Passito, vin santo?

29 ott
Today, we transferred the red wine from the stainless container into the oak barrel and unfortunately, we didn't have enough red wine to even fill the 225 L barrique. We will need to buy some special floating thingies (since i can't translate this italian word well), which emit argon or nitrogen gas to prevent oxidation of the wine.
I "repicked" all the white grapes and we pressed them today to make a dessert wine which you call vin santo or passito in italy. In reality, the wine doesn't qualify for vin santo status as you have to leave the grapes to dry until dec. 5th in one way or another (on the vine, on the cables or in the cassettes like amarone) If we left the grapes that long, we could press them with a bulldozer and not get enough liquid for 2 half-bottles!
It looks like instead we pressed close to 40 liters, which if we are lucky will yield 80 half bottles and I must say, the juice tastes delicious, like honey.
I need to buy some special fermenting yeast made specifically for dessert wines tomorrow. Then the challenge is to stop fermentation when you still have an appropriate amount of sweetness, but also an adequate alcohol content. A nice challenge.
Bacco got a bath today and now looks fat, so we will be dieting or exercising a bit more or both!
Enjoy the pictures, which show the raisins I harvested, Bacco in the vineyard and all the grapes I gathered today.
dds