The first thing we check on is the Chardonnay. It has started to ferment, although very slowly right now. We check the temperature as we want it to stay right around 60 degrees. We also test the Brix level to see how much sugar has been converted to alcohol. When the Brix reaches 15 or so we will transfer the wine into barrel to finish fermentation.
Here's Stefania's lees jar. It has started to ferment and you can see the bubbles and froth starting. By Friday the entire inside of the carboy will be stained from the force of the burbling.
The CO2 is released through this airlock, It bubbles non stop right now. This keeps oxygen and bugs out and lets the CO2 escape.
Then it was to the outside and punch downs on the Cabernet. You can see how clean Stef keeps the sides of the bins. We don't want any debris for bugs or bacteria to get a hold. This bin smelled amazing, the best smelling bin I've ever had at this early stage. It was like ripe blueberry and boysenberry pie.
One question we get asked all the time is: "Who does the work." People are usually expecting us to tell them we have a crew or a staff. Well here's the crew and staff at work. Stefania doing a punch down. You can see the Hydrometer in the picture. We also take readings on this to see how far along it is.
2 comments:
Great posts this season, you two. Really enjoying these harvests updates. Please keep them coming if they're not too much trouble.
We are going to try really hard to keep them up until we are in barrel. The hardest days for us to write are picking days, all our focus is on getting the grapes in, but we are trying to take pictures and get caught up when we can.
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