Poppyseed Cellars

Had some free time in the morning, so I decided to top and sulphite the 2013 Syrah.

• 60 gallon:
  • +20 ppm (80 ml SO2 solution)
• 15 gallon:
  • +20 ppm (20 ml SO2 solution)
• 3 gallon:
  • +20 ppm (4 ml SO2 solution)

I did not stir, as we need the wine to be settled for our first post MLF racking. There is probably a lot sediment in those barrels.

The wine tasted fine, although it has the young wine taste. I asked Daniel, the winemaker making my father in laws syrah, about the VA, and he said don’t worry about it. He has had a lot worse, and it came out fine.

Post MLF, first sulphite for the 2013 MV Syrah:

• 60 gallon barrel: +43 ppm (169.5 ml SO2 solution)
• 15 gallon barrel: +43 ppm (42.4 ml SO2 solution)
• 3 gallon carboy: +43 ppm (8.5 ml SO2 solution)

Here is our post fermentation lab panel results.

And my analysis:

• Alc 14.37 %%V/V: This is close to what we thought we would get. This is a conversion of 0.58. We seem to vary from 0.57 to 0.59 with our yeast and processing. Next year we gotta pick a little earlier. I really want to amke wine below 14%$. The 2011 syrah is our only wine belwo 14%, and we like it the best!
• pH 3.80:This is once again very high. It just seems to be what we get. We would like it lower, but we don’t know how. It will be somewhat lower if we pick earlier. We probably have a potassium problem, but we did not have that measured.
• TA 6.39 g/L: This is a good number. But it is much higher than I expected. We started at 4.65 g/L, and added 0.5 g/L tartaric. So we have an unexplained 1.24 g/L rise in TA. We have something like this each year, but we don’t understand why!
• Free SO2 7 mg/L: This is fine. Usually we are near zero after ferment and MLF, but this is still low.
• VA 810 mg/L: This is high. It seems like the sensory threshold is 600-900 mg/L. I haven’t noticed anything, but we will have to be very careful, as this can only go up. Fully sulphited and topped barrels is required. I wonder why this came out so high? There are ways to fix it, but not for homies like us!
• Glucose + Fructose 190 mg/L (.019%): This is perfect. The wine is dry.
• Malic acid 70 mg/L: This is well below the 300 mg/L that Vinquiry says is complete…but above the 30 mg/L that others say is complete. We go with Vinquiry!
• Total SO2 31 mG/L: This is surprising. We have put in 50 ppm at crush. usually there is not much left, even of the toal SO2. the legal limit is 350 mg/L for total SO2.

I bought an Accuvin MLF kit and checked the three containers of the ’12 syrah.

It indicates everything is complete.

I will let the lees settle a few days (I stirred it before sampling), and then take a sample for the post fermenttion panel.

I also lit off a sulphur disk in the empty 60 gallon barrel. I will do the 30 gallon tomorrow.

So I have been listening to the barrels to see if the MLF is going. The 60 gallon barrel is crackling away. The 15 gallon barrel seems completely quiet, and the carboy didn’t have any sign of bubbles.

So today we emptied the carboy and 15 gallon barrel into a white tub, and filled them with wine from the 60 gallon barrel, which is going strong. We then pumped the white tub into the 60 gallon barrel.

Hopefully they will all be going. I will check in on Monday.

Erwin and I went out and racked the last of the wine off the gross lees. We had about 20 gallons of gross lees leftover from last Friday. We let it settle over the weekend, and we got about three gallons more wine. Good for topping.

We had inoculated everything with Enoferm Alpha last week. The cellar is cooling down, so we put a 100W light bulb under the barrels and 3 gallon carboy. We also put blankets over the top. We want to warm up the wine a little until the MLF is finished. Here are some pictures:

We racked off of the gross lees into a bunch of white food grade tubs. Put them in the mule, and drove them to the wine cellar.

We then pumped the wine into a 60 gallon and a 15 gallon barrel. We didn’t quite fill them all the way.

We also inoculated for MLF with Enoferm Alpha.

The gross lees still seemed to have a lot of wine in it, so we put that in the 30 gallon tub to sit for a few days. If it still smells good, we will get what we can on Monday or Tuesday.

Very happy to be in barrel!

Also tasted, topped and sulphited all of the other barrels.

Worked from  8AM to noon.

We started at 7AM.

The cap had risen, although there wasn’t much cap. We decided that it came up because of the long time from the last punch down, 24 hours. But it must be almost dry.

We finished by 11 AM or so.

We are going to leave it in the bin with the valve for 24 hours for the gross lees to settle.

This morning at 8 AM Esteban punched down the last cap.

By noon, when Erwin and I arrived, the grapes had sunk to the bottom! It was clear wine, and a few seeds floating on top. It actually tasted pretty good. And no signs of H2S.

Tomorrow we press into the bin with a valve. And Friday we move the wine to the barrels, and start the MLF. I am looking forward to the wine being settled in barrel.

I started a fermentation record to keep track of the temperature and sugar.

I will keep updating it here.

Ferment Record – Oct 13, 2013, 4-34 PM

The numbers are in and they are confusing: 2013-10-07-082

• The sugars at 24.8 are slightly higher than we measured, but not out of line.
• The pH skyrocketed from 3.4 measured by me to 3.82 from Vinquiry. I rechecked tonight myself and got 3.79, so it really went up.
• The TA is low, to match the high ph. We may need to add some tartaric.

Here is a picture after all of our processing, showing the must height in the bin:

We crushed Wednesday morning.

Attendees: Esteban, Erwin,Paul, Ryan, and myself.
We started at 7 AM, and finished completely by 11AM.

1350 lbs of grapes…80 gallons of finished wine in a couple of years!

Here are some photos:

Crush is tomorrow!

I have started a record sheet for the ongoing calculations that need to be done. I copied it from the 2012 MV Syrah sheet.

Checked the numbers this morning:

• Alban Syrah, near the sheds
  • 22.5 Brix
  • 3.1 pH
• 470 Syrah
  • 22.0 Brix
  • 3.0 pH

We want to pick at less than 24 brix, so it looks like 1 to 2 weeks more for normal weather. Need to keep an eye on the heat…