Poppyseed Cellars

I took the day off on Friday to work in the cellar.

1. Bottled the pinot noir! I got about 2 1/2 cases of wine. Not a lot, but enough to enjoy.
2. Erwin showed up, and we bottles the plastic carboy of 2008 syrah. Is is good, but not the best. We will use it to top off the 2010 and 2011. And to drink!
3. We bottled the  15 gallon barrel of 2010 syrah, after adding 15 ppm sulphites to a target of 33 ppm. That resulted in about 6 cases of wine, which Erwin and I split. That should last us a while. And we still have a 30 gallon barrel to go, end of summer!
4. We tasted the 2011 syrah. It is still a little reductive, so we tried a copper fining trial, at 0.0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 ppm Cu. There was a clear difference between 0.3 and 0.6, and a subtle difference between 0.6 and 0.9. We ended up adding  0.75 ppm (70 mL of 1% soln).  We will need to rack in a week or so.

I had many of the wines tested. Here are the results, and resulting actions:

• 2011 Syrah 60 gallon barrel: 28 ppm free SO2. Target is 30 ppm, so didn’t do anything.
• 2010 Syrah
•  30 gallon barrel: 6 ppm free SO2. Target is 30 ppm, so added 24 ppm  (47 ml 10% SO2 solution).
• 15 gallon barrel: 18 ppm free SO2. Target is 30 ppm, but we are going to bottle this one, maybe this Friday, so hold off until we bottle.
• 2011 Zinfandel
•  60 gallon barrel: 10 mg/100 mL = 100 ppm malic acid. Target less than 30, or 300 depending on who you trust! So MLF is complete.
• Added 40 ppm SO2 (160 mL 10% soln).
• Added 0.4 ppm 1% copper sulphate soln (36 ml)
• 15 gallon barrel
• Added 40 ppm  SO2 (40 ml 10% soln)
• Added 0.4 ppm 1% copper sulphate soln  (9 ml)
• 3 gallon carboy
• Added 25 ppm SO2 (5 ml 10% soln). This is all I had left; Once I mix them all together it will be about 40 ppm.
• Added 0.4 ppm 1% copper sulphate soln (1.8 ml)
• 2010 Pinot Noir:
• 5 gallon carboy: 23 ppm free SO2. Added 10 ppm SO2  (3.9 ml 10% soln).
• 1 gallon jug: Added 10 ppm (1 ml 10% soln)
• 2008 Syrah
• 6 gallon plastic carboy: 25 ppm free SO2. Target is 35 ppm, so added 10 ppm SO2  ( 3.9 ml 10% soln)
• 6 gallon glass carboy: Added 10 ppm SO2  ( 3.9 ml 10% soln)