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?
Sunday, February 13, 2011
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.
Monday, February 7, 2011
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.
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.
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