Fermentation picked up well after a day or so of pitching the yeast starter, and the airlock bubbled away happily for 3 days at 1-2 pops per second. Since yesterday it’s slowed down to just 1 pop every 4-5 seconds, so I took a gravity reading: 1.004 for about 8.1% ABV.

The colour’s lovely and the taste … is not bad, but there’s still a strong flavour of grapes rather than wine, and some sourness, although there’s sweetness present too. It’s too sharp for Patience, but I’m happy to finish off the contents of the sample jar without protest.

What to do now? I think that if I stop fermentation with a Campden tablet then we’ll still have the sweetness, but also the slightly sour edge which might translate to a rough finish with ageing. Let’s leave her to it for another couple of days so that the yeast can clear up after itself, even if it means losing some of that sweetness.