It's 8 pm on Sunday night as I write this. I will be picking up my grapes at 4:30 Monday afternoon. This is a big year; trying several different things.
1: A white wine from grapes. Yup, doing a Chardonnay.
2: Using my own press for some of the grapes. Will press the Chardonnay on Tuesday, not sure when the reds get pressed.
3: Whole cluster press: Going to toss the Chard. grapes right in the press when I get home on Tuesday and squeeze the juice out. No crush, no nothing...just pressing.
There are a few other things I'm going to do in order to get a good product. For the Sangiovese and Zin, I'm going to sulfite them right after crushing and chilling them with ice bags for 2 days. Then I'll let them warm up and begin the fermentation. They're going to do their full primary fermentation on the skins. This should be interesting, as we usually press about 1/2 way thought.
Trying a malolactic on the reds too. I'll probably begin it next weekend; let the yeast take hold before I add the bacteria. Of course, if the acid levels suggest otherwise, I'm open to change.
Still haven't decided if I'm going to add wood chips to the Chard. during fermentation. I'm reading things both ways.
Gotta go make a shopping list of stuff I need for tomorrow. I'll post day 1 results tomorrow night.
Take care.
Sean
PS: Since people have been asking, I'm not making Merlot because I'm not a fan of it at all.
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