So, with the mystery grapes from our backyard, the guys began to make a rosé. Early Tuesday morning, Dave and Beau (and a little help from Olivia) got to harvesting our backyard grapes. The hornets have been going crazy over these sweet grapes, many of them sleeping in the dried grapes.
After picking, then sorting and destemming, they manually crushed the grapes and strained them with a nylon straining bag, strong hands and a fine filter in the funnel. This was probably the most grueling day. Ten hours of constant manual labor. The guys decided not to do a cold soak with these grapes, so not too much red color was extracted and there weren't enough red grapes to get a nice pink color, so they added a little of the pinot noir juice.
A day's hard work deserves a little play. We headed to
Les Caves for some happy hour (shrimp hush puppies, pork tostadas, beer pretzel... drool) and a walk around downtown to burn off some calories.
The pinot noir grapes are progressing nicely in the primary fermentation stage. As you can see, a rich color is developing and the bubbles signal that fermentation has begun. Once we are past primary fermentation (when most of the sugar has been converted to alcohol), they'll be pressed (not by hand this time but through a press). Then, they'll be placed into several carboys where they will go through secondary fermentation (called malolactic fermentation). Stay tuned!
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