Winemaking step #3: monitoring the fermentation

I made a quick visit to Crushpad yesterday to check how the fermentation of our wine was progressing. And I got lucky because I came just in time to see the fermentation barrel being rotated: several times clockwise and several times counter-clockwise to keep the cap moist and to extract a maximum of color and flavor.


Rotating the barrel

We then measured the temperature and brix of the must. From 25.5 at harvest, the brix was already down to 23.5 on Sunday. Now, it had reached 21 with a rising temperature of 22° Celsius. The fermentation was doing fine.

I did not want to leave before trying the wine. For sure, this was not the fruit juice that I had tasted last Thursday. The color was eggplant purple. The juice was still very sweet but tasted yeasty and had already some secondary flavors.

I am excited, this wine is going to be good!

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