Racking #1

We racked the Merlot, Malbec and WA Cab tonight.  We started to rack the Porto but it didn't have much fine lees because we've racked and stirred it extra times so we decided to leave it alone.

 

All the wines were sound with no sign of rotten egg smell. The Merlot is a different source this year and is much more tannic with less fruit.  The Malbec is dark, smooth and had lots of pepper, and the WA Clone 6 Cab is a nice, elegant cab flavor.

 

We added 15ppm of Meta as we racked plus an extra pinch in the platypus topping containers. 

 

We have 1 more racking to do (Planned for Memorial Day) for the ID Cab, Syrah and Petite Syrah, combining ID cab from carboys and a 15G barrel into Ray's 30G barrel and combining some syrah and petite sirah into a 15G barrel. Then everything can go into the cooler. 

 

We enjoyed a 2005 Boisique while we racked. The flavors were very good--it was holding up well after 5 years. The wine was a bit cloudy--we have certainly improved that aspect of the wine.

Racking Of Fine Lees

We met yesterday to discuss our plans to rack off the Fine Lees and get all the wine into the cooler. 

 

We need 2 or 3 racking sessions to get all the wine racked.  We went through schedules and tried to choose a couple days that might work. How does May 20th (Thursday/tomorrow) and Monday May 31 (Memorial day) work for people?  I would guess the racking Thursday would be in the afternoon.

 

We have 2 empty barrels that had the Cab Reserve that we want to fill with wine, if possible. Below is a list of how much wine we have in our barrels and carboys. Here is an option for combining wines to more into wood. I like getting the cabernet into Ray's 30G barrel because it's newer.

 

1. Free up Lee's 15G barrel by taking the 15G of ID Cab plus 15G of ID Cab in carboys and putting that into Ray's 30G barrel.

 

2. Combine 15G of Syrah and Petite Sirah and put it into Lee's 15G barrel (as a pre-blend for our Cousin's blend). I recommend 7.5G of each Syrah and Petite Sirah so we have a 50/50 blend. This leaves enough syrah and petite sirah for topping and makes blending math easier later.

 

This gets rid of five 5G carboys and leaves my 26G barrel empty.  We don't have enough of any other wine to combine to fill it, so we'll sulfur it and keep the rest in carboys.  I think we'll have enough space in the back part of the wall-side cooler to put away all the carboys.

 

If you have other suggestions, please reply-all.

 

Troy

 

We want a non-airitive racking now (ie: minimim splashing). When racking we need to add 15ppm of Meta--best to add after racking out and before racking back in so it gets mixed well. The barrels just need a fresh water rinse/drain unless there is an off smell or taste. We'll have to check the empty barrels before filling them. I think they got a meta rinse after bottling but I'm not sure.
    - 1/4 tsp meta = 15ppm in 15 gal
    - 1/3 tsp meta = 15ppm in 20 gal
    - 1/2 tsp meta = 15ppm in 30 gal

 

Order of Racking (initial, can change. Could reverse what is racked on which day)

May 20th:

1. Merlot

2. Malbec

3. WA Cab

4. Porto

 

Memorial Day

1. ID Cab barrels and carboys (including filling Ray's 30G barrel)

2. Syrah

3. Petite Sirah

4. Combining leftover Syrah and Petite Sirah into a 50/50 blend in Lee's 15G barrel

 

 

Carboy Size	Wine	TTL		Barrel	Size	Wine	TTL		Combined Wine	TTL Gal
5	CabFranc	5		Troy A	26	Empty	0		CabFranc	5
1	ID Cab			Ray F	30	Empty	0		ID Cab	58
5	ID Cab			Ray F	22	ID Cab			Malbec	23
5	ID Cab			Lee F	15	ID Cab	37		Merlot	41
5	ID Cab			Bob A	15	Malbec	15		P Sirah	33
5	ID Cab	21		Mike H	30	Merlot	30		Porto	18
5	Malbec			Bob F	20	P Sirah	20		Syrah	40
3	Malbec	8		Troy H	15	Porto	15		WA Cab	35
5	Merlot			Mike H	30	Syrah	30
5	Merlot			Lee F	30	WA Cab	30
1	Merlot	11
1	P Sirah
1	P Sirah
5	P Sirah
5	P Sirah
1	P Sirah	13
3	Porto	3
5	Syrah
5	Syrah	10
5	WA Cab	5

 

Bottled Cab SO2 Levels

I took a bottle of the 08 Idaho Cabernet that we just bottled to check sulfites and they were 2ppm. So we've achieved about the minimum levels of SO2 possible while still having some protection for the wine.

 

The last lab report for that wine was 1ppm in March and we added 30ppm. We generally expect about 60% increase in Free SO2  for a result of around 20 ppm.   Since then the wine has been in a barrel for 2 months and I would guess our bottling process is about the same as an airitive racking.  Estimating 3ppm loss per month in the barrel (6ppm total) and 12ppm for an bottling means that we burned 18ppm in the last 2 months.  That's pretty much in line with the numbers that were reported.

08 Cabernet Bottled

We bottled our 2008 Cabernet today after 18 months in oak.  We tried blending all the ID & WA cab together but the heavy ID cab covered up too much of the Cabernet fruit. We increased the ratio of WA cab and liked it much better, especially after adding the Malbec.  The reserve blend ended up being:

 

60% WA Clone 6 Cabernet

33% ID Clone 2 Cabernet

07% Malbec

 

We also bottled a 100% ID Cabernet.  The ID cab got quite a bit of oak from Ray's newer barrel and will take a little bit of time in the bottle to settle down. In the future we may want to rotate the reserve wines into less strong barrels to keep the extra 6 months.  Everyone also got a bottle marked with a D on top, which is the dregs of the 2 barrels. They're extra chewy!

 

Mike had gotten a new mixing barrel that had a spigot on it, which made bottling easier because we didn't have to mess with a siphon. Bob had picked up some magnum bottles and we bottled some of the reserve Cabernet in them.  We'll have to get all the winemakers to sign a few of them.  They should peak in 6-8 years and be a delightful memory when opened. 

 

The 2 empty barrels have been cleaned and rinsed with meta. We will have to assess what wines go into which barrels for the cooler when we rack off the fine lees at the end of the month.

 

Photos have been uploaded to our 2010 Picasa Online Album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/riverwoodswinery/Wine2010