Wine Tonite!

Long considered the blue-collar workhorse of the winemaking process, operating sub rosa, yeasts have recently taken center stage in many conversations about wine and the desire to emphasize the expression of vineyard apart from human and technological influence. At the essence of the debate is the decision to inoculate with commercial yeast or to allow [...]

Continuing on with the Wine Project, the fermentation came to a halt last Sunday and I racked the free-run and pressed juice to a glass carboy.  It was a tough decision because I was in what I felt was the danger zone between not being potentially dry (or all sugars fermented to alcohol) and the [...]

(no relation of this topic to the title… I just had the Foghat song running through my skull for some reason)  It’s now Day 5 (Day 3+ of fermentation) and the yeast are really doing their thing.  You can see from the chart below that the temperature has risen quickly to around 75F (23.9 C) [...]

It’s day 2 of fermentation (day 4 of the whole operation), but who’s counting?  One of the main pointers I ever got about making wine at home is “BE PATIENT” which is very tough for me.  I am definitely an instant gratification kind of guy.  So, I waited patiently as my frozen cabernet sauvignon must [...]

Continuing my wine project, I am on day #2.  It’s taken that long just for the frozen must to thaw out and reach a temperature of 56 degrees fahrenheit.  Once it had thawed I added some sulfur dioxide to prevent oxidation as I waited for the must to reach optimal temperature for fermentation (~57-60 F [...]