madscientist451 -
I get my grapes usually from Washington state and California through M&M Wine Grape Co. in Hartford CT, they carry some of the best grapes that I've seen, but it helps that they have very strict rules for how the fruit is packed and shipped, I haven't been disappointed yet! You can visit their website at
www.juicegrape.com. We also get some white grapes locally, such as Seyval Blanc and Catawba from a local winery that not has their own vineyards, they also manage vineyards for others, these are the nicest people that you could meet, the head winemaker\Gen Mgr is very forthcoming with anything that you could want to know, if you're ever up this way, Poughkeepsie, NY check them out at
Benmarl winery.
I make cider as well, I made 18 gallons last fall, it didn't last long...lol
As far as a second run, the rule of thumb is that if you made 20 gallons (I'll use 20 gallons as a reference) of wine from the grapes you can make 50% of that 2nd run, or 10 gallons after pressing. I've found that if reduce that to 5 gallons you get a much better, richer wine that is usually much better than the light rose' type wine you'll get from make the whole 50%.
I've made it two ways, you can either use juice buckets and add the grapes, test for PH and TA and adjust, or the way I prefer is that I'll use acidulated water (water with tartaric added), and add can sugar until I reach 1.090, add the pressed grape skins and it will start fermenting, you'll still have to punch the cap down until it has fermented to dry, but you won't have to add yeast because the skins still have yeast on them.
I age the 2nd run just like my other wines, I barrel age it as long as one of the barrels is about to be racked, it tends to be ready a little sooner.
I hope that this helps.
