Gina and I went to see Mrs. Lapide yesterday, as I reported in an earlier email, and we bought 5 crates of barbera, 3 of grenache and 2 of alicante. I varied the barbera recipe we used in the past because I had to--Mrs L had only 5 crates of barbera left. Mrs. L gave her blessing to the mix, which was good enough for me. Turns out she and her late husband--born Lorenzo Lapide--made wine for years.
G and I crushed the grapes in the PM--OK, it was mainly me. Grapes were superb: the alicante did a fierce impersonation of black, the barbera was sweet, and the grenache sweet and fruity. No raisining, no rot, no lie. I crushed into 2 barrells because I didn't want to risk overflow from a single barrells. Grapes were room temp when I added the Red Star Montrachet yeast at about 9 P.M.--3 envelopes of yeast per half gal pitcher, plus 1/2 cup of sugar in each pitcher.
We're shooting for about 150 bottles.
Purple froth beginning to appear as of 7 A.M. this morning, and a gorgeous perfume beginning to emanate: a star is born.
The juice that's running from the stirring sticks is already purple and has a sweet taste with fruit--it already has a little alcohol push to it, or my tongue deceives me. Which it does from time to time.
In vino,
Bernardo
3 comments:
No meta yet, by the by. I'm going to add some as the froth subsides.
Bravo! Send pics of the new cellar setup.
WIll do, Steve, first thing tomorrow.
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