Talk around the Winebarrel

This is a new forum style page where we can record various conversations, comments or questions about winemaking. We never presume to be experts - we just have been working with grapes for a long time and have some experience.

For years we have had conversations with winemakers just standing around the grape scale or by the grape crusher by the barn. Everyone likes to compare their winemaking success (and ocasionally failures). Possibly in the future we may have a bring your own winetasting at one of our picnic tables.

Bill Schnute, (me) will be the moderator, any comments will go to my inbox and I will paste them on this webpage.

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9/5/11 - I purchased some seedless grape vines some years ago. I only planted 2-3 vines. Though I get great tasting grapes , they have seeds in them. Is it due to pollination and the vines being to close to my St. Pepin, Foch and La Crosse vines. I have about 40 total vines . Also, what California grapes ( merlot, cabernet, syrah or pinot noir) do you suggest to blend with Foch grapes ?

Thank You - I Enjoy your website - Anthony

Pollination will not affect the grapes - the nursery sent you the wrong varieties. I like the idea of blending the lower acidity California grapes with the higher acidity Michigan grapes. However I have no experience in what varieties - I do like Cabernet wine however. I would try whatever you can get. Bill

Thanks for the answer. I guess they are not Himrod and i'll never know what they are.

One more question. I usually crush what I grow along with a few cases of wine grapes from California that I get from an Italian Grocery Store here in the Chicago area.

This year, since my grape crop looks like they've produced more than ever , I was considering just crushing mine and adding them to wine juice instead of buying more grapes and pressing that much.

Do you think this will be OK ? Should I ( 1 ) crush my grapes and press first and then add to the bought juice or should ( 2 ) I crush, let sit on the skins and add the juice to this mix then press after a few days......or ( 3 ) should I crush mine, let sit on the skins, press and then just add juice to juice and more Potassium Metabisulfite ?

Do you think it matters ? Warm Regards - Anthony

I dont' think it matters if you mix them before or after fermentation - BUT I would crush and ferment your red grapes on the skins before blending. It is the fermentation that will color and add "red wine" character to the wine. Oops - I assumed you were looking for red wine - if not, just crush, press and blend all together for white wine.

9/5/11 - Hi, I plan to come to pick grapes. Could you recommend a grape variety? This is my first time making wine. I would like to make a semi-dry fruity white wine. Your instructions "Making White Wine" suggest grapes such as Seyval, Cayuga, or Niagara. Your recent "ripeningsummary" indicate that most of the white wine grapes will be ready Week 3, so that's when I was planning to come.

Thanks a million for helping me. I'm looking forward to picking grapes. - Tony

Niagara comes to mind when you talk "semi-dry fruity white wine". See you at the vineyard - Bill.

Weekly ripening info....

Ray, (left), and Mark (right) are both at our Sales Stand a lot. Ray has made a lot of Frontenac wine and also mentioned that adding a little Baco to Concord wine really adds to it. Mark has had a lot of experience with Mead. (He promised to send in some recipes -- still waiting!)

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I have helped a lot of people begin their wine making hobby. I have found that most of them don't have all the necessary equipment to proceed without a hiccup. Ray

We only have the bare minimum at our stand. Usually just wine yeast, cambden tablets and a few large pail fermentors - just enough to get started. But we recommend having a few other things on hand that you can get from local wine shops. Useful things are: 5 gallon glass carboys (at least 2 - 1 for the wine and 1 to siphon it to), 6 feet of rubber siphon hose, air locks etc. - Bill

9/4/11 - Conversation at the vineyard with Donald & Jean - They make wine every year and use a 15 gallon carboy that sits on Don's bench. They have had good luck with Frontenac and Wild Grape wine.

9-25-11 Carl -- Thank you for coming out and picking grapes this morning. After making fruit wine before I am sure you will have great luck with your red grapes. If you have any questions at all just click on the link and we will talk about them.
Bill, Ray and Mark at the vineyard.....

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9-27-11 Dear Honeyflow,
I need some advice. I have a batch of cayuga white wine fermenting in my basement - constant temperature is 73 degrees. First specific gravity reading of 1.0850 - a week later 1.0700. That was on Sept. 5th. So now we are at Sept 27 (3 weeks later) and specific gravity has remained unchanged at 1.070. I used 1 pkg. Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast.
Should I be doing anything different?
FYI - I love your website and refer to it often.
We have a small vineyard (80 vines) also 3 bee hives in the vineyard. This was our first year of grape harvest so I am a novice.
Any advice you could provide would be appreciated.
Joanne from PA

Joanne

It sounds like your fermentation somehow got stuck. I would make a new starter with new wine yeast. Take something like orange juice (about a quart) add about a quart of water, add some sugar, and boil it. You are making a new tiny wine. After it cools, add new wine yeast. It should be fermenting within a few hours. The next day you could add it directly to the wine or even better, take a new carboy, put the yeast starter in it, and gradually add the wine to the new starter. --- Say a gallon a day. This should get everything going again. Did you add sulphite in the beginning? About 1-2 cambedn tablets per gallon if good - a lot more could affect fermentation. Taste the wine, at 1.070 it should still be VERY sweet.

Email me what happens. Bill

Thanks so much Bill for your quick response!
I will follow your suggestions.

Yes, I did add sulfites at the beginning. That may be the problem. The recipe I was using called for 2 teas. metabisulfites, which I added all at once, then realized later that I was supposed to add 1 teas. in the beginning and then 1/2 teas. at each racking. Will this still make good wine or have I ruined it?

I tasted the wine and yes - it smells good and tastes sweet.

Question: Do you have a suggestion for yeast type that is best for Cayuga grapes? Will Lalvin D47 work?
Joanne

No - It should be fine, you may not need more at the first racking but maybe more at later rackings. When I used the powder I always used a gram scale because it is easy to make mistakes and is always dependent on the volume and not just the "recipe". I think it is easier to use crushed cambden tablets. 2/gallon in initial must and 1/gal at rackings. Any wine yeast should work. I like Cotes de Blanc for white wines -- but I would not use it here because it is too sulfur intolerant which would not be good here.

Bill

OK Bill - I will give you an update in a week or so on my progress.
Thanks, Joanne

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10-11-2011
Hi. We came and picked a couple bushels of frontenac on Sept. 19 (a little over 3 weeks ago). I never added campden tablets as you recommend. Can I add now? Also, does it make sense to vigorously stir the carboy to release CO2?

This is our first time making wine. We really had fun picking grapes at your farm. Thanks alot. Tony

You do not need to stir the wine unless the fermentation was stuck and you wanted to get it going. Stirring just adds air and encourages oxidation, which you do not want. I usually add 1 cambden tablet/gallon at each racking. Bill

10-13-2011 Iwant to make wine from Steuben grapes. I do not have grape juicing equipment. I have therefore crushed grapes with a potatoe masher. I have juice in a bowl and the seeds and skins in a collander. 1. Do I then take the skins and let them drain more from the collander to get a deeper color? 2. Can I freeze the juice to make wine later? 3. Or.........to make juice can I heat the grapes - strain the seeds and skins to get the juice (it gets a deep purple color then) and then make wine from the frozen juice later??? Thank you in advance for the time you took to answer my question.
Betty-lee

Do not heat the juice - it will not add quality to the wine. Yes, you can freeze the grapes and ferment them later. Usually winemakers crush the grapes,like you did, LEAVE THE SKINS AND SEEDS WITH THE MUST, AND FERMENT THE SKINS, SEEDS AND JUICE ALL TOGETHER. The fermentation will pull color from them skins to make a deep red wine. Bill
More info on Steuben at....

Sometimes, when we are not busy, we have an impromptu wine tasting. Phil Cumper and Tanner Owens brought a very nice frontenac and raspberry wine. It was raining pretty good that day and they decided to take a break.

11-1-11 i'm making red wine from frontenac grapes for the first time and I'm using your recipe as a guide. I was just wondering at what point I should check the acid level. mikejapan

Most of the time I don't even bother to check it - but anytime is ok. Since Frontenac can sometimes be a higher acidity grape - now is probably a good time. Bill

2-15-12 -- I have to bottle my Frontenac and Foch. The front. Had a nice smoked cherry taste and the Foch had earthy taste.

The Foch worries me because it keeps changing. Have you noticed that when you aren't bottling wine you have all kinds of wines bottles but as soon as you start bottling they get lost. I bottled 50 bottles and have 10 gallons to go yet with no bottles.
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Ray - Raygman05

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