Jim Hall wrote:
> Oh, ok.. So if you had 200 lbs of grapes initially. That would translate
> into about 55 + liters of wine (using my pressing calc) and you added 136
> gms of Tartaric or

Well... I had 223 pounds of grapes initially. I'm figuring about 10% of
that weight was lost to destemming, so yeah, about 200 pounds of must.
It's hard to calculate, precisely, because while I intended to
carefully mark 1-gallon increments along all the fermenters, *yet
again*, I forgot.

I've concluded that while my TA may now be around .9 to .95 averaged
between the two vats (and with pH of what.. 3.75? 3.8? -- yes a bit
high), I tasted it, and the must in both vats tastes fantastic. I would
rather push it too acidic and let it reduce through cold stabilizing,
tartaric settling, or simply age.

I do admit, I was a bit concerned about high TA and pH, but really, I
think the pH is due to Potassium... in punching the cap, using a tool I
designed from a stainless steel screw, oak dowel, and oak shelf
(details available if you want), I may have actually been doing a bit
of *pressing* as well -- which may have helped boost that pH from extra
leaching of Potassium. I'm not too worried about that though, as cold
stabilizing will help.

As for the grapes themselves, a few were over-ripe (some were Brix
27!!) but the average of the must originally was 23.5. So I think
there's still plenty of Malic waiting to be converted over during Malo.

Sorry if I'm rambling... just a bit excited right now with this
Pinot...

Thanks again for everyone's help,

David