Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a a great Christmas or Hanukka or Winter Solstice or whatever it is you celebrate to liven the darkest days of the year.  Mine was very pleasant and I got a new cookbook and an immersion blender.  I'm looking forward to trying out both.

I've been in the winery a few times this week to check on the stubborn Pinot gris, which does finally appear to be moving. Yeah!  And to work on protein stability tests.  I ran a batch last week and found out what wines failed and then over the weekend ran the first set of tests to narrow down the dosage rates of bentonite for each wine that failed.  This week I trialed at finer rates and just finished filtering them.  I use a syringe filter because I am filtering so little wine, just about 20 mls of each.  The small white circle of paper on the brown paper towel is one of filter papers that fits in the syringe.  Then I put the vials, filled with filtered wine, in the handy rack that Barry built me which fits perfectly in my pot.  Now I am going to take them home, fill the pot with water and cook the vials of wine for 6 hours at 176F in my homemade water-bath and see what fails!  What fun!  The nitty gritty of winemakeing.

Happy New Year to you all and I hope it brings everything you are wishing for.  Cheers!  Elizabeth.