Last Friday, we crushed Steuben, the last grape variety for this season. We measured the sugar, total acidity, and pH on the Steuben juice after crushing the grapes and pressing the juice off the skins and seeds. We added Sulfur dioxide and two hours later added enzymes to the juice. On Monday, we racked the Steuben off sediment on Monday, added sugar and started the fermentation.
In addition to Steuben, we worked on our first batch of Verona. We did punch downs all weekend, added lag nutrients on Saturday and midlife nutrients on Sunday. This is the first Verona we have harvested and the quantity is very small. We will taste it, consider blending opportunities, and otherwise try to figure out what we are going to do with it in the future.
We will also have a small batch of Itasca, and we will experiment with how we will use the Itasca going forward.
Edelweiss and LaCrosse are still fermenting.
The cellar is a busy place right now.
