We also added in the minuscule crop of Pinot Noir which wasn't worth processing by itself.
After crushing and destemming, we ended up with 110L of must.
Baume: 12.5°
pH: 3.5
We added DAP and an excess amount of yeast culture. Wild yeast fermentation was evident soon after crushing finished so we added the extra yeast to overcome any problems associated with that.
Wild yeast fermentation is a legitimate process in wine making but we were not willing to risk it this time around. More on this in a later post.
We have quite a range of insects in the vineyard, the majority of which are 'good guys' who feed on and keep the 'bad guys' away. Therefore we have never sprayed insecticide in any of the blocks.
The colony includes many spiders of different types which spin their webs across the rows. We have to clear the rows of these before working down them. This causes the residents to retreat to the vine foliage.
I must have caught one spider between my head and the netting while picking as I felt a searing sting and brushed a big one onto the ground.
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| Funnel Web Spider |
Was it a nasty or not? We do have the lethal funnel web spider here but they live in the ground. If you get bitten by one of these it is a rush to the hospital for anti venom.
But the culprit was light brown not black and I wasn't feeling unwell so decided I was going to live.
But it did leave an itchy lump.
Back in 'the winery', rapid fermentation began within 12 hours and we are now in the process of punching the cap down every four hours or so.
When fermentation is finished we will let the wine sit on the skins for another week to extract as much colour as possible and hopefully go through malolactic fermentation before pressing.
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