As a long time fruit wine maker I'm just now beginning to understand the
intricacies or making wine from grapes in the southeast. This is the
first year for any grapes and I've never bothered with sulfite because
with fruit, I just made a boiling hot saturated sugar solution that
pasteurized the must and never bothered with sulfite because the fruit
always required more sugar and water. Maybe I've been lucky but in about
30 years I've not lost a bottle. This week I've crushed the first
grapes from my vines and I added 1 Campden tablet for the 1 gallon of
must that I got from the Chancellor that survived the 2007 frost. I
pitched the yeast about 20 hrs after the SO2 and nothing. I've waited
another day and pitched another package of Lalvin 71B after aerating the
must between two pails several times, still nothing.

The Tablet label said 1 tablet per gallon for 30 ppm so2. I'm obviously
naive about so2. Any help would be appreciated.

I have also been watching the TA of the berries but I have recently
heard that in the east, the main thing to watch is the pH and the rest
can be adjusted later. That certainly has merit and I would appreciate
any comments.

Dick