Poppyseed Cellars

We want to add 25 ppm sulphites. That is 1.65 mL / gal 10% sulphite suloution:

• 14 gal demijohns:  1.65 mL/gal * 14 gal = 23 mL 10 % soln each demijohn
• 1 3 gal jug: 1.65 mL * 3 gal = 5 mL
• 1 3/4 gal jug: 1.65 mL/gal * 3/4 = 1.2 mL
• 750 mL bottle:  1.65 mL/gal  * 1/5 gal  = 0.33 mL
• 375 mL bottle: 1.65 mL/gal * 1/10 gal = .17 mL

I did the additions. I smelled and tasted the demijohns and 3 gallon carboy. Nose and taste were still the same. The nose has lots of oak to me. Taste was good. I could of  just kept on drinking!

The nose on the other containers was the same as the big containers. Nothing is going bad or getting worse..

We have the beginnings of a mild cold spell. I will use it for cold stabilizing the ’09 SB. It is mostly cleared, although there still seems to be a very slight cloudiness. I will put it outside on ice for 2 weeks for cold stabilization, and hope that maybe it clears a little better.

Both  carboys are now out, in the 20 gallon fermenting tubs, packed with ice. Two weeks will be the 6th of January.

I decided to rack the 1 gallon container, and an extra single bottle we had. Both had lots of sediment. First I racked the 1 gallon into a 3/4 gallon, and into a half bottle. Then I opened the extra bottle. PU! Rotten eggs… I could really smell it. So I went back and checked the 3/4 gallon and both demijohns. Everything smelled and tasted fine. So I tossed the extra bottle. Not worth keeping it! It had a lot of sediment.

Erwin has one bottle he is opening for Christmas. So now this is the tally:

• 2 14 gal demijohns
• 1 3 gal carboy
• 1 3/4 gal jug
• 1 750 mL bottle
• 1 375 mL bottle

We need to add 25 ppm SO2.

We also need to do our copper fining experiment. See if it helps; get it done if it does.

Here are the Vinquiry QC panel results.

• pH:
  • VQ: 3.94
  • Us: 3.9
  • Pretty good agreement
• TA:
  • VQ: 5.95 g/L
  • Us: 7.5 g/L
  • We are probably way off. Why? One thing I noticed was that as I diluted the wine with distilled water, the pH changed, which I don’t think should happen. It shouldn’t start changing until I start titrating with the sodium hydroxide.  I will have to try again…
• SO2:
  • VQ: 24 ppm
  • That makes sense. We added 50 ppm, and half of  it got bound up. We need to add another 25 ppm,  to get back up to 50 ppm. We should actually be at 70 ppm, but I think I can taste that. I should try some experiments to see what my threshold is.
• VA:
  • VQ: .4 g/L. This is up from our last post fermentation test of .25 g/L. I  don’t know why, but it is still well within acceptable limits (~.7 g/L). We do have to keep it sulphited though.

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!

We did our racking this evening.

• pH = 3.9
• TA = 7.5 g/L … seems too high
• Total wine = 14 + 14 + 5 = 33 gal
  • loss due to racking. We anticipate ~5% loss = 1.65 gallons
• Desired Free SO2 = 50 ppm. This is low for our pH, but we’ll make more additions later if necessary. We don’t want too much.
• 50 ppm free  = 3.3 mL/gal 10 % solution
• 14 gal * 3.3 mL/gal  = 46.2 mL 10% SO2 solution for each demijohn
• 5 gal * 3.3 mL/gal = 16.5 mL for the carboy

After finishing the racking, we have ~32 gallons. We didn’t lose very much, maybe a gallon or so.

• 2  14 gal demijohns
• 1 3 gal carboy
• 1 1 gal jug
• 2 750 mL bottles

The syrah is completely fininshed with the MLF, and has been for a few days. The plan is to rack and sulphite tomorrow with some aeration. Then taste in 2 or 3 days and see if we want to do any copper fining.

I checked this morning, and only one demijohn is still bubbling. The Right one, which is the one with the highest ML measurements. So I bet by tomorrow, it will have completely stopped.

I took 2 samples, one from each demijohn, Left and Right when looking at them from the table. We took them to BevPeople for ML testing:

• Left sample: 16.8 ppm (.0168 g/L)
• Right sample: 26.8 ppm (.0268 g/L)

We started at 2.5g/L, and .03 g/L is considered complete, so we are officially done. We decided to let it sit one more week or so to make sure, then we’ll rack and sulphite.

I also asked Bob at BevPeople to have a sniff and see what he thought. I was expecting him to comment on the amount of oak. He said it has some H2S! What? He even got out the copper sulphate, and put in a few drops and we compared a cup with and a cup without the CuSO4. Noticeable difference, indicating that there was indeed some H2S type problem. I want to try this myself at home. I really though this was an over oaked wine.

Maybe this aroma is due to the MLF itself? I have read that MLF’s can produce some off odors, and that racking will help eliminate it.

We should wait a week or so to  make sure the MLF is done. Then rack it into new containers with tswome aeration and sulphite the wine. Let it sit a day or two, and resample it. See if some of this off odor is gone.