Poppyseed Cellars » 2007 Russian River Sauvignon Blanc

A bronze at the 2009 Sonoma County Harvest Festival

admin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:09:53 +0000

One of my first two awards!

Here are the 3 judges tasting notes:

Fermenting

nielsj — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 05:10:22 +0000

6AM:

Lot’s of foam
Added 1 tsp Fermaid K
66F
smells good, no H2S

9:30 PM:

Fizzing away
17 brix
transferred to 6 gallon and 5 gallon carboys
Looks like 3.5 and 2.5 = 6 gallons total
Bubble rates in carboys
- 6 gall0n: 34/minute
- 5 gallon: 18/minute

It’s going

nielsj — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:03:33 +0000

8AM:

No bubbling still.
Added a heat lamp to bring up the temperature.
Smaller carboy has pockets of surface scum. Could that be the start of fermentation?

1PM:

Transferred both carboys to 20 gallon pail.
Added rest of yeast.
Aerated heavily
72F
23 brix

7PM:

It’s going! Yeah!

Nothing

admin — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 06:00:04 +0000

7AM:

Measured SO2 at 50 ppm using Titret
No signs of fermentation
Added more yeast starter

12PM: No bubbling

2PM: No bubbling, added more yeast starter, 68F

Rack

admin — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:56:03 +0000

12:30PM:

racked the juice off the lees. Trying for light fruity wine.
Added 10g Epernay2 yeast to 1/2 juice, 1/2 water mix.
Once bubbling, I added the starter to the carboys, and stirred it in.

6PM: No sign of bubbling

Crush

admin — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:43:26 +0000

I went out to pick. The grower helped me. He lent me some nice clippers…and warned me not to cut myself. No problem…I cut my finger badly. He fortunately had lots of band aids.

I was home by 8:30AM with ~150 lbs of grapes…6 5 gallon pails. The grower said that a 5 gallon pails weighs 25 pounds.

De-stemmed and crushed into 20 gallon pail.
Ended up with 15 gallons must.
Sugars: 23 brix
TA: 8 g/L
Added 6g Kmeta (2g/5gallons * 15 gallons = 6g…from Jeff Cox book)
Measured SO2 using titret 70 ppm
Could easily taste the SO2 in the juice, but couldn’t smell it.
By 10AM, pressed into 2 carboys, 2/3 full
~9 gallons juice
Returned the rental equip to BevPeople
1PM: poured juice into full carboys to sit over night before adding yeast
Lots of settling going on

Sauv Blanc for sale

nielsj — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:40:24 +0000

Found on craigslist…

“Approx. 600 lbs. Sauvignon Blanc. You pick for 80 cents a pound; minimum 150 lbs.”

Grapes are from vines being grafted over to pinot…these cordons haven’t been grafted over yet.

Grower measured 22.5 brix

The grapes came from a Russian River Valley vineyard:

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