Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Michele's Wine
Stopped by Michele and Tom's place and we measured the PH and SO2 on her Chard. The PH was 3.2, 0.1 higher than ours--from going through MLF. It still had a tart squirt flavor though and she wants to add some of the oak dominoes to try and balance it. The SO2 was high because she had just added some meta (est 1/2tsp in 5G).
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Moved Merlot
The Merlot Batch 1/2 in Ray's older 22G french recoop barrel showed a surface scum again. We racked it out into stainless and glass carboys. Ray thinks it's time to retire the barrel. :( It's a recoop he got in 2004, we think. We'll need to keep an eye/nose on the wine for a few weeks to see if the surface scum follows the wine to the stainless/carboys. After we bottle the reserves maybe we'll move it into 1 of those barrels.We ran out of merlot for topping that isn't from the barrel that had the surface scum. We'll have to decide if it's OK to use that wine for topping the other barrels in a couple weeks. In the meantime we topped the Merlot barrels with a little malbec.
We tasted the chard and the stainless barrel w/ the oak dominoes is tasting very nice. The oak is balancing out the tartness well. It is more balanced/complex than chard in the carboys that doesn't have the oak dominoes. We measured the PH and it was still at 3.1, so ML probably hasn't started (it's been a very cool spring). We measured SO2 and it it was about 20ppm, which is lower than last year at this time (30ppm). But then again we added about 25% less meta this year because we thought we would bottle the chard in the Fall and not do MLF (but the lower PH changed our minds). We added 1/2tsp meta to 15G, which should increase it by 30ppm ttl (15ppm free--we should check again in a few weeks). We added ML cultures last month so we need to get the chard through MLF before we can bottle it--it just needs to warm up or be moved inside. I will try and measure the PH and SO2 on Michele's chard to compare, since she put it through MLF last Fall.
The Clone6 cab continues to have a very strong flavor, probably from the new barrel and the higher alcohol levels--or still in the gasoline stage. We will need to pull the wine out and clean the barrel with some oxyfresh to knock down the new oak some (the barrel is a M+ toast orhigher). Maybe we'll rotate the merlot out of the stainless into that barrel and the Clone6 into Ray's 2nd (more neutral) recoop once we bottle the reserves.
We checked on the cab rose and it is coming along nicely. We racked a 1G carboy off and tried it, as well as the topping wine and the wine in the cornelius keg which was quite bubbly! Ray and Lee couldn't be more pleased. :) It's a nice color and dry--maybe we'll try back sweeting it.
We topped up the wines and looked for signs of MLF. It's hard to say because of the breathable bungs, but with the cooler spring we don't think it has started. Last year MLF started in late March and went through April.
The 2 reserve cabs can be bottled anytime. We should do another trial blending to determine the final blend. Last fall we liked about 95% cab, 4% malbec and 1% petit verdot (which is what we held back for blending).
We tasted the chard and the stainless barrel w/ the oak dominoes is tasting very nice. The oak is balancing out the tartness well. It is more balanced/complex than chard in the carboys that doesn't have the oak dominoes. We measured the PH and it was still at 3.1, so ML probably hasn't started (it's been a very cool spring). We measured SO2 and it it was about 20ppm, which is lower than last year at this time (30ppm). But then again we added about 25% less meta this year because we thought we would bottle the chard in the Fall and not do MLF (but the lower PH changed our minds). We added 1/2tsp meta to 15G, which should increase it by 30ppm ttl (15ppm free--we should check again in a few weeks). We added ML cultures last month so we need to get the chard through MLF before we can bottle it--it just needs to warm up or be moved inside. I will try and measure the PH and SO2 on Michele's chard to compare, since she put it through MLF last Fall.
The Clone6 cab continues to have a very strong flavor, probably from the new barrel and the higher alcohol levels--or still in the gasoline stage. We will need to pull the wine out and clean the barrel with some oxyfresh to knock down the new oak some (the barrel is a M+ toast orhigher). Maybe we'll rotate the merlot out of the stainless into that barrel and the Clone6 into Ray's 2nd (more neutral) recoop once we bottle the reserves.
We checked on the cab rose and it is coming along nicely. We racked a 1G carboy off and tried it, as well as the topping wine and the wine in the cornelius keg which was quite bubbly! Ray and Lee couldn't be more pleased. :) It's a nice color and dry--maybe we'll try back sweeting it.
We topped up the wines and looked for signs of MLF. It's hard to say because of the breathable bungs, but with the cooler spring we don't think it has started. Last year MLF started in late March and went through April.
The 2 reserve cabs can be bottled anytime. We should do another trial blending to determine the final blend. Last fall we liked about 95% cab, 4% malbec and 1% petit verdot (which is what we held back for blending).
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