has it glancing off the northwestern edge of Spain before it heads to France, Germany and Denmark. We've never seen an extratropical storm passing so far inland on the continent and maintaining storm status. 

In Florida, they are preparing for their second major hurricane in less than two weeks. Helene was catastrophic in Florida wiping out entire communities and travelled far inland over western Georgia, SC and NC causing unprecedented flooding. Milton is a category 5 and is expected to double in size before landfall over the Tampa Bay area where a million people are under evacuation orders. Huge swaths of Florida will be underwater and the eyewall is expected to stay intact all the way across the state, wreaking havoc on the other side as well. 

A study published earlier this year suggests that the Saffir-Simpson scale of 1-5 is no longer adequate for a world facing climate change effects.