(Merlot blend lees on the left, Muscat on the right. You lose the pop art sense of things when you save to web-safe colors.)
About 5 weeks after pressing, 1st racking.
I started puttering around and getting ready early. Lori joined me & we started with the Muscat. (Peter's out at Montauk.)
Muscat lees were pretty firm and the wine clear enough to watch through. We used the racking wand and a clip on the neck of the carboy to ease things. Lost very little volume in the process, and were able to top off with a single 750 ml overflow bottle. But - doh! - we never even tasted the 750 when we opened it, and didn't realize until after we'd poured it in that it was not fresh and had a pretty heavy tingle. Will taste the combined wine every couple of days for a while to make sure we don't have a problem. (I knew I smelled something off as we were ending the work - I just didn't react to it.)
Added 3/4 tsp (1.5 g) KSO2 to get to 40 parts per million in the 5 gal. Muscat, and to all the other wines we worked with today.
Moved on to the Merlot blend. Of the 25 gallons, we lost about 1.5 gal. of volume. Beautiful, psycho-purple lees. Some taste variation from carboy to carboy, but generally very happy stuff. Ended with four 5 gal. carboys, one 3 gal carboys, and a couple of 750's (which need airlocks or will go bad - had no more small bored plugs).
Mike and Pam came over after we had finished with the Merlot. Hopefully Mike will post about the top-ups to the Grenache. Pam tasted the Grenache and seemed pretty happy. End result was one 5 gal. carboy all Grenache, one 5 gal carboy Grenache + a 750 of commercial Grenache rose, and a little topping from the Syrah, one 3 gallon carboy of the Syrah and a one gallon jug of the Syrah.
And somewhere along the way while I was cleaning things today, I broke an empty carboy. Sad. It made me wonder how I got into a fourth year of doing this without having already broken one, but still, an ugly waste.
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