Worst year EVAH

Harvested on Monday the 25th.  I almost didn't make wine this year.  I thought I'd treated the vines enough to avoid the black spot mildew...NOPE.

The grapes looked like shit and most had raisined. Had to add water to plump them up a bit.  Damn that hurts to have to add water.

I thought I did so good with my trellis management this year. Look how much good it did...

Brix was at 21 (couldn't wait any longer).  Innoculated on Tuesday the 26th with Assmanshausen and added some Fermaid K.

Press 2013

Another record set.  We got nearly 8 gallons of wine.  Obviously this will go down after we do first racking off the gross lees, but it should still mean between 6 and 7 gallons of finished wine when we're all done with racking and ready to bottle.

And who knows, I may even bottle before September, although it did result in some really really clean, clear wine.

In Vino Veritas

We're at zero brix

It may have happened yesterday, but I was a little preoccupied with the big giant hole in my tooth and getting a root canal after a night of zero, none, nothing, nada sleep.

So looks like we'll let it go bone dry and press it on Saturday after Julia's soccer.

Sorry Dorothy.  I know you wanted to be there but you're in San Diego and the wine can't wait until you get back.  Maybe next year.

2012 Label

7 brix

Added more Fermaid-K (about 1.25 tsp)

2012 FINALLY in the bottle

OK, partially out of total laziness and partially out of fear that I'd crack open the carboy (big water jug looking thing) and smell rotten eggs and 2012 would be pretty much shot.

But nope...everything worked out fine.

I will say this.  I do not think I will ever let the grapes get much above 22 brix.  23.5 pushing 24 is just too high (IMHO) for Pinot and I think that 2012 tastes a little "hot" (meaning too much alcohol).  I'm willing to bet some of our friends will say such a thing isn't possible (a nod to Jennifer, Dorothy and Steve) but I'm thinking yes.

Luckily the 2013 started life at 21, so we should be better off at a about 12.5% (25 proof for you scotch drinkers out there) versus 14% (or a little higher) for the 2012.

In Vino Veritas

It's a wine transfusion

13.5 brix

It's been 4 days and we're down nearly 8 points. At this rate we should be dry sometime after Sunday.

...and this year is not slow

So last year, in the panic of downy mildew, I had to spray sulfur everywhere.  And the opinions of the fine folk at The Beverage People notwithstanding, I went from 3 years of wicked fast fermentations with a yeast that is usually referred to as "slow starter" (it usually takes a week), to a nearly 2 week stalled fermentation (in years past I'd not had to use yeast food).

This year, in under 24 hours, I've got a huge cap floating in the fermenter, and I'm having to do punch-downs.  In other words, back to normal.  I used a non-sulphur based "organic" (not sure how much I trust that whole "organic pesticide" thingy) fungicide and I had minimal powdery mildew, none on the grapes, and I'm on track for another wicked fast fermentation.

Altho this year, I'm still gonna use some Fermaid.

*** 1 level tsp. is ~4.5 gm ***

Update: 19:30 PDT -- Put about 1.5 tsp Fermaid-K into the must.  I'm guessing I have about 9 or 10 gallons of must, so about 6 or 7 gallons of juice, and it's recommended to do 1gm / gal near inoculation (I waited 24 hours to see what would happen on its own) and then another 1gm / gal near the 2/3 finish point (so in my case about a brix of 7)

Harvest and Crush 2013

Another September has come upon us, and that means crush at the Borin house.  This year, we shattered all records with...

104 pounds!!

I credit the new trellis I put in place.  And I started out late getting it up, so I did a crappy job of trellis management this year, so I am hopeful for even more fruit next year.

I measured the brix with the refractometer and got nearly 18 a week and a half ago.  But apparently, when I did a semi-random grab of grapes to mix together to get some juice, I must have skipped or overlooked the vines closest to the house, which this year were a little under-ripe.  My final brix was barely 21, so we're looking at about 12% - 12.5% alcohol.  Apologies to anyone looking to tie one on using Julia's Pinot.

Inoculated after 5 hours with 10g of Assmanshausen.  After last years stuck fermentation, I will hit it with some Fermaid (yeast food) on Tuesday and probably some more on Thursday.

In Vino Veritas!

Julia snapped this one all on her own

My little vigneron wandering amongst her vines

She took this one too (explains the series of pictures with me bent at the waist.  Otherwise it would be shots of my knees)

Pinot Meunier on the left, Pinot Noir on the right.  My Noir clone (UCD 23 aka Mariafeld) is really loose clustered clone.  Notice how tight the Meunier cluster is.  Very traditional

This is what you get when your kid starts goofin' when you want a serious "Kiss the grapes like you love them" shot

We have wine!  (OK, we have a big vat of grape juice)

The final outcome.

Well, much to Kim's horror, this year she actually paid attention to what was in the grapes.  The snail grossed her out (at least I found it and pulled it out before I crushed it).  The horde of spiders that ran silently screaming for their lives really freaked her out.  I'm sure that more than one spider corpse will help flavor this year's vintage.