Port Racked

We racked the port off the gross lees tonight. It had significant sediment from the grapes that were dissolved by the higher alcohol levels. The port is clearing up nicely and tastes very good. A nice amount sweetness--but not too much--with solid flavor underneath.  We mixed it up well and moved it into the 15G Hungarian barrel plus some glass carboys.

We also racked the Chard again as it had quite a bit of sediment. This year's Chard has more color and flavor from the time on the skins.

Presto Porto!

We pressed the port tonight. It was still fermenting some and the sugars were as low as we wanted them to go. Brix read about 6.5+, which adjusting for the alcohol added is probably more like 8-9 brix.  After pressing we mixed in another 1.75 liters of 75.5% Everclear to whack the yeast a final time.  We pressed hard and got 24+ gallons that are settling in a SS keg and glass carboys.  We'll let it sit for a couple of weeks and then rack it off the gross lees into a neutral barrel.

 

We're pleased with the port. I tastes sweet and rich....heck, it tastes like a damn good port! :-D   We compared it to the Bogle Ruby-Style Petite Sirah port and it tasted very similar. It will be interesting to see how it evolves over the next year.

Ready To Press

We tasted the port tonight and it's ready to press. The sugars dropped another point, although it is still plenty sweet. We compared it to the Bogle Petite Sirah Port and it has very similar flavors. We're very pleased with the results.  We will press Wednesday at 7:30pm.  We also tasted a couple of ports Lee shared, including a vintage 1994 port that was excellent.

Port Fermenting Slowly To Goal

We met to check the Port tonight. There is visible fermentation and a cap but it is much less dense.  Flavor continues to be rich with plenty of sweetness. The alcohol was more evident tonight after our second dose of spirits yesterday.  We all liked the direction the port is going.

 

Temp is at 63 degrees and brix was down 0.5 to 7.0 (our final adjusted target is 6.0).  We decided to continue the fermentation until the brix drops to our target (6.0) or fermentation stops.  We will continue to warm the must and monitor flavor and sugar and be ready to press once we hit our goal or if the cap falls--with the initial plan of pressing on Thursday and tasting some ports.  

 

If at press time fermentation is still active we will likely hit it with another bottle of Everclear (after pressing) to arrest the fermentation so we don't loose any more sugar.

Fortification #2 -- We're getting close!

The group met this morning to check the port progress.  We were impressed by the increase in flavor over the couple of days. More full flavors balancing out the sweet and alcohol.  The higher levels of alcohol are pulling great flavor out of the berries.  We LOVE the fruit, Larry!

 

There was a full cap this morning, although less dense, and temps were 63-64 degrees. We've only lost 0.5 brix in the last 24 hours (down to 8) so fermentation is definitely slowing down. We theorize we're approaching the 16% alcohol tolerance of the yeast.  The sugar levels are still about 1-2 points higher than our target so we decided to let the must continue to ferment. 

 

We decided to add some more Everclear to whack the yeast one more time and stirred it in well, pouring 1/2 the volume into a separate container to help fully mix it.  We added 1.75 liters, which should be enough to raise the alcohol by 1-1.5 %. We figured having it in contact with the skins would help the flavor more than adding it after we press.  This may be enough alcohol to finish the port, or we may have to add another bottle. Our target alcohol level is 18-20% and after pressing I am guessing it be around 17-18%.

 

Note: After adding the bottle of Everclear this morning I re-measured the Brix and they dropped 1/2 point from 8 to 7.5.  So our adjusted target Brix is 6 - 7.

We filled the warm water jugs to help keep the must warm enough to ferment and we will meet again Monday evening at 7:30pm to taste and decide when to press. It is likely that we will do it Monday evening, although this group does love it's time on the skins so we may let them sit for a few more days too.

 

For reference, we are following the Small Producer Port process in the arthcile " Making Port Wine by Lum Eisenman".

http://www.sdaws.org/News/Articles/documents/Making%20Port.pdf 

 

Yesterday we also racked ID Cab and Cab Franc off the gross lees.  Tried a trial blend of 10% cab franc and 90% cab. Everyone liked it and thought the combination of the 2 was better than the individual parts.

Fortification!

The Petit Sirah Brix were down to 12.5 this morning and we fortified it with 1.78G of 95% Everclear and 1.75 liters of 75% Everclear.  That's enough to safely take it up to 18% and be able to press as hard as we want.  We poured the must over the Ever Clear and mixed it well and then poured it back into the barrel and stirred well.  The spirits definitely thinned it down and you can taste the higher alcohol.  We will let it sit a day and press it on Saturday.  That will give it 13 days on the skins.

 

The must temp dropped to 58 degrees because the Everclear was very cold from sitting in the garage. We've added some hot jugs of water to try and raise the temp as we still want to get another 2-3 brix reduction (our goal is 9 brix residual).  We will monitor it and decide if we need to change the pressing date.

 

P. Sirah at 18 Brix

Punch down continues on the petite sirah. It is fermenting well and
getting less dense. Temp is 63, which is at the minimum for this
yeast. We're getting good extraction.

Brix dropped 2.5 to 18 in the last 24 hours, which is less than the
day before. We have 6-8 more brix to go, which puts fortification
likely on Thursday and pressing on Sat.

We will continue to monitor brix and watch for the 10-12 brix window.
When we fortify we need to mix extra well to stop fermentation.

P. Sirah Update

As of 3:20pm on Sunday the Petite Sirah is fermenting well. We mixed it up well. Temp is 67-68 degrees and Brix are at 25 (down from 28).  Color and flavor are FABULOUS!

 

The target brix for adding the spirits is 10-12 brix with a target residual of 9 brix. When we add the spirits we will need to pour back and forth between 2 containers to ensure that fermentation is stopped. 

 

Now that the temps are up we expect fermentation to accelerate. We will continue to punch down frequently the next couple of days and monitor brix. We estimate adding the spirits on Wednesday and pressing Friday morning.  We might have to shift the dates 1 day either way based on fermentation--we can't miss the window of 10-12 brix.  Lee leaves town for the holidays on Wednesday so Troy will continue to punch down and monitor brix if needed.

 

We estimate 32G of must.  The yield of wine on Roger's petite sirah was 66%. If we get the same yield on Larry's grapes we will get 21G of wine (we should press lightly so we may get less volume).  Using the fortification calculator on www.vinoencology.com we would get a port with a residual sugar of 8-9 brix and an alcohol level of 17%.  For Port we would like at least 18% alcohol so we may add some extra lower proof spirits. It would take 1.5L of the 75% spirits to boost us the extra 1% percent.  That happens to be exactly how much we have!  So it sounds like we should name our port "Destiny". :o)

 

The group plans to bottle some more of the Reisling on Wednesday morning at 10am.  Bob has some bottles de-labeled.  There are about 300 corks in the garage.

P. Sirah Port Innoculated

We inoculated the Petite Sirah tonight. We used a reduced amount of yeast and nutrient (4 packages of RC212).  We had cooled the grape must down to 48 degrees so we heated up some juice and stirred it into the top layer so the yeast could start. After it gets going it should generate it's own heat.

We will start a rigorous punch-down on Friday and monitor the brix to know when to add the Everclear--once the brix drop between 11-12 brix.  Mike will bring the everclear over to the garage so we can add it at a moments notice.

 

Lee brought out a 20 year old home made zin of his. It was terrific! We were all impressed.

Syrah & P. Sirah Racked

We racked the Hells Canyon Syrah and Williamson Petite Sirah off the gross lees tonight.  The syrah had a bit of a funky smell so we're glad we got it racked. The Petite Syrah continues to taste good.  We still need to rack the cabernet and cab franc off the gross lees. The sooner the better.  We topped the 08 reserve cabs. They are coming along very well.

 

We discussed the port option with the extra Petite Sirah we got from Larry. Mike brought a Bogle Petite Sirah ruby style port for us to taste and help make a decision. Everyone liked the port and we decided to give it a try. Lee was in Twin Falls but we know he is wanting to make the port and will be happy with the decision.

 

We are going to use the method of fortification partway through fermentation. Since this reduces the time on the skins we decided to continue a cold-soak for a couple more days. The juice was at 58 degrees and showing no signs of activity.  We added 2 frozen 1G water jugs to help cool the juice more and we expect to inoculate on Thursday.  To help improve extraction we talked about doing a submerged cap and punching down 1x a day--or punching down 6x a day.

 

We'll use a reduced amount of GoFerm and the RC212 yeast (with a tolerance of 16% alcohol) to try and slow fermentation. Starting Brix is 26.5. Once we hit about 10-12 brix (4-5 days?) we will add 2G - 2.5G of Everclear to boost the alcohol and stop fermentation. It will take a day or so to stop and then we will press (the cap should fall).  Then it will be winemaking as normal with the exception of keeping the sulfites a little higher to keep any bacterial growth down because of the residual sugars.  We will store the wine in stainless and glass until we bottle the reserve in the spring and then we'll move it into a barrel.

 

We expect to get about 22G total port (20G wine and 2G Everclear) with around 18% alcohol and 8 brix of residual sugar.

Fwd: Gross Lees

Mis-posted to the expenses blog. Forwarding into the Winemaker Blog

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Troy Pearse <ttpearse@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 10:57 PM
Subject: Gross Lees
To: Riverwoods Expenses <ttpearse.riverwoods-expenses@blogger.com>

We racked the Clone-6 Cabernet and the Malbec off of the gross lees.  Both are looking good. The Clone-6 flavors were already improved from when we pressed.  We still need to rack the Syrah and Petite Sirah followed by the Cabernet and Cab Franc.

 

We cleaned out Lee's 15G French barrel with ProxyClean and did a meta/citric rinse. It will dry a couple days and we'll smell it to see if it's cleaned-up.  Then we'll rack some Cabernet into it.

 

We reviewed winery 2009 expenses.  Everything looks good except we need to check with Bob for expenses related to building wine carts.  On average we calculated each bottle of wine is $3.25.  What a bargain! 

Larry's Petite Sirah

Larry had some late Petite Sirah we ended up picking up. He picked it on Friday, Nov 13th and he crushed it for us today, Nov 15th. There is approx 31G of must, which is sanitized and in 2 plastic barrels. We will innoculate on Tuesday using the RC212 yeast and GoFerm.

 

26.5 Brix

3.2 PH (Looks like the cold nights really helped keep the PH down)

 

The group will decide if we want to do an additional 20G of Petite Sirah or wine or if we want to try doing some port.  The basic approach for making port is to ferment 1/2 of the sugar and then add alcohol (everclear?) to stop fermentation.

 

 

Cabernet Pressed

We pressed the Williamson Cabernet and Hells Canyon Cab Franc tonight. Prelim tastings of the cab + cab franc are very encouraging. We're all excited about the blending potential.

 

This year's Williamson Cabernet was terrific! Maybe the best we've ever pressed. We pressed the cabernet very hard and the flavors just got better and better. The bin was free from stems and there wasn't much seeds contact so we never got the bitter green branch flavors.

 

- We pressed 6.5-7G of Cab Franc from 10G of Must (65-70% yield)

 

- We pressed 97G of Cabernet from 135G of Must (72% yield -- pressing very hard).

 

35G of the cabernet went home with Tom and Michele.  The rest is in a 15G Hungarian and 22G French barrel plus a 15G SS keg & 10G in carboys. We have Lee's 15G French barrel cleaning with some ProxyClean. Once it's ready we'll rack into it.

 

We plan to start racking wine off of the gross lees tomorrow night (7pm), starting with the Clone-6 Cab, Syrah and Malbec.

 

 

Petite Syrah Pressed

Saturday, Oct 31st Bob, Lee, and Ray pressed the Petite Syrah. Wonderful flavor. No taste of seeds or stems. Good fruit. We got enough to fill the ReCoop barrel, a 15.5 gal stainless keg and a little more that a gallon extra. The Cab and the Cab Franc ars still fermenting.

Malbec Bottled

Thursday Oct 29th Lee, bob, Sharon and Ray bottled the '08 Malbec. There were 2 batches. The Washington Malbec had a bit of an off flavor and aroma so it was bottled separately from the Idaho Malbec. We bottled about 7 cases of the Washington wine and 6 cases of the Idaho wine. We held back 3 gallons of the Idaho Malbec to be used for blending next spring. The Idaho Malbec seemed to be pretty good and the Washington Malbec was not so good. The fermenters were checked and the Petite Syrah was noted to be at 0 brix. Time to press.

Syrah/Malbec/Clone-6 Pressed

We pressed the Syrah, Malbec and Clone-6 Cabernet tonight. We pressed the Syrah and Cab pretty hard and the Malbec moderate. We're out of carboys and need to bottle last year's Malbec to free up the barrel and carboys.

 

Syrah:  68G Must and 48.5G of wine. (71% yield)

- 30G Hungarian barrel

- 12G carboys (plus 6.5 G went home with Jim).

 

Clone-6 Cab:  56G Must and 38.5G of wine (69% yield)

- 30G French barrel

- 8.5G carboys

 

Malbec: 38-40G Must and 27.5G wine (69-71% yield)

- 15G American barrel 

- 12.5G carboys

 

We also racked the Merlot off the gross lees.

Nutrient Added To Cabernet

On Sunday we checked the brix on the cabernet, petite syrah and cab franc. We added1 gram per gallon of must of K-Ferm nutrient to the bin of Williamson cabernet (18 brix) and the Cab Franc (12.5 brix).  The Petite Syrah was below 10 brix so we didn't add any additional nutrient.

Cab/P.Syrah/CabF Innoculated

We added yeast to the Cabernet, Petite Syrah and Cabernet Franc tonight.  The cabernet had some signs of activity already.

 

The Clone-6 cabernet, Syrah and malbec are all still fermenting. The malbec cap is getting less dense, the syrah cap is stronger and the Clone-6 Cab is fermenting the most.  We agreed to let the wines contine until the cap falls and press on Monday. We'll at least press the Syrah and Malbec and most likely the Clone-6 Cabernet.

 

We have all of our grapes except the Petite Syrah from Larry Kornze. We expect that in the next week or so.

Fermentation Update

I punched down at noon and again at 9pm and measured brix at 9.

 

Malbec went from 1 brix yesterday to 0.25 brix and the cap is getting less dense.

Syrah went from 0.998 SG to 0.994 but has a pretty thick cap.

Clone-6 went from 9.5 Brix to 6.5 Brix

 

We decided to delay pitching yeast until tomorrow. Cab/P.Syrah/CabF Grapes are sanatized and show little activity and are at 67 degrees.  We added some blocks of ice to them to help keep them another day.

 

We need to decide when to press. The Malbec could be pressed anytime, but could go several more days. The Syrah is more active and a day or two behind the Malbec. The Clone 6 Cabernet has a good week to go.   It is looking like we will not press on Wednesday and let the cap fall. We have a few people out of town over the weekend and Monday will be the next good day for everyone.  If the caps suddenly fall in the next day or two we'll have to change the plan on the fly. But it sure would be easier to press several grapes at once.  We crushed these grapes on Oct 11. If we press on Oct 26 they will have had 15 days on the skins.

 

Troy

 

 

Malbec and Syrah Almost Done Fermenting

We checked the Malbec, Syrah and Clone-6 Cabernet. We were surprised to see the Malbec was about 1 brix, the Syrah just below 0 and the Clone-6 at 9.5.  We missed the point at which we can add more nutrient (12-16 brix).  Temps were 74, 78 and 77 degrees respectively.  We expect the malbec and syrah will be ready to press in a couple days (tentatively Wednesday evening).  The Clone6 Cab still has a ways to go and would benefit from more skins contact. Hopefully we'll get another week on it.

 

We measured the PH on the new grapes. All look good and no corrections are needed. I updated the previous blog note with corrected brix numbers and PH numbers.  We need to get yeast and pitch it Tuesday night.  They recommend 1 gram of yeast and 1.25 grams of GoFerm in 25 ml water per gallon of must. Here are the amounts we'll need.  I've been a little conservative on the yeast--more than we've used in the past but not as much as they recommend.  It seems like a lot of water...but that is what they say is needed to make the GoFerm work right.

 

All total we need 37 packages of Pasteur Red yeast.  If that much isn't available we can do the Cab with Pasteur Red (25 packages) and the Petite Syrah and Cab Franc with BOURGOVIN RC 212 yeast (12 packages). Next year we'll look at a bulk buy of Pasteur Red yeast.

 

135 gal of Cab must, 25 packets of Pasteur Red yeast, 156 grams GoFerm, 14 cups of water
57 gal of Petite Syrah, 10 packages of Pasteur Red yeast, 63 grams GoFerm, 6 cups of water
10 gal of Cab Franc, 2 packages of  Pasteur Red yeast, 12.5 grams GoFerm, 1 cup of water

 

New Yeast Pitching Process

 

1. Add the GoFerm to 110 degree water and stir.
2. Wait until the temp drops to 104 degrees then add the yeast and wait 20 min.
3. Stir the yeast and then add 1/2 the volume of juice to the starter.
4. Stir and wait 10-15 more min.
5. Stir into the must.

 

Big Crush

Today (Sunday Oct 18th) we crushed over a ton of grapes. Yesterday (the 17th) Lee, Bob, Pam, Michelle and her son went to Hell's Canyon Winery and gleaned about 110# of Cabernet Franc. Ray went to Williamson's and picked up 1500# of Cabernet and 500# of Petite Syrah. Today we crushed/destemmed the lot. All of the grapes were very clean and healthy. WE used the motorized crusher, and are glad we did. It went rather quickly. We ended up with about

135 gal of Cab must, 27 brix, 3.7 Ph
57 gal of Petite Syrah, 23.5 brix, 2.4 Ph
10 gal of Cab Franc, 25 brix, 3.4ph

We added the appropriate amounts of Meta to each batch and put them to bed for a couple of days. We punched down the Washington Cab, Malbec and Syrah. All are fermenting well. It's probably time to add yeast nutrient.

Cab, Syrah, Malbec Innoculated

We innoculated the Clone6 Cabernet, Syrah and Malbec tonight using the new technique (details below).  Everything went well on the cab and malbec but the syrah didn't take off as well. I think we had the initial temp too low when we hydrated the yeast--we will have to watch the syrah the first few days to make sure it gets started.  We need to measure brix and add more nutrient (Fermaid-K) once the brix drops down below 18 brix (but above 12 brix). The rate of addition is 1 gram of Fermaid-K per gallon of must.

 

We talked about schedule for final grapes and we decided to go ahead and get the cab & petite syrah from Roger this Sat if the weather permits, mainly due to manpower availability in the winery. We will have to play Larry's Petite Syrah by ear and make sure it's ripe. If it's ripe we'll get it to on Sat with the rest of the grapes. Otherwise we'll delay another week until it hits 24 brix.  Sounds like Larry also has some Malbec, which we may consider a min order of 250# to evaluate a different source.

 

The plan on Saturday is to meet about 2pm and head to Hells Canyon to pick 250#-300# Cab Franc and then Roger's to pick up grapes. Lee will call and confirm with Hells Canyon and Roger. We need to see how late we can pick up at Williamson's as his fruit stand is only open until 4pm on Saturday. Lee will call and reserve the electric crusher for pickup on Saturday and use on Sunday.

 

Misc:

- If we are at Williamsons when they are open we might consider going in on a case of wine. I see he has a 2005 "cabernet reserve". Might be worth trying (I'm in for a few bottles.)  Same at Hell's Canyon. We should buy some more bottles (I'm in for a bottle of their 2003 Syrah Reserve).

 

- We need to bottle 34G of Malbec (holding 2G to blend into the reserve). We propose to wash bottles this Thursday the 15th and bottle 2 weeks after that on the 29th.

 

- Bob has been cleaning some barrels that have a nail polish remover smell. One is better but the other still has some smell so he will wash it again.

 

 

New Yeast Pitching Process

 

1. Add the GoFerm to 110 degree water and stir.
2. Wait until the temp drops to 104 degrees then add the yeast and wait 20 min.
3. Stir the yeast and then add 1/2 the volume of juice to the starter.
4. Stir and wait 10-15 more min.
5. Stir into the must.
 
They recommend 1 gram of yeast and 1.25 grams of GoFerm per gallon of must. Here are the amounts we'll need.
 
Clone6 Cab: 56G Must  -- 70 grams GoFerm into 6 cups of water, 11 packages of Pasteur Red

-- Note the Clone-6 was at 28.125 brix and Pasteur Red yeast will only ferment to 27 brix, so we reduced the brix by

   adding 2G of bottled water to the must. (Voila! Water into 10 bottles of wine!)
Malbec: 40G Must -- 50 grams GoFerm into 4 cups of water, 8 packages of Pasteur Red
Syrah:  68G Must -- 85 grams of GoFerm into 7 cups of water, a large package of Syrah yeast--80grams.

Malbec/Syrah/Clone-6 Crush & Merlot Pressed

BIG day at the winery today and we had some new faces in helping us, which is always fun. Lots of grapes came off this week and we crushed, pressed and racked.   Grapes have been sanitized and will be inoculated on Tuesday. The Syrah will get a new Syrah specific yeast and the Malbec and Cabernet will get Pasteur Red.  We have enough yeast in house for these grapes but will need more for the final picking of Cab and Petite Syrah.

 

1. We got some Malbec from Neil at Wood River. We got them Thursday and they've been sitting in the garage on ice in a tall blue barrel. As we started destemming we found that the weight of the grapes had started crushing themselves.  We're very glad to have more Malbec this year so we can make Boisique.

Pounds Grapes: 250

Gallons Must: 38-40G

Brix: 25

PH 3.6

 

2. We gleaned about 600 pounds of Syrah from Hells Canyon on Saturday and crushed it with about 20 pounds of Viognier that we gleaned at RiverRock to co-ferment (about 3%).

Pounds Grapes: est 600

Gallons Must: 68

Brix: 24

PH: 3.4

 

3. We picked up 500+ lbs of Clone-6 Cabernet from RiverRock vineyards in Milton Freewater, OR.

Pounds Grapes: 500+

Gallons Must: 56

Brix: 28

PH: 3.6

 

4. Merlot

We pressed the Merlot. It was at 0.998 S.G. and the cap was getting soggy. It had been on the skins 17 days. Color is very deep and dark from those small berries and flavor is good. We pressed moderate and got 46 gallons into a 30G Hungarian and a 15G Hungarian barrel. That only leaves 1 G for racking so we should transfer it to a smaller barrel, probably Troy's 26G American.  We checked the PH and it was 3.7, down 0.1. Not quite as far as we had hoped, but better.

 

5. Chardonnay

The chardonnay was still in the 60G barrel after fermenting--protected by a layer of CO2. We transferred it to a 15G SS Keg plus 8G Carboys. It had been in wood for about 2.5 weeks.

 

6. 2008 Malbec

Since we got some Malbec grapes this year we need to bottle our extra Malbec. We have an estimated 36G of ID and WA Malbec so we need 15 cases of red wine bottles--3 cases each.  We should hold back 2G of Malbec to mix into the reserve cabernet for this Spring (about 3%).

 

7. Barrels

We did a sanitizing rinse on the barrels and they are ready to go. Bob started cleaning 2 barrels that had a nail polish smell (Lee's 30G French and Bob's 20G French) with ProxyClean. He'll rinse them on Monday and neutralize them with Meta and Citric acid.

 

8. Grapes

We expect the rest of the grapes to come off this week.  We need a picking crew to Glean at Hells Canyon. Roger says his grapes will be ready on Saturday. We need to confirm with Larry when his grapes will be ready--it would be good to get them on Saturday too.  It looks like another big crush on Saturday or Sunday.

 

Remaining 2009 Grapes:

250# of Cab Franc from Hells Canyon

1,500# of Cabernet from Williamson

500# of Petite Syrah from Williamson

300# of Petite Syrah from Larry

 

Merlot innoculated

Merlot was innoculated this afternoon with 10 packages of Pastur Red
yeast and 60 grams of GoFerm.

chard temp down to 62, but still bubbling..

2009 Bottling Complete

Mike coordinated bottling the 2009 Magnafique on Tuesday. We carefully blended 53G of beautiful wine and bottled it up. We each got 4 cases + 4 bottles plus a few left in the winery for growers & competition.  

The merlot is ready for innoculation. Troy and Lee will pitch yeast around 2pm today. The next steps will be:

1. Punch down 3x a day for the first few days, then 2x a day until complete.  Please help Lee punch down--the Merlot is very heavy.

2. Add a dose of nutrient (Fermaid-K) on Thursday.  The rate is 1 gram of Fermaid-K per gallon of must. We have 70G of must. Monitor the merlot sugars/Brix and add a second dose when it drops between 16-18. Don't add below 12 brix.

3. Monitor temps. Pastur Red yeast likes temps from 64-86. The must is starting out cooled and the outside temperatures are dropping which will keep the garage cooler. If the heat gets to 90 then consider cooling the must.

4. The chard is almost done fermenting. We've stopped icing it but it's still in the cooler. Check the Brix daily. When it drops below zero and stops bubbling we will transfer/rack it to stainless and glass. I expect this will be Monday.

 

Merlot PH Adjustment #1

Lee and I measured PH again on the merlot. We used new PH buffer solutions and strained solids from the sample to get the most accurate measurement. We were hoping the number would go down....but instead it went UP. From 3.8 to 3.9.  :-\  We would like a PH of 3.65 because once the wine goes through ML it will raise back up by 0.1 units.

 

To get 0.1 reduction we need to add 1 gram of tartaric acid per liter of finished wine.  We estimated the volume of pressed wine to be 172 to 186 liters (65-70% yield of 70G of must). That is 34 - 37 tsp of tartaric acid (twice that for a 0.2 drop).  We started by stirring in 10 TBSP of tartaric acid (mixed in some warm water). We will remeasure tomorrow and decide if we want to add any more.

 

Temps are holding steady on the cold soaked Merlot. It was around 68 degrees. The Chardonnay was bubbling good this afternoon and was at 66 degrees but it had slowed down by 8pm. It has been fermenting 4 days. We'll check the brix tomorrow.    Lee is picking up some Pastur Red yeast for the Merlot and we will innoculate on Tuesday while we bottle the Magnafique.

Merlot Crushed

We picked up a bin of merlot at Wood River Cellars from Neil Glancy today that he estimated at 1,000lbs of grapes. The grapes came from his vineyard at King Hill, out near Glenns Ferry.  The merlot grapes were smaller which should give us more intense color and flavor, but not as much juice. It will be very interesting to compare to the merlot we've been making from Wood River Vineyard,

 

Neil crushed for us (for $50), which was very nice.  The crusher did a great job and we had very few stems and leaves to pick out.  We transferred the must to a microbin in the garage and measured it. We estimate there is about 70G of must, which is less than we expected. We estimated volume using the formula (8.75" * 8), which is based on the size of the microbin.  Last year from 900 lbs of merlot from wood river vineyard we got 114G of must.  We figure it must be the smaller berries.  When we press we will get about 52G of wine (assuming a 75% yield).  We sanitized with 8 1/2 tsp of meta mixed into a cup of warm water.  We added an ice block (in a plastic jug) to start a cold soak for 48 hours and covered the microbin with a tarp.

 

The chemistry on the merlot was

 

26 Brix

3.8 PH

 

which was slightly higher than what Neil had reported he had measured.  We'll likely do some acid correction on the must to get the PH down .1-.2 points.

 

The Chardonnay was bubbling away. We measured the temperature at 69 degrees. We added more ice on top of the barrel.

 

Chard temp down to 72

We pulled 3G of juice out and tossed it into the freezer for a few hours (down to 45 degrees) then stirred it back into the must. We also put some ice blocks (in plastic jugs) on top of the barrel. As a result the Chard temp is down from 77 degrees to 72. Not cool enough--but the right direction. We'll let it sit overnight with the ice blocks on top. If it's not down to 65 degrees then we'll take more drastic measures.

 

Mike suggested:

 

> we could always pour it into the little blue barrel for a night, to cool it down,

> then back into the wood when it reaches temp.  The wood barrel isn't letting the heat out. 

> Mike

I like that idea because we can submerge some frozen ice bottles to cool down the juice faster.  We'll see on Sunday.

 

Troy

 

PS: Michele is bottling on Sunday and has borrowed our old red single bottlers, the meta tree and corker.

Chard at 18 Brix and 77 degrees

We checked the Chardonnay over lunch and it is fermenting violently. Brix are down to 18 and the juice/must is at 77 degrees, which is warmer than we would like--the wood barrel is insulating the juice from the cool air in the cave.  I think we should have tried to cool the juice before we started fermentation.  We were trying for a 60-65 degree fermentation and the yeast says it works best from 56 to 72 degrees. We did the second Fermaid-K nutrient addition of about 25 grams and stirred the must

 

Any ideas on how to cool the juice down? The only thought I have is to pull a couple gallons of juice out and put it into the freezer to get it good and cold and then pour it back in.  Other ideas? 

 

Troy

Chardonnay Update

Two notes about the Chardonnay that haven't been mentioned that I wanted captured in the blog for future reference.

 

1. We tried double pressing the must--gently by recycling the juice through the cake. This increased our volume and darkened the color some.

 

2. This is the first time we've allowed any significant skins contact before pressing.  We had a good 16 hours of skins contact which should add considerable varietal flavor plus body to the chardonnay.  The Chardonnay juice stayed in contact with the skins overnight since Larry pressed it and we picked it up the next day.  Larry put some Meta on the must (not sure how much) and we added approx 50ppm more when we got it. 

 

We checked the Chardonnay Friday afternoon. It had been fermenting about 24 hours in the cooler. Fermentation was going well. Must temperature was 75 degrees, which is a little warmer than we would like so we moved the barrel closer to the A/C.  We added approx 25 grams of Fermaid-K and stirred it in.  The last 2 years the Chard fermented in 5-8 days. I'm not sure if it will ferment slower at the cooler temperature or not. 

  

We will need to check temperature and stir daily.  We need to take a Brix reading today. We want to add another Fermaid-K nutrient dose when the must reaches 16 brix. We don't want to add the nutrient if the brix have dropped below 12 because it won't be able to use them all and the leftover nutrients will provide "food" for unwanted bacteria.

 

When stirring we should try and "stir up" the bottom of the container.  Here is the note from the MoreWine White Winemaking guide. 

For each day the fermentation is underway it is important to get all of the lees (the layer of yeast that settles out on the bottom of the fermenter) stirred back up into suspension. You are looking for the must to become beige and creamy. This allows the fermenting wine to expel many negative fermentation odors that are a natural product of fermentation. It also helps to keep the wine from developing sulfur problems.

Boisique Bottled, Chard Innoculated

We bottled the Boisique on Thursday night.  We had to do some adjustments after a quick recount of the gallons of wine showed we had less merlot and cabernet left.  We reduced the amount of Boisique to be 40G Merlot (82%) and 9G  Malbec (12%) for a total of 49 gallons, or 4 cases each. The amount of Magnafique remained the same, which will give us each about 4.5 cases.

 

This will use up all of the merlot and leave about 8G of cab. We need to hold a couple gallons for topping and racking the reserve which leaves us 6G to work with. We could do a small amount of the leftover blend (Cab/Malbec) or hold the cab over for the reserve. If we do the "Amencaya" blend it would be 10 gallons, which would only give us only10 bottles each--probably not worth the effort. We'll just get more reserve in the Spring!

 

We inoculated the Chardonnay we got from Larry. After pressing there were 25 gallons of juice. The grapes were beautiful. Larry did a super job of picking and crushing for us. THANKS LARRY!  They were great ripeness and flavor and came in at 24-25 Brix and 3.6 PH.  The PH was a touch higher than we would like (3.5 would be more ideal) but within the safety margin and not worth adjusting.

 

We are trying a new inoculation and nutrient program this year and hydrating the yeast with GoFerm and then adding additional Fermaid-K nutrients through fermentation as recommended in the MoreWine guide to Wine making (http://www.morebeer.com/public/pdf/wwhiw.pdf).  The goal is to have as healthy of fermentation as possible to get the most flavor out of the yeast and avoid side effects that contribute to H2S production (yucky Rotten Egg smell).

 

For yeast we had planned to use 2 types in 2 separate containers to add complexity: D47 and "Rhone 4600". With the lower amount of chard we will ferment it all in the 60G barrel with just the Rhone 4600, which is a new yeast for us. It's description of the yeast is at the end of the blog entry for reference.  We used 40 grams of yeast, which is slightly more than was needed.  The recommendation is for 1 gram per gallon of must up to 24-25 brix and 1.25 grams per gallon once you hit 25 brix.

 

The next step is it add an initial dose of Fermaid-K nutrient once fermentation starts. (Friday). 1 gram per gallon of must (25 grams).  Once the Brix drops to 14-16 we will add a second dose of the Fermaid-K.

 

We are trying to control the fermentation temperatures of the white wine this year and keep the must around 60-65 degrees.  The fermentation barrel is in the cooler. We need to stir the must daily and take the temperature. 

 

We made a bentonite slurry with 2oz of bentonite and 3 cups of boiling water--blended for 2 minutes and left to stand for 2-3 hours and added it to the chardonnay for clarification during fermentation.

 

Our Merlot arrives on Sunday. Ray is coordinating with Neil Glancy. Grapes will be picked on Sat and we'll get them Sun. Ray is checking today on if they will be crushed or not.  We discussed the pros and cons of them crushing vs us crushing.  We're unsure if their crusher would do better than the one we rent. The biggest difference will be how clean the grapes are when they are crushed and how many stems are left.  One area we've been able to improve is avoiding green flavors in our wine by carefully removing stems and leaves in the fermenting must.  We're tempted to see the results of a "professional crushing". We can always pick out extra stems if we're not happy with it.    

Rhone 4600 is a Cote du Rhone isolate that has a short lag phase, low nutrient demand, and has the ability to ferment well at low temperatures. Due to its' high level of polysaccharide production, Rhone 4600 contributes intense mouthfeel and volume to a finished wine. In addition, Rhone 4600 helps create complex aromatic notes along with a high degree of ester production. In whites like Viognier, Marsanne, Roussane, and Chardonnay there is an emphases on pineapple, pear, and apple. When used in Roses made from Mouvedre, Grenache and Syrah, intense, elegant, fresh strawberry becomes the focus. While Rhone 4600 is good for white wine production, it is an excellent yeast for making Roses either by itself or as part of a blend. Best results from 56 to 72 degrees F, with an alcohol tolerance to 15%.

 

Final 2009 Blends

The group met and tried numerous blends for Magafique and Boisique. This year we tried more variations to try and hone in on our favorite. It's amazing how changing the blend a few percentage points will change the flavor.

 

We liked the "Right Bank" Bordeaux Blend again this year--pretty much the same blend as last year except no petit verdot (we'll hold the final gallon of Petit Verdot for the 2008 Cabernet Reserve Spring bottling).  I think we have the Right Bank Bordeaux blend figured out. lt would be interesting next year to change the Left Bank (cab based) Bordeaux to be more of a 70% Cab and 20% Merlot to see if we can find the sweet-spot for that blend.

 

2008 Magnafique

50% Merlot

40% Cab

10% Malbec

 

We started with standard 80%/20% merlot/malbec for Boisique and also tried 75%/25%. We liked the original 80/20 better. We tried increasing the merlot to 85%, but didn't like that as well. The sweet spot was somewhere in the 80-83% merlot range. We decided on:

 

2008 Boisique

82% Merlot

18% Malbec

 

Here is the gallons of wine we have to bottle (not counting the 60G hold-over for cabernet reserve to be bottled in the Spring). The blends turned out merlot heavy so we will have some extra cabernet and malbec. I suggest we do another cab/malbec blend with the leftovers.  Last year we had good luck with 60% cab and 40% malbec, we'll have to see how we like that but based on some earlier tasting trials I think we will.  We would each get 2 1/4 cases of that blend (Cab/Malbec) and we would have plenty of Malbec to hold over for next year (approx 20.5 G -- Enough for a 2009 Boisique and Magafique).

 

2008 Wine To Bottle

ID Cabernet: 38G

Merlot:  77G

ID Malbec: 32G

WA Malbec: 16G

 

Here are the expected gallons of each wine for the blends. We should double check the total gallons before starting to blend.  It wouldn't be a bad idea to double check the math too. :)

 

Magnafique

50% Merlot = 27G

40% Cab = 21.6

10% ID Malbec= 5.4G

Total = 54G (4.5 cases each)

 

Boisique

82% Merlot = 50G

18% ID Malbec = 11G

Total = 61G (5 cases each)

 

Cab/Malbec

60% Cab = 16.4G

40% ID Malbec = 10.9G

Total = 27.3 G (2.25 cases each)

 

Bordeaux Blends

We've had 2 types of Bordeaux blends--a Left Bank and a Right Bank.  :-D  What's Left vs. Right have to do with it, you ask?

 

The Bordeaux region is divided into regions, including a "Left Bank" and a "Right Bank". Cabernet is favored on the Left Bank and Merlot is favored on the Right Bank. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_wine for more details).

 

2 years we've had a more traditional "Left Bank" style with Cabernet as the dominant grape and last year we had more of a "Right Bank"style with Merlot as the dominant grape.  We'll blend a Right and a Left bank style tonight and see which we like best.  The previous blends are listed below and we'll use them as a starting point.  We only have 1G of Petit Verdot left so we'll be limited to roughly 0.25% of Petit Verdot.  (Not a lot, but enough to add some finish to the wine.)  It will be an interesting comparison!

 

For Boisique we've liked between 20-25% malbec in the blend--mostly 20%. We'll setup an 80/20 and a 75/25 to compare.

 

Troy

 

 

Left Bank Bordeaux Blend (10 oz tasting samples)

60% Cabernet (6 oz)

30% Merlot (3 oz)

9.75% Malbec (1- oz)

0.25 % Petit Verdot (drop!)

 

Right Bank Bordeaux Blend (10 oz tasting samples)

50% Merlot (5 oz)

40% Cabernet (4 oz)

9.75% Malbec (1- oz)

0.25 Petit Verdot (drop!)

 

 

PREVIOUS BLENDS

 

2007 Maganfique

50% Wood River Merlot

40% Wood River Cabernet (Clone 8)

9% Wood River Malbec

1% Wood River Petit Verdot

 

 

2006 Magnafique
60% RiverRock Clone8 cab 
26% Merlot
12%Malbec
2% Petit Verdot

 

2005 Magnafique
55% Cabernet (Williamson)
35% Merlot
10% Malbec

 

--previous post with estimated gallons of each type of wine. we need to verify actual gallonage before blending--

 

2008 Wine To Bottle

ID Cabernet: 38G

Merlot:  77G

ID Malbec: 32G

WA Malbec: 16G

Super Tuscan: 55G

 

Reserve Hold Over (We will each get ~5 cases of reserve cabernet next spring).

ID Cabernet 32G

WA Cabernet 27G

 

Some rough bottling calculations--subject to change as we refine the blends.

 

Boisique:

Assuming our Bordeaux blend has around a 30% merlot content and the super tuscan has about 10% merlot, we are left with 60G of Merlot for Boisique. With the normal 80%/20% blend that gives us about 75G of Boisique, or 6.25 cases each! (YEA!).

 

Super Tuscan:

Estimate 60G of Super Tuscan (including 10% merlot addition), 5 cases each.

 

Magnafique:

Estimate 38G cabernet, 15G Merlot and 10G of Malbec for a total of 63G or 5.25 cases

 

Malbec:

We have lots of malbec this year. A good 20+G more than we need (1 2/3 cases each). We can bottle it as a stand alone malbec or hold it over in case we don't get malbec grapes this year.  (We'll hold a 3 gallons over to mix with the reserve cabernet.)

 

Super Tuscan Bottled

The group met and bottled the Super Tuscan blend on Monday.  It was a large batch (just under 70G) so we blended into the 2 large plastic barrels and then mixed some wine back and forth between them to ensure an even blend.  The blend stayed essentially the same as our trials with some minor tweaks based on gallons available--we held back slightly more Petit Verdot for the Bordeaux blend.  We're all very happy with the final blend, especially considering all of the problems we had with the under-ripe Sangio fruit and excessive hydrogen sulfide contamination.

 

Bottling went like clock-work and we quickly got just under 29 cases bottled. We each took home 5 cases and 7 bottles and we left most of a case to share with growers and other winemakers. Both Garry Scholz and Larry Kornze joined us bottling and enjoying the new Super Tuscan blend.

 

Lee and Mike went to pick up the bin of crushed Chardonnay from Wood River but came back empty handed. :( It seems that the yield on Chardonnay was less than expected and we didn't get any. We will explore other sources and/or look for some Viognier.

 

Photos are uploaded and linked to our Riverwoods Wineries web site. http://sites.google.com/site/riverwoodswineries/ 

 

We will be meeting to determine the blends for our Boisique (Merlot/Malbec) and Magnafique (Bordeaux) blends this week and will be bottling the Boisique this Thursday.  Merlot is expected in the next week (or two).

Super Tuscan Final Blend

A great night of tasting trials again proves that group blind tasting is the best way to a successful blend!  We ended up with a bit of an A-B-C blend that incorporated some merlot and cab and petit verdot along with the Sangio, which made for a very nice balance. The group also decided to try and use up the 2005 Petit Verdot in the Super Tuscan blend (leaving a little bit for the Bordeaux Blend).

The final blend ended up being:

 

10 oz ST Base

1 oz Cab

1 oz Merlot

1/2 oz Petit Verdot

 

Which translates to a blend of approximately

 

56% Sangio

32% Cab

8% Merlot

4 Petit Verdot

 

We have about 55G of Super Tuscan Base (need to do a final count with all carboys). Applying the following blend:

 

ST Base 80%

Add 8% merlot

Add 8% cab

Add 4% petit verdot

 

Assuming 55G of Super Tuscan Base we will have 68.75G of blended wine (5 3/4 cases each).  The breakdown would be as follows (again, need to recalc after counting all the ST Base in Carboys)

80% * 68.75 = 55G ST Base

8% Cab Addition = 5.5G Cab

8% Merlot Addition = 5.5G Merlot

4% PV Addition = 2.75G Petit Verdot

 

On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Troy Pearse <ttpearse@gmail.com> wrote:

The group meets tonight to decide our Super Tuscan Blend (7pm).  We've had a couple of successful pre-trial blends by adding 20% cab or 20% merlot.  Tonight we'll try the following 3 blends (blind) and see which style we like best. Then we'll tune it (+/- 5%) if needed.  I've tried to keep Sangio as the dominant grape percentage so we keep the Italian style and dryness of the Sangio.

 

Troy

 

Our 2005 field-blend Super Tuscan was:

56% Sangio

33% Cab

11% Petit Verdot

 

Our current Super Tuscan "base" is approx:

68% Sangio

32% Cab

 

Trial Blend #1: ST Base + Merlot (Add merlot to emphasize the cherry fruit in the sangio.)

 

10 oz ST Base

2 oz Merlot

12 oz TTL

 

Results in

58%Sangio

25% Cab

17% Merlot

 

 

Trial Blend #2: Base Pl+us More Cab (Add Cab to add more depth of flavor and some body.)

10 oz ST Base

2 oz Cab

12 oz TTL

 

Results In:

58% Sangio

42% Cab

 

 

Trial Blend #3: Base + Cab & Petit Verdot (Flavor, body, and  BAM!--Similar to our 2005 blend.)

10 oz ST Base

2 oz Cab

1 oz Petit Verdot

 

Results In:

54% Sangio

38% Cab

8% Petit Verdot

 

--
Posted By Troy Pearse to Riverwoods Wineries at 9/20/2009 10:39:00 AM

Super Tuscan Trial Blends

The group meets tonight to decide our Super Tuscan Blend (7pm).  We've had a couple of successful pre-trial blends by adding 20% cab or 20% merlot.  Tonight we'll try the following 3 blends (blind) and see which style we like best. Then we'll tune it (+/- 5%) if needed.  I've tried to keep Sangio as the dominant grape percentage so we keep the Italian style and dryness of the Sangio.

 

Troy

 

Our 2005 field-blend Super Tuscan was:

56% Sangio

33% Cab

11% Petit Verdot

 

Our current Super Tuscan "base" is approx:

68% Sangio

32% Cab

 

Trial Blend #1: ST Base + Merlot (Add merlot to emphasize the cherry fruit in the sangio.)

 

10 oz ST Base

2 oz Merlot

12 oz TTL

 

Results in

58%Sangio

25% Cab

17% Merlot

 

 

Trial Blend #2: Base Pl+us More Cab (Add Cab to add more depth of flavor and some body.)

10 oz ST Base

2 oz Cab

12 oz TTL

 

Results In:

58% Sangio

42% Cab

 

 

Trial Blend #3: Base + Cab & Petit Verdot (Flavor, body, and  BAM!--Similar to our 2005 blend.)

10 oz ST Base

2 oz Cab

1 oz Petit Verdot

 

Results In:

54% Sangio

38% Cab

8% Petit Verdot

 

Merlot Racked. WA Malbec Fixed. Sangio Tainted

We did the final clarification racking on the 2 barrels and SS keg of merlot today, including adding 10-15ppm meta. Merlot is tasting good!

 

WA Malbec is smelling/tasting fine. Last racking over copper took care of it.

 

We checked the SS Keg of Sangio that had the oak dominos. The bung wasn't in tight and the wine is exposed to air.  There is an off flavor and smell. Hard to say if it's just from the oak dominoes. We're afraid it may be spoiled.  We racked it and added 30ppm meta and removed the wood. The SS Keg has been marked as BAD SANGIO. We should not blend this with the other super tuscan. We'll watch it to see if it stabilizes.

 

We still need to do the final racking on the cabernet and ID Malbec. If we want we could skip the 2 barrels that will be "reserve" for now and rack them in the Spring before bottling (to save time now).

WA Malbec Racked Over Copper

Over the weekend Bob and Lee discovered the rotten egg smell was back on the WA Malbec. Not too bad, but very noticeable. We racked over copper tonight 2x (out/in) plus added 15ppm meta.  We'll check it in a couple weeks--we expect it will be fine.

 

To help offset the under-ripe tart cherries in the Sangio and add some tannins we've added some oak dominoes. We started with 1.25lbs of Oak dominoes into the 15G SS keg. We'll let it stew for a couple weeks and check it. If we like it we'll add some to the 15G Hungarian barrel with super tuscan next.

 

We topped and tasted the rest of the wines which are all doing GREAT!  Stand-outs are the ID Malbec, the WA Clone-6 and the Merlot. Of the ID Cab, Ray's 30G barrel is the best.  All wines are on the home-stretch before bottling and will need to be racked one more time in early September for clarity.  The coolers are holding their temps very well.

A quick count of wine gallons shows about 276 gallons of red wine. We expect to hold over Ray's 30G barrel of Williamson cabernet and the 26G of WA Clone 6 cabernet for a cabernet reserve blend. That leaves us with about 215 gallons of wine to blend and bottle, or about 90 cases (18 cases each). Here's a breakdown of the gallons.

 

2008 Wine To Bottle

ID Cabernet: 38G

Merlot:  77G

ID Malbec: 32G

WA Malbec: 16G

Super Tuscan: 55G

 

Reserve Hold Over (We will each get ~5 cases of reserve cabernet next spring).

ID Cabernet 32G

WA Cabernet 27G

 

Some rough bottling calculations--subject to change as we refine the blends.

 

Boisique:

Assuming our Bordeaux blend has around a 30% merlot content and the super tuscan has about 10% merlot, we are left with 60G of Merlot for Boisique. With the normal 80%/20% blend that gives us about 75G of Boisique, or 6.25 cases each! (YEA!).

 

Super Tuscan:

Estimate 60G of Super Tuscan (including 10% merlot addition), 5 cases each.

 

Magnafique:

Estimate 38G cabernet, 15G Merlot and 10G of Malbec for a total of 63G or 5.25 cases

 

Malbec:

We have lots of malbec this year. A good 20+G more than we need (1 2/3 cases each). We can bottle it as a stand alone malbec or hold it over in case we don't get malbec grapes this year.  (We'll hold a 3 gallons over to mix with the reserve cabernet.)

Fwd: Sunday 7-12-09 Topping notes

Forwarding previous topping note from Mike for the blog records. Also, Ray topped up approx. July 31st.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Margaret Dimmick <dimmicks@earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Subject: Sunday 7-12-09 Topping notes
To: Lee Buddecke <buddecke@cableone.net>, Bob & Pam Cort <cort@cableone.net>, Ray Oelrich <rayo@cableone.net>, Troy Pearse <ttpearse@gmail.com>

Lee, Bob and Mike topped the wine barrels today from 1:00 to 2:15pm.  All the wine is tasting good and improving as time works its magic.  WE DID NOT TOP THE WA CAB because we forgot what we were topping it with.  We need to do that in the next day or two.  All barrels took about 3/4 of a bottle of wine with the Merlot and Cab in the new cooler taking nearly a bottle each.  The SS kegs with merlot and Sangio smell fine.  The Super Tucson is tasting better.  We broke one glass (1 gal) carboy down into a plat to top ID Malbec.  The plat with the WA Malbec was moved to a new plat because it appeared to be leaking.  I filled it with a Meta solution and hung it up to see. 

 

We put the remote thermometer in the new cooler and the old style in the old cooler due to speed of access.  Thing are looking good, BUT WE DO NEED TO TOP THE WA. CAB.   Mike

 

Margaret Dimmick

dimmicks@earthlink.net

EarthLink Revolves Around You.

 

Riverwoods Website Location Changing

Google is in the process of changing over their website service and we have to move our Riverwoods Web Page. I've been moving the content over the last month and the basic web page replacement is back up at: http://sites.google.com/site/riverwoodswineries/ .  I can add anyone else as an owner of the website as well. Let me know if you're interested.

 

Troy

 

PS: What do people think of putting the web address on our wine labels? I'd also like to setup a Riverwoods Wine Driker blog that people could email and give their feedback on our wine.

Super Tuscan Pre-Trials

Michele and Tom came over to pick up some wine for blending into their cabernet and super tuscan as they are getting ready to bottle.

 

We tried a couple super tuscan blends adding merlot and petit verdot.  Adding 10%-20% merlot helped a lot. Smoothed out the flavors and tempered the tartness without covering up the sangio.  We tried adding some petit verdot but didn't like it too much. It was too strong tasting for this year's lighter sangio.

 

For reference, our last super tuscan was a field blend of 56% Sangiovese, 33% Cabernet and 11% Petit Verdot.  I think the field blend with petit verdot last time helped the flavors integrate much better than the post-blending approach. The current Super Tuscan "base" is about about 68% Sangio and 32% cab.

 

I am also slightly suspect of the petit verdot in the plastic platypus. It's been in there for a year (or more) and could have some off flavors.  When we do our blends this fall we should try blending using wine from the carboys.

 

Troy

Second Cooler Operational

Ray and Lee got the second cooler assembled on Monday and we moved the final barrel in on Tuesday, so all of the wine is now under climate control. Just in time for the hot weather.  They were able to put the larger A/C unit on the older, larger, cooler to help circulation.  We'll have to monitor temps and adjust as needed.

 

We took the opportunity to top and taste.  All wines are sound and tasting very good. A couple tasting notes.

 

1. The Clone 6 Cab has started to wake up and has much more nose and flavor than it has since ML. We are hopeful that we'll be able to hold it over to blend into the reserve Cabernet.

 

2. The Williamson cab continues to have some harsher seed tannins. The cab in Ray's new 30G barrel is the best. You can smell and taste the new wood. It's probably the one to hold over for Reserve.

 

3. The Merlot continues to be very tasty.

 

4. The ID Malbec didn't have as much fruit this time.

 

5. The Sangio blend is very tart cherries. Needs more time in the barrel and some blending.

 

6. All wines were down significantly--a good bottle or more. We should try to top every 2 weeks.

 

Bob's new wine carts work terrific!

 

Troy

Cooler Expansion

The gang met today in Bob's garage and worked on the portable cooler. We got all the sides constructed. Looks like a good design.

 

Mike brought over a small A/C unit to use. It's larger than the one on the current wine-box so we may swap it.

 

Photos online at: http://picasaweb.google.com/riverwoodswinery/Wine2009 

 

The one of Lee helping set the glue is priceless! :-D

 

Troy

ML Complete

We topped and tasted on Sunday and ML has completed.  All wines are sound and we have some great wines for blending plus enough cabernet to hold a barrel or two over for a reserve wine.

 

- The merlot was the favorite of the night, dark and full flavored followed by the ID Malbec.  The malbec continues to have no green flavors--I think the longer ripening time made a difference.  The merlot & malbec will make some GREAT Boisique this year!

 

- The rotten egg smell is now gone on the WA Malbec. 

 

- The Williamson cabernet continues to be a little harsh from the exposed seed tannins, but more time in the barrel will mellow that.

 

- The WA Clone-6 Cab is unremarkable this year--not sure why. Maybe we took too much must off to co-ferment with the Super Tuscan?  When we rack I'd like to move it into a newer barrel like Bob's 20G French Med+ to help bring up the nose and flavors.

 

- The sangio/cab blend is light but pleasant with no rotten egg smell. It is starting to pick up some wood and get a little drier--showing it's sangio.  Add some Petit Verdot for some back-bone and maybe a little merlot to bring out the cherries and I think it will be a nice Super Tuscan.

 

- We broke down a 5G merlot into 1G carboys plus the platypus and re-filled the sangio and malbec topping (note: each platypus could use to get a pinch of meta to keep down the bugs.)

 

- We are topping both malbecs with ID malbec.

 

- We are topping both cabs with WA cab.

 

7 Barrels are in the main cooler with all carboys and the AC is on.  3 barrels and 2 ss kegs are still out on the garage floor. The group is working on a second stand-alone cooler to go over them.  Now that ML is complete we will be doing a clarification racking of all wines soon. Proposed time is next Sun and Mon.

Super Tuscan Thoughts

If we end up bottling a super tuscan now, for storage reasons, here's what it would look like.

 

For reference, our last super tuscan was a field blend of 56% Sangiovese, 33% Cabernet and 11% Petit Verdot.

 

The current Super Tuscan "base" is about 52G of Sangio and 25G of Cabernet.  That's about 68% Sangio and 32% cab.

 

If we end up bottling early for space, we'll also need to empty a 15G SS keg of Merlot.

 

We have 5G of Petit Verdot.

 

52G Sangio   54%

25G Cabernet  26%

15G Merlot  15%

5G  Petit Verdot 5%

 

For a total of 97 G of Super Tuscan!  That's 8 cases each!  (So we had better like it!)

 

I think that's a reasonable blend, but we'd have to do a taste trial to see what we think.

 

Troy

 

 

 

ML done update

April 30, 2009, Lee, Ray and Mike checked the topping of wines and added ML to:  Super Tuscan; Merlot, Malbec and the Clone 6 Cab.  Used a total of 8 packets of WYEAST laboratories 4007 MALO-LAC 0617105 ; mfg 27 APR 09. We did not add ML to the Williamson Cab. 

 

In the next few days, I will get another packet of ML for the larger Carboys in the cooler we did not treat cuz we ran out of ML.

 

 We tasted all wines and everything seems OK.  There was a slight oilly film on the Idaho Malbec.  Sprayed a bit of Meta on it.  Need to check next topping.  Opinion of the above 3 tasters is that the Super Tuscan needs some wood.  Bottling early, as talked/planned for in June, is maybe slipping.  Need to look at summer storage for the extra bbls this year if we don't bottle the SuperT.  Merlot and Willys Cab is REALLY tasting great.  This Cab should make a great Reserve.

 

Ray thought he and Bob could slap together a breakdown cooler in a couple of weeks.  I'm available to help as needed.     Mike

 

 

Margaret Dimmick

dimmicks@earthlink.net

EarthLink Revolves Around You.

 

Malbec racking and toping April 9, 09

We met at 7pm and topped the wines.  All looks good.  The wood barrels were down quite a bit, some more than a bottle.  We should keep an eye on them for the next topping session.  We also racked the Wa. Malbec over copper to rid the last of the sulpher smell.  We are still keeping the Idaho and Wa. Malbecs separate when topping until we are sure the sulpher is gone.  Ray used a tank cleaning wand built for RVs to clean the Wa. Malbec barrel.  WOW does it work great for getting out the clumps and scab.  

 

Troy brought an 04 Malbec made by the wonderful Riverwoods Wineries.  Really Good!!!     The Tempernillo? we tasted that Mike brought is on sale at Ericksons for 6.99.   That's it.  Happy Days.    Mike

 

 

Margaret Dimmick

dimmicks@earthlink.net

EarthLink Revolves Around You.

 

Chard filtering and bottling

On March 3rd, we filtered and bottled the Chard.  We started with glass containers and used the fine filters.  We then moved into the SS kegs and used the medium filters.  Finally, we filtered the dregs from all containers using the medium filters.  We used the medium filters last due to the trouble we had last time with fine filters plugging up easily.  We only ran the wine through the filters once, then bottled.  We ended up with two cases plus three bottles for each of us.   We will need to watch this Chard and see if we have any problems we might tie back to only filtering once.  We may want to get more filters and run the wine through twice (medium followed by fine filters) next time.  I would also recommend that next time we use the filter system, we have a flat pan with wine to presoak the filters rather than using water.  It seems like we lose several bottles of wine waiting for the water from the filters to run through the system before we get to quality wine to then bottle.  Less waste maybe this way.   Just Mike's humble opinion.   Ciao!     Mike

 

 

Margaret Dimmick

dimmicks@earthlink.net

EarthLink Revolves Around You.

 

Top N Taste: March 25

We topped up and did some "quality control" tonight.  All the wines were very good. Some were excellent!

 

We started with the Super Tuscan and compared the stainless to a barrel.  Both were coming along very nicely. The barrel had the edge, but both were surprisingly good with not a hint of rotten egg!  Color was light.  We still expect to do a little more blending to fill out the flavors. Maybe a little merlot to accent the cherries and some petite verdot to give some body and deeper color.  Not sure it needs more cab.  The trial blending will be fun!

 

The WA Malbec was sound, but still had a light HSO2 rotten egg smell. Not bad, but another racking over copper is in order (sooner, than later, before MLF). Mike said he would coordinate racking.

 

The ID Malbec was the surprise of the night. Great flavor, dark color and a great finish. Not a hint of green or vine. The best Malbec we've done so far!!

 

The merlot was full flavored, rich and hot (alcoholic). Almost port-like.

 

The Williamson cab was very full flavored and had a great cabernet nose. A little rough/bitter (seeds), but the barrels will round it out over time. We all agree that the Williamson is "Reserve Worthy" this year. We'd like to hold over 30G or more.

 

The WA Clone-6 Cab was surprisingly closed. Not much nose. Dark fruit and a little bland. It will be interesting to watch it over time. It was disappointing.

 

We talked about storage for the summer. We all thought that the Super Tuscan was coming along nicely and was a good candidate for early bottling, which would solve our storage problem. We'll give it another month and make a decision. That would empty 2 barrels, and 1 or 2 stainless kegs, depending on the blend. The other option is to increase cooler capacity.

We talked about grape sources. Getting Wood River grapes is our highest priority. Lee will continue to try and talk with Neil. We also need to communicate with Roger how pleased we are with the grapes and that we want to get more this Fall.  We're unsure about RiverRock. It's a long way to go, and increases the number of crushes. Michele said she would be willing to pick-up the RiverRock Clone-6 for a year, if needed.  Once we loose RiverRock, we won't get it back. There's also potential for some Syrah and maybe Grenache.

 

We broke-down a 3G ID Malbec into 1G carboys and a platypus for topping both the ID and WA Malbec.  We used the Clone-6 cab for topping all of the cabs.

Bottles Clean, WA Malbec Racked

We met today and washed 13 cases of chard bottles in preperation for bottling.  We propose to filter and bottle on Tue March 3rd, mid day or in the evening. We'll set the time as we get closer. (Corks are in the winery on the West wall shelf.)

 

We racked the WA Malbec over copper again and added 20ppm Meta. We think this may be the final racking for it.

 

We topped and tasted barrels. All are coming along very well, but were down quite a ways.  We had some confusion about 1 barrel that wasn't marked but determined it was super-tuscan and that one of the 15G SS kegs was merlot.

 

We started topping the ID Cabernet with Malbec.

 

Troy

Sangiovese Saga

Today we filtered the Sangio and blended it 2:1 with some cabernet (~52G of Sangio and ~25G of Cabernet-Bin A) to make the "base" of a Super Tuscan wine. We're all very excited that we have been able to save the Sangiovese, which had a terrible case of rotten egg.  Here's the history of the 08 sangio.

 

The sangio was crushed on Oct 19, we added approx 10G of Clone 6 Cab must to help the flavor and low sugars. We pressed it on Oct 29th and got 70G of wine.  On Nov 10 we noticed a very strong rotten egg smell in the sangio. We aggressively racked it over copper 4 times in Nov and Dec and stored it in SS kegs until it stabilized in early January.  At this point we were down to about 54G of Sangio.

 

On Jan 18th we filtered the Sangio through a #3/coarse filter (and over copper). It took 2 sets of filters and we still didn't quite get through it all as the filters got clogged with junk.  The resulting sangio was a little lighter in color and flavor, but still good. Maybe a bit smoother.  We started going through a fine filter and decided to stop, as after going through the fine filter we had more of a watery sangio rose that none of us liked.

 

The resulting Super Tuscan wine is stored in Ray's 22G French, Troy's 15G Hungarian, Michele's 15G Hungarian and some carboys.  It will be interesting to taste the wine transform over the next 9 months in the barrels--as they do their magic.  We expect we will tweak the Super Tuscan blend before we bottle it, adding more cab, and/or some merlot and possibly some petit verdot.

 

Michele took her barrel of Super Tuscan home along with her 13G barrel of Cabernet, plus 2G of Merlot and Super Tuscan for topping. 

WA Malbec Racked Over Copper.

Troy, Ray, Bob and Michele met and racked the WA Malbec over copper on Sat. The rotten egg smell was diminished, but still very evident. The process went faster with some improvements to the copper flashing that Bob has fashioned.  There wasn't much sediment.  We racked it over copper out and back in and added approx 1/3tsp meta to the wine before racking back into the barrel. 

 

We checked the Sangio and it is "holding steady" with a slight smell. One of the 3 15G SS kegs smells more than the others but we decided not to rack over copper that the filtering process would be enough rack-and-spash.  We tasted it and while it isn't delightful, the taste has improved dramatically.  It's dry, with an acid bite to the aftertaste--becase of the low-low PH.  Certainly blending it with some high-ph cabernet will help balance that out.  We think the Sangio is ready to filter--but when we contacted Brewcon about their filter the lady working there didn't know enough about the filter system to rent it out. We will have to talk with the husband.  We are planning on filtering it next weekend (Sat or Sun).  Troy will call and talk with the Brewcon owner this week to make sure the filter is ready this time.

 

When we filter the Sangio we have to decide how to handle it. Initially we planned on blending it with Bin-A (non acid corrected) Cabernet (approx 50/50) to balance out the acids. This would give us a good base for creating a super-tuscan. The wine needs to get into a barrel to help smooth it out and get some character.  We will wait to filter the WA Malbec until we see how it impacts the Sangio. We may also decide we do not need to filter the WA Malbec as it didn't have as significant of a rotten egg smell.

We are proposing to filter and bottle the Chard in the winter (likely early Feb) this year instead of letting it go to Spring. This is based on recommendations in the Winemaking Seminar that Ray, Lee and I attended 2 summers ago to bottle early to capture the fruity flavors.  This matches our experiences as over the last couple years we've noticed that we like the taste of the Chard the best mid-winter, so bottling it now makes sense.  Filtering the wine will ensure that it is clear and doesn't go through MLF after it's in the bottle.  Here's a link to the winemaking seminar notes, for reference. http://riverwoodswinery.googlepages.com/WinemakingSeminarNotes.html .   When we filter the Chard it would make sense to bottle it at the same time.  So everyone should start to get some non-shouldered bottles ready. 2.5 cases each will be plenty.  Remember Mike's suggestion to sprinkle a dash of straight-A into the bottle while you soak off lables will help make washing the insides go much faster (something important when you're washing bottles outside in the dead of winter!!).

 

When we filter the Sangio we need to decide our plan for what goes into barrels. We have a 15G barrel empty, and we have 45G of Sangio in SS kegs.  We will have to decide which 30G of wine will remain in SS kegs.  We can rotate the wines in/out and we have more oak dominoes we can use.  Also, once we filter the Sangio Michele will be taking her 2 barrels out of the garage.  One with Cab and one with Sangio/Cab. 

 

I propose we split the 30G stainless storage across the SuperTuscan and Merlot--15G each. Every time we rack we'll combine the SS and Barrel wines which will balance out the flavors. This is how we've handled it in the past and it has worked out well.

 

We topped and spot-tasted the other wines. All are coming along very good. The merlot is tasty, the Williamson cab is good but has some sandpaper-like seed tannins that need to mellow in the barrel. The ID Malbec was very tasty--much better than the WA Malbec is right now.