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