November 28, 2007 – 11:01 am
Last night I tested the malic acid level of the Syrah with an Accuvin malic acid test strip. It showed a level below 30 mg/L, indicating that malolactic fermentation is finished. I added 1 gram of potassium metabisulfite to stabilize the wine. This morning I splash-racked (somewhat more gently than the first time) the Syrah [...]
November 11, 2007 – 9:22 pm
Today I stabilized and fined the Shiraz with the addition of potassium metabisulfite (sanitizer), potassium sorbate (preservative), and chitosan (a shellfish-based fining agent that will filter out particles that would otherwise make the wine cloudy). It will sit now for 8 days before I check to see if it’s ready for racking.
I stirred up the [...]
November 8, 2007 – 6:32 pm
Today when I tested the specific gravity of the Shiraz, it was unchanged from yesterday, meaning that fermentation has completed. Tomorrow I’ll take the next step: clarifying and stabilizing the wine.
Meanwhile, the pH of the Syrah is rising, for no reason I can figure out. On the advice of Rick at Fermentation Solutions, I added [...]
November 4, 2007 – 7:41 pm
Today I stirred up the lees in the Syrah, which brought up a lot of bubbles, indicating that malolactic fermentation is still underway. The wine smells wonderful.
November 3, 2007 – 7:33 pm
Today I transferred the Shiraz from the primary fermenter to a carboy for secondary fermentation, and finally discarded the grape skins from my vineyard, which I’d added for extra flavor and complexity (I hope).
Harvest Day +16, 3:45 PM: Transferring the Shiraz to a carboy to finish fermentation
Then I put it in the fermentation chamber with [...]
October 31, 2007 – 6:44 pm
Today the kit wine was fermenting merrily away. I stirred up the lees in the Syrah with a thin dowel, and could see lots of tiny bubbles coming up, indicating that malolactic fermentation (MLF) is underway.
I’d left a small sample of the Syrah overnight to settle out the solids, and tested its ph and [...]
October 30, 2007 – 6:03 pm
Yesterday was pretty busy, so I put off pressing the wine until today. Early in the afternoon I set up the basket press and dumped the contents of the fermenter into a nylon pressing bag in the press.
Harvest Day +12, 1:20 PM: In the press
Normally, you don’t dump the entire contents of the fermented into [...]
