Vino Louella – Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 – Part One – Primary Fermentation
After a long time researching and tasting wine, I officially started my new hobby of winemaking. Since this is my first time, I didn’t buy fresh grapes, take off my shoes, and stomp press them for hours to extract the juice. My wife bought me a starter wine kit for Christmas off of E.C. Kraus with the concentrated juice of the Cabernet Sauvignon wine grape.
The instructions were pretty clear. The California Connoisseur juice kit came with pre-measured ingredients and a check list of what to do and when to do it. The grape juice had some water removed to reduce storage and shipping weights, so it was concentrated to about 2 gallons of juice. As per the directions, I topped up the juice to 6 gallons by adding natural spring water. I mixed in the pre measured Bentonite (a type of clay used in wine clarification.) and hydrated my yeast by leaving them in warm water for 15 minutes before mixing them into the must. I then put the lid onto the fermentation vessel and fitted it with an Air Lock to allow the C02 that the yeast creates to escape.
I have about 8-10 days until primary fermentation is complete. At that time I will siphon the wine into a Carboy for secondary fermentation. Instead of a glass carboy, I decided to go with a specially treated plastic “Better-Bottle”. These bottles offer many advantages over tradition glass carboys. The Better Bottle doesn’t break if you drop it. It also is a fraction of the weight of a glass carboy. Though I just started winemaking and I have never broken a glass carboy full of 6 gallons of red wine, I can just imagine the devastation that fermenting red wine would leave behind if mishandled and exploded all over the floor.
I am hoping to become well educated in winemaking and begin to order whole grapes during harvest time from the Napa Valley area. I would then de-stem, crush, press, and ferment the grapes in their own skins. I have also been reading up on making Aged Tripel Ale or Barley Wine. So I may have some 10%+ abv beer to sip by the fire.
This is a hobby that I will have the rest of my life to master and will benefit greatly from the hours of research and work. It sure will be nice having some of the best wine and beer for about a couple bucks a bottle.
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