Christmas tasting...

Had assembled an interesting group of wines, both our labels as well as several commercial wines for comparing styles... our group, over several generations of extended families, were willing tasters. Firstly, offered a Stoney Hill Chard ('86) that was well received, even by daughter-in-law who has developed an aversion to white wines, but when followed by our own Vionier, the RV wine was the clear winner... next, offered a Koenig-made '04 Williamson Cab, followed by our '06 Reserve... this time the response was even more emotional.. our wine was head and shoulders preferred! More of our wines followed, with generally good marks... but what can you offer after tasting our Reserve?

Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007
Originally planned as a tasting party honoring our Grower, but delayed when Dennis developed a nasty cold... Mike, Ray, Sharon, Jay and I made it a working party to top up the barrels... with the caution to taste each barrel to make sure that the wine was still good... And each WAS!
Needless to say, the 06 Reserve was outstanding!! Especially liked the Syrah and the Malbec... The Merlot was spread over several barrels and each quite different.. the later harvest was preferred. The surprise was the effect of the dominos on the Rose' of Cabernet.. after only one week, the wood was present and preferred to the original in the topping bottle... altho the color darkened from the light rose to a brownish blegh...

Merlot #1 Surface Scum

While topping the barrels we noticed some surface scum on the Merlot #1 in Ray's 22G recoop barrel. There isn't any off odor or taste. We pulled off as much as we could and sprayed the surface with a meta solution.

This was a barrel that had a bad VA smell problem over the summer that we cleaned with ProxyCarb several times. It may also be the barrel that had the original contamination with the 2003 merlot.

We will need to keep an eye on the barrel. We will likely need to rack the wine out into stainless/glass and do another cleaning.

Dominos In Cab Blush

Cleaned the dominos in ProxyCarb and then rinsed in meta/citric. Then put 20 of them into a 5G Cornilus Keg with some Cab Blush. We chose the Cornilus Keg because of it's wide mouth which makes it easy to get the wood pieces in and out. We put a little CO2 onto the container to keep it sealed.

Dominos

Lee got some oak dominos from Dennis, which he had put into some wine. Did a little web searching about the oak dominos. Found the following web page that talks about using them and rate of oak extraction. They recommend 60lbs of dominos for 1,000G of wine. For 30G that translates to 1.8 pounds. http://www.nadalie-usa.com/add-ins_usage.asp They have more info about a study of oak additives that looks like it's worth reading on their web-site. That is at: http://www.nadalie-usa.com/pdf/nadalie_add-ins_alchemy.pdf
The dominos had some mold growth on them Saturday. We put them into a proxycarb solution overnight. Then we'll split them, rinse them and do a second proxycarb solution. Followed by a meta/citric rinse and then put them into some of the older barrels.

Second Wines Racked

Racked the Merlot#2, Idaho Cab and Clone 6 cab last night. All wines smell sound. No sign of rotten eggs...which were detected last year in November and December. The Merlot#2 and Idaho had some slight green unripe flavors, but both tasted very good. The clone-6 tasted super! We're all excited to taste that one after some barrel age. We moved it from the stanless and carboys where it has been settling into the new 20G French Recoop barrel. Topped up the rest of the wines.

Platypus Leak

The 1 liter platypus with the cab blush showed some air on top tonight. Checked it and there was a pinhole leak. :( No aparant spoilage. Transfered to another 1l platypus container. Need to keep an eye on it.

Racking #1 off Gross Lees

Racked the Malbec, Merlot, Syrah and Cab Blush off the gross lees tonight. Put the overflow of Malbec into Lee's 8G barrel and the extra Merlot into Ray's 2nd 22G barrel. All the wine is doing well. Very light HSO2 odors--a normal post-fermentation amount, nothing we're concerned about. We'll rack the Id Cab, Merlot #2 and Clone-6 off their gross lees in a few weeks.

Note: When racking the Malbec back into the barrel we dropped a small rubber stopper into it. We'll get it out the next time we rack.

Used Michele's beeswax on Lee's 8G barrel, rubbed into the crack and spots that were weeping. Worked well. Will need to watch the spots over time.

Clone-6 Pressed

Pressed the RiverRock Clone-6 Cab tonight, got about 25G without pressing too hard. Cap was soggy and ready. Wine tastes wonderful already. It picked up good skins flavor and tannins, but there is loads of fruit there too. It is going into a new recooped 20G French barrel next week, and will be spectacular!

Also transfered the 15G of Wood River cab from stainless into Lee's 15G French barrel, which is smelling much better after being treated.

Next we need to start racking the wines off the Gross Lees to get rid of those dead yeast cells. We will do the Merlot #1 and Syrah first.

Clone-6 cab at .997

Clone-6 is still bubbiling and the cap is modestly strong. Specific Gravity is down to .997. Expect it will need to be pressed Fri, Sat or Sun.

Tasted the cab blushes, they were nice. The #2 carboy had little more sweetness left in it. Both were still bubbling slightly.

Lee's 15G and 8G barrels are smelling much better. :) We'll put the 15G of Cab from the Stainless into Lee's 15G barrel when we press the Clone-6. The extra Malbec can go into the 8G--although we still need to look into a pinhole leak on the top that we saw on Sunday.

New 20G French recoop barell is ordered and will be here by the end of next week. It will hold the Clone-6 Cab.

Idaho Cab and Merlot Pressed

Oct 23 Brix readings were
Merlot 2 - 0 brix
ID Cab - 0 brix
Wa Clone 6 cab - 6 brix

Oct 26th pressed Merlot #2 & Idaho Cab. Got 45G of Merlot and 49G of Cabernet. Plus we have about 6G of the Cab blush.

Sunday Oct 28th the C6 cab was at .999 and still fermenting.

Red Update

Punched down and took some brix and temp readings tonight. Second merlot batch is down to 5 brix. Expect it will be ready to press in 5-6 days. The temp of the carboys and trash-can were low, 70-72, so I put them up onto some foam to help insulate them from the garage floor. Here are the numbers

Wood River Merlot Batch2: 5 brix, 79 degrees
Wood River Cab 10.5 brix, 78 degrees
Cab Blush, 72 degrees (no brix reading taken)
Clone-6 Cab 23 brix, 72 degrees
Mourvedre 21 brix, 70 degrees.

Pressed Merlot Batch #1

Pressed the first batch of Wood River Merlot tonight, after 12 days on the skins (10 days fermentation). What wonderful flavor and aromas. Filled Mike's 32G Hungarian barrel plus 14G of carboys. Gentle pressing. This is going to be some wonderful merlot! Talking with Ray, we think our care to remove more stems paid off.

Wood River Cab and Merlot batch #2 is fermenting strong. Added another 5tsp of nutrient. One carboy of Cab Blush was fermenting. The second wasn't. Poured over a gal of the fermenting blush into the second carboy to get it started.

Grabbed some clone-6 juice for a starter. Already very dark in color.

Updated pictures in the Fall 2006 Kodak photo album.

Merlot at .996 SG

Checked the merlot#1 tonight. It's at .996. Ready to press in the next couple days. Sounding like Wed will work well.

Finished cleaning out Bob's 15G barrel. Oxyfresh overnight, metra/citric rinse, rinsed, and drying.

Lee innoculated the cab, merlot#2 and cab-blush this morning. Added 5tsp ttl nutrient to the yeast starter. Will add another 2tsp to each the merlot and cab after it gets going.

Racked the Chard last night. It had been settling for about 3 weeks, some in wood some in carboys. Did the first taste test to compare the wood to stainless. Both were remarkably tart. May be an indication that we added to much tataric acid to reduce the PH. (Check out the picture of Mike's Bitter Chard Face! ;)

Clone-6 is here

Drove to Milton Freewater this morning and picked up about 500-600lbs of Clone-6 Cab. Great looking fruit. It filled the lg white and sm blue barrel plus 6 5G buckets. Dana was nice enough to lend us 2 cherry microbins, which fit better on the trailer. Also got about 40lbs of Mourvedre and a few clusters of Grenache. What great tasting fruit! First time tasting Mourvedre and Grenache grapes. Huge clusters, big big berries and bursting with flavor. :-D Everyone loved them. Crushed/destemed. Sulfited the must. Waiting 2 days to innoculate.

THE NUMBERS
C6 cab: 28 brix, 3.7 ph. Sweet!
Mourvedre (w/ a little Grenache): 27 brix, 3.6 ph. Higher sugars that we thought (expected more like 25.5). Tested twice with the same results. .

Pulled 6-7G juice off of Wood River cab after 24h maceration. Beautiful pink/rose color. Going to try and make a blush. Think the higher skins/juice ratio may give the rest of the cab more flavor as it sits on the skins.

Lee pulled off some wood river cab juice and is doing a yeast starter. Will innoculate the wood river cab and merlot2 tomorrow. Followed by the WW C6 cab and Mourvedre the next day

Big Day

Lee and Ray picked up 2 bins from Dennis at Wood River Vineyards this morning. A big bin of his Cabernet (est 800-900 lbs) and a microbin of Merlot (est 550-600lbs). Crushed/destemmed and put meta on the must (4.5tsp merlot and 6.5 tsp on cab). Covered and waiting 48h to innoculate.

Estimate 50-55G of cabernet. 18G of the cab will go to Michele's new barrel plus carboys to top, leaving us 35-37G, about perfect for a 30G barrel.

OPTIONS:
1. Could put into Ray's 22G and Lee's8G if we bottle the 2006 Wood River Clone-6.
2. Could get a new barrel.
3. Could hold cab in SS for a few months and then bottle the 06 Clone-6.
4. Might be nice to snag 5-10G after 12-24 maceration and make a blush.

We'll wait until I get back from Walla Walla tomorrow and see how many pounds of RiverRock Clone-6 cabernet I bring back.

The Numbers:
Merlot(2) 25.5 Brix, 3.3 PH. Not quite as ripe flavors as the first bin of Merlot we got last week. Cabernet 26.5 Brix, 3.5 ph. Great numbers.

Pressed the WoodRiver Malbec, which was down to 0.996 SG, into Lee's 30G French plus 12G in carboys. Put fermemtation locks on.

The RiverRock syrah has been lingering and we finally pressed it. It was at 0.992 (almost dry). Filled Troy's 15G Hungarian plus 2 1G carboys. Will be tight after racking and topping. Dana thinks he can float us a little Mourvedre, which would be great. It would lower the ph, give us extra volume, and make a mighty tasty blend. Fingers are crossed. :)

Merlot1 was down to about 2.5 brix. Expect to press it in 4 days or so, depending on temps.

Move to Sunday

Merlot and Cab are coming from Dennis on Sunday. Shifting operations to then. Syrah cap is soggy. Will have to double check it Sat to make sure it can wait until Sun.

Finished cleaning up the barrels. (All except Bob's 15G which has Chard in it.) Lee's 30G has ProxyClean and needs to get rinsed on Sat. Michele brought over some beeswax to try and repair Lee's 8G barrel. Results look promising! :)

Expect the RiverRock cab on Mon or Tue.

Press Syrah and Malbec on Sat?

Everything is fermenting well. Smells great in the garage!
- Syrah down from .998 to .996, but still has a dense cap.
- Malbec dropped from 10.5 to 4.5. Should press on Sat to limit skins/stems exposure and avoid bitterness.
- Merlot dropped from 16 to 11.5. Will hold on skins longer.

Continued cleaning out barrels to get them ready for the reds. 60G is ready for a wick after it dries. Mikes 30G Hungarian is ready for the Merlot or Malbec--just needs a rinse. Put ProxyClean into Ray's 22G french and Lee's 15G french. Both have a VA smell. Hope the proxyclean takes care of it. Will rinse Friday and then fill Lee's 30G with ProxyFresh.

Sat will:
1. Rack the chard from the carboys and barrel into stainless. Keeping the SS carboys seperate as much as possible.
2. Press the syrah into Troy's 15G Hungarian.
3. Press the Malbec into Mike's 30G Hungarian.
4. Crush/destem the next 500lbs of Merlot (expected from Dennis).
5. Clean Bob's 15G with Oxyfresh. Leave in overnight then do a citric rinse.


Grapes still coming--depending on the weather.
500 lbs of Merlot from Dennis (Sat?)
725lbs of "Marsing" Cabernet coming through Dennis next week.
400lbs of RiverRock Clone-6 cab coming next week.
25-50lbs of RiverRock Mourvedre to blend in with the Syrah.

Will rack the Willy Cab into Lee's 30G Barrel sometime next week so Troy's barrel will be ready for the second 500lbs of Merlot.

Fermentation Update

Syrah still had a good cap on it today. SG was 998 tonight. Needs another day or two before pressing. Malbec is fermenting faster than the Merlot. Malbec is down to 10.5 brix (down from 18) and Merlot is down to 16 brix (down from 21).

Troy's 15G hungarian barrel smells sweet. Ready for the syrah. Proxyclean did the trick. :)

Put Oxyfresh into Mike's 30G barrel--which smells good. Put 32Tbsp into Lee's 60G barrell-which has a slight TA smell. Will do a meta/citric rinse on both after 24h. Then dry and sulfur the big barrel, and put Merlot into Mike's 30G barrel.

Red Fermentation Update

Syrah is down to .75 brix. Still has a dense cap. Expect we'll press it on Wednesday or Thursday. Volume appears to be less than expected.

Malbec is fermenting well. Down to 18 Brix.
Merlot is fermenting slower. Down to 21 Brix.

Checked the temp of the must. Merlot was 76 degrees, Malbec 78 degrees, Syrah 72 degrees.

Heard from Dana at RiverRock. The row of Clone-6 there is at 26.6 brix, "seeds brown and cruncy, stems lignified to brown". Concern about a weather change coming. Will watch closely. Want to let hang a little longer. Also possible to get a few lbs of Mourvedre (50#) to blend with the Syrah. We have our fingers crossed.

Syrah at 3 Brix

Checked the Syrah. Still had a firm cap and was at 3 Brix. 1 or 2 more days until pressing. Probably wed. Maybe Thu.

Topped the 06 Clone-6 and Clone-2 cabs. Finished off the Clone-6 topping, will need to switch to the Malbec and "start the blend".

Expect more merlot from Dennis at Wood River Vineyard soon. Williamson cabernet shortly after that, and the RiverRock cab too.

Cleaning Barrels

Trying a new material to clean barrels to try and get rid of VA smell. ProxyClean. Used it on Troy's 15G barrel overnight with a meta/citric rinse. Helped some--but still a little bit left. Doing again at 10tbsp and leaving for 24h. Feel confident it will clean it up and barrel will be ready for the syrah.

Once we've got the mix we think works we'll do the 60G barrel and burn a good sulfur wick. Followed by cleaning out Ray's 22G and the little guy. We'll probably use some on Mikes--but maybe not as much. Depens on how it cleaned up.

M&M Update

Lee innoculated the merlot and malbec on Saturday. 5pgs of Pastur Red each with a yeast starter. Then a couple tsp of nutrient. Fermentation going well. Stirred in 1 more tsp of nutrient today to encourage fermentation. Didn't measure brix yet. Will do tomorrow.

07 Malbec and Merlot

Ray and Lee picked up 600lbs of Merlot and 600lbs from Dennis at Wood River Vineyard today. Fruit was great! Clean, and tasty berries. Merlot had especially heavy skins. Just love that juice. We crushed/destemmed and tried to remove as much stems as possible, then added about 4tsp meta (a little less this year). It is resting for 48h and then will be inoculated with a yeast starter. We also will add some nutrient this year to try and get a better fermentation. Lee will innoculate on Sunday.

Merlot (Dennis reported 25.6 brix, 3.45ph and 0.56 TA)
26.75 Brix
3.6 PH

Malbec
25.5 Brix
3.5 PH

Riverrock Syrah is sitting at 7 brix and we transferred it into the 60G plastic drum to finish fermenting so we could use the bin. (Thank You Dennis! Those bins come in handy! :) We got a report from Dana at RiverRock to not adjust acids, based on feedback from Caleb. We think this is good advise. Thanks Dana and Caleb for your help. :) I put some ProxyClean in my 15G Hungarian barrel to get it cleaned up. Will ask Mike to empty and do a meta/citric rinse on Sat. so it will be ready to recieve the Syrah. Expect that will hapen Monday or so.

Chard has calmed down in the barrel/carboy. Topped all up to full.

Tried a bottle our recently bottled syrah while we worked. It is drinking well already. An impressive effort that we are all proud of. Hope this years Syrah turns out as well.

RiverRock Syrah: 13 Brix

Checked the surgars on the RiverRock syrah. Down to 13 brix. Solid cap. What color!

2006 Syrah Bottled

Bottled the 2006 Syrah. What a nice wine. The hungarian barrel added the perfect complement of smokiness. The group couldn't be happier. It's going to be hard to beat! Sure shows that our selection of Syrah grapes was right on. THANK YOU DENNIS!

Bottled about 13 cases of the Syrah. Mixed up the rest of the leftovers into a nice wine. The blend was about
8.1G Malbec
10G Syrah Rose
1.3G Petit Verdot

We brainstormed a name for the leftover surprise, and Michele coined it Encore! It stuck. Nice name! :) Bottled 7+ cases.

Syrah at 18 Brix

Lee has been punching down the Syrah--which is fermenting well. Today at lunch we punched down and checked the must. It's at 18brix.

Syrah Fermenting

Made a yeast starter last night and added it this morning to the Syrah. The must was very quiet with no signs of fermentation starting on it's own.

Did the yeast starter a little different. Still trying to figure out the best way to use the nutrient. Ran across some information that suggested spreading out the nutrient in the starter and then once fermentation is going. That way the yeast doesn't get over-fed right away. Still want to add nutrient at the beginning of fermentation so you don't have left over "food" for bad bacteria to feed on later.

Using nutrient correctly both ensures a good fermentation, as well as some side-effect problems that can occur such as getting the rotten egg smell from Hydrogen Sulfide. I'm thinking that possibly the grapes we had an issue with last year is because the vineyard has a lower amount of available nitrogen. So adding in some Nutrient will help prevent the hydrogen sulfide problem. Here's an article with some interesting info about yeast nutrients and fermentation.
http://www.grapestompers.com/articles/yeast_nutrients.htm

Started the yeast this time in warm water (103 degrees), as directed on the package. Stirred 5 packages into 1 1/4 cup water. Heated a couple cups of juice up as normal to a steamy level, then let cool until it was tepid. Then combined the yeast and grape juice and added the 2tsp nutrient (need to find out the exact nutrient we got from Debra--Nampa Brewers). Let sit overnight and then added to the must. Will add another 1-2 tsp of the nutrient tonight or tomorrow once it is fermenting well.

Syrah Crushed, Chard is done fermenting.

Got about 260lbs of Syrah from RiverRock vineyard. Good looking, clean fruit. Smaller, sparse berries--likely because it's a second leaf syrah. Great flavor. Added in about 12lbs of Viognier to co-ferment. Got new PH meter today--just in time. Nice to have the auto temp correction feature.

BRIX 27
PH 3.8

PH is a little higher than we would like. We may adjust it down before starting fermentation. Stirred 2tsp meta in 6oz of water into the must.

Also brought back a few nice clusters of RiverRock Clone-6 Cab. It measured 27 Brix as well with a 3.5 PH. Not sure if the cluster came from a sunny side or end-block. Wasn't expecting to pick until late. Will need to watch it.

Chard was down to 994 SG. Transferred it into Bob's 15G barrel to settle for a couple weeks plus carboys. Michele took home the 6G chard from her barrel in carboys. Put fermentation locks on to let it finish. Measured the PH, it was 3.1! A bit lower than we expected.

Chard Fermenting Quickly

Measured the SG of the Chardonnay again today. Fermenting quickly. Expect it to be complete on Thursday.

Stainless Steel: 20SG (5 brix)
60G French Oak: 16SG (4 brix)

Plan to transfer the chardonnay on Thursday:
15G into Bob's american barrel for 2 weeks to settle.
6G into glass carboy's of Michele's
5-6G from SS into carboys (keep seperate to compare tastes).

Plan to crush the Syrah Thursday afternoon at the same time.

Chard A Bubblin

Mike has been stirring the Chard several times a day and checking on the fermentation. All barrels are fermenting well. He reported a good amount of foam at first, and now just lots of tiny bubbles.

We checked the SG and Brix tonight. Looks like we're about 1/2 way there (started at 25.25).

Hungarian: 30SG/12 Brix
American: 46SG/13 Brix
Stainless: 50SG/14 Brix
French: 40SG/10 Brix

Racked Willys Cab to Barrel

Barrel repair completed and dried on Troy's 30G American oak barrel. (Coated leaking seams with Surface Liner / food grade epoxy). Transferred wine back from carboys to the barrel.

26G in barrel. 4G in carboys. 1G in platypus.
Added approx 15ppm Sulfites.

Smelling great, tasting good--but still needs barrel time. Expect to leave in the barrel for another 8 months and bottle in Spring. May transfer to Lee's 30G barrel in November to get a french oak component. (Will have to start topping with Malbec at that point).

Chard PH/Acid Adjustment

PH of chard read 3.85 at crush. We want more like 3.5. Added 12oz of Tartaric Acid to lower the PH. Expect it will be around 3.6. (PH meter went on the fritz so we can't be sure).

Tartaric Acid group calculations went something like this:

Initial goal was to drop PH by .2 (later decided by .3). Did trial run with a 10% soln and added 2ml of acid to 100ml of juice. Checked with the PH meter. It read about .2 lower. Success!

Scale-up to larger amount of juice (36G).

2grams/liter to drop by .2PH
Est 270 liters of juice
Cross reference said that 5grams of Tartaric Acid was 1 tsp.
(http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/measures.asp)
For 270 liters we need 54 tsp or 18 tbsp of Tartaric Acid
1 oz is 2tbsp so 9oz of Tartaric Acid needed. (4.5oz/.1PH drop)
Later determined that PH meter was reading "low", so we increased to 12oz. (Actually would have used 13.5oz, but only had 12oz and store was out. Good enough!)

Grains, grams, gallons, liters, tablespons....OK. Run that by me again?! ;)

Yeast Starter

Started the yeast last night in about 5C of juice Heated it up until there was the slightest bit of steam rising. Then cooled to about 100 degrees. Then added 5pgs of D47 yeast and 5tsp nutrient. Waited 15 min then stirred well. Let sit overnight and then added a couple tsp of bakers sugar.

Added the yeast to the Chard across the 3 barrels (Bob-15G, Michele-15G, Lee-60G) and Mike's SS-15.

2006 Chard Is Pressed!

Bob and Mike picked up the Chard from Wood River vineyard today and we crushed/destemmed/pressed it. We got about 600lbs and about 37G of juice, which is settling in a 60G plastic barrel along with some meta and bentonite. We will innoculate on Saturday with D47 yeast.

PH was 3.85 (last year was more like 3.2) Should we adjust?

Brix 25.25 (last year brix was 24)

Added 3.5tsp of Meta to the 37G of must. Full strength would have been more like 4.5tsp, but we used less this time because we want to try bottling the Chard earlier.

Bentonite was prepared the night before by Debra of Nampa Brewers (thanks, Debra!) 9TBSP of Bentonite in 6C of boiling water. Sat overnight and we put through a blender for 3 minutes. We mixed about 3C of the slurry into the wine.

Syrah Rose + Malbec blend

Did some work on the leaking wine barrel with a food grade epoxy. Painted it onto the top stave joints on Troy's 30G barrel and at the top and bottom of the heads of Ray's 22G barrel. Didn't put any on Lee's 30G--not sure where the leak was.

Checked barrels and Ray's 22 and Lee's 8G again have a VA smell. Troy looking into how to treat. Also need to discuss changing storage mechanism.

Tasted the barrel Syrah against the Syrah that was in Carboys + Oak chips. No comparison. Barrel was much better nose, flavor, finish. Sure shows the value of the barrel!

The Syrah rose is light and has a tartness to it that wasn't very pleasant. We think it would be best to not add it back to the barrel syrah. Discussed how to best use the Syrah Rose. Troy, Lee and Mike tried several blends and think mixing the 10G of malbec and 10G of Syrah Rose together would work.

Chard Update

Mike and Bob are picking up the destemmer at 10:30am Thursday and then going to get the grapes at 11am. Lee is out of town, and Ray is recovering. We'll do the crush/destem/press in the afternoon. We are going to try and fine the wine with Bentonite, before fermentation.

Need to keep an eye on the weather. It could change things....

2006 Chard Plan

Grapes are ready on Thursday. Here's the initial plan.

1. Lee has reserved the crusher/destemmer.

2. Mike (and Troy if I can) will pull Troy's trailer over and we will pick up grapes at 8AM. Lee will communicate the schedule to Dennis.

3. Bob and Lee will get the crusher from Dennis and start the sanitation w/ the pressure washer.

4. Crush/destem once we get back. This year we're holding the juice in the large blue barrel to settle for 48hrs (possibly with a fining agent TBD).

5. Saturday we will transfer the settled juice to the large oak barrel plus the 2 new 15G barrells (Bob, Michele), and innoculate.

2006 Bosique and Magnafique!

Bottled 10 cases of Magnafique and 15 cases of Boisique today. Blends are impressive. Great double bottling line!

Still remaining to bottle is: Malbec, Clone-6 Cabernet and the Syrah. Probably about another 26+ cases. Will post photos after we do the second bottling.

2006 Blends

Group met to wash bottles and decide blends. Set-up a double bottle washing station, which worked very well. We washed 25+ cases of bottles in 2 hours!

Tried several different blends and decided on the following (Yummy!). Meeting on Sunday from 12-4 to bottle the Boisique and Magnafique (and possibly the excess Malbec).

Boisique:
75% Merlot
25% Malbec

Magnafique:
60% WA Cab
26% Merlot
12% Malbec
2% Petit Verdot

Wood River Clone-6 Cab
94% Cabernet
4% Malbec
2% Petit Verdot

Bottling and Blending Plans

Meet at noon - 4pm on Saturday Sept 15th to wash bottles and then do blending. Initial blending starting points to consider are listed below. Meet at noon-4pm on Sunday to do first round of bottling.

1) Magnafique Bordeaux Blend using the WA cab, merlot, malbec and petite verdot.
15G WA cab (50%)
11G Merlot (36%)
3G Malbec (10%)
1G Petite Verdot (3%)
30G Total
12 cases (2.4 cases each)

2) Bosique Merlot/Malbec Blend
20G Merlot (80%)
5G Malbec (20%)
25G Total
10.5 cases (2 cases each)

3) Clone-6 Cab
22G Clone-6 Cab (94%)
1G Malbec (5%)
.25G Petite Verdot (1%)
23.25G
9.7 cases (almost 2 cases each)

4) Syrah
35G 97% Syrah and 3% Viognier co-fermented.
14.5 cases (almost 3 cases each! :)

5) Reserve Cab (Williamson). Leave in 30G barrel for 6 more months, slowly topping with malbec to blend. Add a smidgin of Petite Verdot before bottling, if we want.
30G Clone-2 Cab (94%)
1.5G Malbec (5%)
1G Petite Verdot (1%)
31.5G Total
13 Cases (2.5 cases each)

2006 Winery Activities

2006 Winery Log
9/16/06
Pressed Wood River Chard
Used Mike's 30G new Hungarian, Bob's new 15G American
9/19/06
Innoculated Chard. 3pgs of Lalvin D47 in 4-5C heated liquid + 1 tsp nutrient
Fermentation was quick but non-vigorous. Completed around 9/26 (1 week).
Transferred into Hungarian barrel plus 1 5G carboy for a couple of weeks.
9/30/06
Microbin of Wood River Merlot. Est 500-550lbs About 35G of must est.
Used 4tsps of meta on the must
26 brix. PH 3.2
10/1/06?
We picked 600lbs of Viognier at Williamsons. ($240)
Saved about 25lbs for Syrah co-fermentation.
10/03/06
Innoculated Viognier with 3 packages of D47 yeast in 2 barrels.
Took of slowly. Required another package of yeast and some nutrient to get going.
10/03/06
Innoculated Merlot with 3 pkgs of Pastur Red.
Fermenting well next day.
10/06/06
Larger microbin of Syrah. Est 700-800lbs.
Syrah souced through Dennis. (Thanks, Dennis)
PH 3.67
26.5 Brix
Stirred in 2TBSP meta in 4oz water.
Merlot brix measured same day. Down to 6.5. SG 1023/1024
Viognier brix down to 1.25. SG 1002/1004
Took some of the syrah juice off after a day maceration for Rose. Very dark already.
10/08/06
Viognier fermentation complete (5 days).
Held in barrels, plus some glass for a couple of weeks.
10/13/06
Transfered chard to Carboys.
Merlot at .992 and getting soupy--still some bubbles.
Syrah less dense head. Still fermenting well. Showing .996
10/14/06
Red grapes from Wood River Vineyards ($700)
500lbs Malbec, 26 brix, 3.32 ph. (used 2.75tsp meta)
500lb Clone-6, 26+ brix, 3.21 ph
300lb Tempranillo, 26.5 brix, ?ph, (used 3.125tsp meta)
150lb Petite Verdot, 26.5-27 brix,3.3 ph
Held off some of the Malbec free run to ferment as a rose.
10/19/06
600lbs Williamson Clone-2 Cabernet, Brix 28.5, ph 3.53. ($333.85)
10/23/06
265lbs RiverRock Clone-8 cab, brix 25, ph?
SG on Malbec 998
SG Tempranillo 995
SG Cab-6 995
PVerdot still fermenting some
Williamson cab fermenting strong.
11/06/06
Williamson cab at .996. Pressed into Troy's American 30G barrel.
11/11/06
Bad rotten egg smell in the Tempranillo. Both barrel and carboys. Phew!
WW Cab soggy ready to press.
11/13/06
Racked Tempranillo over copper with airation three times.
Racked Rose Malbec to SS kornilius kegs, blended in some malbec (too much), covered with CO2.
11/25/06
Racked Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot.
12/03/06
Racked Williamson cab.
Racked clone-6 over copper as it had a slight rotten egg HSO2 smell. Added some meta. (4tsp?)
Added meta to Tempranillo (4tsp?). Smelling a little better.
12/22/06
Racked Tempranillo over copper again.
Racked Clone-6 over copper again.
Racked Syrah carboys.
3/6/07
Checked SO2 levels on Viognier and Chard. and racked them.
Viognier was 36ppm. Chard was 30ppm. Left them alone.
(Maybe we should have raised them to 50ppm )
Found 1 Syrah Rose 1G carboy that had gone bad. Lid had popped. :(
A few signs of MLF starting.
3/15/07
Added ML cultures to new barrels and red carboys.
(Assume we put bubblers onto carboys?)
Whites showing some MLF
3/22/07
Racked Clone 6?
Added 15ppm SO2 to 05 Williamson cab (starting to show oxidation color)
Carboys showing bubbles for MLF
5/12/07
Bottled Williamson Cabernet
MLF over. Exchanged bubblers for solid tops. Found several had dried out and wine spoiled in carboy. :(
Added 15ppm SO2 to all reds in barrels.
5/24/07
Bottled Chard and Malbec Rose. Used 2 bottlers at the same time. Worked very well.
Added oak chips to carboys of SRose, Syrah, Cab (which cabs?)
Moved Petit Verdot to carboys (not enough to top anymore).
Everything is inside the cooler now.
6/5/07
Ran out of WW topping wine. Starting to use Clone 6
Noticed a slight leak on the top of Troy's American 30G barrel.
6/10/07
Racked reds. Syrah, Clone-6 over copper.
Racked Malbec into smaller barrel (22G french to 15G French), out of malbec topping.
Started topping Syrah with Syrah Rose.
6/26/07
22G barrel smelled off. Strong aceitic nose. Filled with water and 7tbsp oxyfresh.
Rinsed w/ meta+citric.
8/06/07
Racked Williamson cabernet out of Troy's American Oak barrel into Carboys
so we can send barrel off for repair.(added 1/4tsp meta before racking).
Cleaned barrel with 8tbsp oxyfresk. Then meta overnight. Dried, and light sulfered 3 days later.
Also cleaned Ray's 22G barrel again. Off smell.
8/27/07
While topping we found that some of the topping wine had gone bad in the Platypus. (petit verdot and syrah rose)
Need to clean out Platypus better w/ strong meta soln. Plus increase SO2 in wine in Platypus.