Mouvedre, Matoro, or Yarra Water?

We did our second batch of grape crushing yesterday.

A week or two back, we crushed 200kg of shiraz grapes, which we then pressed for an outcome of 110 litres of wine, which is now in secondary fermentation.

Yesterday, we drove out to Ardeer where someone was selling various varieties of grapes, as well as various random items of wine making equipment.

Looking at what the various options were (Cabernet, Grenache or Mouvèdre), we decided on Mouvedre, as the French call it, which Italians call Matoro.

Above is a photo of what the juice looked like immediately after the crush, when we needed to take an initial baume reading with the hydrometer to get an idea of how much potential alcohol this batch will produce (spoiler – 12.5%).

Obviously, it is a grape where the red colour will take a few days to seep from the skins into the juice. For the time being, it looks like Yarra water.