2025 Wines in Detail
updated 10/15/2025
As with last year, this will be an on-going blog of the wines started in 2025. Currently I’m on an annual cycle, starting grape wines in the fall.
This is not any assurance that things will remain on this schedule.
Dates of Activity
| 09/13/2025 09/14/2025 09/15/2025 09/16/2025 |
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Winemaking Notes
My normal winemaking notes for each batch are here:
09/13/2025
For us, the 2025 grape season officially started today. We are purchasing Chardonnel, Baco Noir, Marechal Foch, and Leon Millot.
My elder son and I drove 4 hours to the Glade Spring VA vineyard of our friends Beth & David. It’s a long drive, especially since we have to drive home afterward, but it’s worth it. The wines we have produced from their grapes in the last 2 years are great!
They are expanding their vineyard, as shown in the picture. Clearing equipment is visible at the top of the hill. They will be expanding the planting of certain varietals, including Chardonnel. More on that later.
Beth and David were ready to rock when we arrived just before 11:00 AM. What we have done in previous years is crush the grapes that Eric, Shannon, and I are buying, then we crush whatever grapes Beth and David have for themselves.
Winemaking is a shared activity, every step of the way. I made wine on my own for decades, and it is FAR more fun as a group activity. Eric & I are pleased to help Beth & David to crush whatever they have.
It’s unfortunate that we don’t live closer to Beth & David, so we could do more during the year. But? Enjoy what you have.
First we crushed Chardonnel. These look beautiful.
We wanted 130 lbs, to produce a bit more than two 19 liter (5 US gallon) carboys of finished wine. With our younger son and his family moving back to the area, we have a fourth person in our winemaking co-op, so that means one case of wine each.
Side Note: For the average person a case (12 bottles) of wine is a lot. For many winemakers? It’s not.
Each wine is a unique endeavor, never to be repeated. When it’s gone, it’s gone.
This is far different from purchasing commercial wine, where the vendor may produce 100,000 cases. Plus they blend for consistency, year to year, so the consumer is always getting a similar wine.
Ok, off my soapbox.
Last year we took all but 40 lbs of Chardonnel, so Beth & David froze the remaining 40 lbs. This year yields were down, so they had less than we wanted. So … they pulled out the frozen grapes, and we added it in. The grapes look ugly after defrosting, but that is not a problem.
Last year Beth & David froze the Chardonnel for several weeks, as we were coming in early October to crush the Chambourcin and Chelois. So we crushed defrosted Chardonnel, and the wine turned out very pleasing.
Next we crushed 25 lbs each Marechal Foch and Leon Millot. The overall target is 250 lbs of grapes (200 lbs Baco Noir), so we are field blending in about 10% each of Foch and LM. Ideally we would made separate batches of all 3 grapes and blend after 3 to 6 months, but available space doesn’t allow for that. Plus we need to fill the barrel, and we won’t have enough Baco to do that. So we field blend.
I cannot recall if the grapes in the photo are Foch or LM. I think they are Foch, but it doesn’t matter. Both grapes were beautiful.
Beth was concerned about the quality of the Baco, but it all looked good.
Something to note is that Baco and Foch are “teinturier” grapes. This is a French term — I’ve listened to the pronunciation numerous times, and I just cannot correctly say the first syllable, so I stopped trying.
Most red grapes have white flesh and juice — the color comes from the skins. Teinturier grapes have red flesh and juice, and the wines can be very dark. This photo shows residual juice in a bucket. Non-teinturier red grapes may have some color at this point, but no where near this much.
The grapes mostly fit in the 20 gallon Rubbermaid Brutes we use for fermentation. We have purchased 23 liter juice buckets the last couple of years, and to my mind this is 23 liters of juice with a free bucket. We save the buckets, as they are very useful!
The grapes would fit in the Brutes, but it made them a bit too full. This means they are harder to lift into and out of the vehicle, and that I have concern should I have to stop suddenly. Moving some of the grapes into the buckets relieved this concern.
I drive a Honda Pilot, and with the third row seats folded down, we had plenty of room. It’s best to have the area full, so in case of a sudden stop, the containers have little room to shift.
The box is wine that Beth and David gave us. We always exchange bottles.
This time we brought bottles of our 2024 Chardonnel and Vidal, and 2023 “Chianti” (Sangiovese juice fermented with pomace from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, & Merlot). Plus a bottle of “Port” we constructed using the Chianti, enough EverClear 151 to raise the ABV to 20%, sugar, and glycerin.
We taste their Foch and Baco, both of which are quite good. This bodes well for our wines! We also tried our Chardonnel and Vidal, which came out very good. And we tasted their 2024 barrel-aged Cayuga, which makes me want to find a 6 to 8 US gallon barrel for whites. Note on tasting — as the driver my sample were small, just enough to taste. No way I’m getting on the road with any appreciable amount of wine in me. That would be absolutely stupid.
When we got home we unloaded the grapes into the cellar and did nothing else. We had enough fun for one day.
09/14/2025
This morning I did a final weighing of the grapes. We have 120 lbs Chardonnel and 260 lbs of Baco Noir. [The Baco is field blended, but it’s far less tedious to just call it “Baco”.] Perfect!
I made 3 yeast starters with 71B, Avante, and Bravo. Eric & I discussed it during the drive, and we changed our mind on RC-212, which will be used on the Pinotage we will be buying a few weeks.
Each container of Baco received 2 cups medium toast American oak chips for fermentation oak. All three containers received 15 to 16 g Fermaid-O nutrient.
This year we are trying Go-Ferm Sterol Flash rehydration nutrient, so I followed the instructions. Each starter received 15 g Go-Ferm and 5 tsp yeast. Each batch should made approximately 10 to 12 US gallons, which means each requires two 5 g packets. Each packet is about 2 tsp yeast. Since yeast is cheap (ours is all in bulk), I added an extra tsp to each starter.
To each starter I added 6 oz water at 95 F, let it set for 20 minutes, then swirled each to mix and poured it gently along the side of the respective fermenters.
All that was left to do was the un-fun part — cleanup!
09/15/2025
This morning all containers were actively fermenting. I stirred each 3 times during the day.
09/16/2025
Fermax has been the yeast nutrient I’ve used for a very long time. Two years ago I ordered Fermax yeast nutrient from an Amazon vendor, and received DAP instead. When I complained to Amazon, they refunded my money and said to keep the product. I was ok with that.
First, a quick primer on DAP and YAN:
YAN (Yeast Assimilable Nitrogen) is a component of yeast nutrition. It provides nitrogen which stimulates the fermentation process.
DAP (Di Ammonium Phosphate) is a common source of YAN, but it has a bad reputation as “crack for yeast” in that yeast consumes it too rapidly, making a faster fermentation that may introduce off flavors. Many pundits favor other nutrients, which makes sense as the proprietary nutrients I’m familiar with contain other substances that are beneficial to yeast.
Since I have the DAP, I’ve been using it as part of the nutrient, typically in the final dosage. It’s recommended to add nutrient in 2 doses, with 2/3 added at inoculation, and the remaining 1/3 when the sugar is depleted by 1/3, e.g., if the OG was 1.090, the second dose would be added at roughly SG 1.060. Alternately, some sources recommend adding the second dose 48 hours after inoculation, which when using a yeast starter, is roughly at 1/3 depletion.
This year I’m trying something difference. Lallemand Fermaid-O, another proprietary nutrient blend, doesn’t contain added DAP and supposedly causes a cooler ferment which is less likely to produce sulfur compounds such as H2S. A lot of folks on WMT recommend it.
For the first nutrient dose, I used Fermaid-O.
Today is 48 hours after inoculation and I did not bother checking SG, I just added nutrient.
As mentioned above, I have about half a jar of Fermax and a bit less than that of DAP. I mixed the two well, and used that for the second dose. I cannot say this was the best choice, but it’s the one I made.
When we make the Pinotage in a month, it will be fermented in 2 batches. I’m considering using Fermaid-O in one and the Fermax/DAP blend in the other, so I can directly compare the two.