2025 Pinotage
updated 11/11/2025
October 2025
Today we crushed 8 lugs (288 lbs, 130.6 kg) Pinotage, and brought home 2 buckets Verdicchio and 2 buckets Pinot Noir.
Ingredients
| Fruit | 8 lugs Pinotage |
| Maceration Enzyme | 12 ml Colo Pro, divided |
| Nutrient | 30 g FermAid-O 8 tsp Fermax + DAP, divided |
| Yeast | 2x 5 g packets RC-212
5 tsp Renaissance Bravo 1x 5 g packet EC-1118 |
| Starter | 30 g Go-Ferm Sterol Flash, divided |
| K-meta | as required |
| Malolactic Bacteria | |
| Aging Oak | |
| Finishing Tannin | |
| Glycerin | . |
Method
| Crushed the grapes. Did not check brix or SG. As noted, this is a mixture of this year’s grapes and last year’s. | 10/25/2025 SG — |
| Grapes were too cold yesterday, so didn’t inoculate until today.
Made 2 yeast starters, each: 6 oz water (95 F), 15 g GoFerm Sterol Flash. First is RC-212, second is Bravo. Let rest 10 minutes before inoculation. Each fermenter received 15 g Fermaid-O and 6 ml Color Pro. |
10/27/2025 SG 1.122 |
| Fermentation is active, but slow. | 10/29/2025 SG 1.090 |
| Add 4 tsp Fermax/DAP to each fermenter. | 10/31/2025 SG 1.060 |
| Big jump, down t0 1.022. Added 2 liters water to each fermenter, stirred in as best I could. SG did not drop muhc. | 11/01/2025 SG 1.020 |
| Pressed wine, yielding 20 raw gallons. Added Lalvin 31 to demijohn and carboy.
Due to high OG, the wine is probably not quite finished fermenting. Added packet EC-1118 to the demijohn. |
11/09/2025 SG 1.002 |
| Checked the SG this morning, it’s in an expected range. It appears that both RC-212 and Bravo hit this ABV tolerance, and the EC-1118 was necessary to complete fermentation. | 11/1/2025 SG 0.997 |
| XX/XX/2025 SG — |
|
| XX/XX/2025 SG — |
|
| XX/XX/2025 SG — |
|
| XX/XX/2025 SG — |
|
| XX/XX/2025 SG — |
|
| XX/XX/2025 SG — |
|
| XX/XX/2025 SG — |
|
| . | XX/XX/2025 SG |
| . | XX/XX/2025 SG |
Notes
| Yield | ?? bottles |
| Alcohol | ??.?% ABV |
| . | . |
| . | . |
| . | . |
| . | . |
1 Response
[…] 2025 Pinotage […]