Wise Acres Winery » 2007

Bottling 2007 Syrah on 12/20/2008

gardner — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:48:45 +0000

Just in time to give as Christmas gifts. We will be bottling, barcoding and labeling about 25 cases. I have the corks, the bottles and the filler reserved. The argon is full and the wine is ready to go after a final lab analysis. I am going to send out an invite for anyone wanting to [...]

Racking and Attempted Bottling

gardner — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:19:18 +0000

A few weeks ago (when was it Chuck?) Joe, Chuck and I got together for a day of barrel cleaning, racking of the 2007 Syrah, and bottling of our 2006 Cabernets. Things didn’t go as planned. All of it could have been prevented by a little work done a few days ahead. Here is what happened [...]

Topped Syrah

gardner — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:52:03 +0000

I topped off the Syrah the other day and pulled a little sample to try. I t seems to be a little musty tasting so I want to rack it off into the other barrel, clean out the lees (with our new barrel rinser!) and put it back into the French barrel. Chuck is already making [...]

Pressing

gardner — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:56:16 +0000

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 [...]

Press Prep

gardner — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:52:35 +0000

I soaked the barrel overnight in ProxyClean, rinsed it out and am nnow letting it sit with 5 gallons of citric acid to keep it moist. No leaks at all.

I did a dry run with our filling system and it worked perfectly with complete flow control from the output end.

I still need to sanitize the bottles, [...]

Final Fermentation Data Chart

gardner — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:59:26 +0000

Everything is registering 0 Brix. I hope waiting until next Sunday to press isn’t too long of an extended maceration. Here is the final [...]

Punching Down Syrah

gardner — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:47:39 +0000

You can smell it from [...]

Fermentation Chart Update

gardner — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:37:01 +0000

The Cabernet is still winning, with Merlot second and Syrah a distant third.

Chuck Was Right…

gardner — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 23:29:27 +0000

I transfered the “Gardner’s Block” Cabernet into one of the large, white fermenters. Its cap was almost to the top of the smaller one and I had to constantly punch it down to keep the skins on the juice.

Sorry, Chuck, I should have listened [...]

2007 Fermentation Status

gardner — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:45:47 +0000

Things are roiling away, lots of CO2 and great smells. I am tracking temperature and Brix. The Cabernet continues to be the most vigorous. Click on the thumbnail to see a confusing chart. I am going to try to improve it as time permits. We should see temperatures go up correlated to sugar dropping, then sugar [...]