Poppyseed Cellars

We did all right in the Sonoma County Harvest Fair Amateur Wine Contest. Here are the results.

My wines…

• 2009 Syrah: Silver
• 2009 Sauvignon Blanc: Bronze
• 2008 Sauvignon Blanc: Silver

So I am pretty happy, though we really wanted a gold for the Syrah. Every wine without any defects gets at least a bronze. Something is usually wrong with the wine if it gets no award.

I am entering 3 wines into the 2010 Sonoma County Harvest Fair…’09 Syrah, ’09 Sauvignon Blanc, ’08 Sauvignon Blanc, all under the Poppyseed Cellars label.

Also, Afsi is running for the Bennett Valley Union School District board this fall! 5 contenders, 3 positions available.

Crossing our fingers…

Final measurements:

• pH: 3.20
• TA:8.25 g/L
• Free SO2: 20 ppm
• Nose: grapefruit; clean crisp; fruit; mild; I think the acidity is quite a bit lower than the other bottlings.
• Taste: clean; nothing bad. No sulphites. Slight mineral character.

Bottled 14 3/4 bottles…done with the 2008 SB!

I decided to add the potassium bicarbonate to the last 2008 SB carboy, since the last one worked so well. This time I added 14 grams, instead of 11 grams. 14 is supposed to bring me down 2 g/L TA, based on teh Fermcalc calulator, which doesn’t quite agree with the BevPeople. We’ll see. I will put it out into the cold after we get back from our LA trip.

I bottled the cold 3 gallon carboy!

• Last measurement of SO2 was at about 25 ppm.
• I added 20 ppm more SO2. That should be enough, even if it had gone to 0, since pH is 3.1.
• 15 bottles, which is just about right from 3 gallons.
• Final numbers
  • pH 3.1
  • TA: 8.3 g/L
  • SO2 > 20 ppm

HOORAY!  Just one carboy to go…

I tasted the 2008 SB this morning, after stirring the syrah. It has lots of citrus, grapefruit. The sour acid taste has diminished; not gone.  I think this will be a nice crisp SB for hot summer days. I am going to bottle this 3 gallon carboy tonight, and go ahead and deacidify the last 3 gallon carboy.

I remeasured the acids in the carboy with the potassium bicarbonate:

• pH: 3.1
• Acid: 8.3 g/L

So it definitely improved.

I just measured my cold (32 F) 2008 SB. I used the new acid test kit.

• 32 F 3 gallon carboy:  
  • 9 g/L
  • pH 3.0. This came up a little from 2.9
  • It hasn’t really dropped. It has only been 5 days, but I thought that would do something. I will measure the other carboy, that has been in the garage at ~60F.
• Garage temp carboy
  • pH 3.0
  • Acid: 9 g/L

Seems like the cold stabilization isnt doing anything. I decided to try potassium bicarbonate on the cold carboy:

• 3 gallons = 11.4 L
• 1 g/L of potassium bicarbonate reduces acity approximatley 1 g/L, which is what I want.
• I added 11 g to the carboy. Lots of bubbles produced, which is what is supposed to happen. I will test the wine tomorrow

Wow. I was experimenting with a new TA meaurement kit tonight. This time using a pH meter to find the endpoint. Worked great. At least with my 2008 SB.

I had opened the 3/4 gallon jug of 2008 SB to use as my sample. Phew! It stunk, big time. Totally oxidized, with smells reminiscent of sherry, but really foul. Yuck! I wonder what happened? There was still a lot of lees in the jug.

I looked back. This jug was the last racking of the 6 gallon carboy. So maybe I picked up too much of the lees. I don’t know. I hope my other 2 3 gallon carboy are OK. I opened one and it smelled great! 

Took a small sample to show my fellow winemakers at work. Poured the rest down the drain…

Just checked the syrah, and I can see many tiny streams of bubbles rising to the top. The MLF is moving right along.

I also added more ice to the SB. It must be down close to 32F. The ice is surviving through the day. Maybe tonight I’ll pull the carboy out and see if I am getting any tartrates. If so, this is a really nice way to lower the acidity.

Last night was pretty cold (41F at my house). I moved one of my high acid 2008 SB carboys outside for the evening, then in the morning went out and surrounded it with ice. I am trying to cold stabilize it, and maybe drop the acidity. It is around 9g/L now; I would like to get down to 8 g/L. We’ll see! I wish I had a big refridgerator.

If I have done some work on the SB, I haven’t written it.

Now I need some carboys for the ’09 SB. What am I gonna do? I took out some ’08 to get the numbers…can I bottle it?

• sulphites: 30 ppm (used the titret kit)
• pH: 2.9
• acids: 9 g/l

Still high acids. This is a crisp wine. The finish is quite sour. I wonder how it will do when it is chilled? I don’t want to bottle yet; maybe I can do something to “fix” the wine. So, I bottled 1 case; just enough to clear the 6 gallon carboy. The rest went into a 3 gal carboy. Now I have two 3 gallon carboys. I will see what I can do with these. If nothing..then just bottle and drink it. It is a vey fruity  wine with a very strong fruit nose.

9 PM:

• Racked the 1,3, and part of 6 gal into a 6 gal carboy.
• Racked rest of 6 gal into 3 gal + 3/4 gal.
• Let these sit for a month, and settle out. Plan on racking again end of October.

9 PM:

• Bubbling mostly finished.
• Taste: 6 gal very grapefruity, very tart, probably due to high acid.
• Sugar 6 gal = 0.1 % (Clinitest)
• Sugar 3 gal = 0.1 % (Clinitest)
• Sugar1 gal = 0.2 % (Clinitest)
• Acid 6 gal = 10 g/l
• Very high acid. I may have to do something to lower it. I’ll wait until it clears a bit before doing anything.

9PM:

• Still bubbling!
• Sugar 6 gal = 1 brix (-1.5/day).
• Sugar 3 gal = 1.5 brix (-1.7/day)
• Tasting: clearly SB characters. Citrusy grapefruit.
• Very slight H2S nose. Add a little more nutrient. Will this even help at this stage?
• Added 0.5 g/gal Fermaid K.

9 PM:

• Everything smelling good.
• Tasting very citrus, high acids.
• Sugar 6 gal at 5.5 brix.
• Sugar 3 gal at 6.5 brix.

9:15 PM:

• Stinkyness gone! Hooray!
• Back to smelling and tasting good.

12:45 PM:

• Nose is now slightly stinky, H2S. DAMN! I didn’t add the full recommended dose of Fermaid K before, so I’ll finish off the dose now.
• Added 1/2 g/gal Fermaid K

9:30 PM:

• Still stinky. I think I will add the normal 2/3 of the way dose.
• Added another 1 g/gal Fermaid K.

9 PM:

• Racked the 7 gal carboy into a clean 6 gal carboy.
• Racked the 6 gal carboy into the above 6gal, and into a 3 gal, 1 gal.
• I added 10 ppm SO2 to each container.
• Sugars in 6 gal at 10 brix.
• Tasted the 6 gal: Nice and citrusy. Lot’s of grapefruit. Beginnings of a bitter aftertaste, similar to last years SB, which eventually just went away.

8:30 PM:

• Tasted both carboys…both fine.
• Tomorrow I plan on racking into topped off caroys for the rest of the fermentation. Since it is slowing, oxygen contact becomes more and more important, and a topped off carboy has much less O2.

9:10 PM:

• Sugar 6gal carboy: 14 Brix (-3.5/day).
• Sugar 7gal carboy: 14.5 brix (-3.5/day).
• Nose and palate good. Nothing bad happening.
• More than 1/3 through the fermentation…time for Fermaid K.
• 3g each to 6 and 7 gallon carboys.

9 PM:

• Sugar in 6 gal: 17.5 Brix (delta of 2 1/4 per day).
• Sugar in 7 gal: 18 Brix (delta of 1 3/4 per day).
• These sugars went down a little too fast. I need to be more vigilant with the ice in the water bath and keep it cool.
• Still tastes good. Now has yeasty flavors, along with citrus, grapefruit.

6:45PM:

• Sugar in 6 gal: 22 Brix.
• Sugar in 7 gal: 21.5 Brix.
• Strong grapefruit in nose and palate.

12:45 PM:

• Tasting from 6gal carboy: Very sweet, fruity. Clear grapefruit, citrus flavors. No off odors. Crisp!
• Tasting from 7g carboy same as 6gal.
• Sugar in 6gal carboy at 22.5 Brix.
• Sugar in 7gal carboy at 22.5 Brix.

Came home from work at lunch time, around 12:30 PM to get the fermentation started.

—-12:30 PM—-

• Racked the juice off the lees before fermentation, into 6 and 7 gal carboys.
• I placed the carboys into water baths in the 20 gal tubs to help manage the fermentation temperature. I want to keep it very low. Starting temperature was 60 F.
• Sugar at 23.5 Brix
• TA at 9.2 g/l
• pH at 2.98
• Free SO2 at 20-25 ppm
• Created a yeast starter in 2 containers of 40 ml juice + 40 ml distilled water + 8g Prise De Mouse. Let it sit 1/2 hour until nice and foaming.
• Added the starter solutions to the carboys.
• Placed airlocks on the carboys, and went back to work.

—-9PM—-

• Fermentation clearly started. There is a little foam…Prise De Mousse is supposed to be a low foaming yeast.
• The airlocks are bubbling slowly.
• The water bath temp is at 64 F. I am continuing to add ice to get the temperature down. I would like to stay under 50 F.

Met the picking crew at 7AM. We drove to the vineyard, up a long narrow dirt road off of Enterprise Drive:

It was a bit awkward. The picking foreman was the guy I talked to. I drove my truck to where the crew was picking, and they immediately filled my 2 20 gallon tubs! I thought I was to be picking my own…This should be anywhere from 160-200 lbs grapes (4-5lbs/gallon of grapes).

I didn’t know if I should pay the foreman, or pay the vineyard manager, who wasn’t there. The foreman suggested something for the pickers…but wouldn’t give me a number. I am such a pushover…but I was happy that they picked for me. I gave the guy $100, to split amongst the pickers however he saw fit.

I was home by 8:30 AM. I crushed immediately, following up with a pressing less than 1 hour later, into 2 6 gal carboys.

• Sugars at 23 Brix.
• TA at 9.8 g/L. Ouch, that is high!
• pH 2.98 (low…to go with the TA)

I wonder why they picked so early? Maybe the location of the vineyard that my grapes came from was under ripe, and would have averaged out with other parts of the vineyard. Maybe I can ask my contact who got me these grapes…

• Added SO2 to the must at ~25 ppm (10 ml 10% SO2 solution for each carboy)
• Let it sit overnight.

Got a last minute opportunity to piggy back on a commercial harvest. I am to meet the picking crew at 7AM near the vineyard! I will get about 150 lbs of grapes. I have no idea what it will cost…just happy that I am actually going to get some grapes!

BevPeople is not open today, so I called a guy named Frank who advertises wine making equipment for rent on Craigslist. I went and picked up a press and destemmer/crusher.