Crushed and Destemmed

Today's the day! I received an email earlier this week saying the grapes will be ready Saturday Morning. After giving my Rubbermaid Brutes a good cleaning (with a little sanitizer), I packed them into the HHR and drove out to Fabbioli Cellars.

I am going to be completely honest and say that it felt pretty cool walking into a tasting room and saying, "I'm here to pick up grapes. I reserved 200 pounds of Chambourcin?" It's kind of like going from just enjoying the sound of music, to starting your own band. Only much messier.

Doug came down and turned on his big crusher/destemmer. I foolishly forgot to bring a camera, but it essentially looks like the photo to the left. The grapes get poured into the top and the grape stems shoot out one end, while the gently crushed grapes come out the other. After all that worry about what to use for a primary fermenter, the Brute buckets worked perfectly...although I needed a little help getting them into the car. I also only needed two 20 gallon buckets, rather than three. Before I left, Doug gave me some critical notes. My grapes have a PH of 3.31 and a Brix of 22.8. He said the grapes are essentially perfect, so I don't need to make any adjustments for acidity or sugar.

Now that I'm home, the only question is whether or not I will cold macerate. This is the process of keeping cooling the grapes for a little while before throwing in the yeast. The only problem is that I'm not sure how to cool down the grapes in time. I might just pitch the yeast tomorrow morning. In case you haven't guessed, I'm pretty much figuring this out as I go along.

I Would Like 200 Pounds of Grapes, Please

We're taking the plunge and purchasing 200 pounds of Chambourcin grapes from Doug Fabbioli at Fabbioli Cellars. If all goes well, we'll have cases of delicious, drinkable, and/or fermented red wine in a year!

The biggest challenge this week has been finding something with which to pick up the grapes. After spending way too much time in Lowe's and Home Depot, I settled upon the Rubbermaid Brute 20-gallon container. I'm going to avoid the phrase "trash can" since that sounds disgusting. The key thing here is that they're food-grade. You'd think it would be easy to figure out what's food grade plastic and what isn't, but they don't make it easy and the staff at your local big box story is reliably clueless. One thing to remember is that while plastics labeled HDPE (high density polyethlene) can be food grade, not all HDPE plastic is food grade. Turns out the Rubbermaid "Brute" product line is reliably food grade, and these 20 gallon containers not only fit in my Chevy HHR, they should still be movable once filled with grapes.

And just in case you thought I was fretting this much about what to put the grapes in for pickup, these handy trash cans will also serve as my primary fermenters. In other words, the grapes will reside in these containers until the yeasts have converted the sugars into alchohols.

Now that I'm ready it's just a matter of waiting for the word from Fabbioli Cellars that the grapes are picked and waiting. I have an image of Doug standing out in the vineyards with magic charms and chicken bones asking the sky gods to tell him when the grapes have reached optimal ripeness. I can't wait.

Grapes into Wine

Ms. Sowed and I took a wine making course this past summer at Willowcroft Vineyards with the goal of learning how to make our own wine. Although the course left us with more questions than answers, it did turn us onto a great book called Grapes into Wine by Philip M. Wagner. This book is essentially the bible for American winemakers and small producers, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in home wine making. Although we're just getting started in the process, I'm sure this book will be by my side the entire time. Wager provides a step by step guide for producing wine from grape to glass. He delves into the science, the history and the practical needs for the hobby winemaker. It's seriously a worthly investment.

As a side-note for those interested in American wine history, Philip Wager founded a prominent Maryland winery called Boordy Vineyards in 1945 and was responsible for introducing many French-American hybrid grapes to America. He first published Grapes into Wine in 1933 under the title "American Wines and How to Make Them". He pretty much witnessed the death of American wine during prohibition, and then helped spark its rebirth through his many DIY-oriented writings and experiments with hybrid grapes.