A: 80 degrees 10.2 degrees

B: 78 degrees 7.0 degrees on hydrometer

10/21 8am

A: 78 degrees

B: 78 degrees.

10/21 8pm

A: 77 degrees; 6.5 degrees (0-30 degree hydrometer)

B: 76 degrees; 2.0 degrees (0-30 degree hydrometer); 2.7 degrees (-5 - +5 degree hydrometer)

10/22 8am

A: 76 degrees

B: 76 degrees

10/22 10pm

A: 76 degrees 2.4 degrees hydrometer (-5 to 5)

B: 76 degrees -0.3 degrees hydrometer (-5 to 5)

10/22 3pm

A: 74 degrees hydro is -0.6

B: 74 degrees hydro is 0.8

10/25 10pm

A: 72 degrees hydro is -1.0 (above)

B: 72 degrees hydro is -1

10/26 6:30 p.m.

A: hydro -1.2; 71 degrees; Clinitest .3

B: hydro -1.0; 71 degrees; Clinitest .2

10/26 pm

We have only a half page sketch of how the stainless wine tank goes together and it is not obvious, so we will not use this until we are confident we have assembled this correctly.

10/27 7:00 am

Steps for today are to clean, press the wine into a crate outside, move the crate, and pump the wine into kegs.

Steps needed soonSend

If we got 50 gallons of wine from 84 gallons of original must last year, we will get 33.25 gallons of wine from our 57 gallons of original must this year. That's two 15 gallon kegs plus some for the Pepsi container.

Cleaned with SO2:

We are not measuring pH since we will shortly have TWL measurements.

The 44-gallon PFCs are as big as two people can manage at al reasonably, even if all we have to do is move 20 feet.

30 ppm for 36 gallons (15.5 + 15.5 + 5) = 3*36*.08 = 8.64 g.

with boat = 13.74g

15.5 gallon upright keg + 15.5 gallon side keg + 5 gallon carboy

= 36 gallons wine.

5 hours for the two of us to press the wine, rack, collect vinacce, and clean. One and a half hours per 30 gallon PFC of wine.

Put stainless steel tank together with Fred Meyer.

Racked wine from three containers into tank.

Took sample of wine to send to TWL.

Added a heaping yellow spoon of citric acid to each of two 15 gallon oak barrels.

Thermometer: 61 degrees now. Range 52-72 degrees.

TWL report said ppm SO2.

Last year's report said to add 50 ppm SO2 to the existing 2 ppm, so this year we will add 40 ppm to the existing 11 ppm:

= .8 *.38 *36 = 10.944 grams

mixed in water

Temperature: 64° . Range since last time: 38-72° ; reset thermometer.

Racking from 36 gallons in stainless steel tank to the two 15 gallon oak barrels. First racking water out of barrels.

Important observation: we waited too long before checking the wine for our comfort.

Pick day

Brix at pick

Pounds at pick

Gallons of must

Press date

Gallons of wine

Oaking done

Bottle date

# bottles

Alcohol

Final titratable acidity

pH

Residual sugar

Decided we needed to rack into both barrels. Original oaking period for first use of one of the barrels was roughly 7 weeks. We have 7/3 times as much wine as one barrel (36/15), which means a little more than 16 weeks if we had a new barrel. We would prefer to be finished oaking so we can bottle prior to the new harvest, which is 5 ½ month away. With both barrels being used, one of them having twice and both barrels filled with water for months, the wine won’t be oaked in time.

The main concern to be worked around is that filling both barrels leaves 6 gallons in the stainless steel tank, which leaves the floating top inner tube pressed against the inner side of the faucet, which is not designed to have the inner tube pressed against it. If it pops right away, we will use the Pepsi container. We want to avoid that due to the problems we have had keeping a seal. That leaves the risk that the inner tube will have a slow leak, which we are willing to risk since that only risks losing the last 6 gallons because we will know by the reduced pressure if this happens.

Racked water out of barrels (into PFC as interim). Water smells nicely sweet, like cherry lifesavers with some vanilla and SO2. Emptied remaining water out of barrels. Barrels smell very good: rich mixture of very good wine, oak, and vanilla. Looked at inside of barrel.

Labeled barrels M and N. Based on wine stain at top D conjectures that barrel M is the barrel we used first and the most.

Racking from spigot at bottom of tank.

4/25/99 11:00 am

66° ; range since last time: 48-76° .

Tasted both barrels:

Barrel M

Nose: clean; raspberry/strawberry, nice fruit; tobacco; vanilla edge; citrus flower/grapefruit

Taste: good fruit; medium tannin; very nice; slightly more complex than N

Barrel N

Nose: clean; raspberry, nice fruit; tobacco

Taste: good fruit; medium tannin; very nice

Lesson: Always label tasting glasses.

We need to get the nets out of the sun. Pipes need to be up at knee height. D estimates 2’x8’’ cover for each. We looked at different sites in or next to the vineyard. Best choice seems to be outside the vineyard to the immediate left of the vineyard as we enter.

We talked about becoming a bonded winery and finding a local restaurant that might sell our wine. This would most likely be a local restaurant, perhaps one in Los Altos, that can take advantage of the local cachet. Richard remembers that the highest point on the property, which is the highest point in the vineyard, is roughly 400’. We need for that to be above 1000’ to use the Santa Cruz Mountains appelation; otherwise we can use the Santa Clara Valley appelation, which means we would not list any appelation.

Richard brought up the possiblity of developing more vines next to the driveway, in conjunction with his neighbors. He estimates we could have 4 times the number of vines this way. Neighbors might want a cut in the output, possibly with their own labels. This raises the possibility of bottling the older and youger vines separately (probably not). The larger volume means we would likely have a bottling and labelling party as well as a harvest party. The only pieces of equipment that would likely need upgrading are the press and the labeller/glue applier. Assuming that we had 3-4 times as much must, we would need another steel container and another 2-3 barrels. We could fit these in the existing space, possibly moving some things into the covered area outside. We might want to enclose that area. We wouldhave to store most of the wine elsewhere; ideas include the garage and a shed outside the winery.

Richard proposed that instead of looking for a local restaurant we set up a simple e-business. We would only sell two bottles at a time to credit card customers. K&L sells 2-bottle shipping boxes for $2.50; in quantity they would presumably be much cheaper.

Last year we had 200 bottles. Assuming that we put two cases per year into out wine library and each took three cases for personal use, that leaves 104 bottles, which is 52 pairs of bottles. There must be e-business software that will create mailing labels from HTML fields. We need to find e-business software that handles the credit cartd piece of this. We agreed on $20 for an initial price, in part to make sure we positioned the wine properly.

This e-business has several advantages. We can start right away because we do not need more volume to make it work. It is incremental in that if we decide that this does not work for us, at least now, we have only incremental costs invested. Also this will be more fun to try to get this going.

Eye: clear blackberry purple

Nose: tobacco, cassis, good fruit, touch of vanilla, touch of eucalyptus, overall quite nice

Barrel N: a bit more fruity

Tongue: nice fruit, big acid, medium tannin, tobacco, nice

Concern: starting to be too much tobacco. Time in oak this year will likely be gated by tobacco-ness, not vanilla-ness.

Agree on potential pickers: Fred, Chris Feede & family, Fawcette, Rosilene, Jim G., Tom & Christine Rohling, Gersharan & Elvira, John & Susan Dillon, Mike Pav and wife, Jon Elliott, Karla Miller, Paolo & Fritz, Mona Sims, Julia & Norman

To Do

R to discuss food for harvest party with Mike Pav’s wife.

R to have Jim Foster fix hot water problem.

D to send R email attendee list.

D to order chemicals:

citric acid, potassium metabisulfite

for 100 gallons Pasteur Red yeast (100 g.), Superfood (180 g.), malolactic bacteria, and Leucofood

sample bottles

new handbook?

Send information to potential pickers, including likely 2^nd or 3^rd weekend in October as pick day.

Review pick weekend steps (each to do separately).

D to make wine sample labels.

To-do for 9/18

Clean winery.

Taste and decide on bottling date.

To-do for day before pick day (Friday late afternoon/early evening):

Make fresh citric acid and bleach solutions.

Clean well grape boxes, plastic tarps, punch, pruning shears, crusher/destemmer, press.

Reprint or recreate pick day instructions.

Make potassium metabisulfite solution.

To-do for Pick day

Remove netting.

Remove any grapes we don’t want picked.