01/19/15 Day 5 of fermentation. Must temperature 71F. Brix was 17B at 7 AM and 15.5B at 7 PM (4.5B decrease form prior day) Upon the advice of a trusted winemaker familiar with the Vino Superiore grape, I am making an adjustment to my process. One of the best parts about wine making is learning from other winemakers (thank you Daniel Pambianchi for your advice). I increased the temperature of my basement so that I can run a hotter fermentation. Now that the sugar is at 1/3 depletion, it is time to add the Fermaid K nutrient. I am adding 10g (1g per gallon). of Fermaid K mixed in with 60 ml of distilled water. Fermaid K "feeds" the yeast to help it make it to the finish. If Go-Ferm is the cereal to feed the yeast during rehydration, Fermaid K is the protein bar to help it finish the race.

01/17/15 Day 3 of fermentation. Must temperature continues at a cool 62.5F, After 3 days of cooler fermentation temperatures, it's time to turn on the space heater and warm the temperature to around 67F from there the fermentation will create another 5-7F degrees of heat..The cap remains thick. The smell of the alcohol is in the forefront when I remove the lid. No off odors (a good thing). I tasted some of the juice, slightly smokey (interesting), likely coming from the medium toast french oak powder, although I did not notice the smokey taste in other wines made using this method.

01/13/15 Checked Must temperature in the morning. The must has thawed but the temperature is only at 43F degrees. The temperature needs to come up to 59F degrees before I can pitch the yeast. The juice is a rich dark purple and the flavor is simply delicious. This wine will undergo MLF (malolactic fermentation) so I did not add any potassium metabisulfite, which would inhibit the MLF process. To begin, I combined the 2 five gallon pails of thawed must into a 20 gallon container. I then stirred into the must 16 g of Opti-Red (mixed 4:1 with water) and 1.6 g Lallzyme (mixed 100:1 with water). Opti-Red is designed to enhance the body and structure of the wine and to help increase color stability. Lallyzme is an enzyme that is designed to break down the skin and pulp of the grapes. 4 oz oak powder (3 oz American Oak no toast and 1 oz French Oak medium toast) was stirred into the must. Why am I using oak powder and why before fermentation? This is a process I experimented with in the past and I like the results. I just wasn't getting the oak aroma I like out of oak staves and balls, so I decided to try adding oak powder before fermentation. The powder pretty much drops out by the time the fermentation is done and it gives a nice kick start to the oak balls or staves that will be added later. The final step today was the addition of tannin. I prefer strong tannin in wine, and have found FT Rouge to be a nice compliment to the tannin found in the grape and the oak additions. FT Rouge is tannin extracted from oak. 13 g dissolved in 100 ml juice was stirred into the must 6 hours after the addition of Lallzyme. It is important to wait at least 6 hours to add tannin if using Lallzyme. Otherwise, the tannin can react with and remove the enzyme before the enzyme has taken effect.

2015 Winter Vintage

Vino fatto con la famiglia e gli amici.

Roccograndi wine

12/05/15 Decided today to filter the wine and get it off the oak. After filtering the net volume was 5.5 gallons, which is a really good yield. Picking up aromas of cherry and light strawberry. The oak is coming through nicely with a hint of vanilla with lots of big tannin.

01/27/15 Transfer Day. I let the wine settle for 48 hours before transferring it to a stainless steel variable capacity tank. When the wine was transferred to the SS tank, I marked the height of the gross lees on the holding vessel. Later when I cleaned the vessel I was able to determine the amount of gross lees. The gross lees totaled 3/4 gallon. This means that I should expect 6 gallons (30 bottles) of finished wine prior to filtering. After transferring the wine to the SS tank, I started MLF using VP41 and Acti-ML nutrient. After the addition, I added medium toast american oak staves. From here, it's just a matter of testing to see when MLF is completed. For those of you unfamiliar with MLF, MLF is the process of taking the tart tasting malic acid and converting it to a softer tasting lactic acid. MLF adds complexity to wine. A good example is ice cream. Vanilla ice cream is wonderful but very one dimensional. Now add to the vanilla ice cream hot fudge, nuts, cherries, and whipped cream. all of a sudden you have an incredible ice cream with all the different flavors working together. This is what complexity means to wine.

01/22/15 Day 6 - 10 of fermentation. Must temperature increased from 74F to 76F between Wednesday and Thursday morning. Brix continues a steady drop. Brix has from to 7 on the start of the 8th day. (14B, 10.5B, 7B). One thing I have noticed about this wine that stands out above all other wines I have made is that during fermentation the taste of the must has retained its fruit characteristic and vibrant flavor. What I have noticed in the past is that soon after fermentation begins, the flavor changes during the conversion of the natural sugar to alcohol and loses much of the fruitiness as the alcohol increases. Not the case here. Day 10 of the fermentation shows brix at 0. Tomorrow, I will press.

01/14/15 This morning I checked the must temperature. Temperature was 57F. Target temp is 59F, which the low end of temperature tolerance for the yeast I selected. I selected Syrah yeast that is relatively new to home winemakers. To help speed up the warming of the must, I turned on a small space heater about 2 feet from the fermenter. Within a few hours the must temperature increased to 61.5F and at 7:00 PM I was able to add the yeast starter. Some winemakers like to "pitch" the yeast, which means to sprinkle on top of the must. I prefer to make a yeast starter using Go-Ferm and then stir into the must. Go-Ferm is a nutrient to help the yeast get a good start. It's like feeding the yeast breakfast.

Progress Notes

01/25/15 Press Day. Brix dropped to -0.5 overnight. Time to press. With help from my assistant, Sam, the grapes were pressed. I first transferred the grapes to a separate bucket and the strained the "free run" wine. The grapes were then pressed using a small fruit basket press. The 2 pails of frozen must resulted in 2 pressings. Overall, I received approximately 5 3/4 gal of free run wine and 1 gal "pressed" wine for a total of 6 3/4 gal. I'll let the wine settle overnight and the transfer off the gross lees. Once transferred I will start the Malolactic Fermentation (MLF).

01/18/15 Day 4 of fermentation. Must temperature continues at 64F, I am now into the 4th day of fermentation. Brix is slowly dropping. Right around 20B today. I am trying to control the ambient temperature of my basement for a 7-10 day fermentation.

Italian Vineyard

Italian Countryside

01/16/15 Day 2 of fermentation. Must temperature a cool 62.5F, rather cool in my basement but a very active fermentation is in the works. I'm a little untraditional, I don't find it necessary to measure brix every day to see if the fermentation is progressing. I can hear it bubbling. I can see the changes in must temperature. I can feel the cap development. I can smell the alcohol as it develops and coverts the sugar. In a few days, I'll start measuring the brix twice daily so I add the Fermaid (nutrient) at the correct time. I know that at my fermentation temperature, I have a few days before the fermentation turns from active to rigorous. Overnight, the cap has thickened. I can now hear the fermentation bubbling away and the aroma of the alcohol is now present but not yet overwhelming. Just waiting for the morning when I open my basement door and can smell the wine before I go down the stairs.

01/15/15 Day 1 of fermentation. Checked must at 7:00 AM and an active fermentation is underway. Must temperature this morning was 66F. I kept the space heater all night. The grapes have started pushing up and a very light cap starting to form. I turned the heater off, pushed the cap down and gave the must a good stir, still some heavy grapes on the bottom. This evening, I gave a good punch down, the cap has easily tripled in thickness, always a good sign. Must temperature is a cool 63.5F. There are two schools of thought with fermentation temp. Some winemakers prefer a warm (80+) fermentation while others prefer a cool fermentation (70+). I prefer a cool fermentation. A cool fermentation allows me to reach 7-12 days of fermentation for max color extraction. While the must temperature is currently 63.5F, I should see that go up to 70F as the fermentation becomes more active.

01/11/15 Picked up Vino Superiore ultra premium Sangiovese crushed grapes today. The must (juice with crushed grapes) is frozen and I expect it to take 2-3 days to thaw before the wine making process can begin.

Trying something new. In the past I have made wine in the Spring and Fall. In 2015, I am adding a "winter" vinatge using Vino Superiore ultra premium crushed grapes direct from Italy.

**Grape Statistics**
Source	Vino Superiore
Varietal	Sangiovese
Vineyard	Pineta
Location	Tuscany, Italy
Harvest Date	October 23, 2013
Must Temperature	64F
Brix	24
Potential Alcohol	13.25%
TA	7.6 g/L
pH	3.44

Sangiovese, 100% organic, certified DOCG grape must (crushed grapes) from the heart of the Chianti district in Tuscany, Italy. The DOCG title is the most prestigious designation a grape (and wine) can achieve in Italy. Each varietal is nurtured to its fullest flavor and color according to strict Italian regulatory standards, and then picked by their commercially-certified enologist at peak ripeness. Sangiovese is the most widely planted red grape in Italy, and the dominant varietal in Chianti and Super Tuscans. The flavor profile is a deep ruby color with garnet hues; elegant bouquet of leather, black cherries/ dried cherries, plums, berries and flowers (violets). It tends to be elegant on the palette, including classic plum and dried cherry characteristics with moderate natural acidity and generally a medium-body ranging that can be rich and flavorful.

Cases anticipated: 2.5

07/19/15 More oak added. Today I sampled the wine. Wow! The flavor is unbelievable. Astringent, which means it make your mouth feel completely dry. Not a lot of oak has come through with the oak staves I added in January so I added oak balls to help with imparting oak into the wine..

09/25/16 Bottled today with my youngest son Sam and my dad. A mere 74 years separate the two. Three generations bottling wine. Just look at the staining of the carboy. This is a big bold wine.