Wine not?

We processed the grapes by hand and got half a bowl of white and a big pot full of red. They were delicious by the way!

We crushed the grapes with the Mouli and got a glass full of green juice from the Solaris, which we drank. We got a jar full of must from the Rondo which Alex topped off with a little water and some yeast dissolved in 3/4 cup of boiled lukewarm water. The must is thick and we couldn't put it in a 5L demijohn, so we used my 2L apple cider vinegar jar and it promptly overflowed overnight. We then spilt it into two jars with plastic pull-on lids which let the air escape. 

The only good news is that the Brix measurement by reflectometer is precisely 20. 

How do farmers do it year after year?

Brix at 19!

The Rondo is getting close to harvest. The grape juice Brix tested at 19 today so the sugar content is almost there. My pH measuring device has arrived, but I didn't measure that yet. I will in the next two days. Alex hung CDs in the vineyard today to ward off the grape-thieving birds.

We had fog yesterday morning and heavy rain overnight. We have weather advisories in place for thunderstorms, and we had thunder yesterday evening but I did not see lightning. Weather conditions conducive to the spread of potato blight will develop in many areas Tuesday through to Thursday (September 6th to 8th). I suppose that means the grape crop can be affected as well. 

The apple crop this year is the best we've ever had. Pressing apple juice will be a priority for this week. So far I've made apple concentrate from the early fallen apples -- delicious, crabapple and rose hip jelly, and apple sauce. I made tomato sauce and tomato soup and need to make more sauce. The blackberries are ripe and blackberry jam will be in the making. But I need to find time to make lots of apple stuff. Plyatsok is next on the list.  But the eating apples off the big tree are the best apples I've ever eaten; their skin is dark red in colour. Beautiful!

Grape testing

I tested a bunch of grapes that had turned deep red and got a Brix reading of 14. Since the optimal sugar content for red wine is Brix 22, we have a little time left before we harvest. I will take readings every other day for the next week and daily after that. 

The white grapes seem far behind the red Rondo. The photo coming up is of Chardonnay. Brix should reach 20 if it's to be wine. Not sure what will happen. 

The next two are Solaris. They are on the younger vines. The older vines didn't do much. Weird. But it's possible veraison has begun there. I will test them next time, but there won't be much of a harvest. 

The two coming up are Pinot Noir. Some of the vines seems to be infected with something - looks like powdery mildew to me. Others look fine. There are no Albarino grapes coming. 

The roses in the garden are all looking good, so we don't have a major fungal intrusion. 

This page is really good at helping to identify problems. 

The apple harvest is underway and the donkeys are loving the periodic small apple donations. It's a good year for apples. But we've lost our pear trees to disease. It's also our first harvest of hazelnuts. I am so excited. They were on  the younger of the two trees. Go figure. 

We have loads of Rondo grapes on the 5 vines we planted early on. Better start learning how to make wine. 

When to harvest?

The busiest and most crucial period in our vineyard has begun. I have seen grapes changing colour and so veraison is underway. But how do we know when is the optimal time to pick? And what should we be doing now to prepare for harvest?  

Most winegrowers in addition to the obvious signs, their “instinct”, and the interest of wild animals especially birds, also take into account measurements of sugar, tartaric acid (TA) as well as the pH of the grapes. Since these measurements differ for different varieties and the micro-climate of each vineyard, each winegrape grower should know her ripe grapes' optimal values. According to some literature, the optimal levels for red wines are Brix: 22, TA: 0.75, pH: 3,4; and for the white grapes Brix: 20, TA: 0.7 and pH: 3.2. This I will have to develop as I monitor annual harvests. Eventually, I'll need to buy a pH and TA tester. 

I have not tested before and, as a result, we lost our first tiny harvest to birds, our second harvest was spot on and our third harvest was too early. So I finally bought a refractometer, one of the most common tools for winegrowers to measure the amount of sugar in the grapes. I have used it to measure the sugar content at the various stages of wine maturation and it's pretty easy. What I need to do is start measuring now so that I have an indicator of increasing sugar content. Here's a good article to refresh knowledge about how to read a refractometer and more. 

Aside from monitoring grape ripeness, I will also be monitoring the weather and the appearance of diseases and pests. Botrytis becomes especially problematic after the grapes attain 8% sugar content. As we are an organic and natural vineyard without use of pesticides or other chemicals, I will have to remove anything that is affected immediately. That requires daily vigilance in the vineyard from now until harvest. 

I'll have to prepare all the tools and equipment as well and clear space for working. We really need a shed for the winemaking, as we've outgrown the house. 

Meanwhile, Spain has reported its earliest harvest ever. 

Stalled fermentation

The wine after racking

The red wine (Rondo) had stopped bubbling so we assumed it had stopped fermentation. The sediment had settled nicely so we decided to rack it and naturally measured the Specific Gravity and Brix. Lo and behold, the SG was1.02 and the Brix reading was 14. Way too sweet for a dry wine, which was our objective. We tasted it and, although a lovely colour, aroma, and taste, definitely too sweet. 

So it was back to the book to determine what can stall fermentation. It turns out lots of things can stall fermentation. (p51 of First Steps in Winemaking lists at least 8 possible causes.) I didn't want to add sugar water as it was too sweet and I don't like the idea of diluting wine. One of the suggestions was to add more yeast. So I dissolved one level tsp of yeast nutrient in 1 cup of warm previously boiled water and added in one level tsp of brewer's yeast. I added one cup to each of the three gallon jugs of wine after racking. That topped off the container perfectly after racking and now one of the demijohns has already started bubbling. I am hopeful to complete the fermentation. 

1.02 SG

The white wine, which got the sugar water addition, is not doing much of anything. We might have to rack that again and do the same. 

Alex decanting wine left behind

The sediment

Correcting the sugar content

Looks like we messed up. 

Our red must has tested at just over 1.008 on the hydrometer and 5 on the Brix scale. That won't get us to the right alcohol content - too low. We should have added sugar to the must at the first stage but we didn't.

When making wine, the Start Gravity should be 1.070 (normal finished ABV will be 10.5%) to 1.090 (normal finished ABV will be 13%). Finish Gravity should be 0.990 (for dry wines) to 1.005 (for sweet wines).

Alex made a simple sugar syrup dissolving sugar in boiled water. We have to wait for it to cool to room temperature. 

Now we have to figure out how much syrup to add. Because I had to dilute the sugar solution by half to get the hydrometer to read the SG, the specific gravity of the syrup is 1.110 x 2  or 1.220. 

So to increase the SG to where the potential alcohol would be sufficient, we'd have to add 40 oz sugar per gallon or 2.5 lbs per gallon. That would be 1 l of water or 1.5 l of syrup. (Alex did the maths.)

Just as a note to self:  3 kg water plus 3 kg sugar = 1 demijohn.

So we expanded our two demijohns to three with the sugar syrup and must (stirred to keep the yeast equal) divided equally among the three. I tested the SG of the resulting must and it read SG 1.070. That should get us to over 9% ABV. 

Curiously, I just measured the SG of the Solaris must, and it, too, reads 1.008. Not surprising as it started out at the exact same SG as the Rondo must. So we'll have to repeat the procedure for the white. 

So we have 1.5 l of Solaris must, measured by weight. So if we need 40 oz sugar per 3.78 l above, we need:

40/3.78 = x/1.5 = 15.9 or 16 oz of sugar. We added 16 oz of sugar dissolved in 16 oz of water to the 1.5 l of must and essentially doubled the volume. The SG read 1.082, a little higher than the red but perfectly fine. 

Let's hope we have restarted the fermentation. At least we now have 1/3 more wine to bottle. 

Here are 10 more things that can go wrong in fermentation. 

https://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/