Merlot Crush

We picked up 1,000# of Red Mountain (WA) Merlot today that we were lucky enough to get through Dennis (Thanks Dennis!). The fruit was FANTASTIC! Nice ripeness of the berries, stems and seeds. Flavor was great and there was a good amount of concentrated juice. We are VERY excited to have it in the winery and see what we can do with it.

Dennis had his fruit crushed and checked and it read 28.2 Brix and 3.53 pH--amazing. When we checked ours it came out a solid 30 Brix on the Hydrometer. Dennis stopped by and had a refractometer and it read just under 29. So we'll say it's somewhere between 29 and 30. Our pH meter wouldn't calibrate, so we couldn't check the pH. We'll get a new crystal and check it later but we assume it will be 3.6 or so, based on Dennis' numbers.

The potential alcohol for a 29/30 Brix reading is 16.75-17.5%, which is too high for Pasteur Red yeast. We need to get it down to the 15-16% range to ensure a complete fermentation, plus we've found that when the alcohol gets up that high it makes the wine too hot and unbalanced. So we will discuss ameliorating the wine.

To drop us into the 26-27 brix range we need about 8-12G of water (using the online calculator at: http://vinoenology.com/calculators/chaptalization-and-water-dilution/ that we've used before). We should look at adding the water early in the fermentation cycle so we get more skins exposure (ideally during the cold soak). After crush we estimate we have about 99G of Must. We added 4 TBSP of meta to sanatize the must and will do a cold soak for 2 days and innoculate Friday night or Saturday morning using the Pasteur Red and some GoFerm nutrient.

Photos have been uploaded to the Riverwoods 2010 Wine Photos, at the end of the album.

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

Troy

2009 Magnafique

We bottled  our 2009 Magnafique Bordeaux Blend tonight.  It took a record 6 blending trials before the group decided on the blend, which ended up being:

 

75% Idaho Cabernet

10% Cabernet Franc

10% Malbec

5% Merlot

 

We tried lots of combinations without any clear favorites until the very end.  We tried blends without any merlot and blends without any malbec, but we liked the complexity of having them both in the blend.  Actually we would have liked to have more merlot in the blend but this year's merlot didn't blend as well.

 

We did taste the fined merlot vs the unfined merlot and the difference was amazing. The merlot that had been fined with egg whites was much smoother with less bitter tannins more fruit.  We racked the remaining merlot off the egg whites, combined the unfined and fined wine and added 2 more egg whites. We will let that sit for 2 weeks and then do a Boisique Blending Trial on Oct 13 or 14, followed by bottling.

 

We've heard that WA is picking merlot in the next few days.  We expect Idaho is a week or 2 behind that.  We are thinking the ID Viognier will be ready in the next week, followed by the WA Syrah then the ID Tempranillo, ID Merlot and Malbec and then the ID Syrah.  The WA Cabernet will be the last grape sometime around Oct 20-24.  It is going to be a very busy October!

 

We will have to get a plan together about winery coverage because several members will be out in late October: Troy, Ray and Mike will all be out the week of Oct 18th.

 

Photos from the last few activities are uploaded to Picasa (at the end of the Wine2010 album).

 

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

 

 

Trial Blending #2 on Thursday

Trial blending for our Bordeaux Blend is Thursday. We're planning on starting at 5:30pm and having some snackies while we taste and then bottling after we decide on the blend.    Bring something to share...see you there!

 

Troy

 

Here are some thoughts on the Mangafique blend this year.  We're trying a Cabernet "Left Bank" style Bordeaux blend.  They are cab & cab-franc heavy with smaller amounts of merlot and malbec.

 

We want about a 10oz sample (300 ml).  Here are the starting blends and volumes. The syringes will make it much faster to do the blending this year.

  

Blend #1 (pre-blending favorite)

70% Cabernet    210ml

20% Cab Franc    60ml

10% Merlot          30ml

0% Malbec

 

We'll compare that blend to 2 others and see which we like, and then refine.

 

Blend #2 (add Malbec back in)

70% Cabernet     210ml

15% CFranc         45ml

10% Merlot           30ml

5% Malbec           15ml

 

Blend #3 (Amp up the Merlot)

70% Cabernet      210ml

15% CFranc          45ml

15% Merlot            45ml

Cousin Blending Trials

The group met tonight to decide on a blend for our Cousins blend of Petite Sirah and Syrah.

 

The Petite Sirah alone is very fruity, but doesn't have much body, finish or nose.  The Syrah alone is thin, doesn't have much fruit, but has a nice nose and finish.  Combined they are the best of both: A nice nose, good fruit, a nice mouth feel and finish.  It's not an overly complicated wine, just a nice pleasant red wine that you want to drink.  It should drink very well young (our favorite kind!).

 

Earlier pre-blending trials had pointed us to 50/50 blend or better, heavier on the Petite Sirah side.  We tried various blends ranging from equal parts to 70% Petite Sirah.  With the 70/30 we lost the Syrah and  50/50 had the most Syrah flavor.  We ended up with 55% Petite Sirah and 45% Syrah.  We will bottle the Cousins on Monday at 6pm, washing bottles at noon.

 

We tried the Merlot, which we fined with egg whites a week ago.  Much of the astringency is gone and the wine is much improved.  It needs another week to settle out and then we'll do blending trials for the Bordeaux Blend (Magnafique) and Boisique.  We plan to do those trials on Thursday the 30th at 5pm and then bottle afterwards (again, washing bottles prior on Wednesday or Thursday at noon-TBD).

 

We have 25G of Petite Sirah.  That means we'll get 45.45G of Cousins, or 227 bottles (about 19 cases total-- 3.8 cases each).

 

2009 Cousins

20.45 G of Syrah

25.0 G of Petite Sirah

 

After bottling Cousins, we will have about 10G of Syrah left.  We'll blend it into some "Encore" with some Malbec, after we bottle the Magnafique and Boisique.

 

 

Merlot Fining

We decided to fine the Merlot with some egg whites to try and reduce the bitter tannins.  We stirred 2 egg-whites into the 30G barrel and will let it sit for 7-14 days and see how it changes. We left a 5G carboy alone, which we can use to compare the taste, which will be very interesting!    We will want to bottle or rack the merlot in 2 weeks so it doesn't sit on the sediment.

 

For reference, we used 2 farm-fresh eggs (2oz egg whites) and 4oz of a salt water solution  (1/2 tsp salt in 1C water).

 

 

 

2010 Season

The group met tonight to discuss the 2010 grapes and bottling of the 2009 wines.

 

The wine season is coming together, although we haven't been able to close the deal with Wood River for Merlot and Malbec--so we're starting to be concerned that those grapes might fall through.  As an alternative we will see if we can get some (#500?) Malbec or Merlot from Larry Kornze. It will be fewer pounds than we had planned, so we'll try and get some Tempranillo from Larry too--Ray thought he would have about 600# available.

 

Lee talked with Roger about some Syrah or Cabernet, and thought some would be available. With the late growing year we're going to go with earlier riping grapes and ask for 1,000-1,500# of Williamson Syrah and no Williamson Cabernet . That will give us some extra gallons for others who are trying winemaking with us (Tomlinson and OLeary).

 

Lee is going to take a bottle of our Petite Sirah Port out to Steve and Leslee at Robertson's and see if we might be able to glean some late Syrah for a port this year.  Our fingers are crossed for 300-400#.  If we can get it, we'll have to start looking for more fortifying spirits.

 

We're unsure about a white wine this year. Roger said he has some young Vioginer, which we think would be worth trying.  We're going to try for 500-1,000#.  Michele is interested in some Viognier. Kirk indicated he is interested in trying his hand, and some Viognier would be a good place to start.  It would be fun to go out and pick it ourselves, if we can.

 

We tasted the Merlot, which has been coming along but is still very bitter. A trial blend of 75% Merlot and 25% Malbec was promising--if we can just take the edge off of the Merlot.  We discussed fining the Merlot to reduce the astringency bitter tannins.  We think we'll try some egg whites, which is a proven gentle method, to help smooth out the Merlot.  We are meeting Monday morning at 11am to confirm how much to add and do the fining. We'll let the merlot sit for a couple weeks after adding the egg whites while we bottle the Cousins.  We tasted the 50/50 Cousins, which is good.  Adding a bit more Petite Sirah punches up the fruit. We need to settle on a final blend.  Blending trials is always something to look forward to!

 

Here is the count of gallons from the last racking. We'll be bottling everything but the WA Cab and a barrel of the ID Cab--which we'll hold over for a Reserve Cabernet.  That's about 250G - 60G = 190G of wine.  That's about 16 cases of bottles each.  (Note: we've already bottled the port).  Time to start cleaning bottles!  We should try and get some bottling done in September, while we have the manpower around.

 

From early trial blending I'm guessing we'll have

 

1. A "Left Bank" Cabernet style Bordeaux.  Blend TBD, starting with 70% Cab, 20% Franc, 10% Merlot

 

2. Boisique. 75/25% blend?

 

3. Cousins (around 70% PS 30%S)

 

4. Encore Syrah/Malbec ( Something like 75% Syrah, 25% Malbec--depending on other blends)

 

5. 60G Cab Reserves...to be bottled in the Spring.

 

 

Rough 2010 Wine Gallons

Willy's Cab      55 gal      

WA Cab          35 gal      
Cab Franc         5gal     
Merlot               35gal                      
Malbec             25 gal      
Syrah                30gal        
P.Syrah             25gal       

Cousins            15gal      
Port                   17gal       

 

Porto Bottled

Troy, Mike and Bob worked this afternoon for a couple of hours and got the Petite Sirah Porto bottled. It was just a 15G barrel, so it went quickly.  Mike had picked up some splits and our regular corks fit them.  Mike got both some green splits and some clear splits. The wine sure looks purdy in that clear glass with the sunshine on it.  :)  We talked about getting a new picture for the port label. Maybe a sunset shot over the river or pond. Something to make the bottle stand out.  Check out the photos online: http://picasaweb.google.com/riverwoodswinery/Wine2010 

 

Interestingly after racking the wine and stirring it up, the alcohol/fire was more present than before.  Something about how the fortified wine stratifies in the barrel, I guess. We ended up with 34 splits each, plus a half dozen set aside for the growers and maybe a contest.  We're all pleased with how the Porto turned out--especially for our first Fortified wine.  We'll look for another opportunity to make some Port. We need to find a late harvest grape. Maybe we can glean some late Syrah this year???

 

We added about 15ppm meta to the wine before bottling--most of which will get blown off during the bottling process.  We couldn't quite remember how the hose set-up went to go from the barrel into the bottler. We ended up doing a step-down hose that worked, although it kept wanting to pop off of the barrel spigot.  We'll have to come up with a better mechanism.  Ray might remember what we did last time. 

 

The Porto barrel (Troy's 15G Hungarian) has been meta/citric rinsed and is drying in the garage.  We started hydrating the large 60G barrel for white wine fermentation. It's leaking pretty badly.  I smelled my empty 26G American barrel--everything smelled fine--and burned a bit more of a sulfur wick to hold it until the next crush is over.

Magnafique Pre Blending

Did a little pre-blending to get an idea of the Magnafique blend. We're shooting for a cab-focused blend with the Cab Franc vs. the Merlot style from last year.  In previous tastes we've liked 10-20% cab franc with the cab, so that's where I started.   My first try was to determine if the Malbec adds anything to the blend this year.  I did the following 2 blends

 

Blend 1
80% Cab
15% Cab Franc
5% Merlot
 
Blend 2
75% Cab
15% Cab Franc
5% Merlot
5% Malbec

 

Both blends were good but Blend #1 was nicer. The blend with the 5% Malbec had a peppery finish.  Mike and Margaret tasted and also liked Blend #1.

 

I tried dialing up the Merlot component in Blend 1 to more like 10% and that was too much, the merlot this year has a bitterness that threw off the balance.  I think Blend #1 is a good starting point. We can try adding more or less Cab Franc and see what the group likes.

 

Troy

Clarifying Racking Before Bottling

Since the day was cool, we started out around noon and finished around 5pm.  Greg from around the corner came by and was a great hand.  Here are the stats:

 

Willy's Cab   22G/30G/3G       55 gal       racked/meta'd @15ppm     found no problems

WA Cab        32G/3G                 35 gal       racked/meta'd @15ppm     found no problems

Cab Franc    5G                             5gal        racked/meta'd@15ppm      found no problems

Merlot            30G/5G                 35gal        racked/meta'd@15ppm      +5 gal carb suspect.  rack/meta &set aside                   

Malbec          18G/5G/1G/1G  25 gal        "                                    "              found no problems

Syrah             30G                        30gal         "                                   "               found no problems(topped w/P.Syrah)

P.Syrah          25G                        25gal        "                                   "               no problems

WE DID DISCARD SUSPECT 1 GAL. PETITE SYRAH DUE TO VERY HEAVY VINEGAR TASTE 

Cousins         15G                         15gal        "                                   "               no problems          

Port                 15G                          17gal        Tasted                                       No problems MAY BOTTLE ON WED.

 

NOTE:  WE NEED TO BE CAREFUL WHEN USING THE NEW STAINLESS PADDLE TO STIR WITH VIGOR.  WE CAN SHAVE PLASTIC OFF THE SIDE OF THE NEW BARREL WITH THE SPIGOT.   LOOKS LIKE LITTLE WHITE SHAVINGS IN THE WINE.   WE WILL LOOK AT SMOOTHING THE EDGES OF THE PADDLE TO SOLVE THIS.  MEANWHILE WE WILL STIR WITH CARE.

 

Let me know if I missed anything.  All the wine has been racked/meta'd and barrels rinsed and refilled.  All the wine looked good with very little dregs.  We did not save any dregs to cycle back in.  We decided to leave the wine as clean as we could with bottling coming up soon.  BETTER GET BUSY ON CLEANING THOSE BOTTLES.  CIAO!   Mike

 

 

Margaret Dimmick

dimmicks@earthlink.net

EarthLink Revolves Around You.

 

Aug 23rd TopnTaste Report

We met to check wines and talk about the Fall schedule. We celebrated a "Best Blend" award for Riverwoods and a Third Place for Best Cabernet with Michele and Tom!  Salute!  It was a busy busy night. Here's what I remember of it.

 

Troy

 

It's always so fun to taste the wines at the end of the summer. They've gone through their mid-life crisis and are entering a point where they're stable and ready to bottle.  This year's no different. All the wines are starting to shine!  Here are some notes from tonight's Top N Taste. 

• The Merlot continues to surprise us on how far it has come. It's still tannic but it tates like Merlot! Next step is to try the Boisique blend.
   
• The Petite Sirah has nice fruit and some barrel tannins on the finish. Simple, fruity and nice.
  
• The Syrah continues to be a bit thin but with a nice finish.
  
• The Cousins blend of Syrah and Petite Sirah is the best of both. Fruit, body and finish.  The barrel has a 50/50 blend and tonight we tried a step towards more p. sirah and liked it.  We need to do more blending but a 70% Petite Sirah 30% Sirah is tasting very promising.
   
• The Malbec continues to be smooth with loads of white pepper. We broke down a carboy for topping and it had a funky layer on top but was OK underneath. We took off the top bit and added some meta to it and to the barrel, which also had a slight surface film but smelled and tasted fine.
   
• The WA Cab was smooth and had a great nose. It had us thinking that maybe we should bottle cab early this year!?
   
• The ID Cab had good flavor and body, but less nose, although Ray's barrel had more vanilla nose from the French barrel.
   
• A few weeks ago the port had some oxidation and a VA smell. The smell has subsided and the port tastes great. We think we want to bottle it first to make sure we get it safely into a bottle. We want to add 10-15ppm meta when we bottle to help protect it.

We talked about a new barrel. Ray thinks we could use to get some newer wood. The oldest barrel is his 22G recoop French. The most neutral is Troy's 15 Hungarian or Lee's 15G French.  For size we could use something smaller like a 10 G.  We don't need the new wood this year (less cab) but will be looking to rotate in some new wood this year or next.

 

We need 1 more racking before we bottle for clarity.  We are going to rack this Monday Aug 30th for sure, and possibly Sunday Aug 29th as well. NOTE: We need to add 15ppm meta before we rack to get ready for bottling.  Add the meta after racking OUT of the barrels and before racking back IN.

  - 15PPM SO2

    - 1/4 tsp meta = 15ppm in 15 gal

    - 1/3 tsp meta = 15ppm in 20 gal

    - 1/2 tsp meta = 15ppm in 30 gal

Proposed bottling for the Port is the week of September 13th. We'll firm up a date as it gets closer.  Mike will check on splits for bottling. Troy will check on corks.

We need to do tasting trials for the magnafique, boisique and cousins blends in September.  People should also give some thought to if we want to bottle the cabernet NOW or hold it a few more months in the barrel.  This is a very good cab and can take some extra wood and it will make a great Reserve. But if we bottle it now we could take an extra 1,000lbs (60G) of wine this year.  We need to decide right away if we want to get more grapes to fill those barrels.

We reviewed grapes for 2010 and decided with the shorter growing year we wanted to go long on merlot and syrah and do less later ripening varietals like Cab and Petite Sirah.  We never know what we're going to get until it's in the barrels, but here's what we're going to try for:

Wood River-- Mike and Troy will follow up.

- 1,000 lbs of Merlot. Could take up to 1,500lbs.  (500 lbs confirmed so far).

- 1,000 lbs of Malbec.

 

Williamson -- Lee will follow up

- 250 lbs of Cab or Syrah

- 600 - 800 lbs.of Viognier

 

RiverRock

- 500 lbs of Clone 6 Cab

 

Hells Canyon -- Lee to follow up.

- Glean Syrah and Cab Franc

 

Periple -- Troy will confirm.

- 1,000 lbs of WA Syrah through Angie.

 

 

July 30th Topping Report

We topped up and tasted wines tonight.  Wines were down quite a bit. It's been 3 weeks since we topped last.  Wines are coming along well. Here are some notes from the tasting.

 

Troy

 

The merlot is starting to mellow. It's still a bit astringent and tannic but it has some fruit now. We all thought it was much improved.

 

The syrah is a bit thin and bland.

 

The petite sirah has a candied fruit flavor. Nice body. Clean finish.

 

The syrah/p.sirah blend was a nice combination. It had the fruit from the P. Sirah and the finish from the Syrah. Very promising.

 

A 1G carboy of Petite Sirah smelled and tasted off. We marked its suspect and hit it with a little meta.

 

The malbec continues to be very peppery with some green pepper.

 

Wa Clone 6 cab was OK, but somewhat shut down. Nothing bad, but the flavors aren't showing through right now.

 

The ID Williamson cab in Ray's 30G French barrel had a much bigger nose and flavor than the same cab in the 20G American barrel.

 

The Petite Sirah port had an off flavor and smell. We think it might be getting oxidized. The PH is higher on that wine so it requires more ppm of Meta so we added 15ppm. 

 

Temp in the big cooler was 72 degrees, which is warmer than we would like. We turned the temp down to the max level. We should check the temp in a few days. It's possible that the higher temps are causing the issue with the Petite Sirah and the port.  We didn't have a thermometer in the smaller cooler--we should put one in there to get a reading on temperatures.

 

We need to check Troy's empty barrel and resulfur it. We'll want to check and see if it needs to be hydrated (and then meta/citric rinsed) first.

 

Wines In The Cooler

I'm delinquent on updating the blog, so here it goes.

 

We finished racking wine off the fine lees over Memorial Day weekend and all the wines are in the cooler.  We ended up blending some syrah/petite-sirah into a barrel (50/50) as a base for the cousin's blend. We added 15-20ppm of meta to the wine after racking and stirred it in. The platypus topping wine got an extra pinch of meta.  We topped 2 weeks later, and all wines are cool and sound.   We need to top again by the end of June.

 

We had a guest at the winery while we racked: Mike from Syringa. It was nice to chat with him. He tasted several wines and was particularly impressed with the 09 Cabernets and the Petite Sirah Port (aren't we all!).

 

On Memorial Day we had Riverwoods BBQ with a vertical tasting of Boisique 2004-2008 (minus the extra popular, award winning 2006).  The wines are holding up very well. 2004 has aged well and was the favorite. The bottle had loads of sediment, but tasted great--it could have gone several more years.  The 2007 was noticeably more tannic. The 05 had more oak and the 08 had the most body (15% alcohol, baby!).  Now if we could just figure out how to hold onto more bottles of wine until they were 5 years old! ;)

 

We sulfured Troy's empty 26G American barrel. We'll have to check on it mid-summer to make sure it doesn't dry out.

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 

Bottling with Periple

Monday we helped Angie Riff and crew bottle Periple's Syrah and Pinot Noir. We bottled more wine in 1 day than we bottle all year!  It was great to get to work with Angie and learn from her.  We didn't get to taste the Pinot, but the Syrah was terrific! It will be hard to wait the 6 months before opening a bottle. 
 
The bottling initially was planned on a large automated bottler but it turned out the bottles weren't compatible so we ended up using a 6-spout stationary bottle filler and an electric corker (labels and foils to be added at a later date).   The automated bottler runs at 2,400 bottles per hour, or 40 per minute.   We did pretty good on the 6-spout filler and managed about 18-20 bottles per minute. We started the bottler using a siphon but ended up using an air pump to transfer the wine.  The bottling process was very similar to what we have been used to, except we got to start with brand new (clean!) bottles and there was A LOT MORE WINE!  We learned that a pallet can hold 56 cases (134.4 gallons) of wine...if you stack it right.
 
Angie pays a lot of attention to sanitation. She used TSP, Water, Citric, Iodine and Water to clean, nutralize, sanatize and rinse the hoses. For the bottler we used proxycarb, citric and water.  And as a final cleaning step every part that came in contact with the wine or bottles was sprayed with alcohol (Vodka).  She also works hard to make sure the wine doesn't come in contact with oxygen by covering the wine with a blanket of nitrogen and adding nitrogen to the bottles before filling them.  Angie used Rich Xiberta Natural Cork with the Periple's name printed on them. Corks were added directly to the automated corker without touching them. Cheryl was the perfect height for adding corks to the machine. ;)
 
Angie added a modest amount of Meta to the wine before bottling to help protect it during the process and in the bottle. She started with 18ppm and targeted 35ppm (see blog photo for her calcs.)  She explained that much of the SO2 is lost in the first 6 month and the majority is gone after 2 years in the bottle.
 

ML Kicker Added

The group met and added ML cultures to the 2009 red wines, except the Petite Sirah and Petite Sirah Port.  We think the wines were starting ML from the residual cultures in the wood barrels, but we wanted to give it a kick to make sure it completes before the barrels move into the cooler.  We added about 2+ bags to the large barrels, 1+ bag to the smaller barrels and a little to all the carboys. Everything has a breathable bung or a bubbler.

 

We also tasted the 2 barrels of 2008 reserve cabs and decided that it is time to bottle because they have as much oak as we want.  The WA Clone6 cab from RiverRock vineyard has been in a 4 year old American Oak barrel. It is a smooth, lighter bodied cab with finer wood tannis--quite elegant. The ID Clone2 cab from Williamson vineyard has been in Ray's 1 year old French barrel. It has heavy french barrel flavor/aroma with vanilla toast and fruit and a very high alcohol level--a real BIG cab.  We liked them blended together the best and the current thought is we will blend them both into a single reserve along with 5% malbec and maybe a half a % petit verdot (both are held back from previous years for reserve cab blending).

 

We'll do a final trial blending tasting in the next few weeks with the entire group to make a decision on the 2008 Reserve Cabernet blend, followed by bottling. We'll need 27 cases of clean bottles, so start scrubbin! The great news is that means we all get over 5 cases of reserve cabernet (yum :).  I'll do a cork count to see if we need to order more.

 

 

Re: [Riverwoods Wineries] Wine SO2 Analysis

I forgot to include the PH measurement for the Port. It came in at 3.9, which is surprisingly high. Our initial PH measurement was 3.2, which may have been an error for such a high brix late season grape. I calibrated the PH meter twice and I verified that the PH meter is self correcting for temperature.

The PH has also come up from the fortification plus the port has likely started MLF, which raises the PH. With this high of a PH we will have to keep a close eye on it for spoilage and we will have to maintain a higher SO2 level. 30ppm is the minimum level that Angie recommended in her recent email.

Troy

Wine SO2 Analysis

We recently got some wine tested by WineWiseIdaho for SO2 and the ported tested for residual sugar.

 

• This year's 2009 Idaho Cab came in at 21ppm SO2. This is a safe level. We did not add any meta.
   
• Last year's 2008 Idaho Cab came in at 1 ppm SO2. This is a dangerously low level. We added 30ppm SO2, which will result in about 15ppm being absorbed for 16ppm total.
   
• This year's port 2009 came in at 4ppm SO2. This is a dangerous level for a wine with residual sugar. We added 50ppm SO2 which will result in a total SO2 of 29ppm.
  
• The port had a 6% residual sugar, which is slightly lower than we tried for. We estimate the alcohol level to be 20%.

 

Here is a brief history on the wines, SO2 additions and deletions (racking, etc).  We generally expect 3-5ppm SO2 loss a month from barrel storage. 7-10ppm SO2 loss from racking. In general our sulfite schedule is good. If we do an airative/splashy racking or stirring then we should add more SO2 and the reserves need a winter dose of SO2 to hold them until bottling.  I will update our "Riverwoods Guide To Sulfites" on the web site.

 

The 08 ID Cab was crushed on Oct 30, 2008 and sulfited with 1/8tsp meta per G of must, which is approx 100ppm.  It was pressed on Nov 25th. Racked off the Gross Lees on Dec 7th.  Racked off the Fine Lees in May and (I think) 15 to 20 ppm Meta added.  It has not gone through the final clarification racking. It has been in a barrel for 15 months so far.  This sulfite addition is enough to take it into May. We will want to add a little SO2 before we rack and bottle.

 

The 09 ID cab was crushed on Oct 18th with 100ppm meta and pressed on Nov 8th and racked off the gross lees a few weeks later. There have been no additions of SO2.  It has a low enough SO2 level to comfortably go through MLF. After ML we will rack it off the fine lees and add 15-20ppm meta.

 

The 09 Petite Sirah Port was crushed on Nov 17th, cold soaked for 4 days. We did fortification in 2 steps and vigorously stirred to mix the alcohol in. We pressed on Dec 2nd and again stirred vigorously.  We racked off the gross lees on Dec 10th (stirring) and again on Jan 18th because there was noticeable separation. On the last racking we added 20ppm SO2. Our PH has risen since pressing, both from the fortification and likely because ML has started. We have to maintain a higher SO2 level because of the residual sugar and higher PH. 25-30ppm

 

We follow the same sulfiting schedule for all our reds so we expect them to be about the same level as the 09 ID Cab--21ppm, which is a good level for ML.  The Malbec is going to be more like 10-12ppm because it was racked an extra time because of a scum on the surface. This is a little low, but safe enough. We'll add SO2 when we rack.