I began fermenting the Petite Sirah on October 1st 2010 from a six-gallon container of juice sourced from Lodi, California. At only 19 brix, I did add two and a half pounds of sugar to raise the brix level to 22.5. Fermentation was completed in a couple of weeks. The wine was racked and placed in a dark room. In December malolactic fermentation began and since the room was on the cool side during the winter, the malo lasted until February. I then oaked the wine using a light French oak spiral.
Since our son, Kevin, was visiting this weekend, I decide to bottle the wine. An extra pair of hands is always welcome. Kevin recalled trying to cork the wine from our first attempt to make wine in 2008. Kathy had bought a wine kit for Christmas. Kevin and Brittany attempted to cork the bottles with a hand-held corker that required two hands to hold the bottle, two hands to hold the corker, and one hand to pull the lever. This time though, Kevin used another Christmas present, a corking apparatus that only required one hand. Advancement!
So now the Petite Sirah can get over its bottle shock and continue to age in the bottle. Luckily we still have a couple bottles from our first attempt as well as bottles we bottled a year ago at Tin Lizzie Wineworks and at home. So I can forget about the Petite Sirah for now and concentrate on the others. We did end up with slightly more than 30 bottles and had the remainder with last evening’s meal. The Petite Sirah had a red color and was light bodied offering dark fruit on the aroma and taste. The light bodied wine may best be suited for chilling and serving during the blistering hot summer. It will make a nice light everyday table wine.
Cheers,
Terry
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