One glass short of 13 cases. We are set for awhile.

The aromas were fantastic. We couldn’t stop tasting it as we bottled.

We rinsed and drained the 30 gallon barrel. After letting it dry for an hour, we lit off a sulphur pellet and bunged it up. That stuff is strong. Then finally moved the barrel back into it’s rack.

Rose:   7 mg/L

10 Syrah: 13 mg/L 

11 Zin-60:   26 mg/L

11 Zin-30:  34 mg/L

11 Syrah:   25 mg/L 

Additions performed June 20.

I also racked the rose into a 5 gallon and 3 gallon carboy. I wanted to get it off the  lees. There are still some bubbles being produced. I sulphited both carboys with 30 ppm. Hopefully that will stop it.

2010 syrah tasted great with the same wonderful nose.

2011 syrah is good, with a more complex nose. Tastes fine; is not as intense color or taste.

2011 zin has an intense flavor. And a good nose. Very strong zin character, but not ultra fruity.

2011 rose may not make it to the bottle. It is a bit yeasty. I think I left it on the lees too long ( still on them, slowly fermenting still). It seems a bit like champagne with the breast yeasty result from autolysis.

We topped off the ’10 syrah and the ’11 syrah and the ’11 zin.

We also sulphited all with 20 ppm.

Finally we tasted all of them!

’10 syrah: killer nose, as always. Chocolate, fruit, slightly spicy. It is really smoothing out. The tannins are not nearly as grippy as they were a year ago. The wine is well balanced.

’11 syrah: nose is improving. The funk that I thought might still be h2s is gone. Maybe it was just leftovers from the mlf. It is lighter in color than the ’10, but a nice elegant wine.

’11 zin: turning out to be the surprise of the vintage! I did not have high hopes, but it is really coming along. For a 15% alc wine, it works well. It doesn’t seem hot to me. Has some tannins, nice zin fruit. This is going to be a good wine.

1. Bottled the pinot noir! I got about 2 1/2 cases of wine. Not a lot, but enough to enjoy.
2. Erwin showed up, and we bottles the plastic carboy of 2008 syrah. Is is good, but not the best. We will use it to top off the 2010 and 2011. And to drink!
3. We bottled the  15 gallon barrel of 2010 syrah, after adding 15 ppm sulphites to a target of 33 ppm. That resulted in about 6 cases of wine, which Erwin and I split. That should last us a while. And we still have a 30 gallon barrel to go, end of summer!
4. We tasted the 2011 syrah. It is still a little reductive, so we tried a copper fining trial, at 0.0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 ppm Cu. There was a clear difference between 0.3 and 0.6, and a subtle difference between 0.6 and 0.9. We ended up adding  0.75 ppm (70 mL of 1% soln).  We will need to rack in a week or so.

• 2011 Syrah 60 gallon barrel: 28 ppm free SO2. Target is 30 ppm, so didn’t do anything.
• 2010 Syrah
•  30 gallon barrel: 6 ppm free SO2. Target is 30 ppm, so added 24 ppm  (47 ml 10% SO2 solution).
• 15 gallon barrel: 18 ppm free SO2. Target is 30 ppm, but we are going to bottle this one, maybe this Friday, so hold off until we bottle.
• 2011 Zinfandel
•  60 gallon barrel: 10 mg/100 mL = 100 ppm malic acid. Target less than 30, or 300 depending on who you trust! So MLF is complete.
• Added 40 ppm SO2 (160 mL 10% soln).
• Added 0.4 ppm 1% copper sulphate soln (36 ml)
• 15 gallon barrel
• Added 40 ppm  SO2 (40 ml 10% soln)
• Added 0.4 ppm 1% copper sulphate soln  (9 ml)
• 3 gallon carboy
• Added 25 ppm SO2 (5 ml 10% soln). This is all I had left; Once I mix them all together it will be about 40 ppm.
• Added 0.4 ppm 1% copper sulphate soln (1.8 ml)
• 2010 Pinot Noir:
• 5 gallon carboy: 23 ppm free SO2. Added 10 ppm SO2  (3.9 ml 10% soln).
• 1 gallon jug: Added 10 ppm (1 ml 10% soln)
• 2008 Syrah
• 6 gallon plastic carboy: 25 ppm free SO2. Target is 35 ppm, so added 10 ppm SO2  ( 3.9 ml 10% soln)
• 6 gallon glass carboy: Added 10 ppm SO2  ( 3.9 ml 10% soln)

Topped off the ’11 zin with water. The mlf is very close to done. I can barely hear any crackle, and the Accuvin test strips show done.

The ’11 rose is STILL fermenting. The nose is great. Lots of fruit, pineapple. Color is good, a salmon pink color. It is actually still too sweet, but I might let it stay a little sweet.

The ’10 Pinot started showing a ring on the surface in the carboy. I cleaned it, topped it off, and added 10ppm sulphites. It tasted fine. I need to get it bottled soon.