Category: Winemaking 2019

Only 25kg from my own vines this year, compared to about 55kg last year, but with the new vine training over the pergola I’m not too surprised.

However, with the generous donation of a further 30kg from a local allotment owner I am back to similar quantities as last year.

I had the young trainees helping with the crushing and pressing which they seemed to enjoy greatly, until a ‘massive spider’ was spotted during crushing.

In the end, 35 litres of juice went into the fermenting barrel, which I will cool for about 24 hours to allow it to settle.

I’ll then syphon off the clear juice, measure SG and TA, making any necessary adjustments and get the fermentation going.

All in all a very successful day.

Time for an update on the 2019 harvest.  The wine fermented well over about 2 weeks at which point I racked it into a PET bottle, full to the brim to exclude air contact as much as possible.  It has been sitting for about 2 months now and is clearing well.  We had a few cold nights recently which helped to cold condition the wine.

You can see tartrate crystals which have formed in the wine.  These will get left behind at the bottling stage.  It’s important to cold condition before bottling otherwise these crystals can grow in the bottle once they get put in the fridge.  They don’t affect the wine in any way but it can be a little off putting when you get one of these in your mouth.  They are known in the trade as wine diamonds.

After 6 months of settling I will bottle the wine.