Poppyseed Cellars

And here is the zin spreadhsheet:

2014 crush has come and gone. I decided not to blog about it much this year, but have all the data in an online spreadsheet.

Here is it:

I did some research on Port wines. Most are 20% alcohol, and 10% sugar (100 g/L).

Ours is 19.4 % alcohol, and ~6.2% sugar (62 g/L).

I have been topping with syrah, and once with Diesel to replenish the alcohol.

I will do a sugar addition. I think getting to 8% first is a goal, and then have it tested again.

That is an addition of 2%, or 20 g/L. The barrel is a 50l barrel, so need 50 * 20 = 1000 g!

The next “topping” will be with table sugar,  and a lot of it!

We were unsure of when we last sulphited, so we decided to go with +35 ppm. We will have it tested after we rack the 2013.

• 60 gallon barrel: +35 ppm = 138 ml of 10% SO2 soln

Tasting notes: Nice nose. I got of lot of cherry. Still has was we call a “young” taste. Feels like it has not yet “turned the corner”. Good tannins.

We also tasted the ’12 LH Syrah. In the past they have seemed more different. This time they seemed more similar, in that they both need more time in barrel. We were wondering if we are getting enough oak, since out barrels are more used than they were for the 2011.

Gorgeous Monday!

I had the afternoon free at the farm, so I borrowed Esteban and decided to rack the late harvest 12’s.

• 2012 LH Syrah port:
  • Racked the 13 gallon barrel into a 30 gallon tub.
  • Cleaned the barrel
  • Pumped wine back into the barrel, sulphiting +10 ppm (8.5 ml SO2 solution)
  • Tasted and smelled great. It seemed sweeter than it was at the last tasting. I wonder if it is possible for the sugar to sink to the bottom when it is just sitting in barrel.
• 2012 LH Syrah:
  • Racked the 15 gallon barrel into a 30 gallon tub.
  • Racked some of the 60 gallon barrel into same 30 gallon tub, so 50-50 mix.
  • Cleaned the 15 gallon barrel.
  • Pumped the mixed wine back into the 15 gallon barrel, sulphiting +10 ppm (10 ml SO2 solution)
  • Finished racking the 60 gallon barrel into tubs.
  • Cleaned the barrel. Surprising amount of sediment came out when washing.
  • Pumped the wine back into the barrel, sulphiting +15 ppm (60 ml SO2 solution)

The room smelled so good, until I decided to burn some sulphur disks in the empties. This time I used the new sulphur burner, and raised the sulphur off the based with the toroidal spring. I lit it outside, and let it get really burning, then put it into the glass jar and ran it inside. Worked great! I took it out in 15 minutes, and the sulphur was all ash. I did both the 30 and 60 gallon barrels.

Had some free time in the morning, so I decided to top and sulphite the 2013 Syrah.

• 60 gallon:
  • +20 ppm (80 ml SO2 solution)
• 15 gallon:
  • +20 ppm (20 ml SO2 solution)
• 3 gallon:
  • +20 ppm (4 ml SO2 solution)

I did not stir, as we need the wine to be settled for our first post MLF racking. There is probably a lot sediment in those barrels.

The wine tasted fine, although it has the young wine taste. I asked Daniel, the winemaker making my father in laws syrah, about the VA, and he said don’t worry about it. He has had a lot worse, and it came out fine.

Post MLF, first sulphite for the 2013 MV Syrah:

• 60 gallon barrel: +43 ppm (169.5 ml SO2 solution)
• 15 gallon barrel: +43 ppm (42.4 ml SO2 solution)
• 3 gallon carboy: +43 ppm (8.5 ml SO2 solution)

Here is our post fermentation lab panel results.

And my analysis:

• Alc 14.37 %%V/V: This is close to what we thought we would get. This is a conversion of 0.58. We seem to vary from 0.57 to 0.59 with our yeast and processing. Next year we gotta pick a little earlier. I really want to amke wine below 14%$. The 2011 syrah is our only wine belwo 14%, and we like it the best!
• pH 3.80:This is once again very high. It just seems to be what we get. We would like it lower, but we don’t know how. It will be somewhat lower if we pick earlier. We probably have a potassium problem, but we did not have that measured.
• TA 6.39 g/L: This is a good number. But it is much higher than I expected. We started at 4.65 g/L, and added 0.5 g/L tartaric. So we have an unexplained 1.24 g/L rise in TA. We have something like this each year, but we don’t understand why!
• Free SO2 7 mg/L: This is fine. Usually we are near zero after ferment and MLF, but this is still low.
• VA 810 mg/L: This is high. It seems like the sensory threshold is 600-900 mg/L. I haven’t noticed anything, but we will have to be very careful, as this can only go up. Fully sulphited and topped barrels is required. I wonder why this came out so high? There are ways to fix it, but not for homies like us!
• Glucose + Fructose 190 mg/L (.019%): This is perfect. The wine is dry.
• Malic acid 70 mg/L: This is well below the 300 mg/L that Vinquiry says is complete…but above the 30 mg/L that others say is complete. We go with Vinquiry!
• Total SO2 31 mG/L: This is surprising. We have put in 50 ppm at crush. usually there is not much left, even of the toal SO2. the legal limit is 350 mg/L for total SO2.

Just found this old draft of a post…might as well post it! I did get an aswer from the lab..I’ll post that later.

The ’11 syrah barrel has been silent for some time now, indicating probable MLF completion.

I checked it with an Accuvin Malic test strip. They are really convenient, so I would really like to be able to use them. The strip showed no color, also indicating MLF completion.

I took a sample to Vinquiry, and had a malic acid test performed. The test results indicated 10 mg/100 mL, or 100 ppm, indicating NOT complete. The industry standard is a max of 30 ppm for completion.

This is exactly what happened to us last year. Vinquiry results never indicated complete, but both Accuvin and BevPeople Reflectoquant tests indicated complete. Last year we dropped the investigation, called it complete, and drank the wine! The winemaker in me says WTF! why am I wasting time on these trivialities? The engineer in me says something is fishy; gotta figure it out. Last year the winemaker wins, this year the engineer!

First I did a bunch of research, and checked with BevPeople to make sure the 30 ppm number is correct. I then put together the following email summary of the situation, and fired it off to Vinquiry:

I bought an Accuvin MLF kit and checked the three containers of the ’12 syrah.

It indicates everything is complete.

I will let the lees settle a few days (I stirred it before sampling), and then take a sample for the post fermenttion panel.

I also lit off a sulphur disk in the empty 60 gallon barrel. I will do the 30 gallon tomorrow.

We started at 8 AM. Cleaned for an hour, and we were bottling by 9AM.

We first bottled the 30 gallon 2011 Syrah, then the 60 gallon 2011 Zin.

We finished bottling at 3:30, and cleanup took until 5PM.

Long day!

Some learnings:

• The bottles should be a lighter color so that we can see the wine level as we are filling.
• Buy a better quality cork than BevPeople is selling. We had some recorking to do because the corks would break down.
• When corking, pull down the handle partway twice, pre-compressing the cork. Then cork it in the third pull

Vinquiry sulphite test:  2013-12-02-006:

• 13 gallon barrel:
  • 50 ppm:   no need to add more

Vinquiry sulphite test:  2013-12-02-006:

• 60 gallon barrel:
  • 30 ppm: no need to add more

Vinquiry sulphite test:  2013-12-02-006:

• 15 gallon barrel:
  • 40 ppm:   no need to add more
• 60 gallon barrel:
  • 41 ppm: no need to add more

Vinquiry sulphite test:  2013-12-02-006:

• 60 gallon barrel:
  • 15 ppm:   added +20 ppm (79 mL 10% SO2) more to reach 35 ppm for bottling Friday

Vinquiry sulphite test:  2013-12-02-006:

• 30 gallon barrel
  • 26 ppm:   added +9 ppm (18 mL 10% SO2) more to reach 35 ppm for bottling Friday

So I have been listening to the barrels to see if the MLF is going. The 60 gallon barrel is crackling away. The 15 gallon barrel seems completely quiet, and the carboy didn’t have any sign of bubbles.

So today we emptied the carboy and 15 gallon barrel into a white tub, and filled them with wine from the 60 gallon barrel, which is going strong. We then pumped the white tub into the 60 gallon barrel.

Hopefully they will all be going. I will check in on Monday.

Erwin and I went out and racked the last of the wine off the gross lees. We had about 20 gallons of gross lees leftover from last Friday. We let it settle over the weekend, and we got about three gallons more wine. Good for topping.

We had inoculated everything with Enoferm Alpha last week. The cellar is cooling down, so we put a 100W light bulb under the barrels and 3 gallon carboy. We also put blankets over the top. We want to warm up the wine a little until the MLF is finished. Here are some pictures:

Here are the tasting notes from the Harvest Fair.

Because all three judges awarded a gold, we got double golds!

Here are the tasting notes ffrom the Harvest Fair.

We were the only gold given for zins. Tough judges!

HarvestFairtastingNotes2011Zin

Topped and sulphited the following wines:

• 2012 MV Syrah: +20 ppm sulphite
• 2012 MV Late harvest syrah, both barrels: +20 ppm sulphite
• 2012 MV Fortified syrah: +15 ppm
• 2011 MV Syrah: +20 ppm sulphite
• 2011 MV Zinfandel: +20 ppm sulphite

We racked off of the gross lees into a bunch of white food grade tubs. Put them in the mule, and drove them to the wine cellar.

We then pumped the wine into a 60 gallon and a 15 gallon barrel. We didn’t quite fill them all the way.

We also inoculated for MLF with Enoferm Alpha.

The gross lees still seemed to have a lot of wine in it, so we put that in the 30 gallon tub to sit for a few days. If it still smells good, we will get what we can on Monday or Tuesday.

Very happy to be in barrel!

Also tasted, topped and sulphited all of the other barrels.

Worked from  8AM to noon.

We started at 7AM.

The cap had risen, although there wasn’t much cap. We decided that it came up because of the long time from the last punch down, 24 hours. But it must be almost dry.

We finished by 11 AM or so.

We are going to leave it in the bin with the valve for 24 hours for the gross lees to settle.

This morning at 8 AM Esteban punched down the last cap.

By noon, when Erwin and I arrived, the grapes had sunk to the bottom! It was clear wine, and a few seeds floating on top. It actually tasted pretty good. And no signs of H2S.

Tomorrow we press into the bin with a valve. And Friday we move the wine to the barrels, and start the MLF. I am looking forward to the wine being settled in barrel.

I started a fermentation record to keep track of the temperature and sugar.

I will keep updating it here.

Ferment Record – Oct 13, 2013, 4-34 PM

The numbers are in and they are confusing: 2013-10-07-082

• The sugars at 24.8 are slightly higher than we measured, but not out of line.
• The pH skyrocketed from 3.4 measured by me to 3.82 from Vinquiry. I rechecked tonight myself and got 3.79, so it really went up.
• The TA is low, to match the high ph. We may need to add some tartaric.

Here is a picture after all of our processing, showing the must height in the bin:

We crushed Wednesday morning.

Attendees: Esteban, Erwin,Paul, Ryan, and myself.
We started at 7 AM, and finished completely by 11AM.

1350 lbs of grapes…80 gallons of finished wine in a couple of years!

Here are some photos:

Crush is tomorrow!

I have started a record sheet for the ongoing calculations that need to be done. I copied it from the 2012 MV Syrah sheet.

Wow! Our 2011’s did well in the 2013 Sonoma County harvest Fair Wine Contest.

Erwin and I both entered the 2011 MV Syrah into the fair. Erwin got a double gold, and I got a double gold, plus Best of Class!

We also both entered the 2011 MV Zinfandel into the fair. Erwin got a silver, and I got a gold, plus Best of Class!

Can’t ask for much better results than that. Except maybe win the sweepstakes award!

Here are the results:  2013AmateurWineWinners

Checked the numbers this morning:

• Alban Syrah, near the sheds
  • 22.5 Brix
  • 3.1 pH
• 470 Syrah
  • 22.0 Brix
  • 3.0 pH

We want to pick at less than 24 brix, so it looks like 1 to 2 weeks more for normal weather. Need to keep an eye on the heat…

After bottling the ’11 syrah, we checked the ’12’s. We sulphited and topped them off.

• 2012 Syrah: Added +10 ppm SO2
• 2012 LH Syrah: Added +10 ppm SO2, both barrels.
  

Started at 9 AM, finished up around 1PM.

The enolmatic worked fine. No foaming issues…I kept the speed slow.

I flushed the bottles with N2 before filling. Used up about half a 20 ft^3 tank. I will need a larger tank for the big barrels.

The actual bottling took less than an hour. Prep and cleanup took the rest of the time.

I sanitized with Starsan. It foamed of course, but rinsed out nicely. Afterward, I ran Proxycarb through it, and let it sit for a few minutes, then Starsan again, and finally fresh water.

We put a citric/SO2 solution into the empty barrel.

We have drank most of the previous 15 gallons…need to bottle the 60!

Sampled the 60 gallon barrel for SO2 testing.

Results here:

• 19 ppm; added 16 ppm to 35 ppm

Plan is to use new Enolmatic bottler + N2 bottle flushing to bottle the 15 gallon syrah barrel first. We will see how that goes before moving onto the zin!

Sampled the 15 and 30 gallon barrels for SO2 testing.

Results here:

• 15 Gallon: 32 ppm; added 3ppm to 35 ppm
• 30 gallon: 34 ppm; added 1 ppm to 35 ppm

Plan is to use new Enolmatic bottler + N2 bottle flushing to bottle the 15 gallon barrel first. We will see how that goes before moving onto the 30 gallon barrel!

• Topped
• sulphited +10 ppm

• Topped
• sulphited +10 ppm

• Topped
• sulphited +10 ppm

• Topped
• sulphited +10 ppm

I went out to the cellar before work.

Topped all wines, and sulphited the Zin to 30 ppm:

• 60 gallon barrel: added 16 ppm (60 mL 10% kmeta solution)

Had the sulphites checked 2013-04-26-011:

• 30 gallon barrel: 32 ppm
• 15 gallon barrel: 29 ppm

Just right.

Had the sulphites checked 2013-04-26-011:

• 60 gallon barrel: 14 ppm

Lower than I expected. Need to bump it up to 30 ppm.

Had the sulphites checked 2013-04-26-011:

• 13 gallon barrel: 56 ppm

Quite high. No need for more for quite awhile.

Had the sulphites checked 2013-04-26-011:

• 60 gallon barrel: 49 ppm
• 15 gallon barrel: 48 ppm

Higher than I expected, but good.

Had the sulphites checked 2013-04-26-011:

• 48 ppm: Just let it be. Higher than I expected.

Topped off all wines!

And tasted, with spitting. Very enjoyable morning!

Erwin and I bottled today…

• Re-hydrated the empty 30 gallon barrel (overnight).
• Bottled the 15 gallon barrel of ’11 zinfandel.
  • Struggled big time with the bottle wand on our new zin bottles. The punt on the bottles prevents the wand from opening. The want must be held precisely on the top of the punt and held there while filling. I am done with the wand after today! next time we do something much better.
  • We got about 6 cases of wine. 3 for Shahrokh, 1 1/2 each for Erwin and myself.
  • Cleaned the 15 gallon barrel
• 2011 Syrah 60 gallon barrel
  • Bottled 4 cases of ’11 syrah (from 60 gallon barrel). This went fast, as the syrah bottles that we used caused no problems with the bottle wand.
  • Pumped into 15 gallon barrel.
  • Pumped into 30 gallon barrel.
  • Bottled 2 more cases of ’11 syrah (from 60 gallon barrel). This went slow, as the siphon could not be started with the siphon pump. We ended up using my electric pump to start the siphon, and then bottled using the wand. It was also slow because we were at the bottom of the barrel, so there was not much height difference.
  • Got ~6 cases of the ’11 syrah, 3 for Erwin, 3 for me.

2012 Fortified LF syrah:

• Tasted: definitely getting smoother; less harsh alcohol. 
• The sweetness seems less noticeable. If I look back at the sugars, they were at about 6%. Ports usually run around 8%. I may bump the sugars up a little.
• Sulphited +25 ppm
  • 13 gallon barrel: 21 mL 10% kmeta solution
• Topped off barrel

2011 MV Zinfandel:

• tasted: Nose was wonderful. Kept getting better and better in the glass. Nice smooth finish. Clear strong zin character, but in  lighter fashion.
• Sulphited +25 ppm
  • 60 gallon barrel: 100 mL 10% kmeta solution
  • 15 gallon barrel: 25 mL 10% kmeta solution
• Topped both barrels with the 2010 MV zin/syrah blend
• See previous post for bottling plan

2011 MV Syrah:

• Tasted: the oak is getting quite noticeable. Not sure why. this wine is in one of the 2010 Bevan Cellars barrels that we got. Shouldn’t be this strong, as it has been used at least one year, or so we believe.
• We decided we have to get it out of this barrel soon. Maybe next Friday, in the morning. Tentative plan:
  • Bottle the 15 gallon barrel of ’11 Zin
  • Transfer 30 gallons of ’11 syrah to unused 30 gallon barrel (also a 2010 barrel, but held the 2010 syrah for two years).
  • Transfer 15 gallons of ’11 syrah to just emptied Zin barrel 
  • Bottle 15 gallons of the ’11 Syrah (whatever is left after filling barrels)
  • Bottle the rest of the 2011 syrah (45 gallons) at end of summer.
  • Bottle the rest of the 2011 zin (60 gallons) at end of summer.
• Need 60 gallons * 5 = 300 bottles = 25 + 1 extra = 26 cases burgundy bottles for 2011 MV Syrah
• Need 60+15 = 75 gallons *5 = 375 bottles = 31.25 + 1 extra = 33 cases bordeaux bottles for 2011 MV Zin
• Sulphited +25 ppm
  • 60 gallon barrel: 100 mL 10% kmeta solution
• Topped off the barrel

Erwin and I tasted through the wines today.

’12 MV Syrah:

• Nose was good
• Tasted fine; didn’t take notes
• Sulphited 25 ppm:
  • 60 gallon barrel: 100 mL of 10% kmeta solution

• Topped it off

Shahrokh and Esteban racked the ’12 LH Syrah, post Cu fining.

They ended up with the following. Each was sulphited 20 ppm:

• 60 gallon barrel: 80 mL 10% sulphite solution
• 15 gallon barrel: 20 mL 10% sulphite solution
• 3 extra bottles: 1 mL 10% sulphite solution

Erwin and I will be out there Friday, and we’ll do another tasting on this, along with the others.

I went out to top off all the wines.

I also checked out the ’12 LH syrah. There is still a little reductive nose going on, but a lot better after the splash racking.

I did a bench trial of CuSO4: 0.0, 0.5, 1.0 ppm. There was a noticeable difference between 0.0 and 0.5 ppm, but  I could not tell any difference between the 0.5 and 1.0 ppm.

I added 0.5 ppm Cu to all the containers:

• 60 gallon barrel: 44.7 mL of 1% CuSO4
• 15 gallon barrel: 11.3 mL of 1% CuSO4
• 1 gallon jug: 0.7 mL of 1% CuSO4
• 1 gallon jug: 0.7 mL of 1% CuSO4

We will let it sit a week while in Disneyland, and rack when we get back.

Shahrokh and Esteban racked the 2012 ‘LH Syrah.  They started with:

1. 60 gallon barrel
2. 15 gallon barrel
3. 5 gallon carboy

When finished they had:

1. 60 gallon barrel
2. 15 gallon barrel
3. 2-3 gallons for glass

Not yet sure what they did with it.

They sulphited 25 ppm:

• 60 gallon barrel: 100 mL 10% solution
• 15 gallon barrel: 25 mL 10% solution
• not sure what they did with the extra wine

They also splashed the wine heavily, as their was some reductive nose going on. I tried a little Cu in a glass, and it cleaned right up. We will wait a few days, and recheck it. If it needs to bu copper fined, we will do it right away and rack again in a few days.

Erwin and I racked the ’12 MV Syrah. This is the first racking post MLF.

I was a little worried from a slightly off nose that we had noticed. But the racking went fine; it smelled and tasted great. We did not taste along side another wine though.

We started out with a 60 gallon barrel plus a 5 gallon carboy. When we finished, we had the 60 gallon barrel, and slightly over a case of bottles for topping, for a total of about 63 gallons. We only lost two in the racking process.

• Added 25 ppm sulphites:
  • 60 gallon barrel: 100 mL 10% solution
  • 3 gallons of bottles: 5 mL 10% solution

Tasted and topped everything…

2011 zin: both barrels good. Still slight difference, 15 gallon better, richer, but don’t know why.

2011 Syrah: very night; deep dark fruit; light tannins; great color

2012 Syrah: still something funky; I don’t think just a young wine, but maybe; cu did not help

2012 LH Syrah: definitely off nose; cu helped; need to rack, and see if cu still needed

2012 port: very nice; alc a bit harsh; needs a lot more time

I am trying out using Google Sheet as my calculator. I would like to keep a record of the calcs made for each wine. Here is one I am doing after the fact for the 2012 MV Syrah.

We haven’t sulphited since November, when we brought it up to 30 ppm.

20 ppm addition

• 60 gallon barrel: 80 mL 10% SO2 solution
• 15 gallon barrel: 20 mL 10% SO2 solution

We haven’t sulphited since November, when we brought it up to 30 ppm.

20 ppm addition

• 60 gallon barrel: 80 mL 10% SO2 solution

First add since ferment and MLF finished.

50 ppm addition to all containers.

• 60 gallon barrel: 200 mL 10% SO2 solution
• 15 gallon barrel: 50 mL 10% SO2 solution
• 5 gallon carboy: 16 mL 10% SO2 solution