Re: [Riverwoods Wineries] Top and Taste

Clarification. The below statement is in reference to the initial sulfur addition made to sanitize the must before fermentation.

 

> 5. We would like to try changing our sulfur addition from 100ppm to 50ppm on one barrel of wine next year,

> to see what difference it makes. We will have to measure sulfur levels a couple of times in Nov/Dec and Jan

> to see when they drop below 15ppm and then start adding meta early to maintain that level.

On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 7:25 AM, Troy Pearse <ttpearse@gmail.com> wrote:

We tasted and topped all the wines on Monday. All wines are coming along well.   The 2 favorites were the WA Merlot in Troy's barrel and the ID Cab in Lee's barrel.

 

The wine appears mostly through MLF, with a couple of barrels still having a tart taste. Another couple weeks and they will be ready to rack off the fine lees.  One barrel (the 20G barrel in the main cooler) of the WA Syrah had a slight off/chemical nose and we added 20ppm of meta to it. We should watch it carefully and clean the barrel well when we rack it off the fine lees next month.

 

The WA Merlot in Ray's barrel doesn't have quite as strong of a lumber taste/smell, but it still isn't as nice as what is in the other barrel. When we rack off the fine lees in 2 weeks we will transfer it to Ray's empty 30G barrel.

 

The WA Cab has good flavors, but is "weaker" this year. We will rotate it into Ray's new barrel, after pulling out the WA Merlot (and cleaning the barrel good with Proxycarb).

 

Trial blending for the 2009 cabernet reserve is set for Tuesday, May 31st, after Bob and Pam get back from their travels, with bottling the next day, Wed June 1st.  We estimate 5 cases of bottles each (get your bottles ready).  This is the second trial blending for the 09 cab reserve and we will be trying blending in some malbec and merlot, as well as making sure the samples are at room temperature.  We will start off the blending with the 2 front-runners from last time.

 

1. 60% WA Cab, 40% ID Cab

2. 60% ID Cab, 40% WA Cab

3. Add 5% Malbec to favorite of #1 vs #2

4. Add 5% Merlot to favorite of #1/#2/#3

 

We discussed some winery sanitation. Copys of the handouts from the seminar are in the winery for everyone and notes have been distributed electronically. A few items we talked about were:

 

1. Scrub around bung-holes with a strong meta solution before topping and clean bungs better.

 

2. Clean barrels with percarbonate (proxycarb) at the end of the season before letting them dry and sulfuring them. (Rinsing at racking is fine unless there is problem in the wine or barrel).

 

3. Clean hoses by soaking in a cleaner like proxycarb or One-step and running sponges/pigs through them.

 

4. Straight-A is a cleaner, but not a sanitizer. We could switch to One-step for winery equipment cleaning in the red bucket and it will clean and sanitize with 2 minutes of contact time.

 

5. We would like to try changing our sulfur addition from 100ppm to 50ppm on one barrel of wine next year, to see what difference it makes. We will have to measure sulfur levels a couple of times in Nov/Dec and Jan to see when they drop below 15ppm and then start adding meta early to maintain that level.

 

 

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Posted By Troy Pearse to Riverwoods Wineries at 5/10/2011 06:25:00 AM