This year's wine making is underway. In previous years, we've purchased our grapes from the fine folks at Oak Barrel. I am forever grateful for all of the help Homer and the crew at Oak Barrel.
This year, we tried something different. We sourced our grapes from an friend of my father-in-law who owns 40 acres of wine grapes in Amador County. Both my father and mother-in-law did the heavy lifting and picked all of the 600 lbs of grapes yesterday. They were held in refrigerated storage and delivered today, crushed and ready to start fermenting.
Here are my glorious primary fermentation vessels--essentially food grade trash cans in the middle of my garage.
As you might have guessed given the appellation of origin, the grapes this year are Zinfandel. The sugar came in around 25°, which translates to about 14% potential alcohol. For a Zindandel from Amador County, this is not a terribly high percentage of alcohol. In previous years, I've had Brix readings over 26°. Not being a fan of hot, Zindandel fruit bombs, my historical approach is to press the must between 5° and 10° Brix. The lower Brix this year may challenge my belief of pressing early.
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