I made a small batch of Pinot Noir
I found a vineyard in the Yarra Valley region in VIC that had a smaller minimum order for pinot. To be honest the grapes were average and I had to hand pick through most of it to get rid of any peck or mouldy grapes. He said he has just taken over the place and is in the process of tending to them to get them up to scratch.
I cold soaked them for about 40 hours and then slowly let it begin to ferment (spontaneous ferment). I tried to keep the ferment a bit cooler (not too hot or fast) and I pressed it a bit earlier as I wanted a lighter coloured pinot. It's lighter alcohol, roughly 12%.
Yield was about 55-60L total however I lost about 10L of juice with a failed rose. I ordered about 100kg and I didn't press the grapes too hard.
It's been in the demijohns about a month now. It has a strong, sharp alcoholic smell (not too chemical or nail polish, but it's close). It tastes very young, like an unripe acidic fruit but not bitter. So I'm keen to see what malolactic does to soften the flavours. I have 3 demijohns, one is the free run, one is 60% free run and 40% press and the rest was 100% pressed juice. I noticed a difference in taste with all three. The fully pressed demi had an almost balanced taste, but the free run was quite wild and sharp. The middle was, as you'd expect, somewhere inbetween.
Keeping it stored in my underground carpark where it stays around 14-20C. I have them in the dark behind some towels as there is a fluorescent light in my storage cage.
This is my 3rd year attempting wine. The first year I made syrah, but as I was moving the demijohn (it had been in secondary about 9 months shattered.) Red wine all over the place. Heartbreaking. The second year I got the grapes too late and it was just way too high alcohol to continue.
I think this attempt will be semi successful. I have some good equipment now but most importantly I have a little more knowledge on the process. I'm going to spend the next 12 months diving down the rabbithole of the next grapes I want to try and what they do and don't like.
I just wanted to put this out somewhere, this is a small hobby of mine that I try to talk to my work friends about but they just tell me they'll never drink wine again because goon is all they know. My partner had fun with the pressing part but has priorities of their own.
I tried to upload a photo and video but it didn't work.
Thank you!