Poppyseed Cellars

We did all right in the Sonoma County Harvest Fair Amateur Wine Contest. Here are the results.

My wines…

• 2009 Syrah: Silver
• 2009 Sauvignon Blanc: Bronze
• 2008 Sauvignon Blanc: Silver

So I am pretty happy, though we really wanted a gold for the Syrah. Every wine without any defects gets at least a bronze. Something is usually wrong with the wine if it gets no award.

I am entering 3 wines into the 2010 Sonoma County Harvest Fair…’09 Syrah, ’09 Sauvignon Blanc, ’08 Sauvignon Blanc, all under the Poppyseed Cellars label.

Also, Afsi is running for the Bennett Valley Union School District board this fall! 5 contenders, 3 positions available.

Crossing our fingers…

Updated the spreadsheet with all the ’09 Syrah expenses…about $9 per bottle. Some of the costs, like the demijohns and barrels will get amortized over future years. That brings it to about $7 per bottle.

The ’09 Syrah is bottled. We got 11 3/4 cases (~141 bottles).  Here is the label:

We discovered that is is far easier to cork when the cork has been briefly soaked. We were getting damaged corks until we figured that out.

The aromas in the garage were amazing. We kept getting the fruit, but then cinnamon aromas. Had to be from the barrels. Hope they stay in the bottle! This is by far the best red I have made.

We have decided to bottle this Sunday. It tastes good; we need the barrels for the upccoming season; if we want to enter the ’09 Syrah into the Harvest Fair, it needs to be entered by this Friday!

So…we’re bottling!

I took a sample to Vinquiry for a final SO2 test…43 ppm free SO2. Higher than expected, but probably fine. So no more additions.

Topped of the ’09 syrah barrels. Used a 375 mL between the two. They would have taken a little more, but I am out of 375’s. We have a 1 gallon jug left for topping. I will re-bottle it into 375’s over the weekend. That should last through the summer.

Here is a history of SO2 measurements and additions for the ’09 syrah. I did it to help us troubleshoot the vastly different numbers between BevPeople and Vinquiry.

Why is nothing simple?

Here are the Vinquiry results for the ’08 and ’09 Syrahs:

2008 Riebli Valley Syrah Pre bottling Vinquiry Panel 1

The results are confusing.

1. First the ’09 free SO2 level was measured to be 47 ppm. We measured 27 ppm on3/12/2010. There is no way it could have gone up, as we have not added any more. So I don’t know what happened there.
2. The ’08 clocked in at 54 ppm free SO2. That also seems high. It last tested at 5 ppm on 1/20/2010, and I added 40 ppm more at the time. And it should have dropped from there.
3. Maybe Vinquiry was not well calibrated? I need to call them Monday and see if something is up. Also weird is that for the 2 wines that I had tested, they used different methods. It seems unlikely that both could be wrong. I don’t get it.

The rest of the data on the ’08 Syrah seems correct:

1. The alcohol is 13.4%; seems reasonable.
2. pH is 4.08; this is higher than the 3.9 that I measured, but not far off. It also makes sense with the low TA.
3. TA is 4.2 g/L. This is too low, and is why the wine seems a little soft. It is still good, but I think an acid addition will help. A bench trial is in order.
4. VA is .045%; this is nice and low. The aroma threshold is ~ .06%
5. Sugars at .037%; the wine is dry.
6. Malic is at 4 mg/100ml, or .004%. The MLF is done.
7. Free SO2 is 54 ppm. Discussed above. I don’t think I’ll measure it again; I have enough in there.

1. Took a sample of the ’09 Syrah for SO2 testing. I also tasted it…very good. No problems, nice tannins, very fruity. So far no strong oak. Probabaly won’t get any this time. I also topped off the barrels. Including a 100 ml sample, the barrels took a 375 ml bottle.
2. Took a sample of the ’08 syrah, for a Vinquiry bottling panel. I tasted it, and it was pretty good. Afsi liked it too. It is time to get it bottled.

Topped off this morning before work. The two barrels took slightly less than 375 ml together. I drank the rest!

I stopped by the farm today to top off the ’09 syrah.

Between the two barrels, it took ~500 mL of topping wine. I used the 375’s I had bottled, so I some left over for drinking…

I didn’t taste the barrels wine.

I took one of the 1 gallon jugs, and bottled it into 1/2 bottles for topping off the barrels. I also moved it out to the farm to be near the barrels. Now all the wine is together at the farm.

Erwin and I moved  the barrels to the farm, as the basement there is cooler. It was around 55 F when we were there.

I took sample of the ’09 SB and the 09 Syrah to BevPeople for SO2 testing:

• 2009 Syrah:  27 ppm free SO2
• 2009 Sauvignon Blanc: 19 ppm free SO2

The SB is ready for bottling! Maybe I can pull it off this weekend.

Just tasted the Syrah with Erwin. Very nice. It is definitely improving. It has a nice aromatic nose. Fruity with maybe a little spicyness. The tannins are slightly light in the mouth, but still noticeable.

Topped off the barrels this morning before work.

It took ~ 150 mL each barrel, so not much.

No more leaking around the bung hole. And the airlocks seem to have equalized. I topped off almost to the bottom rim of the hole. Both barrels took about 1/2 bottle, or 200 mL each of topping wine. This is mostly to put back in what I was taking out when trying to figure out why it was leaking.

I’ll put normal bungs back in in a week or so, when we are sure the wine is still.

Erwin and I picked up some new bungs and stoppers to see if we could stem the leak. When we looked at the barrels, we could see a little bubbling going on. The barrel was under positive pressure! Probably out gassing from the racking, or at least we hope that is it. The MLF is done, and the wine is dry, so anything else (other than out gassing) going on at this point is bad.

We put airlocks on around noon; this evening the barrel is still dry, so I think that was successful.

These barrels are a pain! Wine is leaking from the bung. It is as if it is wicking up between the barrel and the bung. I have removed probably three glasses of wine from each barrel, and it is still coming up. There is at least 1/2 inch between the top of the liquid and the bottom of the bung hole.

I am going to beverage people tomorrow and see if I can get some better bungs. The current ones seem long, and reach quite a ways into the barrel, and contact the wine.

Erwin saw the photos…thought there was too much wine leaking out the bung hole. I read a little of Jeff Cox’s From Wine to Vines book. He says the same. No wine should seep out when the bung is inserted.

So I took a little wine out of each. Tasted awesome. Resanitized the bungs, reinserted them, and wiped up with a sulphite solution. All’s well.

We racked into two used French Oak barrels. Here are the stats:

• 50L (13 gallon): 2 years old; Purchased from Roger Stancliff; Tonnellerie Radoux; MT+, which I think is medium toast plus
• 15 gallon: 1 year old; Purchased from Roger Stancliff; Francois Freres; M+ (also medium toast plus)

 Label from 13 gallon:

Labels from 15 gallon:   

We have 2 1 gallon jugs, plus 2 bottles left over for topping off the barrels. Which needs to be done every 2 weeks! So I am going to use Google calendar to remind me…

Here is what Erwin and I spent to make this wine…

Once we buy bottles, the last big expense, we’ll probably be at $9-$10 a bottle. Not too bad considering some of the expenses, like the demijohns and barrels will be amortized over many years.

This is the racking after the CuSO4 fining, about a week ago. We racked into 2 14 gallon demijohns, 2 1 gallon jugs, 2 750 mL bottles.

We tried the copper test again, as we stilled sensed some H2S on the nose. I think we are getting more discriminating. We decided pna another bench trial. We did 4 samples, 0.0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 ppm CuSO4. There was a clear difference between the control and the 0.5 ppm. We finally settled on 0.4 ppm as the final addition. As I will be out of town next weekend, we decide to do the additon Wednesday evening, and rack sometime when I get back.

• SO2 calulations:
  • 9 14 gal demijohns:  desired 37 ppm free based on 27 ppm starting: add 9 mL 10% SO2 solution
  • 1 gal jugs : desired 37 ppm free based on 27 ppm starting: add 0.7 mL 10% SO2 solution
• CuSO4 calulations:
  • 0.4 ppm CuSO4 will be added January 27, 2010
  • From MoreWine…0.15mL/gal 1% CuSO4 = 0.1ppm copper
  • 14 gal demijohns: Add  8.4ml 1% CuSO4 solution
  • 1 gal jugs: Add 0.6ml 1% CuSO4 solution

0.5 ppm Cu requires an addition of  0.75 mL/gal 1% CuSO4 solution:

• 14 gal demijohns:   0.75 mL/gal * 14 gal = 10.5 mL each
• 3 gal carboy: 0.75 mL/gal * 3 = 2.25 mL
• 3/4 gal topping jug: 0.75 mL/gal * 3/4 = 0.56 mL

I will stir this in, and we rack in about 1 week.

Based on the comments we got from Bob at the BevPeople, we decided to try a copper fining bench trial. I followed the procedures in MoreWines copper fining paper.

• Sample 1: 0.o ppm 1% CuSO4 added.
• Sample 2: 0.1 ppm 1 % CuSO4 addded.
• Sample 2: 0.3 ppm 1 % CuSO4 addded.
• Sample 2: 0.5 ppm 1 % CuSO4 addded.

Erwin and I could both clearly smell the difference between the control and the 0.5 ppm. I blind tasted the 0.5 ppm vs the control and had no problem figuring out the better one. Erwin blind tasted the 0.3 and 0.5 and was able to pick out the better one. I had a harder time between thos two.

Based on this, we chose to do the full 0.5 ppm addition to the rest of the wine. 0.5 ppm is the legal limit for residual copper in finished wine.

Erwin made the followiong measuremnt:

The Free SO2 level according to the measurement I made at the Beverage People on 1/8/10 was 27ppm.

We want to add 25 ppm sulphites. That is 1.65 mL / gal 10% sulphite suloution:

• 14 gal demijohns:  1.65 mL/gal * 14 gal = 23 mL 10 % soln each demijohn
• 1 3 gal jug: 1.65 mL * 3 gal = 5 mL
• 1 3/4 gal jug: 1.65 mL/gal * 3/4 = 1.2 mL
• 750 mL bottle:  1.65 mL/gal  * 1/5 gal  = 0.33 mL
• 375 mL bottle: 1.65 mL/gal * 1/10 gal = .17 mL

I did the additions. I smelled and tasted the demijohns and 3 gallon carboy. Nose and taste were still the same. The nose has lots of oak to me. Taste was good. I could of  just kept on drinking!

The nose on the other containers was the same as the big containers. Nothing is going bad or getting worse..

I decided to rack the 1 gallon container, and an extra single bottle we had. Both had lots of sediment. First I racked the 1 gallon into a 3/4 gallon, and into a half bottle. Then I opened the extra bottle. PU! Rotten eggs… I could really smell it. So I went back and checked the 3/4 gallon and both demijohns. Everything smelled and tasted fine. So I tossed the extra bottle. Not worth keeping it! It had a lot of sediment.

Erwin has one bottle he is opening for Christmas. So now this is the tally:

• 2 14 gal demijohns
• 1 3 gal carboy
• 1 3/4 gal jug
• 1 750 mL bottle
• 1 375 mL bottle

We need to add 25 ppm SO2.

We also need to do our copper fining experiment. See if it helps; get it done if it does.

Here are the Vinquiry QC panel results.

• pH:
  • VQ: 3.94
  • Us: 3.9
  • Pretty good agreement
• TA:
  • VQ: 5.95 g/L
  • Us: 7.5 g/L
  • We are probably way off. Why? One thing I noticed was that as I diluted the wine with distilled water, the pH changed, which I don’t think should happen. It shouldn’t start changing until I start titrating with the sodium hydroxide.  I will have to try again…
• SO2:
  • VQ: 24 ppm
  • That makes sense. We added 50 ppm, and half of  it got bound up. We need to add another 25 ppm,  to get back up to 50 ppm. We should actually be at 70 ppm, but I think I can taste that. I should try some experiments to see what my threshold is.
• VA:
  • VQ: .4 g/L. This is up from our last post fermentation test of .25 g/L. I  don’t know why, but it is still well within acceptable limits (~.7 g/L). We do have to keep it sulphited though.

We did our racking this evening.

• pH = 3.9
• TA = 7.5 g/L … seems too high
• Total wine = 14 + 14 + 5 = 33 gal
  • loss due to racking. We anticipate ~5% loss = 1.65 gallons
• Desired Free SO2 = 50 ppm. This is low for our pH, but we’ll make more additions later if necessary. We don’t want too much.
• 50 ppm free  = 3.3 mL/gal 10 % solution
• 14 gal * 3.3 mL/gal  = 46.2 mL 10% SO2 solution for each demijohn
• 5 gal * 3.3 mL/gal = 16.5 mL for the carboy

After finishing the racking, we have ~32 gallons. We didn’t lose very much, maybe a gallon or so.

• 2  14 gal demijohns
• 1 3 gal carboy
• 1 1 gal jug
• 2 750 mL bottles

The syrah is completely fininshed with the MLF, and has been for a few days. The plan is to rack and sulphite tomorrow with some aeration. Then taste in 2 or 3 days and see if we want to do any copper fining.

I checked this morning, and only one demijohn is still bubbling. The Right one, which is the one with the highest ML measurements. So I bet by tomorrow, it will have completely stopped.

I took 2 samples, one from each demijohn, Left and Right when looking at them from the table. We took them to BevPeople for ML testing:

• Left sample: 16.8 ppm (.0168 g/L)
• Right sample: 26.8 ppm (.0268 g/L)

We started at 2.5g/L, and .03 g/L is considered complete, so we are officially done. We decided to let it sit one more week or so to make sure, then we’ll rack and sulphite.

I also asked Bob at BevPeople to have a sniff and see what he thought. I was expecting him to comment on the amount of oak. He said it has some H2S! What? He even got out the copper sulphate, and put in a few drops and we compared a cup with and a cup without the CuSO4. Noticeable difference, indicating that there was indeed some H2S type problem. I want to try this myself at home. I really though this was an over oaked wine.

Maybe this aroma is due to the MLF itself? I have read that MLF’s can produce some off odors, and that racking will help eliminate it.

We should wait a week or so to  make sure the MLF is done. Then rack it into new containers with tswome aeration and sulphite the wine. Let it sit a day or two, and resample it. See if some of this off odor is gone.

I stirred the pots this morning. Also tasted:

• All three containers have a strong oak nose, with a significant oak taste. I decided to take the oak out. I got them all out of the demijohns, but one wouldn’t come out of the carboy.
• I used up all but 1/2 bottle of the topping wine. The topping wine still tastes fruity and fresh.

I stirred all the pots, and tasted and smelled everything. Nose is strong oak, nothing bad. Taste is still very good; noticeable oak. I am thinking that this oak needs to come out. I also topped off the containers with one of the bottles. The wine in the bottle was wonderful, fruit of fruit. I hope we don’t lose that in the oaked wine. For now, the oak is really strong. Some numbers:

• pH: 3.85!  It came up. If I am still a tenth low compared to Vinquiry, we are near 4! Oh well…we are going to have to drink this quickly!
• TA: 6.8 g/L   (using pH meter to find endpoint of titration) If I am measuring right, this definitely is coming down to where we want it. The Vinquiry report showed us starting at 7.5. So the MLF is working. I calulated a TA of 6.65 if all the malic converts to lactic. Which means the MLF should be about finished. Seems too early.

Busy morning. The MLF continues. Still a steady stream of bubbles.

• I stirred all  three containers this morning.
• Nose:
  • Oaky. We are planning on this dissipating. Definite fruit under the oak.
  • Nothing bad.
• Taste:
  • Fruity. Smooth. Crisp. Mild to medium tannins. Very nice balance. I didn’t measure it, but I think the acidity must be shifting.

Next stirring (Tuesday night), I’ll measure pH and TA and see how it is going.

I stirred the syrah tonight, all three containers. Still lots of bubbles coming up, so the MLF is cranking along.

I also tasted a sample from each container. They were all very similar:

• Nose: Mostly oak at this point. I don’t know if that is normal or not, but the oak seemed to be the strongest aroma. The fruitiness seems subdued.
• Taste: Nice wine. The oak seems less noticeable on the taste.I can’t be sure, but I think some of the harshness has gone away, and the wine seems smoother.

Just checked the syrah, and I can see many tiny streams of bubbles rising to the top. The MLF is moving right along.

I also added more ice to the SB. It must be down close to 32F. The ice is surviving through the day. Maybe tonight I’ll pull the carboy out and see if I am getting any tartrates. If so, this is a really nice way to lower the acidity.

Went out to the garage this morning to check on the malolactic. All three containers had a fine stream of bubbles rising. The themometer read about 66 F. So the MLF seems to be progressing fine.

I stirred each container. Lots of bubbles ame up. Everything smells good.

Erwin came over and we racked the syrah off the gross lees at 2:30 pm. It toiok us three hours to do everything.

• Racked most of the containers into 2 20 gallon tubs.
• Racked the rest of the last demijohn into the now empty and cleaned demijohn.
• Racked the tubs back into the demijohn + carboy.
• We ended up with almost 34 gallons of racked wine.
  • 2 14 gallon demijohns
  • 1 5 gallon carboy
  • 4 wine bottles.
• We started with 36, so we lost 2 gallons, or about 6%.
• We started the malolactic fermentation:
  • Enoferm Alpha malolactice bacteria
  • 2.5 g bacteria hydrated with 50mL distilled water.
  • 20 mL into each of 2 demijohns
  • 10 mL into the 5 gallon carboy
  • Put in the oak staves at the same time; apparently the staves give the bacteria a god surface to work on.
• We put medium toast french oak staves into the demijohns and carboy. The label suggested 3 staves/5 gallons. We put approximately 2 staves/5 gallons. I was worried about overoaking. This way there is no chance the oak needs to come out before the malolactic finishes, which should be in 4-6 weeks.
  • 6 staves each carboy
  • 2 staves for the 5 gallon carboy.

We got a Vinquiry 1 Panel done on our fermented wine. There were some surprises.

• TA: 7.48 g/L.  This was high. We expected 6 g/L based on our tartaric addition. Here is the history:
  • TA initial must: 4.42 g/L
  • Added 242 g tartaric acid.
    • We now have 36 gallons = 136.27 L. So this addition was 242/136.26 = 1.78 g/L. We should have ended up at 4.42 + 1.78 = 6.2 g/L.
    • What if we really only have 30 gallons (113.56L), after we remove the solids by racking. Then the addition was 242/113.56 = 2.13 g/L. We then end up at 4.42 + 2.13 = 6.55 g/L.
    • None of these calculations shows any way for us to get to the  7.48 g/L that we got.
    • How did it happen?
• pH: 3.8 . This is high, but tolerable. We won’t do anything to bring it down. We already have enough acid, see above. Here is the history…
  • pH initial must:  3.69 (me)
  • pH initial must:  3.81  (Vinquiry )
  • pH after tartaric addition:  3.41 (me)
  • pH after fermentation: 3.80 (Vinquiry)
  • pH after fermentation: 3.74 (me)
  • Question 1:   why did it come down to 3.41? I thought becasue of the tartaric addition, although I was surprised by the change.
  • Question 2: Why did it go back up to 3.8?

There were also some numbers that made us happy:

1. Alcohol: 13.69% This was pretty good, considering our sugars were at 23.5 brix. This is a conversion rate of 13.69/23.5 = 0.58. I think was is considered th enormal range  is 0.55-0.67.
2. Free SO2 of 2 ppm and total SO2 of 13 ppm are nice and low for the upcoming malolactic fermentation, which likes low SO2 levels. After the ML, we will need top sulphite pretty heavily becasue of our high pH.
3. VA of 250 ppm is nice and low. I had been worried because of the ethyl acetate aromas coming off the must near the end of the fermentation. I am sure of what I smelled; it just wasn’t enough to be a problem. At low levels it is considered one of the componenets of a fruity wine.
4. The sugar level was very low. 21 mg/100mL = 21 mg/100 g = .02% sugar. I measured .3% with the clinitest kit. Why am I not even close? In any case, it is very low.
5. The malic is at 2.51 g/L. This will get converted to lactic, which will lower the TA, and make it taste less harsh. The conversion ratio is ~0.67, so we will lose 0.33 * 2.51 = .83 g/L of TA, leaving us at 6.65 g/L. The wine should be smoother. The lactic acid that results is less harsh than the malic that was there.

• Pressed into the following containers
  • 2 14 gal demijohns
  • 1 6 gal carboy
  • 1 1 gal jug
  • 1 3/4 gallon jug
  • 1 750 mL wine bottle
  • 3/4 750 mL wine bottle
  • Total wine ~36 gallons
  • Measured sugars using clinitest:  0.3%
• Nose: good; fruity
• Taste: several glasses worth :-). Fruity. Can still get what I think is a strong acidity. But maybe it is just unsettled wine. We’ll probably do a vinquiry panel tomorrow, so we’ll get the numbers.
• Here are some pictures:

7:30 PM

There was a slight cap, and a little fizzle left in the must. I punched it down. I got a strong whiff of what I believe it ethyl acetate, but I am not sure. It seems to be there when I take the plywood and sheet off of the fermenting bin. Then it goes away. The wine smells and tastes fine. And the garage smells great. I put down a layer of CO2 with the tank to try and keep the O2 off of the must. We’ll get a panel done after pressing, and see how much VA there is.

We will press Wednesday evening, into 2 14 gallon demijohns, plus a 6 and a 3 gallon carboy, if needed. Hopefully that is enough glass.

8:30 PM;

• Punchdown
• Still actively fermenting
• Must temp 74 F.

7AM:

• punchdown
• must temp 75 F
• sugar: 0 brix!
• taste: lots oif fruit. Still pretty acidic. Slightly tannic, but not much. There is still some juice to come out of the berries. That may bring down the acidity. Or maybe I am competely wrong, and it is something else I am tasting. After we do the malolactic, we’ll probably run one more Vinquiry panel, so we’ll know.

We are ready to press. Maybe today!

Sunday 5PM:

• Punchdown
• Must temp 78 F

Time to plan for pressing!

Sunday, 9AM:

• Punched down
• Must temp: 78 F. Temperature is starting to drop.
• Sugars: 2.5 brix, so we are almost done.

Saturday:

• Punched down around 4:30PM, with Irwin.
• Must temp 82 F.
• Sugars: can’t remember…Erwin, if you read this, do you remember?
• Punched down again at around 9PM.
• Must temp 82F

• Punch down 7:30AM
• Musty temp 82 F.

• Punchdown at 5:30 PM
• Must temp 82 F.

• Another punchdonw at 6:45 PM.
• Must temp 82 F.
• Sugar: 9.5 brix
• Nose: good
• Taste: Still sweet. Very fruity. Distinct bitterness. I am guessing this will go away. I have noticed the same thing in my sauvignon blancs. I think it is pretty acidic. I hope we didn’t over do it with the tartaric addition. We’ll find out if we do another vinquiry panel. Also, the pH will give us a bit of an idea.

• Punch down at 7:15 AM
• Must temp = 80 F
• Sugars: 12.5 brix
• Nose: Good.
• Need to figure out the malolactic fermentation.
• Need to figue out what we will press into.

I went out to do some errrands this evening. When I returned and came into the house, the whole house smelled of fermenting wine. Not just the garage! It was wonderful. THis has got to be my favorite time of year. It rained most of the day, so no sun to warm the must.

• 9:15 PM: Punched down the cap.
• Must temp 76 F.
• Sugars: 16.5 brix. By tomorrow morning we’ll be below 13, so I did the nutrient addition.
• Added 19 g Fermaid K mixed into juice solution. Stirred it in really well.
• No more additions required at this point, although we need to decide when to inoculate for the malolactic.
• Put two 125W heat lamps pointing at the bottom of the bin.
• Put on the sheet and plywood, covered with blankets. I hope to get over 80 F by the morning.

Picked up a couple of heat lamp bulbs from Home Depot, and came home after work.

• Kids did the punchdown.
• Must temp = 74 F, so it came up on its own, without my heating pad.
• Sugar: 18 Brix! Zowee, that came down fast. I will need to put in the next nutrient additon tonight before going to bed. It is supposed to go in at 16 Brix.
• I will set up the heat lamps to try and keep it warm through the night. I think I will place two heat lamps on the floor, and heat up the underside of the bin, and cover the top with sheet, plywood and blankets.

7:15 Punchdown: Everything still going fine.

Must at 70 F. I will pick up a radiant space heater today, and see if I can use that to warm the must. This fermentation is ending up like a white fermentation…pretty cold. That should give us a nice fruity wine. But we won’t get the color extraction we need unless we get up into the 80’s.

Where is that sun when you need it! No Sun coming for a few days.

• 9:30 PM: Punched down the cap.
• Must temp still around 68 F.
• I placed a glass tray on top of the must, then placed a heating pad in the tray. I will try running it all night, and see if I can warm up the must a little.
•  

   

   

Left the garage door open all day; the fog never cleared

Still, I got home at 6PM and could hear the must bubbling. There was a decent cap; the kids did the punch down.

• Must temp: still 68 F. I somehow need to warm this up.
• Sugar: 24.5 brix.
• Nose: very nice. No problems.

I’ll take another look just before bedtime.

Just checked, and so far, no obvious fermentation. I stirred it up, and brought up a lot of foam, so maybe it is starting. The color is really deepening. These few days of “cold” soak are really drawing out the color.

I tasted the juice; still tastes great.

This morning I’ll leave the garage door open, so the southern sun will be on the bin most of the day. The bin is covered  with a sheet, and a piece of plywood. The plywood gets very warm in the sun, which should indirectly heat up the must.

• Tartaric addition:   Took ~ 1.5L of jiuce and mixed in the 242 g of tartaric. After stirring until dissolved, I poured it into the bin, and stirred it in.
• Fermaid K addition:   Took ~ 1 L of juice and mixed in 19 g of Fermaid K. Stirred until dissolved, and poured it into the bin, and stirred it in.
• Yeast addition:
  • The yeast datasheet says to use 20-40g/100L of juice. We picked 30 g/100L.
  • 151 L * 30g/100L = 45 g yeast. This approximately matches the 1g/gal number I have seen elsewhere.
  • The datasheet says mix the yeast with water, 10x the amount of the yeast. If we do 45 g yeast, that’s 450 g = 450 mL of water. I have always mixed 1/2 water and 1/2 juice. So I will take 225 mL distilled water and 225 mL juice.
  • Yeast solution temperature = 70 F. Here is the  yeast foaming after 20 minutes:
  • Must temp at time of yeast addition = 68 F. Datasheet says keep the temps similar.
  • Added the yeast and stirred it in after 20 minutes, per the data sheet.
  • We are off and running! Hooray!

Finally, I remeasured the pH: 3.41  Wow! It dropped a lot. But it will probably go back up, since we added tartaric based on the final wine volume, and a lot of the juice is still trapped in the grapes. once that juice comes out of the grapes, the pH will probably go back up.

The juice tastes great. I think the acid has made it crisper. The flavors are much stronger. The garage is smelling great. I wish it was inside the house!

The grapes, as I finished up….

5PM: Measured the must temperature…66 F. Good temperature. Plan is to start the fermentation tomorrow around lunchtime.

We got our Vinquiry report. Numbers didn’t really match our measured numbers which is a bit dissapointing.

• sugar:  Us: 25 brix;      Vinqiry:23.5 brix;   why the difference?
• pH:      Us: 3.69,           Vinquiry: 3.8;         why the difference?
• TA:      Us: 5.5g/l;        Vinquiry 4.4 g/l;     why the difference? This was a very hard measurement. It is difficult to see the endpoint when doing this.

Tartaric addition calculation:

• 40 gallons = 151.4 liters
• Current TA = 4.4 g/l
• Desired TA = 6.0 g/l
• Addition/l = 6.0 – 4.4 = 1.6 g/l
• Total Addition = 1.6 g/l * 151.4 l ~ 242 g tartaric acid

Sugar addition:

• We will not do a sugar additon. Potential alcohol ~= 13.4%, which is a good level.

 Additional SO2 adition:

• Because the pH came in at 3.8 in the Vinquiry report, we decided to bump the SO2 to 100 ppm.
• Based on the FermCalc calulator, this is 295 ml of 10% solution. We already added 220 ml, so we need ~75 ml more.
• Added 75 ml 10% soulution 9:30 PM

Yeast selection:  We chose to use ES488, purchased 500g from Vinquiry. With the additional SO2, we’ll probably wait until Wednesday to start the fermentation.

We picked the 2009 Syrah from Ken Hunt at Nolan Vineyards:

Here is some of the picking crew:

The dogs name was Syrah! Ken was really helpful. He drove his tractor with Erwins 1/2 ton bin on a trailer, so we dumped our grape tubs right into the bin. The picking was very efficient.

Here are the numbers:

• Clone: Durell
• Rootstock: 3309 or 1616 or 110R
• ~500lbs grapes picked into Erwins first half ton bin, 7:30 – 9:00 AM 11/1/2009
• Crushed at my house into Erwins second half ton bin
• Must temp 58 F.
• Sugar: 25 brix
• pH: 3.69
• TA: 5.5 g/l
• ~400 ml sample frozen for Vinquiry 3.5 analysis

Must volume calculations:

• Must volume in half ton bin: 44″x44″x6″ = 11616 in^3 = 6.72 ft^3 = 50.3 gallons must
• Wine volume estimate from grower: 7-8 gal/100 lbs grapes
  1. 7 gal/100 lbs: 500 lbs * 7 gal/100 lbs grapes =  35 gallons wine
  2. 8 gal/100 lbs: 500 lbs * 8 gal/100 lbs grapes = 40 gallons wine

SO2 calulations:

• Because pH is 3.7, add 70 ppm SO2
• From Beverage People catalog, 75 ppm SO2 = 4.9 ml/gal 10 % SO2 solution
• 4.9 ml * 70/75 = 4.6 ml for 70 ppm
• Pick 45 gallons, halfway between 50 gal measured must volume and 40 gal estimated final wine
• 45 gal * 4.9 ml/gal = 220.5 ml to get 70 ppm SO2 in 45 gal
• The fermCalc calculator comes up with 207 ml for the same conditions. Close enough.

6:30 PM: ADDED 220 ml 10% sulphite solution, and mixed it in