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