Day 1: September 15, 2007

Joe and I drove the truck out to Deer Creek Vineyard in Elk Grove this morning to get the cabernet sauvignon grapes. When we got there, the crushing was well underway. Most people were getting 125-250lbs. We talked to the vineyard manager and showed him our macrobin and said we ordered 1000. We got about half of that from the grapes that had been picked earlier, but then they ran out of grapes and had to send the pickers out for more.

Eventually we got our 1000 lbs and drove back to Sac.

Initial Readings:

23.8 Brix
21 ppm free SO2
pH 3.23
TA .7
Temp: 76 degrees F

When we got back, we added 17g Potasium Metabisulphite, which raised the must up to about 35-40ppm free SO2.

We split the must into 4 44 gallon primary fermenters and brought them into the winery. The fermenters were too full at this point, so we moved must from each of the 4 into a 5th. Each primary has about 30 gallons in it.

We tested and recorded the brix and pH of each fermenter separately.

Additions:

125g Lalvin D254 yeast (25g / fermenter)
13.5g Pectic Enzyme (2.7g / fermenter)
Superfood…I think 12.5g / fermenter…does anyone remember exactly?

Thanks to Zach, Joe, Kevin, Margaret, and Sam for helping out!

Later, we had an incredible BBQ (thanks to Piper and Dave for the food!) and drank an incredible amount of wine.

One thought on “Day 1: September 15, 2007”

  1. Yes, I think your Superfood number is correct. It might have beem 12.4, but I’m not sure whether that small of a difference is important or not. Joe might remember better because he was measuring it out.

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