2014 Muscat, day 102 Jan 14 2015

All three carboys have solid stoppers in them - these wouldn't hold in the first day or two after racking.  Gassing off from the disturbance?  Set now.  Very little schmutz settling out over the last 11 days.  No measurements made.  Cellar is cool with the continued cold weather outside.

2014 Muscat, day 91, Jan 3 2015, 2nd racking

1600:
Lori & I racked this afternoon.  Went from 5+5+5 to 5+5+3+ 7x750ml.

Very little waste with the lees, but rather than stretch to 3 full carboys and topping them up or using glass beads for the void, I really wanted to have a little wine bottled for reference & comparison to what we bottle next.  Won't be as clear but it's the taste and feel I want to compare.

I added about 1 ml 10% meta solution per gallon, hoping to raise the readings by maybe 10 ppm or more.  Didn't add anything to the wine we bottled.

I also re-tested the pH - it really the off-the-charts 4.06 I saw yesterday.  In theory, at this pH, we'd need a whacky, tasteable amount of sulphur added to the wine to protect it.  Ain't going there.

Our 2nd racking of the 2013 wine was at about day 75, so we're a little slower this year.  But I'm hoping we'll bottle a month or more earlier than we did last year.

2130:
No visible gassing off - will switch from bubblers to solid bungs tomorrow morning.

2014 Muscat, day 90, Jan 2 2015

Did a quick check on the Muscat yesterday morning, and getting ready to rack before heading back to work on the 5th.  The wine was about 57F and the cellar maybe a few degrees warmer.  Stopper on CB Charlie was less tight than it should have been and I reseated it.  No testing yet.

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Holy moly, testing is done and it's effin good!

10 gal muscat on the bench

pH around 4.06 on the meter.  Sulphur around 15 or 16 ppm by Titret.  Acid around .65% tartaric, or 4.2 ppt sulfuric.

about 1.5 ml of NaOH 

Color shift at 2.6 ml

color shift vs wine

The acid level is a great relief, given how flat the must seemed, and then how sharp the wine was immediately after primary fermentation.

Color is right on, light lemon yellow.  The nose struck me immediately - for the first time since we started I thought this is delicious!  Mouth-feel was a surprise - I'm sure it went through malolactic fermentation: we did nothing to force it or prevent it, but I guess my mouth wasn't quite expecting it.  

I'm breathing a sigh of relief.  This summer's party is on!