The Second Racking

We had been talking about it for weeks, and now that the great Seattle mess of a winter allows for safe navigation across our city, we thought it was about time for another racking, and carboy sampling while we were at it.  Our wine was noticeably different than back in early November when we racked [...]

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Wine Making: The First Racking

At this point, our wine was actually wine, and although a bit acidic, it was starting to resemble something that might be drinkable. Racking is the process of moving the wine from one container to the next, with the primary result being to lift the wine off of the lees (all the dead yeast and gunk [...]

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Wine Making: Pressing

The fermentation process moved along much quicker than we had planned on (or expected), and rushed to a stop after only 5 days.  I knew the fermentation was about finished when the cap no longer needed much punching down and started to slip back into the layer of juice. The next time we do this, I’d [...]

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Wine Making: Primary Fermentation

At this point, the must has sat overnight, and the sulfur which we added yesterday (see sorting and crushing) has killed off any of the unwanted naturally occurring yeasts that may have been present.  We need to turn to all that grapey sugar into alcohol, which is called fermentation. The important equation that is necessary [...]

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Wine Making: Sorting and Crushing

Beyond picking of the grapes this has been the most labor intensive stage of winemaking.  After the grapes arrive, you want to get the process started as soon as possible, for the sake of freshness of the fruit.  A good fresh grape is the same as a fresh apple, and its flavor quality declines slowly [...]

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