Poppyseed Cellars

I got some testing numbers for a wine must made up of 25% zin from the Moaveni vineyard, plus 75% Syrah 470 from the same vineyard. Our syrah is made up of maybe 30% syrah Alban and 70% syrah 470 from the same vineyards. So our number may look very similar when we get them tested Monday. But here are the syrah/zin blend numbers:

1. Acidity: The TA is low. Typically winemakers add  tartaric acid to get it up to 6 g/L. This wine will need an addition. One might think that the TA should be a sum of the acids in the wine, but it actually comes out lower than expected. I have no idea why!
   1. TA (titratable acidity) 4.8 g/L
   2. pH 3.74
   3. L-malic acid 1.92 g/L
   4. tartaric acid 4.38 g/L
2. Sugars: These numbers are fine. But here is an interesting quote from a testing lab: “It might seem surprising that glucose + fructose numbers often appear higher than the corresponding °Brix. The reason for this apparent anomaly is that °Brix is measured as a percentage by weight measurement so °Brix values are influenced by the density of the juice. Glucose + fructose is measured as weight by volume and is independent of juice density.”
   1. brix 25.5 degrees
   2. glucose + fructose 273 g/L
3. Nitrogen 
   1. ammonia 73 mg/L
   2. alpha-amino compounds 141 mg/L
   3. yeast assimilable nitrogen 201 mg/L (as N): This is commonly referred to as YAN. This number is a midrange number, and probably means some extra N will be necessary. If the yeasts don’t get enough N, they get cranky and produce the H2S stink.
4. potassium 2100 mg/L

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 23rd, 2010 at 9:32 pm and is filed under 2010 Moaveni Vineyard Syrah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.