Harvest

After a disastrous 2010 when we made no wine at all, this year things got back on track.
The quantity is about half of 2009. Let's hope quality wins over quality!

During September and October we had three separate grape picking occasions.

At the very start of September, the Muscately grapes were already ripe and the wasps were starting to eat them. As there was only a small quantity, the girls pressed them by foot and we squeezed the remaining juice out by hand. Slow work. As we started in the afternoon, it went on into the very warm evening.  The must was very sweet, about 19 degrees sugar. It was only about 30 litres, so I used a 50l plastic container, and added a small amount of sugar - about 800g - to bring it up to the desired 21 degrees - the ideal level for starting the fermentation, which should result in a wine around 12.5 degrees of alcohol.

Having covered it to keep off the fruit flies, it sat - with occasional stirring - for a couple of weeks before it was racked into a 25l glass 'carboy' jar.  This year I wanted to make a small quantity of wine separately from the rest, and store it in glass, so the process is more visible.  The problem with storing it in a barrel, is that during the time when it ferments and settles, it isn't possible to see the separation of the clear wine and the 'lees' which float to the bottom (dead yeast, dead bacterial microbes, and other gunk). And it means that racking off the clear wine without disturbing the lees is more difficult. Finally, by keeping a small amount of wine separate, it will be interesting to compare the eventual taste of the wine versus the main bulk.

Then in mid-September the bulk of the white grapes were picked and pressed a few days later.  This year it resulted in only about 250litres compared with nearly 500l two years ago.  I'm not complaining too much. Most of the white from two years ago is still sitting in a barrel (although much less than the original 500l after multiple racking). This must was 18 degrees, to which 8kg of sugar was added.  These are currently sitting in two barrels a little over 100l each, until they will have their first racking in November.

And finally, a week ago, we picked the red grapes. There wasn't enough quantity to setup the machine which takes off the stems, and we had enough labour to do that by hand, since we were celebrating  Györgyi's 40th birthday that day.

The lightly-crushed red grapes are currently sitting in a large vat for 2 weeks. Unlike the white wine, to produce a red wine, they have to sit and macerate for 2-3 weeks before the pressing - this means the colour needs to come out of the skins.  If they are pressed a few days after picking - like the white grapes - a rosé will be the result. On the coming weekend we will press them.  My estimate is about 100 litres.  Actually we mixed in white grapes from Györgyi's mother's garden.  Otherwise it would have been only around 50 litres. Two years ago we had 100l from the red grapes alone.  The red must was 17 degrees, to which 450kg of sugar was added.

In the next posts, I plan to write about the books I've been reading about winemaking and how they are starting to influence my thinking about how I want to make the wine in future.