The vines are set to arrive on May 5. They must be soaked in water for 24 hours and immediately thereafter planted in one foot of loose soil. Bob McCrindle has been hard at work clearing the yard. We will plant by digging a 1 foot deep trench for each row using the tractor. I've put together a rough layout of how the vines will be arranged on the hillside. The 100 Riesling grape vines will be composed of 4 clones. The bottles arrived for the 2009 Riesling. I decided not to risk the whole lot on my "making it the German way" experiment. I added KC Super Kleer to two of the three carboys (one oaked and one unoaked). I will filter these carboys down to 6 microns. The third carboy (also oaked), I placed in the refrigerator. I'm planning to bottle the third carboy German-style, sans fining, filtering, and preservatives. I put together a cherrywood wine rack. Each of these racks will hold 126 bottles.
Comments
I think the WinePod is a great winemaking tool. Temperature control during primary fermentation will improve your wine. Sadly, the business model didn't work so well for mass-producing the device during the recession. I am thinking of asking the WinePod's creator, Greg Snell, if he wouldn't mind assisting me with creating a larger scale version of the device to be used in commercial wineries.
Thank you for your reply about the WinePod. I enjoy reading your posts and someday wouldn't mind trying a bottle of your wine.
Thanks again and cheers.