Racking the wine

 We made two demijohns of wine about 28 gallons shown here above.  We use a plastic tube to draw the "clear" wine from the crud at the bottom of the demijohn.  The empty demijohn below collects the clear wine.  The crud as I keep calling it is actually more accurately called gross lees and is the yeast that has done it's job of converting the sugar to alcohol.  We are racking now, about 3-4 days after pressing the grapes, because keeping the wine in contact with the gross lees is detrimental to the wine.

This is a view inside the demijohn at the crud collected at the bottom..

This is the crud I'm pouring into the sink, it looked like bad motor oil.

  

 

 

The wine itself tastes great

But you really want to get it away from this stuff

Yukk

Grape Mash pressing weekend....Grape mash

Grape mash being pressed

Bucket by bucket the mash is put into the press...

The wine is put into a demijohn

We ratchet the press to squeeze the wine out of the grapes

Well from 11 cases of grapes we got 2 demijohns full of wine.  Approximately, 28 gallons or so...

On Wednesday, I expect to do the first racking.  I'll explain racking on Wednesday.

Grape Mash Update Wednesday.......

The vast majority of fermentation is over, we are down to about 1% or less.

 The temperature of the Mash is down to 70 degrees.  The mash smells very much like wine at this point.

I will continue to punch down the mash untill Sunday when we Press the grapes.  Check back Monday for a post on the pressing process....

Grape Mash Update Tuesday......

Ok.  Right now my house smells like a winery, which is good.  Fermentation was very active.  Outdoor temperatures have been in the 60's in the day and high 40's in the evening.

 The temperature of the must was 84 deg. today.  Fermentation generating more heat.

The alcohol reading was 4% today which means that we are more than halfway through the fermentation process.  Right now we are planning on pressing these grapes on Sunday.  The fermentation should be done long before Sunday at this rate.  We will continue to punch down the skins through Sunday in order to enhance the contact with the skins so that we develop good color in this red wine.

Grape Mash update Monday ......

The daily process of pressing down the cap of the mash has begun.  As the grapes ferment, the liquids collect at the bottom of the vessel.  In order to promote good fermentation we punch down the grape skins into the liquid twice a day.

There are two readings that I take during this week.  I take a mash temperature reading and I take a brix reading with a hygrometer.  The initial temperature reading was 68 degrees on Sunday.  The temperature reading Monday(below) was 78 degrees.  As the fermentation proceeds, the process generates heat which raises the temperature.

The initial alcohol reading of the unfermented grape juice was  13.5%.  Which means that there is sufficient sugar in the juice to generate 13.5% by volume of alcohol after fermentation is over.

This number will go down as the sugar is consumed by the yeast and converted to alcohol and the fermentation proceeds.  As of Monday this reading was 11.8%

2014 wine making....

We spent this past weekend making this year's wine batch.  We made a small batch this year 11 cases of Malbec grapes.

We crushed the grapes this past Saturday at my home in our updated crusher/destemmer that I attached to the 6 ft folding table.

Crusher/destemmer attached to six ft table

We cut a hole in the table so that the grapes fall thru to container that catches the fruit.

This is the crushed grapes with Lavolin yeast added

We added lavolin yeast to the fruit to ensure a good fermentation.  We added the yeast to warm water(104deg) and yeast starter(food for yeast).  This mixture is added the grapes and mixed thru(shown above).

Old School Wine Making

Wine making was a hit or miss operation generally.  There were no books, no you tube, no wineblogs.  Grapes were purchased at the Hunt's Point terminal market in the Bronx.  Usually a combination of Alligante and Zinfandel.

The grapes came in wooden boxes of about 40lbs. each.  Box by box they would be run through a crusher/destemmer.

Modern crusher/destemmer

Fermenting Grapes

Depending on the sweetness of the grapes, sugar would be added.

The natural yeast in the grapes was what fermented the mash.  If you got bad yeast on the grapes, you got a bad batch of wine.  For the most part, it worked well. However, if you have ever tried someone's homemade wine, you may have been less than excited with the wine.  It was usually bad yeast that resulted in a sour wine.

The grapes stayed fermenting for usually a week with the skins being "punched down" into the juice several times per day.

Once the "must" was completely fermented, it was placed in batches into the "torchio" or wine press and the juice was squeezed and separated from the skins. 

The skins, once pressed, would be placed into a container to be used to make a different drink called "aquata".  This was a peasants drink and was made by adding water to the skins and letting it sit over night.  The skins were re-pressed the following day which resulted in a much less potent "wine" that had a short shelf life.  In the old country, the real wine was sold and the peasants drank the "aquata" also referred to as "aquarello".

My father made this several times, usually when last years batch had run out and he could drink the aquata until the new batch was ready.

The original juice pressed from the skins is essentially the wine, however there are some remnants of the skins that are still part of this juice along with the yeast.  The clarification process was accomplished by a series of rackings.  Racking draws the clean wine from one vessel(usually barrels) to another clean vessel leaving the crud at the bottom of the first vessel.

Racking of wine, full carboy pre-racking(left), carboy mid-racking(right), crud(light purple)

Once the wine has been racked three times, usually 1 week, 1 month, 3 months the wine is completely clarified.  Based on that schedule, the wine would be drinkable by the January-February time frame of the following year.

Growing Up Making Wine....

Uva, Ragina, grapes ready for harvest...

From my earliest memories growing up in the Bronx, I remember the ritual that was wine making every September.  It was a magical time of the year.  My father and two uncles would get together and make wine as a family.  There were amazing smells of fermenting grapes and tremendous Italian meals.




I knew that it was important to them since we had a wine room.  It was strange when I went to visit friends growing up and finding that they didn't have such a room in their house.  Everyone of my relatives had one, I guess I thought everyone did.

The process of making wine at that time was a tradition brought from Sicily.  My father was a Cooper (barrel maker).  There was wine at every meal, usually diluted with 7up.  I know this sounds sacrilegious to modern wine drinkers but it is my preferred way of drinking wine today(give it a try).

There were many stories of how wine was made in the "Old Country".  Yes, they literally mashed the grapes with their feet but that was much earlier than the times when my father was there 30's and 40's.  There was an annual feast called Vendemmia in the small town where my parents were from that re-enacted the old time grape stomping process.  The feast in that same town was re-established several years ago and continues to this day.