Poppyseed Cellars

Free SO2 measurement results:

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 

I measured the following on the Rose:

• 5 gallon carboy:
  • pH: 3.5
  • Still some malic acid, based on the Accuvin test strip
  • I added 20 ppm more sulphites
• 3 gallon carboy:
  • pH: 3.3 (why less than the 5 gallon? the MLF must not have gotten as far)
  • Still some malic acid, based on the Accuvin test strip
  • I added 20 ppm sulphites

I stirred both carboys vigorously. The 5 gallon produced so much CO2 that is bubbled over quite a bit. I wonder if that could account for the pH difference? The 3 gallon carboy did not produce as much CO2. I will check the pH again.

Both carboys are still somewhat sweet, so I put in the Sorbistat. I put in 1/4 oz into the 5 gallon carboy, and about an 1/8 oz into the 3 gallon carboy. I’ll check it again when I get back from AK.

• Zinfandel 15 gallon barrel: 25 ppm; added 5 ppm (5 mL) to get 30 ppm
• Zinfandel 60 gallon barrel: 21 ppm; added 9 ppm (36 mL) to get 30 ppm
• 2010 Syrah (30 gallon barrel): 8 ppm; added 22 ppm (43 mL) to get 30 ppm
• 2011 syrah (60 gallon barrel): 16 ppm; added 14 ppm (55 mL) to get 30 ppm

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.

Stopped by the farm today and topped off the barrels. I also took samples for so2 testing.

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.

I stopped by to see if the rose had stopped bubbling…it hadn’t! Esteban had reconnected the space heater that I had disconnected when we racked the  zin and syrah. So it was still at 70F instead of in the 50’s.

So I moved the rose next to the barrels. I added 40 ppm sulphites. Hopefully the colder temperature plus the sulphite will put an end to the ferment. I wanted to leave a little sugar, and it is under 1% at this point.

I will rack it in a few weeks, and put in some stuff to ensure that the yeast cannot reproduce. I don’t have the equipment to sterile filter, which is the best method to make sure it doesn’t continue to ferment.

Also topped the 11 syrah and the 11 zin. The zin is tasting pretty good. The syrah still has something odd on the nose. Not sure what is going on.

Topped off the ’11 and ’10 syrahs with 2 bottles and a little water, as I have no more of the 10 syrah bottled.

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.

2011 Syrah:

• We decided to add 40 ppm sulphites. This came to 160 mL of 10% SO2 solution for the 61 gallon ReCoop barrel. This will drop quickly (our first addition), so we will check it in a week to see how it is doing.
• Nose: slight funk going on; probably leftovers from the the MLF finishing.
• Color is deep red, inky garnet. Lighter than the ’10.
• Taste: Light tannins; much less than last year. Fruit.

2010 Syrah:

• We added 10 ppm sulphites: 20 mL for the 30 gallon barrel;  10 mL for the 15 gallon barrel
• We compared the bottled to the two barrels. The nose was pretty similar on all three, but the barrels were noticeably smoother tannins than what we have bottled. More time in barrel is really helping.

2011 Zin:

• Still crackling; still reductive on the nose, but pretty good in the taste. I wish this would finish it’s MLF.

2011 Rose of zin:

• I measured with a hydrometer. One carboy measured 1.5% (the one this is bubbling slowly), and the other carboy measured 3%! It still has a long way to go. Still trying to decide if I should dump in some yeast, but since it is going, I think I’ll just let it finish. I really want to drink this come summer! Hurry up!

Well, I measured the sugars (using Clinitest tablets) on the rose again. Very confusing.

• First I measured the (still) fast bubbling carboy: 0.6%
• Then I measured the slower bubbling carboy: 1%.
• I stirred both pretty hard, bringing up all the lees.
• Then I remeasured:
• Fast carboy: 0.4 %
• Slow carboy: 0.6%
• Then Shahrokh, who was assisting, read the instructions. If the color passes through orange to brown, need to dilute. That is sort of what the slow carboy did.
• So first I tested just water. It came up 0%.
• Then I diluted the slow carboy by 1/5 (0.1 mL wine, 0.4 mL water): this measured 1%, and did not pass through orange. So my real sugars are at 5%!  Ouch! I have really screwed up on this one.

I will let it sit another couple of days to see if it bubbles any harder, because of my stirring. If not, I will need to add some new yeast and really try to get it to finish. The fast carboy is bubbling along; I just need to let it finish.

Also, I need to try my hydrometer. I should easily be able to measure 5%  with the hydrometer, right in the carboys.

The good news is that the aromas coming off the rose are wonderfully fruity and full of citrus.

This time my second favorite Iranian dish…khoresh fesenjun.

Back to the wine. Topping off of all the syrah took 2 bottles.

• ’11 Syrah:
• Stirred the wine.
• Nose: good, still a little off, but settling down since last time.
• Taste: mouth feel good. Less tannins than the ’10.
• No sound coming from the barrel.
• I did an Accuvin Malic acid test. Came out completely clear, implying that the MLF is done. I took a sample to drop off at Vinquiry tomorrow.
• It took more than a bottle to top off.
• ’10 Syrah
• Nose was wonderful.
• Tannins smoothing out. Definitely better mouth feel than the ’10 in bottles.
• Between the 30 and 15 gallon barrels, topping off took almost another bottle of the ’10.
• ’11 Zin:
• Still hear a little crackling going on.
• Accuvin malic tested clear, so the MLF must be close to done. But I will wait for the Vinquiry test until I don’t hear anything any more.
• Nose is still off. Definitely need to copper fine.
• Taste was still pretty good. Lot’s of fruit.
• ’11 Rose
• Bubbling away still.
• Nose was citrus and fruit.
• Color is gorgeous; salmon pink.
• Taste was crisp. I am pretty sure less sugar in both carboys.
• My sugar test tablets had gone bad. They were all black. I wonder if I spilled some liquid in them last time I used them. Need to get more in the next few days.
• I tried the Accuvin on both carboys. Both tests maxed out showing lots of malic left. I would like to be sure that it is the sugar fermenting. Here is what the test strip looked like:

I had dinner out at the farm tonight. Khoresh bademjan, which if you haven’t had, you should! Made by my mother in law Mimi. My all time favorite Iranian meal.

I checked the rose, which I had moved up from the cellar to try and restart the ferment. Yeah! It is bubbling!

Even though the temperature was only 68F, the max temp had gotten up to 70F. This must have restarted it.

Also, the wine had expanded, maybe due to temperature, or maybe extra CO2 dissolved in the wine. But it tasted less sweet, so I think it is going again.

I moved it into a small bedroom with a space heater set to 70F, to try and keep the temperature stable. I think it will finish in less than a week.

The Rose is too sweet. I moved the carboys from the cellar into the house to get warm. Let it sit a week and see if the ferment will start again.

First visit to the cellar  in the new year!

2011 Syrah:

• With my ear to the barrel, I could hear a very slight crackle, so almost done but not quite. We will need to have this tested soon.
• The nose seemed fine from the barrel, but a bit off in the glass. Something not quite right. I attribute this to the MLF.
• The taste was great. Good smooth tannins; nice mouth feel. Pure fruity syrah. Acids are there to keep it crisp. I think this will best the ’10 and the ’09.
• The barrel required almost 2 bottles to top it off. We are done with the extra topping bottles of the ’11 syrah, and I am now using the ’10 Syrah for topping.

2011 Zinfandel:

• MLF still going pretty strong. I could clearly hear the crackle in the barrel.
• The nose is still problematic. There is a definite H2S problem. This will need to be copper fined soon, if not already too late.
• The taste was pretty good. Very much a crisp cool climate zin. It seems like I am far more sensitive to the H2S in the nose that in the mouth. We had stopped in at Balletto Winery on Occidental Road on the way back from the coast on Sunday; they had a similar cool climate zin that I really liked. Very different from the big jammy zins from Northern Sonoma County, which I also like a lot.
• Color is a clean medium garnet.
• This required a bottle and a half; I have no topping bottles, so I am using the ’10 Syrah as topping. it is such a small amount, it won’t make much difference to the taste.

2011 Rose of zin:

• It has fallen completely clear. If not for the sweetness, it would be ready to bottle.
• Nose is great. Citrus, light and fruity.
• Taste is crisp, but sweet. Both carboys are noticeably sweet. I need to make measurements again, and decide if I want a sweet white zin, or if I want to try and restart the ferment. It won’t be an easy decision, as I usually like my wines dry.
• Color is wonderful. It has the light pink, salmon color which I really like. It is a little too light, so as I pull some out of the carboys to taste, I put back in the zin, which adds a little color.

2010 Syrah:

• The 30 gallon barrel took a bottle of topping.
• The taste of this wine was even better than what we have bottled. It is starting to smooth out a little more.

2010 Pinot Noir:

• Tastes great. Need to get this in bottles. Time to start drinking. The sulphites should still be fine. It was at 16 ppm on 9/29/2011; I added 20 ppm 10/3/2011 to get to 36 ppm.

I took the day off from my regular job…

I racked the  ’11 zin Rose into two 5 gallon carboys. Still a strong citrus taste. If this goes like the sauv blanc goes, that citrus will fade. It is still very cloudy. I measured the sugars after racking, and the Clinitest says 1% !  It seems high, but maybe. It should finish the ferment in the next month or so.

I racked the ’11 Zin from barrels into the white tubs, giving it some aeration. Then racked back, and inoculated with ML bacteria, 1 package of Enoferm Alpha. Zin smells and tastes good. Very much like zin; but it won’t be a “big” or sweet zin. It is going to be more crisp and fruity, like a syrah. At least I hope so. I forgot to measure the sugar.

Finally, we racked the ’11 Syrah into the same white tubs, with heavy splashing to try and get rid of the H2S. It wasn’t enough, so we did a copper fining trial with 0, 0.5, 1.0 ppm of copper sulphate. Just like last year, we decided to with the 1.0 ppm. 1.0 ppm = 1.5 mL 1% solution/gallon = 93 mL 1% copper sulphate solution into the barrel. We also put copper into our topping containers, a 1 gallon,  3/4 gallon jugs.

I started at 10AM, and we finished about 4:30 PM, no lunch. I am tired!

I checked the sugars on all the ferments:

• Rose of zin:
• Free run: 0.4%;  taste of citrus, fruit, some bitterness; great fruity nose.
• Press run: 0.6%
• Zin (60 gallon barrel): 0.6 -1.0 %  (somewhere in between…); slight whiff of H2S dissipated with swirling; may need aeration racking to clean it up; some tannins, nice fruit, great color
• Syrah (60 gallon barrel): 0.2 – 0.4%; still strong H2S. It took a lot of aerating to get it good. Will need to copper.

After a brief trip to MN, I am back. I stirred the Rose. It looks good. Slowly bubbling.  Putting my ear to the carboy, it sounds  like a fine crackling sound as the bubbles pop.

I measured the sugars:

• Free run carboy: 10 brix. Tastes, smells good. Lots of citrus, fruit. Light pink color, although still opaque.
• Press run carboy: 9 brix. Tastes, smells good. Lots of citrus, fruit. The color difference is quite noticeable. Darker  pink color, although still opaque.

I checked again this morning. Everything is good. Starting to get a really nice aroma. Fruity, yeasty. Nothing bad out of either carboy.

I checked on the rose tonight. Both carboys have started fermenting. I stirred them both. One had good ferment aromas. This was the press juice, noticeably darker in color. The second carboy was the free run juice, lighter in color. It had a slightly reductive odor. I’ll check in tomorrow and see how they are doing.

I just checked on the rose. No bubbles, no aromas, and all the yeast solution at the bottom of the carboy. But the color is gorgeous.

Patience, patience!

Early to the winery this AM…

I racked the rose off of the settlings into two 6 gallon containers, with about 5 gallons of juice in each container. Racking off the settlings should give me a lighter, fruitier rose. This is supposed to be an easy drinking, light rose, to be consumed this coming summer.

I prepped the Epernay 2 yeast in a GoFerm solution. After pitching, the carboys were stored in the cellar, in which the ambient temperature is about 65 F. This should allow the ferment to finish slowly.

I went back tonight and checked on the rose. Looks nice and settled. I will rack it and start the ferment tomorrow.

I also added 20 ppm sulphites to the 2010 Pinot, to prep for bottling.

We decided to let the zin sit through the first storm of the season. It is a thin skinned grape, with tight compact clusters. If water gets into the cluster, and it cannot dry out, you get bunch rot. This year however there are a lot of berries that didn’t get fertilized (due to rain in the spring during flowering). The clusters are not as closed and tight. The grapes are not ready for a red zin (23 brix today…needs 25 brix), so we will wait. However, I wanted to start something, so we started a rose!

We picked, crushed and pressed enough to make 7 or 8 gallons of rose. Here is what we did:

• Picked (Shahrokh and myself) 60 gallons by volume of zin grapes. We started around 7AM, finished picking by 8 AM.
• Crushed them to 24 gallons must (now with Esteban’s help).
• Pressed that (after 30 minutes or so) to 11 gallons pressed juice.
• Let that settle overnight.
• Sugars:  22.8 brix
• pH: 3.2
• Sulphited to 40 ppm