Poppyseed Cellars

I did some research on Port wines. Most are 20% alcohol, and 10% sugar (100 g/L).

Ours is 19.4 % alcohol, and ~6.2% sugar (62 g/L).

I have been topping with syrah, and once with Diesel to replenish the alcohol.

I will do a sugar addition. I think getting to 8% first is a goal, and then have it tested again.

That is an addition of 2%, or 20 g/L. The barrel is a 50l barrel, so need 50 * 20 = 1000 g!

The next “topping” will be with table sugar,  and a lot of it!

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:

• 13 gallon barrel:
  • 50 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

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

• 13 gallon barrel: 56 ppm

Quite high. No need for more for quite awhile.

Topped off all wines!

And tasted, with spitting. Very enjoyable morning!

2012 Fortified LF syrah:

• Tasted: definitely getting smoother; less harsh alcohol. 
• The sweetness seems less noticeable. If I look back at the sugars, they were at about 6%. Ports usually run around 8%. I may bump the sugars up a little.
• Sulphited +25 ppm
  • 13 gallon barrel: 21 mL 10% kmeta solution
• Topped off barrel

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

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

My summary of the results:

• pH 3.88 Autotitrator
• Titratable Acidity 0.549 g/100mL Autotitrator
• Free SO2 38 mg/L Segmented Flow
• Total SO2 74 mg/L Segmented Flow
• Volatile Acidity 0.047 g/100mL Segmented Flow
• Glucose + Fructose 6219 mg/100mL Enzymatic
• Malic Acid 164 mg/100mL Enzymatic
• Alcohol 19.40 %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.

Actually, fortified wine! We can’t really call it port unless it is from Oporto!

Shahrokh and I decided to make port with some of the late harvest syrah.

We decided to make two 25 l carboys of port.

We need some alcohol…can’t buy grape spirits. Tim Pattersen in Home Winemaking for Dummies recommends Everclear, so I called Bottle Barn. They had it, but suggested Diesel as a cheaper alternative. Since both are 75% ethanol, not much difference.

We pulled juice from the ongoing ferment…22.5 l from each bin, at 7.5 brix on the hydrometer. With a starting brix of 28, that should correspond to 9.0 brix and 10.4% alc. The acids should be at the initial 4.8 g/l + 0.5 that we added = 5.3 g/l. We could be way off if the juice yield is way off, as I assumed 70 gallons of wine.

Here is the first blend calculation:

Update Monday: The port is bubbling still!. So the alcohol of almost 17% did not kill the yeast. That is not completely surprising; port is normally near 20% alcohol. So Shahrokh racked the port off the gross lees. When done, he was short just a little more that 1 l per carboy. How convenient! So he added another liter of Diesel to each carboy, plus topped off with more juice.

Here is the second blend calculation:

That should do it until we can get all the numbers tested and see where we are at!

Also added 70 ppm sulphites…70ppm @ 6.6 gallon = 30 mL 10% SO2 solution

It will definitely need more acidity…probably another 2g/l! And maybe more sugar.

The plan is to put it into the 50 l oak barrel we have in the cellar. It will benefit greatly from time in a barrel.

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.