It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a technical winemaking post. So here goes.
Andy has perfected the ultimate homemade topping up system for wine for less than $200 for the whole system, which in the winemaking world is a huge bargain.
A bit of background: when your wine is in barrels and resting, you want to make sure as little air as possible can get to it to oxidize it. But you still want to siphon out some for periodic tasting. Which means that you are lowering the volume, therefore introducing more air. What to do? Obviously, you need a methodology for “topping up” your barrels easily and quickly.
Here’s the homemade system Andy devised:
Andy has a selection of every one of our varietals in a separate tank under very low pressure, topped off with nitrogen, similar to Coca Cola in a soda fountain.
So when Andy pulls out some wine from a particular barrel (as he does here with the appropriately named “wine thief”), he can top up the barrel to prevent the air from oxidizing the wine.
Removing some Grenache to mix with the Mourvedre to see how they might meld as a Rhone-style blend.
Now the barrels can be topped up with fresh wine from the pressurized cannisters, thus avoiding the dreaded air contact.
Topping up the barrels.
Dr. FrankenWine mixes Grenache and Mourvedere. Results: very encouraging!
Verdict on the Mourvedre, Grenache and Cabernet: Much better than expected. High hopes for this very first vintage.
That really looks like a lot of fun.
Since I started writing my silly wine opera, I’ve got a ton of empty wine bottles sitting in my garage. Some I bought, some others gave, and now some folks give me empty bottles of wines with silly names. I love it but after I take photos, don’t know what to do with them. Any ideas?
If I thought we could use them, I’d rev up the truck and come down to Texas to get them. Unfortunately, every bottle seems to be slightly different in shape, neck size, etc. and very few fit our small bottling machine. You could make a “bottle tree”. Or pay for someone’s college education by recycling them.
Ullage is a bitch.
I’ve been looking at barrel top up systems around the internet and from Morewinemaking.com. They have a system for $195, but they are sold out. Is it possible to list out the parts you guys used so i can order individually. Don’t want to reinvent the wheel here and it sounds like you are already doing this well.
Please let me know asap. About to start fermentation next week and want to be ready with my topping wine for barrel time.
Thanks!
Jason