Wine bottling, Shellgrit

Performed the final bottling of the 2013 vintage filling some 6 dozen bottles with two red wines. The wine making notes are below for anyone interested in the detail. These two wines had extended time on the skins i.e. 22-24 days. This is the first year we have tried this and it has made a significant difference to the intensity of the wine as well as maximising the extraction of anthocyanins. The other positive change has been the use of a 50/50 mix of French and American Oak. The flavours are much richer getting the best of both worlds.

2013 Tempranillo (batch 305)

3/2/2013 picked 10 am 52 Kg Brix 21 Baume 11.4 pH 3.63 crushed 2 pm

4.6 Kg whole bunches, 4 gms Potassium metabisulphite
Chilled overnight
4/2/2013 Bled off 6 litres for Rose added CRU56 and BDX yeast, 2 gms nutrient, put under header boards
10/2/2013 Brix 7, taken out of chiller and allowed to go to room temperature
13/2/2013 stirred
21/2/2013 Header boards removed and stirred twice daily
28/2/2013 Pressed added 3gms/litre French Oak and 3 gms/litre American Oak
4/12/2013 Bottled – bloody lovely

2013 Chambourcin (batch 309)

21/2/2013 picked 44.3 Kg 12md, Brix 23.4, Baume 12.6, pH 3.5, crushed immediately, sulphur 5.13 gms, BDX yeast, 2 gms nutrient

22/12/2013 regulated temperature to 21-24 C and removed 2 litres for Rose
23/2/2013 Header boards used. Aerated twice daily by draining 4litres from below the header boards and pouring back over. Performed this for first 4 days.
28/2/2013 Temperature raised to 27-28 C
15/3/2013 Pressed, added 3gms/litre French Oak and 3gms/litre American Oak
4/12/2013 Bottled, superb even better than the Tempranillo

Karl the day visiting rooster showing his devotion by sitting with Bootsie while she lays an egg. What a man.

We eat fresh oysters most weeks resulting in a growing collection of shells. When the three garbage bins are filled the shells are then put through the mulcher to produce grit for the chooks. All three bins were overflowing and two went through the mulcher very quickly producing almost one full garbage bin of grit.