winecast's blog

The sort and crush of our Westerly/McGinley Vineyard Rousanne went well with many group members joining via the Crushcam. The fruit looks good and after a 6 hour cold soak we'll be back at the Presscam at 4:00 p.m. PDT today.

Winemaker Michael Zitzlaff reports the fruit tastes very nice with peach, melon and apricot flavors. Since we are making two barrels, we'll innoculate each with separate yeast strains (D47 & QA23) next Tuesday or Wednesday.

The next element we need to consider for our open-source Roussanne,
is target TA (total or titratable acidity). Since pH is the measure of
the intensity of acidity, I will include both of these together in this
post.

The next question to deal with for our
community-generated Roussanne is target and maximum alcohol. This one
is somewhat linked to how ripe the grapes are when harvested and which
yeast we will use to transform the juice into wine. But we can always "water back" very ripe juice to lower the alcohol if required (not my first choice).

Near the top of the Crushpad 30 White Wine Plan Companion is a simple question:

Style: Describe characters you would like to highlight or downplay in your wine.

Sounds like a simple request but one that I find difficult to put
into words. Sure, I've had some Roussanne I really liked from both
California and the Rhône but what were the specific elements that made
these wines something special?

Now that harvest is getting into high gear in California, it's time to make some decisions on the winemaking plan for the Roussanne we will be making together at Crushpad. Being a late ripening varietal, our Roussanne
will not be ready to harvest until mid-October but there are 30
decisions to make in the coming 4-5 weeks before the grapes are picked.

Hello there Crushnet folks; just a quick entry to start my journey back to winemaking after nearly a twenty year hiatus.

I made my first wine in 1989 from a small vineyard near Madison, Wisconsin from French-American hybrids. Although my Marechal Foch nouveau was quite successful, everything else was nothing to write home about. I blamed it on not making wine from "real" grapes and only made one more vintage before hanging it up. Years past and now I will put my theory to the test this vintage.