We're at zero brix

It may have happened yesterday, but I was a little preoccupied with the big giant hole in my tooth and getting a root canal after a night of zero, none, nothing, nada sleep.

So looks like we'll let it go bone dry and press it on Saturday after Julia's soccer.

Sorry Dorothy.  I know you wanted to be there but you're in San Diego and the wine can't wait until you get back.  Maybe next year.

2012 Label

7 brix

Added more Fermaid-K (about 1.25 tsp)

2012 FINALLY in the bottle

OK, partially out of total laziness and partially out of fear that I'd crack open the carboy (big water jug looking thing) and smell rotten eggs and 2012 would be pretty much shot.

But nope...everything worked out fine.

I will say this.  I do not think I will ever let the grapes get much above 22 brix.  23.5 pushing 24 is just too high (IMHO) for Pinot and I think that 2012 tastes a little "hot" (meaning too much alcohol).  I'm willing to bet some of our friends will say such a thing isn't possible (a nod to Jennifer, Dorothy and Steve) but I'm thinking yes.

Luckily the 2013 started life at 21, so we should be better off at a about 12.5% (25 proof for you scotch drinkers out there) versus 14% (or a little higher) for the 2012.

In Vino Veritas

It's a wine transfusion

13.5 brix

It's been 4 days and we're down nearly 8 points. At this rate we should be dry sometime after Sunday.

...and this year is not slow

So last year, in the panic of downy mildew, I had to spray sulfur everywhere.  And the opinions of the fine folk at The Beverage People notwithstanding, I went from 3 years of wicked fast fermentations with a yeast that is usually referred to as "slow starter" (it usually takes a week), to a nearly 2 week stalled fermentation (in years past I'd not had to use yeast food).

This year, in under 24 hours, I've got a huge cap floating in the fermenter, and I'm having to do punch-downs.  In other words, back to normal.  I used a non-sulphur based "organic" (not sure how much I trust that whole "organic pesticide" thingy) fungicide and I had minimal powdery mildew, none on the grapes, and I'm on track for another wicked fast fermentation.

Altho this year, I'm still gonna use some Fermaid.

*** 1 level tsp. is ~4.5 gm ***

Update: 19:30 PDT -- Put about 1.5 tsp Fermaid-K into the must.  I'm guessing I have about 9 or 10 gallons of must, so about 6 or 7 gallons of juice, and it's recommended to do 1gm / gal near inoculation (I waited 24 hours to see what would happen on its own) and then another 1gm / gal near the 2/3 finish point (so in my case about a brix of 7)

Harvest and Crush 2013

Another September has come upon us, and that means crush at the Borin house.  This year, we shattered all records with...

104 pounds!!

I credit the new trellis I put in place.  And I started out late getting it up, so I did a crappy job of trellis management this year, so I am hopeful for even more fruit next year.

I measured the brix with the refractometer and got nearly 18 a week and a half ago.  But apparently, when I did a semi-random grab of grapes to mix together to get some juice, I must have skipped or overlooked the vines closest to the house, which this year were a little under-ripe.  My final brix was barely 21, so we're looking at about 12% - 12.5% alcohol.  Apologies to anyone looking to tie one on using Julia's Pinot.

Inoculated after 5 hours with 10g of Assmanshausen.  After last years stuck fermentation, I will hit it with some Fermaid (yeast food) on Tuesday and probably some more on Thursday.

In Vino Veritas!

Julia snapped this one all on her own

My little vigneron wandering amongst her vines

She took this one too (explains the series of pictures with me bent at the waist.  Otherwise it would be shots of my knees)

Pinot Meunier on the left, Pinot Noir on the right.  My Noir clone (UCD 23 aka Mariafeld) is really loose clustered clone.  Notice how tight the Meunier cluster is.  Very traditional

This is what you get when your kid starts goofin' when you want a serious "Kiss the grapes like you love them" shot

We have wine!  (OK, we have a big vat of grape juice)

The final outcome.

Well, much to Kim's horror, this year she actually paid attention to what was in the grapes.  The snail grossed her out (at least I found it and pulled it out before I crushed it).  The horde of spiders that ran silently screaming for their lives really freaked her out.  I'm sure that more than one spider corpse will help flavor this year's vintage.

Splash Racking Saves the Day

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.

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.

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.