Here are the Vinquiry resultsof for malic acid:
To be complete, we should be under 30 mg/L. So we still have a ways to go.
I took samples from the three barrels for a malic acid test. To top off the barrels, I had to rack the 3 gallon carboy into two 2 1gallon jugs, plus some bottles. Here is what we have now:
| Spec volume | gallons | liters | |
| New French oak barrel | 110 liters | 29.0 | 110.0 |
| 3 yr French oak barrel | 15 gal | 15.0 | 56.7 |
| 4 year French oak barrel | 50 liters | 13.2 | 50.0 |
| 2 1 gallon jugs | 1 gallon | 2.0 | 7.5 |
| 3 bottles | 750 mL | 0.6 | 2.2 |
| Totals | 59.8 | 226.4 |
We have a used barrel from a well known cab winery in Napa…it is probably a 225 liter (59.4 gallons) barrel, so we just barely have enough to fill it. We would have to supplement with another syrah for topping off. Probably the ’08 that we made. But both of us only have 2 1/2 cases left. It will be painful to use it for topping!
My first post from my ipad…using a WordPress application. So far, I think the regular web interface of WordPress is much better than the ipad app. In fact, the ipad wordpress app sucks. Even just using safari on the ipad isn’t very good.
All the wine is resting quietly. On Christmas day, our visiting family did some barrel tasting of the syrah. The smaller barrels were still smoother, making me think that the MLF has progressed farther in the smaller barrels. I will do some measurements this week.
Next steps:
Erwin got a used full size barrel That we hope to rack the syrah into when the mlf is complete. We need to get it out of the new oak…or we’ll be drinking wood!