Pressing

Well this took a long time to post. Our pressing day was fun, long and almost didn’t happen. The first problem was that the press was awfully small for our volumes, the second problem was that the press bleed valve would not close on the bladder press. We also believe that the pressure gauge was inaccurate. To make a long story short, neighbor Matt saved the day again by building a new pressure release valve. Is there anything he can’t do?

The big innovation for this pressing was the hundred feet of tubing leading down to the winery in the basement. Chuck and I spent a little too much time trying to feed the tube through an air-vent, eventually giving up and just running it through the bedroom window.

The pump was run from upstairs, but could be shut off with a valve in the basement. Unfortunately I didn’t attached the valve too withstand the pressure and ended up with a face-full of wine…again. I also lost the hose and sprayed a bit on the wall and barrels.

We ended up with a lot of wine. The 1100 lbs. of G&M Syrah yielded 75 gallons! Add to that, another 15 gallons of Gardner’s Block Merlot and 10 of Gardner’s Block Cabernet and we have an even 100 gallons!

We got a late start, and a late end, but it was a great day with a few neighbors stopping by and Chuck, Matt and I getting our hands nicely stained.