Well, splash racking seems to have saved the day. The wine no longer stinks like rotten eggs. It tastes a little thin this year. Not sure why. I will either need to blend it with something to give it a little more "oomph" or just live with thin wine. I lean towards not standing on "I'm only going to use my own Pinot grapes" and more "I want to make really good wine using my Pinot grapes". Perhaps a beefier Pinot, or maybe even a bottle of something more substantial.
But we'll have to see what it tastes like in a few months, after some toasted oak staves and time have had their chance to work some magic.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
What in the HELL is that smell??? (AKA First Rack 2012)
Wow, pretty much my first two years of making wine (this will be the 6th year of having grapes and the third year making wine) were cake walks apparently. I had no diseases in my little vineyard, my harvests were OK, the vines were doing well, the fermentations were fast and painless and I had wine. My ML kept getting stuck about half way, but that was about it.
This year...fuhgeddaboudit.
I ended up with powdery mildew that I detected in August, which meant late spraying with sulfur (sulphur?) which meant sulfur on the grapes. This explains the two week fermentation, which bordered on stuck, and of course I didn't pick up on that either and didn't bother to give any yeast food.
Cut to last Saturday when I do first racking of the newly minted wine off of the gross lees...and this year, gross doesn't mean "large", it means "smelly and disgusting" because I now have some wonderful H2S buildup and our baby 2012 Pinot reeks like an old, cracked egg that after about a month has turned green. YUK!!
Of course, I go into panic mode thinking the wine is ruined. Luckily my wine mentor Chris Wills talks me off the ledge and suggests the simple step of "splash racking", which basically means gustily and with gurgling, pour the wine from one container to another allowing it to get all aerated and foamy. Elemental sulfur is apparently quite unstable and doesn't like oxygen, and at this early stage, better to risk a little oxidation to the wine than allowing that H2S to turn into other, more ugly and harder to dislodge Volatile Reduced Sulfur (VRS) compounds that will stick around and at best make the wine barely drinkable, and at worst require it be poured down the drain.
I'm happy to report that after several vigorous splash rackings, the nascent 2012 vintage seems to be recovering and no longer smells like an old hen's butt. Let me tell you...holding up a 5 gallon glass carboy and pouring into another 6 gallon glass carboy makes your arms sore after you do it a couple of times.
Now I'll have to follow all those rules about spraying the vineyard early, being careful not to spray much past June to ensure that this doesn't happen again, giving the 2013 some yeast food and keeping it a little warm.
This isn't quite the cake walk I thought it was. But I learn as I go. Who knows...in 20 years I may be good at this.
Thanks Chris for all your help! You've been great over the years as I figure all this out.
This year...fuhgeddaboudit.
I ended up with powdery mildew that I detected in August, which meant late spraying with sulfur (sulphur?) which meant sulfur on the grapes. This explains the two week fermentation, which bordered on stuck, and of course I didn't pick up on that either and didn't bother to give any yeast food.
Cut to last Saturday when I do first racking of the newly minted wine off of the gross lees...and this year, gross doesn't mean "large", it means "smelly and disgusting" because I now have some wonderful H2S buildup and our baby 2012 Pinot reeks like an old, cracked egg that after about a month has turned green. YUK!!
Of course, I go into panic mode thinking the wine is ruined. Luckily my wine mentor Chris Wills talks me off the ledge and suggests the simple step of "splash racking", which basically means gustily and with gurgling, pour the wine from one container to another allowing it to get all aerated and foamy. Elemental sulfur is apparently quite unstable and doesn't like oxygen, and at this early stage, better to risk a little oxidation to the wine than allowing that H2S to turn into other, more ugly and harder to dislodge Volatile Reduced Sulfur (VRS) compounds that will stick around and at best make the wine barely drinkable, and at worst require it be poured down the drain.
I'm happy to report that after several vigorous splash rackings, the nascent 2012 vintage seems to be recovering and no longer smells like an old hen's butt. Let me tell you...holding up a 5 gallon glass carboy and pouring into another 6 gallon glass carboy makes your arms sore after you do it a couple of times.
Now I'll have to follow all those rules about spraying the vineyard early, being careful not to spray much past June to ensure that this doesn't happen again, giving the 2013 some yeast food and keeping it a little warm.
This isn't quite the cake walk I thought it was. But I learn as I go. Who knows...in 20 years I may be good at this.
Thanks Chris for all your help! You've been great over the years as I figure all this out.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Additional press notes
Quick record keeping for myself.
Did not add any SO2 as I added some ML culture [ Malo-Lactic Cultures (Oenococcus oeni) ER1A, Ey2D & 4007 Blend (ER1A & Ey2d) ] after the press.
From the manufacturer:
A liquid suspension of Oenococcus oeni grown in a sterile organic juice based nutrient enriched medium. This product will provide rapid and complete malic acid reduction in high acid wines. Malic acid reduction will balance and soften wine while enhancing flavor and aroma characteristics including vanilla and buttery notes. Malo-lactic conversion is generally completed within 1-3 months. ER1A is an excellent choice for red wines, it was isolated for it tolerance to low pH conditions. Ey2D is suggested for white wines, it has been selected for it tolerance to low cellar temperatures. 4007 Blend will cover a broad range of temperatures and pH conditions.
Did not add any SO2 as I added some ML culture [ Malo-Lactic Cultures (Oenococcus oeni) ER1A, Ey2D & 4007 Blend (ER1A & Ey2d) ] after the press.
From the manufacturer:
A liquid suspension of Oenococcus oeni grown in a sterile organic juice based nutrient enriched medium. This product will provide rapid and complete malic acid reduction in high acid wines. Malic acid reduction will balance and soften wine while enhancing flavor and aroma characteristics including vanilla and buttery notes. Malo-lactic conversion is generally completed within 1-3 months. ER1A is an excellent choice for red wines, it was isolated for it tolerance to low pH conditions. Ey2D is suggested for white wines, it has been selected for it tolerance to low cellar temperatures. 4007 Blend will cover a broad range of temperatures and pH conditions.
Press 2012
Well, another year is in the "barrel" (ok, the carboy). We pressed on Tuesday afternoon, October 2nd, in the 90 degree heat. Looks like we got just under 5 gallons from this year's harvest. To my reckoning, it doesn't taste quite as nice as last year's right after pressing, but I also didn't think much of 2010 and it is turning out to be quite a nice vintage after its had some time in the bottle.
This is the first year that Julia was really engaged in the press, taking part in all aspects of cleaning, pressing, collecting and the clean up (again) at the end. She was very into helping daddy.
The wine that simply drains off as you scoop the must* out of the fermenter is called free pour. This is considered the best part of the finished wine. As you press the skins/seeds harder and harder, you can actually begin to extract oils (from the seeds) and harsher tannins from everything in the must, along with other not so great flavors, so at a certain point, you stop trying to squeeze every little bit out of the press.
Of course we all took a sip of the free pour to sample the wine, and Julia wanted her annual tiny sip, so we indulged. However, Miss Pinot decided to go back for seconds, thirds and even fourths. Each time that Kim and I would turn away for a moment (Kim taking pictures, me doing something press related), our little wino would grab the plastic cup and stick it under the drain spout on the press to grab another sample and take a sip. Most kids (her cousins Josh and Ashie included) take one sip, make a sour face, and want nothing more to do with the wine. We finally were able to communicate to her that little girls only were supposed to take one teeny tiny taste, not several sips throughout the pressing process.
Secretly in my heart it makes me happy that she enjoys the taste of her Pinot. It is kinda cool that she gets into the spirit of the pressing by enjoying some wine along with it, but of course this is all tempered against the fact that she's only three years old!!
My little elf is a wine maker at heart.
*must = the mass of grapes skins, pulp, seeds and occasional stems as well as juice
They'll never notice if I grab a quick sip from the fermenter
I love my daddy
This is the first year that Julia was really engaged in the press, taking part in all aspects of cleaning, pressing, collecting and the clean up (again) at the end. She was very into helping daddy.
The wine that simply drains off as you scoop the must* out of the fermenter is called free pour. This is considered the best part of the finished wine. As you press the skins/seeds harder and harder, you can actually begin to extract oils (from the seeds) and harsher tannins from everything in the must, along with other not so great flavors, so at a certain point, you stop trying to squeeze every little bit out of the press.
Of course we all took a sip of the free pour to sample the wine, and Julia wanted her annual tiny sip, so we indulged. However, Miss Pinot decided to go back for seconds, thirds and even fourths. Each time that Kim and I would turn away for a moment (Kim taking pictures, me doing something press related), our little wino would grab the plastic cup and stick it under the drain spout on the press to grab another sample and take a sip. Most kids (her cousins Josh and Ashie included) take one sip, make a sour face, and want nothing more to do with the wine. We finally were able to communicate to her that little girls only were supposed to take one teeny tiny taste, not several sips throughout the pressing process.
Secretly in my heart it makes me happy that she enjoys the taste of her Pinot. It is kinda cool that she gets into the spirit of the pressing by enjoying some wine along with it, but of course this is all tempered against the fact that she's only three years old!!
My little elf is a wine maker at heart.
In Vino Veritas!
Science is hard...
No daddy, look...the brix is actually at -0.5
Cheers!
I love my daddy
Hm....this stuff tastes like lemons
(doing the second rinse with a citric acid solution)
Check out my super-awesome tie-dye
Daddy, will all the grapes fit?
Whaddya think of my wine mustache?
I'm supervising
Daddy's best helper
Whoa...check out that tower of blocks
Mommy, I can't pose for a picture, I'm busy pressing my grapes
Ha! They never saw me grab another sip...yummy
INTENSITY!
The stained fingers of the red wine maker
The "cake"
Pretty dry
Cleaning up after the press
If you're not getting wet, you're not doing it right
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)