Poppyseed Cellars

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.

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

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

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.
  

• Topped
• sulphited +10 ppm

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

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

Higher than I expected, but good.

Topped off all wines!

And tasted, with spitting. Very enjoyable morning!

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.

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

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

Here is the Vinquiry post ferment panel: 2013-01-14-003

My summary of the results:

• pH 3.90 Autotitrator
• Titratable Acidity 0.610 g/100mL Autotitrator
• Free SO2 3 mg/L Segmented Flow
• Total SO2 3 mg/L Segmented Flow
• Volatile Acidity 0.058 g/100mL Segmented Flow
• Glucose + Fructose 12 mg/100mL Enzymatic
• Malic Acid 14 mg/100mL Enzymatic
• Alcohol 15.65 %V/V GC

Paul, Erwin and I went out to taste everything in barrels. Based on some tastings over Christmas with the family, I am worried we are over oaking the 2011’s.

• 2011 Zinfandel: Started with a side by side tasting of the zin barrels:
  • 15 gallon barrel: Clean clear fruit. Light tannins.
  • 60 gallon barrel: Similar to the 15, but something else also. I wondered if it was brett, or maybe the beginnings of two much oak. We had lots of discussions, but could not positively ID the extras in the 60 gallon barrel. Decided a good future plan is to leave the 15 gallon barrel alone until summer. Transfer 30 gallons of the 60 gallon barrel to an older 30 gallon barrel, and bottle the other 30 gallons.
• 2011 Syrah: Generally happy with this one. Tannins much lighter than the 2010. Aromatics very nice; clearly syrah.
• 2012 Syrah: Something funky going on. Nose was off putting. Cu didn’t seem to help it. Hopefully just stuff from the MLF. Plan is to sulphite (if MLF done), let it sit for a month, and rack.
• 2012 Late Harvest Syrah: Much better nose than the earlier 2012 syrah. Not sure why. But still not clean. Same plan as for the early syrah.
• 2012 Syrah Port: Coming along nicely. Need to get the numbers to see what we have.

Shahrokh is making a late harvest syrah, with  me as consulting winemaker!

• Grapes have been crushed; 18″ deep in macrobin = 151 gallons must.
• Hoping to get 70 gallons wine. My normal prediction is 91 gallons wine, but these are a little dessicated.
• Would like > 30 brix. 28 at crush time; let it soak up a few days.