Wise Acres Winery

It started Saturday night with some steaks, sausages and bottles of Road31 Pinot and Arns Syrah. Overall a very good way to start things. Events lead Joe and I down the street to a wine tasting party held by the owner of a wine storage company. It was a school auction item party, but we were assured we could crash it anyway. So we grabbed a bottle of Wise Ares 2006 Merlot and headed down the block.

Next thing I know it is 2:00 in the morning and we are still in this amazing wine cellar drinking Miner, Pride, and other delicious wine.  Morning came way too soon.

After a horseback riding lesson for my daughter, Joe and I picked up the press and got to work. First we did al lthe stuff we should have done the day before: cleaned and rinsed the Hungarian, racked the Syrah from the FOB (French Oak Barrel) to the HOB. Interestingly, teh HOB is about 2.5 gallons bigger than the FOB and we ended up barely filling it with all the topping wine. his may lead to an early-than-planned bottling, or topping with another wine.

People showed up to help just as we were finishing the winery barrel work and we ran the hose out the window and into the garage. IT took a while to remember where things went and what the process was, but we got everything grooving and the wine was flowing. It taste pretty good already, very nice ripe fruit.

After about 5 press-fulls and NO MECHANICAL FAILURES! We were done. The FOB is full and we have about 13 extra gallons for topping. Joe was the king of clean and a real finish-the-job man. Thanks to everyone else who helped: George, MJ, Jay, Joe, Heidi. Wine wine bottles are coming soon, promise.

Next step is figuring out how to choreograph racking these barrels. Again, bottling may be the answer. The Syrah tastes great, and the 2006 Merlot was popular, but my special cuvee, “Syrah Sludge” may not have a market.

The one lingering question is “What are the other kids talking about when they talk about the birds and the bees?”

Hydrometer reads 0 on the 2008 Zinfandel. Ready for pressing.

AC24581

08 ZINJUICE

pH 3.84

Titratable Acidity 0.555 g/100mL

We will need to add acid at some point, probably Tartaric. I am researching how much and when to add.

This Sunday we will be pressing the Zin/Petite. TO DO:

• Swell Hungarian barrel
• Rack Syrah into Hungarian barrel
• Clean kegs
• Clean Barrel
• Charge radios

I am updating a graph of the sugar level of the Zinfandel. It is on the left sidebar and I will try to keep it up-to-date. I can only post one variable, but I am tracking temperature as well and it is a classic inverse curve relative to the Brix. We have a vigorous fermentation going on, the house smells great, unless you ask my wife.

A day after pitching the yeast I check the temp and gravity.  There is activity already, temperature was up 3ºF even though it was a cold night (46ºF outside).  The weird thing is that I am getting a higher reading of 26ºB as compared to the the two other readings both coming out at 24.5ºB. I am mailing off the frozen juice sample today, maybe we should spend the extra $15 and get a definitive reading from them.

After adding a total of 55 lbs of dry ice I pitched 80g of Rockpile DYW49B Yeast. I hydrated it in warm water first, but left it a little too long and the result was dramatic. At least I know they are active little dudes.

We picked, crushed and pressed 11 lbs. of the Estate grapes all by hand. ended with a low Brix, only 21.5. I pressed it into a rose, the last one was awful, this can’t be worse.

Looks like we will be crushing Dry Creek Zin/Petite a week from today. Phoebe and I will probably pick the “estate” grapes this week after school sometime and crush/press it into the house Rose Magnum. Last years sucked, but I will pay more attention to this one.