Birth of a Chardonnay

[adiochiro3]

A friend of mine has a vinyard estate and is kind enough to let me harvest whatever I want after the contracted mechanical harvest is done. SWMBO, the dog, and I spent a beautiful late summer evening in the vinyard:

We harvested about 160 lbs. in about 2 hours.

Crushed and pressed

Added campden and into the primary.

Made some grape and pepper jelly with the extra juice.

Racked 2 more times. Holy cow, what a lot of sediment at first! Looks like this after 5+ months:

Bottling Day!

Of course, we had to taste it as we bottled. Good clarity, and a great, dry taste.

23 1/2 bottles (would have been 24 spot on without samples along the way).

Thanks for looking, and thanks to all the forum contributors who helped make this happen!

 

[Taurii]

I love these types of threads! What press is that?

 

[adiochiro3]

I love these types of threads! What press is that?

Thanks! I had fun documenting the journey. It's an old cast iron press by Enterprise. The 6 quart version. I originally bought it for sausage stuffing. It also works as a lard press.