Winemakers Daily Notebook for 06 Harvest

9/23- Seattle

1:00 Cheryl arrives with the grapes from the airport to find everything cleaned and ready to roll (which would not have been possible if she had not picked up the truck and then the grapes).

The grapes are full and very beautiful, more so than last year.

Two neighborhood high school students, Casey Dobrowolski and Nick Dupree, helped Cheryl and me scoop grapes and destem, (with crusher/destemmer gears that need to go to the gear doctor before next year). We finish by 2:40, move the grapes from the alley where we destemmed them to the wine room in the basement.

We wind up with about 29 gallons in each of three PFCs:

A	B	C
67	66	66	must temperature
23.8	23.2	23.1	Brix/refractometer
23.5	23.7	23.2	Brix/hydrometer

9:00 I add 60 grams of Pasteur Red and 40 grams of Superfood to each PFC, letting the yeast sit for 15 minutes in 100 degree water and then adding some of the must to the yeast mixture first.

Updated first day steps

-----

The macrobin won't fit in the basement , but the main reason that I put the must into three PFCs is to ensure a slow fermentation.

Punch down. Added 152g of Superfood. Brix is 13.0. Temperature of must is 86 degrees.

Sunday 9/24 11:00 am Seattle

If I plot the line for sugar as measured by hydrometer for yesterday and today, the wine will go dry last August 1. I can only attribute the measured increase in sugar to bad measurement of the first day's sugar, when there was almost no liquid to measure.

A	B	C
69	67	68	must temperature
23	23.8	23.7	Brix/hydrometer

Monday 9/25 8 am Seattle

Based on a (rough) average of 23.4 degrees Brix, Seattle available alcohol is 13.2.

A	B	C
73	71	71	must temperature
20.7	21.5	21.5	Brix/hydrometer

Tuesday 9/26 7:30 am Seattle

Just noticed that I had used last year's Superfood and Leucofood. Based on Fred's observation that any unused food will join the lees later, I added a full portion of this year's Leucofood (eyeballing the 10 g. per PFC) and will use this year's Superfood for the remaining two portions. Obviously this year's fermentation is coming along fine. Need to check with the Wine Lab or Fred what the life of this stuff is.

Started punching down twice a day.

A	B	C
75	73	73	must temperature
19	20.2	20.3	Brix/hydrometer

Added remaining third (slightly late) of Superfood). Brix is 0.25. Must temperature is 80 degrees (dropped).

Getting close - have to decide whether to Press tonight or tomorrow night. Brix is -1.5 with hydrometer and clinitest shows .6% residual sugar. Temperature of must continues to drop - now 78 degrees.

Bottle day for the 2005! Bottled 12 cases - record time. Good team and better equipment. Problem noted for next time is that the heat lamp for the foil seems to not maintain constant heat.