One of the curious things that I still don't quite understand, is the difference between the actual process of wine making as I am seeing it, and the "theory" I read. This may be in part because a lot of the resources on wine making in the English language are about making wine from fruits other than grapes... not too surprisingly since I guess grapes are not as widely grown in family orchards in the English-speaking world as in mainland Europe. And from what I've read, it seems that grapes are really the perfect fruit from which to make wine (surprise surprise)- to make wine from every other fruit requires addition of something to the process, e.g. yeast, and perhaps more attention to detail.
One example is sterilisation. I read that everything should be perfectly sterilised. In practice nothing at all is sterilized, there were lots of flies around during the pressing stage, and most of equipment is hardly what one would call hygenic (in fact, best not to think about hygiene at all). The assumption seems to be that anything nasty simply gets killed off during the fermentation, or removed during racking.
Another is keeping air and fruit flies away from the wine, to prevent oxidisation. I read that it's critical to use airlocks that keep the air (oxygen) out from the wine but release gases from the fermentation (Carbon dioxide). Well, perhaps it is, but we haven't used those yet. I think we should be, but the ones we had are old and cannot be cleaned. Nobody seems too bothered about it though, although I'd feel a lot happier if we would simply buy some new ones. The hole at the top of the white wine barrels was just covered over for a few weeks, and now the bung has been put in... but only loosely. The fruit flies do seem interested in the red juice I put into the plastic container - but not in the other wine in the barrels.
On the other hand, it can be that all this will produce a wine but not a terribly great one.
Well, let's see... this year is for learning and next year is when I would like to start experimenting.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
2009 Vintage Expected to be Excellent
Time for a bit of mutual backslapping. The most excellent Hungarian foodie site Chew.hu gave me a shout-out so I'm returning the favour.
Their article states that this year "Grape Production Down 10%" -- I have no idea -- and "2009 Vintage Expected to be Excellent" -- it bloody well better be! Nice to know my 600 litres or so will form about .0002% of the national harvest of 300 million litres.
I'm a bit worried about the wine I put into the plastic container though. At the weekend the fruit flies were buzzing around the top of it, but not around the barrels oddly enough.
Their article states that this year "Grape Production Down 10%" -- I have no idea -- and "2009 Vintage Expected to be Excellent" -- it bloody well better be! Nice to know my 600 litres or so will form about .0002% of the national harvest of 300 million litres.
I'm a bit worried about the wine I put into the plastic container though. At the weekend the fruit flies were buzzing around the top of it, but not around the barrels oddly enough.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Volume of wine from the grapes
(Updated this post because my original arithmetic was wrong.)
The bath is approx 1.2m x .75m and the red grapes filled it to about .15m deep, maybe a little more. That's a volume of .135 cubic metres. That volume of liquid theoretically should result in 135 litres, or practically a bit less when the pulp is removed. And indeed the actual result was indeed something like 130 litres of juice!
The white grapes filled the bath to about .6m deep. That's a volume of .54 cubic metres, which is 540 litres. And the actual result was estimated around 500 litres.
The final quantity of wine will be a big less because the sediment will be removed in coming months by 'racking'.
The bath is approx 1.2m x .75m and the red grapes filled it to about .15m deep, maybe a little more. That's a volume of .135 cubic metres. That volume of liquid theoretically should result in 135 litres, or practically a bit less when the pulp is removed. And indeed the actual result was indeed something like 130 litres of juice!
The white grapes filled the bath to about .6m deep. That's a volume of .54 cubic metres, which is 540 litres. And the actual result was estimated around 500 litres.
The final quantity of wine will be a big less because the sediment will be removed in coming months by 'racking'.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Additive-free
Unlike the Hungarian "Winemaker of the Year 2005" I don't think we will be adding glycerol!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Red grapes pressed
After stewing in their own juices for a week the red grapes got pressed on Saturday.
The 'présház' was a pretty sight when I walked in - the 'muslicak' (fruit flies) had taken over, they were literally everywhere. This won't affect the wine but it didn't look too pleasant.
I had to do the pressing on my own, and that wasn't a big deal - I'd seen how to use the press and had been told everything else to do. My first task however was to fill the barrel with whatever juice had already come out of the grapes. Using a hosepipe running down from the bath this probably about half-filled the 105 litre barrel.
Next I assembled the press and threw in the grapes - they all fitted in so I had only one pressing to do.
As each bucket was filled it was poured using a funnel into the barrel.
All was fine until the barrel filled up and I moved onto the second barrel... and it leaked! So instead I put the juice into a large plastic container for the time being. The first barrel now being full to the brim, meant I had to siphon some of it off into the plastic container - it's necessary to leave a good gap at the top of the barrel for the fermentation which needs air and will significantly bubble up.
I tasted the juice that came off from the grapes and amazingly after just one week in the bath it already tasted much more of wine than grape juice. (Some of the juice we had taken home after the harvest had also started to ferment in the fridge but it tasted quite different - like a fizzy fruit juice.)
As well as tidying and washing everything, I collected the dried-out grapes in a couple of containers - they will be just thrown back onto the soil. It would be possible to compost it but they don't.
The 'présház' was a pretty sight when I walked in - the 'muslicak' (fruit flies) had taken over, they were literally everywhere. This won't affect the wine but it didn't look too pleasant.
I had to do the pressing on my own, and that wasn't a big deal - I'd seen how to use the press and had been told everything else to do. My first task however was to fill the barrel with whatever juice had already come out of the grapes. Using a hosepipe running down from the bath this probably about half-filled the 105 litre barrel.
Next I assembled the press and threw in the grapes - they all fitted in so I had only one pressing to do.
As each bucket was filled it was poured using a funnel into the barrel.
All was fine until the barrel filled up and I moved onto the second barrel... and it leaked! So instead I put the juice into a large plastic container for the time being. The first barrel now being full to the brim, meant I had to siphon some of it off into the plastic container - it's necessary to leave a good gap at the top of the barrel for the fermentation which needs air and will significantly bubble up.
I tasted the juice that came off from the grapes and amazingly after just one week in the bath it already tasted much more of wine than grape juice. (Some of the juice we had taken home after the harvest had also started to ferment in the fridge but it tasted quite different - like a fizzy fruit juice.)
As well as tidying and washing everything, I collected the dried-out grapes in a couple of containers - they will be just thrown back onto the soil. It would be possible to compost it but they don't.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
