2011 Harvest Complete

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(See below for an update - Pressing Complete)

Our day started at 6.30am for the 2011 wine grape harvest in our micro mini vineyard. After a really promising start to the season and then so many hiccups (too much rain, an attack of powdery mildew, honey eating birds breaking into the netting, fruit fly, and lots and lots more rain) our harvest turned out reasonably ok.

The process for the day ... pick ... destem ... crush ... put the grapes and must (juice) into the primary fermentation tank ... add some colour extracting (organic) enzymes ... plus a specific strain of yeast for the initial fermentation on the skins ... this will continue for about 4 to 5 days and then the grapes will be pressed and the skins discarded.

Also, as we progress, we take some measurements of sugar, SO2 and pH levels and see if any adjustments are required ... sugar = 22.65 brix which is a potential alcohol level of about 12.6%, plus pH level of 3.3 and SO2 at just under 35 parts per million. The only adjustment required was to bring the SO2 to 50 parts per million to ward off any bad microbes over the initial fermentation stage ... so all looked good on the technical side.

Once in the primary fermenter I added Lalvin 71B-1122 (saccharomyces cerevisiae) yeast, which promotes malo-lactic fermentation consumes 35%!o(MISSING)f malic acid, fermentation speed is very fast and very high sugar/alcohol yield.

The vineyard side of the process is now complete (except for pruning in mid-winter) and now the wine making side of the process takes over. The whole process is just ongoing, a continuing cycle ... from the vine to wine to the barrel to the bottle and back to the start again ... it is a process that brings you back to the cycle of the seasons and the will of the weather and the technical side of winemaking which is like a big chemistry experiment ... lots of fun ... cheers until next time.

Thanks to Josh for taking the photos and to Gretta for helping clean up and paying so much interest in what we do.

Pressing Complete 1/5/11

We pressed the grapes today and discarded the skins. Once we have finished pressing the grapes I added the culture to kick off the ML fermentation, which helps to smooth out the acid levels. Now we wait and allow the process to do its work and let the sediment settle.

We compost the press cake – which is made up of seeds and the skins, plus a bit of stem. I think you could try making grape seed soap from it and I have heard of some folks drying it to make tea or even jams from it. If anyone wants it next year to try any of these things let me know.

I added some new photos of the pressing - if can be a fun process.

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Photos

harvest
Robert Pierre the VI

Comments

[Guido]

Great
Looks enormously proffessional. I presume to get a invitation for the first bottle to waste on temporary happiness? Cheers

[Allison]

I just went on my first vineyard tour not too long ago, and this blog makes me want to go again right now! Thanks for sharing! http://www.culturezest.org/home/users/detail?UserHexID=695E4EC1-9463-4777-8039-08F881B85195

[Ross Goodman]

[e-mail]
Looks great , I hope you enjoy the end wine !

[Florence]

Magnificent job ! This is surely a great fun adventure to harvest and then preparing the wine ! When will you drink this one ? I guess you already enjoy the prior years? Yummy ! Thanks for sharing the photos !

[Rob_n_Lorenza]

Dear Florence, this will be ok to drink by about November, but better with some age in the barrel for a year or more.

[D MJ Binkley]

Some how I'm just reading this blog
I must have missed this one or the memory is failing me. Very nice blog. Enjoyed the photos of the harvest. Let's hope it is a good season and the grapes are good.