The last week has been quite cold, but the must smells very potent – definitely something happening in there. The plan was to drain the free run juice/wine out of the bottom of the barrel and transfer it to another barrel . We had put a patch of muslin over the tap hole inside the barrel to filter the juice, but unfortunately this just got bunged up and stopped the tap working completely. So we just scooped the skins etc out by hand and with sieves and put them in the press.
After several pressings, there was mostly just juice in the barrel. We scooped out the remaining skins with sieves and pressed them. Then we unscrewed the tap and let out the juice into a bucket. Our second barrel ended up about half full of the free run and press juice mixed together, around 110 litres? At this stage it tasted like watery wine – but it hasn't finished fermenting yet.
Bob (lockwood1956) over at http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/index.php held the annual "grapefest" last weekend and I believe that they "did" mostly, if not all, Italian grapes (no I didn't attend, I couldn't get the time off).
ReplyDeleteThe various recipients of the juice/skins seem to be following "normal" winemaking techniques - and using yeast from the Lalvin range.
I don't make "grape" wines myself really (a couple of kits), so don't know whether your ferment would use any wild strain that are already on the grapes or whether it would pick up something locally from the west midlands area...... personally I like a little more control of my wine making (meads and country wines).
Oh and looking at the pic of the press, there seems to be an awful lot of staining on the wood staves on the bottom part of the wooden pump retainer..... Me ? I'd be getting myself down to the nearest decent timber merchant and replacing those with new oak, and then after they're shaped, drilled etc, varnishing with a "food grade" varnish and then re-assemble the press for the next time it's used.....
The "grapefest 2010" thread over at WaH, will probably have some good ideas/suggestions etc for method and technique (not to criticise your friends dads method), just that it seems that you all had an excellent time crushing/pressing the grapes and Rachels attention to detail about hygiene is laudable.
Don't forget, that for sanitising, the "sulphite" generally available in the UK is "Sodium Metabisulphite", and if you use too much, can leave a bit of a "tang" (think sodium and salt). The commercial vineyards around here (South East) tend to source Potassium Metabisulphite, which is a bit harder to locate in smaller "home" type quantities, but if you check out vigo (http://www.vigoltd.com/preservation-aids-and-stabilisers.php) then Kadifit is what you'd be looking for.......
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ReplyDeleteCellar_Rat WaH. Good show. Don't worry at all about the wood stain - its 100% AOK!. I think your pressing may have been a bit of hard work, because you perhaps needs to crush the grapes first. There seemed to be a few to many whole ones in the press :-) I have come across many traditional methods some do some don't. Some destalk - some don't - the main thing is having a go making some notes and having another go next year.
ReplyDeleteWaH is a great website - keep us updated!!
Thanks for your comments and advice! Fatbloke, I will get Rachel to post what type of sterilizing stuff we used, I can't remember.
ReplyDeleteBrian, I can assure you all the grapes were crushed, a week earlier (see the '2010 Vintage' post). It's a mangle-type crusher with two heavy metal rollers, with sharp grooves, facing each other, with about a pip's width between them. With the pressing we could perhaps have squeezed harder ending up with a drier, more compact cake, but A) it's really hard! and B) there's a pay-off between extracting as much juice as possible and getting too much bitter tannic juice from the stems etc.