#1 Insufficient or Inadequate Picking Equipment
Whether hand-picking or by machine, having the right and enough picking equipment is key to not only ensuring your fruit can be harvested in time but also, that it will retain its quality. Buckets or bins that are not intended for winemaking typically contain chemical plasticizers and UV protectants as well as pigments that will taint your flavor and seriously compromise your final product. Make sure you have an adequate number of sanitized bins to transport and temporarily store your harvest.
#2 Not Enough Fermentors or Storage Tanks
If you don't have the right number of tanks or barrels to ferment, you stand a higher chance of microbes' taking over and degrading the quality of your product. Be sure to stock your cellar with the correct number of essential tanks so you can take full advantage of your harvest. (There is still time to order both storage and maturation tanks quickly from Flextank.com or one of our distributors today and in time for this year's harvest).
#3 Holding Onto Last Year's Inventory
We are all dealing with Supply Chain Issues. Glass and corks are in high demand, if you can get them at all! Be sure to plan ahead, bottle any of last year's inventory in preparation for this year's. An unfortunate, but necessary decision to hold bottling till after harvest will make tanks space tight for harvest. Adding extra space with Flextank is the best dollar per gallon storage solution a winemaker can make.
#4 Picking Too Early, or Too Late
It's no secret, finding the perfect time to pick is vital to creating the most enjoyable and balanced flavors and aromas. Picking too early can result in a finished product that is too green, acidic and contains too many tannins with not enough sugars. On the flip side, picking too late can result in flavors that are flabby or unbalanced with too many sugars, and weak tannin and acidic structures. Recording knowledge of each year's harvest in color, shape, seed texture, and lab results can help you build a valuable database of knowledge for your particular varietals.
#5 Improperly Sterilized Equipment or Tanks
Placing this year's harvest directly into equipment and tanks that have been cleaned but sitting in storage or swapping it into tanks that have been continuously used to process and mature last year's inventory may seem like an ok idea, but can be detrimental in introducing unwanted flavor and even harmful bacteria into your finished product. Make sure you are properly sterilizing every piece of equipment before it comes in contact with your fruit, juice, wine or cider. With features like the larger Dexter lids and manway openings, Flextanks are among the easiest tanks on the market to clean and sterilize. Made with only the most carefully selected and tested quality food-grade resins, when properly sterilized before and after each use Flextank have zero reported taint of flavors.