Poppyseed Cellars

We are still not done with the MLF on the syrah. I had a sample of the slowest barrel tested…70 mg/L. We need to be less than 30 mg/L to be “done”. Here is the Vinquiry result.

We have tasted several times, and the wine is really coming together. The 30 gallon new barrel has the smoothest wine. Surprisingly, the new oak does not seem to be overwhelming the wine. It is really good! We want to sulphite it…but need to wait for the MLF to finish. When finished, we hope to combine it all into the 59 gallon barrel for another year of aging.

I tested the ’10 pinot for taste, and for MLF. It still has a ways to go on the MLF, so I have moved it upstairs to the barn, in hopes that it will warm up a little. It tastes pretty good. The nose is a bit closed. We’ll see if it opens up over time. I decided to do a little more oak, as it was pretty fruity without much balance. So in went one new medium toast French oak stave.

I checked the ’08 syrah…yes it still isn’t bottled. This one just isn’t working out. I added 1 g/L tartaric 6 months ago…and was waiting for it to balance out a little. It is better, but is still isn’t quite where I want it. It has a “slick” mouth feel, and I think that is because of it’s low acidity (it was around 4.2 g/L last year; it should be 6 g/L). With this second addition, the acidity should be 6.2 g/L, which should be fine. I’ll check it in a few weeks. This wine also was very fruity; I think it also needed more oak, so I put a stave in each carboy.