2011 Muscat, impulsive second racking

With the holidays looming and knowing our weekends will be jammed I bolted ahead a couple of days and racked the Muscat again.  Very parsimonious - only lost 1.5 liters of 15 gallons, and made it up from a 750 ml overflow bottle and a 750 bottle of last year's Muscat.

This pic shows how low I was able to go in 2 of the 5 gallon carboys.  That's bentonite on the bottom of the cb.  Take a good look at what's behind the empty: to the left is Uh Oh No. 1 (which I am now thinking of calling Bee Sting) and to the right is the next cb of Muscat waiting to be racked.

I decided not to rack the Bee Sting, but left it on the bench.  I don't have anything to top it with other than last year's Muscat.  I think what I'll do is just go ahead and bottle it after it settles another day or two up there.

Stolen wine to make taralli: forgive me

Sorry, fellow winemakers, I stole a half cup of wine from our overflow vessel this morning to make taralli.

Muscat raisins in Amsterdam

At De Kaaskamer in the Jordaan in Amsterdam there was a crate of raisined grapes at the counter.  While I was paying for our 3 year old kaas with cloves, old kaas with coriander, and rosemary sausages, the woman who runs the shop invited me to try one.  Unbelievable.  Moist, chewy, super-sweet red Muscat.

2011 Muscat, Mihai's testing & racking pics

Here are some of the pics Mihai took of today's testing & racking.

The free SO2 test, using Titrettes.  The endpoint was about 30 ppm.  We were shooting for anything between 20 and 40, and so we decided to let things stand until the next racking.

The titrateable acid test, using a kit from More Wine.  Color change was at or above 7.  I would have guessed higher from taste:

And finally, mixing the bentonite slurry:

2011 Muscat, racked & fined

Colleen, Lori, Mihai, Mike & Steve racked the Muscat this morning, going from 5+5+5+1 to 5+5+5+1L - lost very little.  Taste is great - seemed brighter and more floral (both!) than last year's finished wine.

Tested for SO2, PH and TA - everything in range (and details into the stats chart), making no adjustments and not adding any meta this racking.

We've prepared a bentonite slurry and are adding it this afternoon.  Going with closer to 5 g. per 5 gallon carboy that 10, and prepared the slurry with wine rather than water.

We also racked the Uh Oh No. 1.  It's way more pungent than it's first born brother, and a bit fizzy.  I kind of like it.  We're shy a full 5 gal, but not by much, and I may use the liter of Muscat to top off.  Am also adding Bentonite.  Did not test ph or acid.

Mihai took lots of pics.  Anxious to see them!

(Small update: bentonite is in.  UON1 got topped up with wine displaced from the Muscat CBs when the slutty got added, and a cup from the 1 L (which is now a .750.)

Uh Oh No. 1 indoors

Earlier in the week, as the overnight temps went to the 30's, I brought in the Uh Oh No. 1.  Didn't taste it, but by nose you certainly wouldn't mistake it for the Muscat.  The photos here aren't great, but give a little hint of the relatively deeper, more orange color.

Jimmy's Cousin Vinny, Lori's Uncle Bob

James Guido, our yearly wine-celebration puttanesca chef extraordinaire, has given us a book by his Cousin Vinny - Vincent J Emilio: Let's Make Wine! - An Anthology of Winemaking Instructions, and it looks great. 

And we were just up around Niagara Falls visiting the old folks at home, and Lori's Uncle Bob on Grand Island (in his mid 80's now) told us of his dandelion wine making adventures of the past.  (Cousin Russ, who lives up on Lake Ontario and has in the recent past been skinning raccoon road kills and curing their pelts, You know, just to see if I can, might come make wine with us next fall so he can bring the method back north.)

Alla famiglia!

Anisette in a spacesuit

Well, it's hard to resist:

Put the first batch into a Galaxy Syrup bottle from the '50's that I picked up last year for just this purpose.  Gonna make it taste even mo' better.

2011 Muscat, 3 weeks in - and a look at Uh Oh No. 1

Three weeks since press, less than two weeks since taking the fermented juice off of the gross lees. 

Color is looking good, starting to clarify.  Racking 2 or more weeks away.


And what about Oh Oh No. 1?  After the bee-sting incident it did not get a lot of love from me.  I'm going to let it ride outdoors until we get just a little cooler at night.  Haven't decided whether to clarify it or not.  The pics below show it in it's T-shirt, and then a closeup of the sediments.  Looks like it will turn our more yellow than the Muscat, but not anywhere near copper.

2011 Barbera, Grapes pressed. 34 gallons in the jar

Laura and I pressed the grapes today. Great yield, sour cherries.

2011 Barbera Redux: Day 9

The must has followed a pretty typical trajectory from the third day, the cake decreasing in thickness each day and the grapes softening. Fairly big bubbles through yesterday. Laura and I took another specific gravity reading. We are at 1.010, brix 2.5, so we press tonight.

2011 Muscat, day 12

Isn't it lovely!

Warrick's trick of refrigerating the lees to get more juice out of them worked perfectly, so now we are 5+5+5+1.  Lost only 1 gallon out of 17 in coming off the gross lees.

Very fine bubbles moving up the glass of the carboys, but not enough to be jostling the airlocks.  Color is already starting to differentiate in the carboys - deep lemonade at the top and yellow custard the rest of the way down. 

That'll be the end of the temperature taking and measurements for a while.  (Though it's a pleasure to just stand there and look at the wine for a little while every day.)  We have weeks to mull over the next racking, fining, and everything else.  And to wonder why we didn't get it together to do a red this year!

2011 Muscat, day 11

5:30

• Room 69, must 69, Brix -0.3.
• Time to rack and add SO2 - either right now or this evening when we can gather the troops.

There's still steady action happening, but it's time.  Will add 1.5 g KSO2 to each 5 gallon carboy when we rack, unless someone wants to do a cb without it for comparison.

OK, more geekiness. 
The last chart shows the percentage change in Brix on each day.  Correlate it with temps and it helps me see is that as soon as the temp of the must went above 72 F (immediately in 2010 and not until day 3 in 2011) sugar % loss was steep.  (The end-game is steep, too, without the heat, but we're talking about just 1 or 2 brix total there.)

(About 70 liters of Muscat must.  This is where the first 8 days of primary fermentation happened.)

(5+5+5+1+1, where the last 3 days of primary fermentation happened.)

19:00

• Room 69, must 70, Brix -0.4.
• Racked the Muscat off the gross lees, adding about 1.5 grams (about 3/4 tsp) KS02 to each 5 gal carboy.
• 5+5+5 plus what I think will be a full gallon - placed two partial gallons in the fridge to settle overnight, then will hopefully combine the must into one clean gallon, for use at the next racking.
• Very smooth racking, not a lot of agitation. 

2011 Muscat, day 10

6:00

• Room 70, must 70, Brix 0.9.
• Slow, steady fermentation.  Mesmerizing to watch through the glass.
• Sharply cooler outside - about 48 F right now.  

19:00

• Room 72, must 69, Brix 0.3.
• Will likely want to rack tomorrow evening.  

Fresh SO2 and acid tests arrived today.
Cool enough outside so that the house fell into the mid 60's.  Heat's been on for the first time this year, and might warm the cellar some.

2011 Muscat, day 9

6:00

• Room 70, must 70, Brix 2.3.
• Steady ferm - it's a chorus of bubbles from the five vessels.

15:00

• Room 72, must 70, Brix 1.7.

2011 Barbera, Day 3

AM
Big cake. 4 inches, and a big pink-purple froth you could surf on. The aroma is deepening though the juice still tastes pretty sweet.

2011 Muscat, day 8

6:00

• Room 72, must 68.5, Brix 4.
• Iced, but this will probably be the last change in the 100 liter poly tank - fermentation is quiet enough and throwing off little enough CO2 that we should move the must to carboys with much less airspace. 

12:00

• Moved the must from the 1-- liter tank to carboys and jugs: 5+5+5+1+1.  Made the transfer with less air-mixing than last year.  Next year, if we put the 100 liter tank on the workbench before filling it, I'll have the method nailed.
• Same off custard color as the last two years
• Fermentation very active, even at this low sugar level.

21:00

• Room 71, must 70, Brix 3.3.
• Must temp is approximate - need to switch to a different thermometer that will let me take temp more easily in carboys.
• Close to zero head-space in the carboys and jugs - just enough to keep the foam out of the bubblers - and even then I've had to clean them out a few times already.

2011 Barbera Day 2

9 A.M.

No cake but some good fizz, and the must is emanating warmth. Poised for take off. Still smelling sweet and fruity, with hints of alcohol in the air.

9 P.M.

3 inch cake thick enough so that the surface was drying out. Lots of bubbles when I punctured the cake. Big fruit, with the alcohol coming on. Big night tonight I'm guessing.

2011 Muscat, day 7

(142 hours into the 2011 fermentation, we're just reaching the brix level that was reached after only 69 hours of 2010 fermentation.  We be happy!)

6:00

• Room 73, must 70, Brix 5.5.
• 134 hours in, 75% of the sugar converted.
• Changed ice: will ice maybe twice again?

18:00

• Room 74, must 70, Brix 4.5.
• Have switched to the short scale hydrometer.
• Iced.

Brix, yeast, action

Laura and I destemmed until we couldn't take it anymore and then measured the specific gravity of the must: 1.010, which predicts an alcohol content of about 13.5. Nice neighborhood to be in--we have bottles from Sicilia, the Rhone and Argentina that are all 13.5. We stirred in the yeast liquid and noticed there was already a little fizz to the must. I'm guessing this wine will be quick out of the gate.

Barbera Redux

Gina and I drove out to see Mrs Lapide today. We bought 6 crates of barbara, 4 of grenache and 2 of alicante--we're aiming for 30 gallons this year.

We thought about making other wines, but we're loving last year's barbara--I think I told everyone that because Mrs. L only had 5 crates of barbera last year, I stepped up the amount of grenache and alicante in the mix. The grapes are delicious. The barbara is a little sweeter than it was last year.

We crushed at about 2, and Laura and I will add the yeast tonight after a destemming fest--a mix of water, 3 envelopes of Montrachet Red Star and a half cup of sugar.

2011 Muscat, Day 6

6:00

• Room 74, must 72, Brix 9.
• Still very frothy, happy, sloppy, mucky.

Just a side observation: we put the frozen balloons into gallon freezer bags and these go into the must.  When the ice has melted, the bags are stretched large with gas: does it come from the melting ice, or  is CO2 or something else permeating into the bag from the must or the headspace above it?

Also, email to & from B yesterday: sounds like he's buying his grapes today, and might be posting here about the makings on Staten Island.

15:00

• Room 74.5, must 70, Brix 7.
• Will be wanting the short scale hydrometer soon.
• Massive ice infusion delivered by Mihai.

Uh Oh No. 1, day 4

After the bee stings Monday night I became a little less enamored of this project.  Tuesday Morning, about 58 hours after the berries had been crushed, and about 36 hours after chapitalizing them and starting fermentation, I took the new free run juice and put it into a 5 gal carboy and a runnover 1 gal jug.  I'm storing them both outdoors, with a wet T-shirt over the 5 gal.  They're fermenting away like nuts.  I'm looking at the whole thing now as an excuse for the physical exercise of hauling the skins back and forth etc., and not much more.  No measurements, all the best juice run off for the regular wine before starting, chapitalizing, not enough subsequent skin contact afterwards (I'm guessing) to go copper… And, really, the bee-stings still hurt.

2011 Muscat, day 5

5:30

• Room 74, must 70+, Brix 12+.
• Not much drop in the Brix since early last evening, but fermentation is bubbling steadily along.  No worries.Compare it to last year, when day 5 started at 0.2 Brix and ended below zero and our transferring to topped up carboys!
• Swapped ice.  A few of the balloons have broken in the freezer but we likely have enough to get through - will ask C&M to put a few that we can't fit into our freezer into theirs.

A little geeky interlude: 2010 and 2011 Muscat comparisons.

18:30

• Room 74, must 72, Brix 9.5.
• Below the half-way mark.  Will continue to add ice, but heat should be less of a challenge.

2011 Muscat, Day 4

6:00

• Room 74, must 74, Brix about 16.
• Bracing for a big burn.  Mihai has been making ice, and we'll add that to ours. 
• Brix was 18 fizzy in hydrometer, closer to 15 after agitating the juice, and close to 18 by refractometer - I'm calling it 16.

12:15

• Room 74, must 71, Brix 15.
• Maybe our first ever cooling of the must while there's still lots of sugar?  We had a lot of ice in there.  And now we've added a bunch of Mihai and Colleen's ice balloons.  Shoot for the 60's!?

16:15

• Room 74, must 64.  Did not take Brix, but very active.
• Not a typo!  I took the temp twice, to make sure I hadn't lost the ability to read the thermometer.  We added a heck of a lot of ice at lunch time, and almost all of it was balloon block and we broke the temperature barrier.  Next year, for sure, we'll arm ourselves with lots of balloons before before we press.
• It also occurred to me, as I was just paging through Warrick, that next year we should have a big primary fermenter handy at destemming - not to ferment in, but to hold the destemmed grapes so that the folks working the destemmer can go full speed, and not wait for the folks operating the press.

19:20

• Room 75, must 68, Brix 13.
• All ice melted, and added four balloons - not likely to last until morning.
• Day four falls have been 1 to 2 Brix every 6 hours or so. 

2011 Uh Oh No. 1: Bees in my pants

After we tended to the Muscat juice last night I went out back to punch down Uh Oh No. 1.  I didn't take a flashlight this time.  Buggy and dark.  Even in the dark I could see that the birds that are feeding in the concord arbor are flying to the crabapple, sitting directly above Uh Oh No. 1, and pooping purple on it.  And why not?  Took off the lid, punched down, took no readings but satisfied myself that fermentation is active, put everything back together and went inside.

In the kitchen and, Ow!  What's that?  I slap at my knee and feel something pretty big inside my pants  and Ow!  Jeez!, slap slap slap and an effin' honey-bee falls out the leg of my pants!   SLAP SLAP SLAP and another one falls out!!  Ten seconds later I've kicked off my shoes and stripped off my pants and am calling Lori for a pair of tweezers so I can pull out the stingers.

And so, fellow wine makers, even though I got out of bed an hour before light this morning, I'm waiting...

2011 Muscat, Day 3

5:00

• Room 74, must 72, Brix 22.  
• Very effervescent, fermentation has taken hold.  So many bubbles in the juice that it pushed the hydrometer up above 25!  I had to shake the sample for a while to deaden it, and the reading went to 22.5.  I double checked with the refractometer and got 22.
• Changed ice - am now using bagged cubes and ice packs together - will add more in a few hours.  Will need to start buying bags of ice to keep up, I think.  Temp will be critical by next measure.  And it's going to be warm today - around 80: cellar might go to 76.

14:00

• Room 74, must 72, Brix +20.  
• Fermentation is starting to sizzle but temp is not.  All of the morning ice was melted: replaced it with 2 1-quart blocks of ice.  Time to ask the team to freeze water-balloons.  

21:00

• Room 75, must 72, Brix 18.
• Ferm is rocking.  The 2 PM ice is melted and we've replaced it again.  Down 4 Brix in 16 hours.  Whoa, Nelly.  

2011 Uh-Oh No. 1

Lori and Steve were speaking to Ben Hagen and brought the topic around to ramato style wines.  And of course, Slope Cellars has lots of wines made by fermenting white grapes on their skins.  A pact was made: next year 11th Street makes some copper wine, next year Ben builds a cold-box to grow winter vegetables, and a trade gets made.

Then we came back to the house, and there were the plastic garbage bags filled with the pressed Muscat berries.  As soon as Lori wasn't looking S hauled a 50 gallon fermentation barrel from the cellar to the back yard, hauled all the pressed grapes to it and into it, added a gallon of water, took brix readings (very low!  Guess all that sugar went with the juice), added enough sugar to raise the whole stew by maybe 5 Brix, mixed and pitched 20 g of yeast.  The whole rig is in the back yard, under the crabapple.  We're talking very off-the cuff here.  The skins were already offered for compost and were one day from being trash - what the heck.  Maybe it'll be drain cleaner when it's finished, or maybe it'll be the base for some fortifying.  It'll definitely be odd.

 (It's in about as shady  spot as I can get it and still be able to go in and out of the barrel without dropping leafs and branches into it.  The mosquito and fly activity in the back is gruesome right now, what with all of the rain, and with all of the rotting concord grapes in the arbor.  I probably got 20 bites in the time it took to snap this pic and a few others.  That's a 5 gal bucket of meta, with my punch-down masher, sitting on top of the barrel, holding the lid in place in case any critters get curious.)

2011 Muscat, day 2

6:00

• No wild fermentation (I added a bit more S02 last evening to try to prevent it).  Brix 23 by the hydrometer, which jives pretty closely with the refractometer readings we've taken up until now.  (I didn't try to recalibrate the hydrometer.)  
• Room temp 74 and must temp 71.  I added a couple of ice packs in anticipation of adding the yeast shortly.  Accuvin put acid at 7, but these tests expired 5 months ago (sigh).  Will order new.  Last year's juice had higher acid, but was also less sweet.  
• No gradations on the side of the 100 liter poly tub (note to self: make some) but I'm estimating about 70 liters.  Have mixed 15 g of the usual Montrechet Red Star with about 12 oz of water and will pitch now.  

15:00

• Room 75 F, must 71 F, no visible or audible fermentation going on.  Ice packs were must-temp, replaced with 2 cold ones.
• Brix 23.  Last year big-ferm slammed us between the 12 and 24 hour marks and burned away more than a third of the sugar in that time.  Should do what we can at this evening's reading to really force the temperature down.

21:00

• Room 74, must 71, Brix 23.  15 hours since pitching.  Audible popping has begun, but no noticeable CO2.  Added ice to existing, which had not yet warmed fully.

Fabu day 1 2011 Muscat

Steve, Mike & Mihai headed to Terminal Market by 8:30 or so and bought 10 lugs of Muscat Alexandria from Mrs. Lapide - 42# each, $43 each.  We also took a wander through TPS for supplies, but didn't buy anything except some more meta. 

Back to the ranch.  Lori was already moving things around, and Colleen soon came over.  We set up out front, same as last year.

We fell into a nice flow, destemming and pressing.  Looks like we have close to 70 liters of juice to ferment.  Steve wanted to take the (still very juicy) pressed grapes and set the up to ferment on their skins outdoors, but just got too pooped to pop.  During the work Danny L came to help, as did Becky & Sienna.  By one or so we were largely cleaned up, and the oven was lit for winemakers' pizzas (and plenty of wine).  Others joined us and lunh rolled on for a few hours.

(Mihai just sent a bunch of pics and I'm inserting this one here...)

Stats:
2:30 PM - Brix 22.5 (a full Brix higher than last year), Ph 3.59, SO2 about 12.  Added more SO2 in the early / mid evening - am not going to add yeast until the AM.  Then we'll start the battle to keep things cool.

When we headed to Market S was thinking that we'd but the juice into separate carboys that we might be able to set into icewater tubs to keep things cool.  Both engineers, though felt certain we'd have a better shot at cooling if we stayed in a single vessel, so everything is in the 100 liter poly.  I've got a bunch of icepacks ready, and should probably start freezing some plastic milk cartons.

Reviewing 2010's Muscat ramble

(1) Sep 25: M&S to market, purchased 8 42 # lugs Muscat Alexandria at $40 per.  Brix between 21 and 21.5, acid at 7.5, cellar temp 76 F.  P to house, worked with L to set up gear.  Destemmed and pressed, 60 liters of juice in a 100 liter poly tank, 72 F.  Pitched 3 x 1.5 g in 3/4 c warm water at 3:45 PM.  By 11 PM must raised to 74 F.

(2) Sep. 26: 8 AM room 74 F, must 75 F, added ice packs to juice.  2:30 PM must at 75 F and Brix down to 15!  WTF!  Going much faster than wanted.  More ice packs added.  8 PM down to 12.5 Brix, best laid plans have gone astray.   Outdoor temps are cooler, and am really thinking about trying to bring the tank outside.

(3) Sep 27: 5 AM, room 71 F, must 74 F, 8 Brix.  More ice, fans.  3 PM room 72 F, must 75, ice.

(4) Sep 28: 5:45 AM room 72 F, must 76 F, 4 Brix, switch to short scale hydrometer.  Fermentation still very active, very yeasty.  9:30 PM room 72 F, must 75 F, 1,5 Brix.  At this point I'm noticing how much skin is in the tank and vowing to not repeat this (at least not by accident) in 2011.  Ferment less active, less yeasty.

(5) Sep 29: 5:30 AM, room 72 F, must 73 F, 0.2 Brix.  Lots of CO2, same milky yellow as 2009.  8 PM, room 72 F, must 72 F, -1 Brix.  L and S transferred juice to carboys: 5 + 5 + 3 +1.  NB: the poly was too heavy to lift into a good siphoning position, and the spigot too large for a hose, so the first 5 g cb was pailed from the poly to into a funnel - lots of air.

So, 2010 was super-fast. 
The hope for 2011 is to keep it cooler and slower, and to do the primary ferm in carboys with much less airspace than the poly tank, in hopes of keeping more of the nose.

Confirmed: Muscat @ Lapides this Weekend

I spoke to Mrs. Lapide, and when I asked if she's have Muscat this Saturday she said "We'd better!  They only just started arriving."

Titrets, refractometer and Ph meter at the ready: let's make wine!

2008 Cab S / 2009 Merlot blended

The last 5 gallons of the 2009 Merlot (which was a blend itself) went into the 15 gallons of 2008 Long Island Cab. S, that's been in our 100 liter tank.  With any look we can rig up some fittings to bottle from the spigot at the bottom of the tank.  The more sooner the more better, and then we can move 15 gallons of the 2010 Primitivo into the tank.

And, speaking of the Primitivo - I just bottled 3 gallons.  It still smells poopy, and I still like it. 

2011 - Gearing up

The group started circulating mail today.  Leaning toward:

Muscat - even more of it than 2010 (336 #, which was twice as much as 2009).  We'll look at dividing the wine into a white in the fashion we've been making it, and a ramato.  (We only see references to pinot grigio made as ramato, so the group is hedging its bets.)  Maybe we can ferment the white in carboys and the ramato in a small poly tank.  And of course, we might want to learn a bot more: references to ramato really make the process sound more like rosato than  red wine-making.  The phrase "in contact with the skins for some time", as opposed to just plain old done-as-red.

Red - if Mark Snyder of Angel Share / Red Hook will still have us, we'd look for east end Cab. Franc and Merlot grapes.  We'd look for a total quantity like last year: 576 #.  What ratios would we blend these at?  Commercial wines are all over the map on this.  My guess is we would make the wine separately, and bench blend to our heart's content.

S also made a run to terminal market today for more bottles (to help make room for the new wine) and generally take the pulse.  No grapes at all - none shipping sooner than the coming week: slow year in CA. 

Another shot at Long Island

Lori and I were walking in Red Hook today and passed by the wine makers at Dwight & Van Dyke.  There was a small gathering in the garage, and as we passed we asked each other when we'll ever approach these folks with the idea of our buying LI grapes with them. 

Well, we got to the corner, chatted, turned around and asked one of the guys - who was attaching a propane tank to what looked like a serious commercial grill - if he was one of the wine makers.  It was Mark Snyder.  We pitched our idea, and it turns out that Red Hook Winery commits to entire blocks from different LI vineyards, so there's no help we can offer them by increasing their purchase, but Mark very graciously offered to look at the idea of Red Hook Winery carving out a portion of their grapes for us to buy.  (All discussed while guests waited...)  MS's card in our pocket, we floated down the street.

In our quick conversation: what varietals, who've we bought from in the past, what quantity are we looking for... I'm dreaming Cab. Franc (and I'm guessing Lori is not). 

And then, a few hours later and back home, after bottling the rest of the 2010 Muscat, it was time to taste the 2008 North Fork Cab. S. that we made with the grapes purchased in Greenport from Michael Kontakostas.  I drew off about a pint.  Guess what?  Pretty damned good.  What a long road this has been.   Deeply colored but maybe a little brown at the edges - we know we've lost the seal a couple of times in the years this wine has been in our 100 liter tank.  A little crud under the tank lid, but no recurrence of the film yeast we had a year ago.  Cherry and licorice, very smooth, and none of the aftertaste that seemed to plague us in the first year.  Shockeroo, this is really pretty good.

And certainly good enough for Lori to play with blending, which she's wanted to do with this wine for a while.  Winning the blending race so far: 3 parts 2008 North Fork Cab. S,, one part 2009 Merlot blend (all Antelope Valley, 70% Merlot, 20 % Cab. S., 10 % P. Syrah.

Good things come to those who wait.

Guest wine at the 5th Anual 11th Street Winemakers Puttanesca BASH

Our colleague in Paris, Thomas Couval, sent us two bottles of wine this year from his neighbor, to have along with ours at the BASH.  A 2002 and a 2007 pinot noir, pictured here with three of our wines from the party.  Bernardo also brought a few bottles of his Staten Island wine, but they might have already disappeared by the time our international visitors arrived.

And here's a snap of Thomas' wine getting chatted over.

Preparing to bottle the last of the 2010 Muscat

With a ph of about 6.1 and a current SO2 reading of about 11 ppm, I'm adding about 7 ml of 10% metabisulfite solution to raise the ppm to the low 30's before bottling.  Meanwhile, here's a pic from the pre-party testing:

Labels for the 2010 Cal Blend

Did these up as 2 inch round labels:

More Muscat and the first of the 2010 Cal blend bottled

We bottled 3 more gallons of the Muscat for next week's party, and Mike bottled 5 gallons of the fabulous 2010 Cal blend.  That gives us +3 cases of 2010 Muscat, 2 cases of 2009 Merlot, 2 cases of 2010 Cal blend, about 2 cases of various 2007 Sangiovese, Barbera blend, and Tutto Rosso, and a case of our 2006 Zin Alicante blend.  If that's not enough... begorah!

Bottling some of the 2010 Muscat

Titrate tested all three carboys of the Muscat - all between 17 and 20 ppm SO2.  What I'm bottling now for immediate use in this year's new wine party I'm leaving at the current level.  Bottled a couple of cases and need to decide whether to bottle another 5 gal, or the 3.

During the winter I thought this year's wine was more floral than last year's, but it no longer seems that way.  I do think it's a bit higher in acid and I like that: more hello.

Muscat labels, 2010

Tasting the pooptivo

With only 21 days left until the yearly new wine party, we haven't bottled any of the 2010 wines.  We don't really figure to bottle any of the primitivo, though we could use our topping gallon, but we do figure to use at least 8 or 10 gallons of the muscat.  Obviously it won't get to rest in the bottle at this point: do it now?  Days before the party?  At the party as a game? 

So, I tasted the primitivo this morning. 
Still some barnyard odors, but very much dissipated from the last tasting.  Lots of cherry.  After aerating it a bit there's no hint of the barnyard in the taste - cherry and caramel says my blunt instrument of a tongue - but a very noticeable smoothness and long, long finish that I don't think we've had in any of our other efforts in the last 5 years.  Suave.  Smoove. 

Poopitivo racked & oaked; 2008 Cab S. tasted

We forged ahead and racked and oaked to Poopitivo.  Lori is grossed out by it and I kind of like it.  Racking was really only to help get it off the little sediments it was on with the hope of lessening the barnyard odors.

We also took the opportunity to pop open the 100 liter tank of North Fork Cab S from 2008.  A little brown around the edges - oxidized, just don't trust that tank - with not a big nose, but much more tamed and tasty than in prior tastings.  No reason not to have some at the summer party, and Lori thinks we ought to blend some of it.  Did not taste the 2 carboys  of Peter's batch of this wine..

We're going to rack the Poopitivo one more time

Lazy us, we were going to oak the Primitivo  today with medium toast American oak from Barrel Mills - and at the last moment we decided to rack it one more time.  So we'll do that tomorrow morning when we have a bit more time and less sun. 

Barnyard nose is the driver - though I have to say that, personally, I kind of like it.  Am thinking of doing a new label that makes the point.

2010 Cal Blend is oaked

Mike and Pam used Barrel Mill medium toast French oak swizzle sticks.  The oak went into the existing carboys - did not rack again.

Oak decisions, 2010 reds

We're going with light toast American oak from Barrel Mill for the primitivo.

Mike and Pam are working on their decision for the Cal blend.

Solera?

Lori and I were chatting about maybe holding back some of the 2009 Merlot blend to do a solera / perpetuum with.  Not with the same wine every year, but say start with a 5 gallon carboy of the 2009 Merlot blend, draw of a gallon of it some time in 2011 and replace it with a gallon of our primary 2010 red - the Primitivo.  Year after year we'd draw of 5 bottles and top off with the prior year's red.

The alternative might be to say, OK, we're going to make a Muscat every year, and do the perpetuum with that.  That could be particularly intense - older whites and holding us to a commitment to a particular grape.  Better idea?

2010 wines, SO2 added

I didn't take new readings, but working from last week's readings I raised all vessels about 30 ppm using a 10% potassium metabisulfite solution.  That's something like 1.2 tsp for the 3 gallon carboys and 2.03 tsp for the 5 gallon carboys.  Spit in the ocean for the 1 gallon jugs.  Should put us between 40 and 50 ppm, depending on how much the racking changed things last week - some of the vessels racked smooth and slow, and others were more agitated.

2nd racking of 2010 wines, at long last

Two weeks late for the reds, and three weeks late for the whites, we finally racked yesterday.  Lori and I started around 9:00 or 9:30 with the primitivo and finished up around 10:00 or 10:30 when Mike got there.  Then we racked the blend, and after that the muscat.  We were all washed up by noon. 

We did all of the work downstairs in the cellar - though I did shovel a path to the cellar trap door and I shoveled most of the back patio if we wanted to or had to wash any of the carboys outside.  (I thought we would for the muscat - more below.)  I alos set up a 6 foot table in the cellar for us to work off of rather than the small bench.

Started with PH and S02 readings (which I'll fill in below).  Did all of our racking without adding meta, but will likely go back and do so to bring things to 40 ppm.  Also mixed a new batch of 10% solution, good for a couple of months.  Need to order new Accuvin S02 tests (or settle on a replacement).

The primitivo is likely the only one of the wines that suffered for the late racking, and that only because of the barnyard odors of the yeast strain we used.  The sooner off those lees, the sooner we lose the funk.  And the lees, ladies and gentlemen, defined funk: animal, not vegetal.  Couldn't smell anything through the haze, but the taste is clearing and very cherry (I thought).  We wound up with an awkward amount of wine and finished in 3x5 and a 1.

The Grimaldi Savino blend is tasting great.  Mike says it's the magic of the petit verdot.  Who's to say no?  Very little mud, and very little loss: 3x5, 1x1, 1x.750.

The muscat is the wine I had been most worried about, never having used bentonite before.  I thought the lees were a solid clay and was really worried to have left things the extra weeks.  But that was not the case at all.  The wine has much more fruit than I remember from this time last year, and a much fresher citrus taste.  Because we had 3x750 corked and cold from the first racking we were able to end up about 700 ml short of our 2x5 1x3, so we topped the three with most of a bottle of commercial Alsatian muscat ottonnel.  Cousins.  Ben @ Slope Cellars sometimes does have a muscat alexandria from CA., but not right now.  So that 3 gal. carboy will be a little bit of a trip.  We should look down the road to see if we want to blend it.  The two fives are straightforward.  The three is about two thirds straight stuff, and the remainder is 3/4 cold stabilized and 1/4 commercial.

And - the muscat lees turned out to be fine and soft and easy enough to take care of in the slop sink.  All is well.