Possibly Low SO2 in WA Cab

Bill's group that got Dennis' Sangio grapes and Larry's red-grape blend did some testing at WineWise. I thought the results were worth passing along.

 

The pH was about what we expected, but the SO2 levels were much lower than expected.  I expected about 15ppm and they had 4ppm.  What I think happened is that their 60G barrel was down 5 gallons while they waited for Larry's wine to ferment. During that time they had more air exposure, which drained down the SO2 level.

 

One reason I bring this up, is because we experienced the same thing in our WA Cabernet. We found the barrel down considerably when we went to rack it off the gross lees (it sat for over a month this way).  I expect that this means we also burned extra SO2 and are down close to zero.  I recommend we add some meta to the WA Cabernet.  If we want, we can have WineWise measure the SO2 levels (for  $ 13), or we can just add 10-15ppm to the wine (remembering that only 1/2 of that makes it into Free SO2).

 

Troy

 

 

Sample # 1		Result:		Date:		Method:
2010 Sangiovese
pH		3.14		12/15/2010		ph probe
Free SO2	<5		mg/L (ppm)		12/15/2010		Auto Titrator
4.03				mg/L (ppm)
Sample #2
2010 Grenache
pH		3.46		12/15/2010		ph probe