Chardonnay and Chambourcin

Somehow I woke at 1.30 am.

The lounge room in dark

Going into the cave

The passion was there. Fed the cat (Lucinda) on the way to the cave and started the process of pressing Batch 3 (B3) which had soaked on skins for 36 hours. The hope is that it does not turn out to be fantastic otherwise this early morning pressing will have to become the norm.

B2 had started fermenting well and was despatched to the freezer to idle along at 15 C.

The pressing went on all day as a background task.

The vet called to say Belle (the cat) was making a good recovery. we will collect her on Sunday.

Nets up on the Chambourcin

The last row of Chambourcin was picked and the entire 71.2 KG went through the crusher/de-stemmer with a goodly lot of whole bunches kept. This time I didn't weigh the whole bunches so can't record percentage. It truly was a gut feel occasion. This is regrettable in hindsight.



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The sugar came in at 24 Brix which for what was trying to be achieved  was absolutely perfect. Now wait for it ... the pH was 3.5 the exact mid range of what is recommended. How satisfying. The pressure is on now. The fruit is perfect and only the wine maker can stuff it up.

temperature control

The goal is to let it soak at 5 C for 2-3 days. A little sulphur has been added just 50 ppm. A plastic wrap has been place over the container with the temperature probes poking through. A little CO2 would be just the ideal protection while the soaking process occurs. Some ingenuity here. Using the newly acquired soda stream with a plastic tube to provide a dosage of CO2. Rather than buy bottles of soda water we now make our own and avoid the disposal issues associated with buying the stuff.

The mighty Sodastream

The SodaStream gadget is impressive. 2-3 presses on a bottle of water and you have a refreshing bubbly drink. And in this weather - what can you say. The CO2 bottles can be exchanged at both Big W and Kmart at a reasonable price making it very easy to maintain. The bottles are of a special type but spares are cheap and we also purchase a spare CO2 cylinder for convenience.