The Wine Blog

The Cabernet, Zin, and Sangiovese were all 23-24 brix at the start. The Barbera was a tad higher at 25. I’m not that worried about that. I may consider leaving some residual sugar in it. Not sure yet.

I added the yeast about 8PM on Sunday. Fermentation had already started by the next morning. All four are proceeding at about the same rate. The Cabernet is the slowest and the Barbera is the fastest.

We’ve already gotten a lot of good color extraction, particularly from the Zinfindel, which is a very nice deep purple. We’ve set the temperature to the low 60s; I’m going to attempt a slower fermentation like we did the first few years. In general I was happier with those wines. It isn’t clear that the speed of the fermentation was a contributing factor, but we’re not in any rush.

The must temperatures were all 64-65 and I intend to keep it in the 60s until near press time. The color extraction has been so good that I’m considering an early press before dryness, particularly on the Zin.