Saturday, May 3, 2008

Wine press

Paul is preparing the cellar for receiving the fruit.
He's making platforms with castor wheels under the vats for easy moving and he filled them with water to allow the staves to expand and close the gaps developed during dry storage. He finished the copper chute from the crusher/destemmer through the winery wall, I hope it will function as beautifully as it looks :-))
I printed out the new test sheets on which I'm recording the harvest parameters. Sugar is going up, acid is coming down...everything is on the right track for a nice vintage :-)
And now I'd like to introduce you to Winepress Forum.
Instead of me writing about general winemaking; viticulture; how to taste, select, store and enjoy your wine etc...you can find there ALL the information you care to know about regarding grapes and the juice of it :-) And if you can't find it just fire a question. Within minutes you'll get an answer from this purple teeth community :-)
This is THE place to search and hang out!
If you google it, it comes up as amateur and small winery winemaking. Don't dismiss it as a bunch of garageists concocting plonk! :-)) Sure some of them make wine in their garage but the collective knowledge of these happy, friendly and helpful people will surpass any one expert on the subject. Naturally you'll find there experts too... and not only on grapes... but home kits, fruit wine, mead, cheese, bread...even how to make that Italian sausage you bought at the corner deli :-)
I've found Joel's site years ago when I've discovered mites on my grape leaves :-)
WARNING! Visiting can become addictive!
Cheers :-)))

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